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From FB:

You've seen the awesome Marneus Calgar comic series, but we're proud to announce that we're continuing our partnership with Marvel Comics to bring you a series on the Sisters of Battle this August! Keep an eye out for more information.

I'm guessing in this one the protagonist singlehandedly bests a Keeper of Secrets....armed with only a chainsword.

Will it suck as bad as the last one, probably

Marvel Comics Division must really need the injection from GW if they are making another. It was my, perhaps wrong, understanding that Calgar was a flop.

Might be contractual, might have already paid for the run, or maybe it sold enough to warrant a small extra run. I thought the Calgar story was dreadful, but you can do only so much with space marines so not unexpected.

You can do pretty good Space Marine stories, they just require more than the minimum effort.

Have yet to see one, usually you just get bad stuff like what BL writes.

 VictorVonTzeentch wrote:
Marvel Comics Division must really need the injection from GW if they are making another. It was my, perhaps wrong, understanding that Calgar was a flop.

Well, Comic Books are a notoriously dead and unprofitable media, so...

 Wha-Mu-077 wrote:

 VictorVonTzeentch wrote:
Marvel Comics Division must really need the injection from GW if they are making another. It was my, perhaps wrong, understanding that Calgar was a flop.

Well, Comic Books are a notoriously dead and unprofitable media, so...

Which is why the aptly named Bad Idea Comics baffles me. Why a publishing company would intentionally hamstring the actually profitable ways for stores to sell just to try and get back to feel of pre-Marvel bankruptcy stores and the practices that led to said bankruptcy is... well, I'll once again point out how apt the name is.

Well, I did read only the first volume of the last comic, but it was far better than what I expected from a Marneus Calgar comic. And I kinda liked that Crixus guy.

Marvel Comics seems to be printing a lot of random stuff that exists only to be pulped (as most of it cannot be returned), so a single, purported flop ain't gonna stop them.

Good luck with this one - SoB aren't exactly easy to write, even compared to Marines, and the cover doesn't inspire faith in the visual side of the product.

I genuinely thought the cover is nice, compared to the ultra-sanitized Calgar ones? Like, this would not be out of place in BL when they were going through their photoshop blur phase.

I think the cover is really class!
Is there any data supporting the assertion that Calgar was a flop, or is it anecdotal only? I thought it was okay-not great, but not terrible either.

grahamdbailey wrote:
Is there any data supporting the assertion that Calgar was a flop, or is it anecdotal only? I thought it was okay-not great, but not terrible either.

I've not seen any, and it seemed to have done well enough to justify the GW store exclusive second print run (unless that was in the contract from the start).

Maybe I'm just looking at it wrong, but something seems quite off with the way the two sisters on either side are holding their bolters. It's as if they've been poorly added in afterwards and not properly meshed in with the rest, like the one on the right has her arms positioned in such a way that the bolter should not be facing in that direction and doesn't appear to actually be gripping anything with her other hand, while the left one isn't holding hers properly either

 Mentlegen324 wrote:
Maybe I'm just looking at it wrong, but something seems quite off with the way the two sisters on either side are holding their bolters.

Yeah - either there's an unseen side grip or just a poor hold on the magazine (or the artist sucks)?

The artist probably drew pistol poses, then got the notes how a bolter looks, and just...embiggened the pistol into a bolter.

Thats a lovely cover image

Bad digital cover is never a good sign.

Oh dear.

Marvel doesn't look at how well comics sell off the shelf on initial runs, they look at how many the stores buy for the initial run. Shops usually order higher on issue number 1, cut back a couple on issue number two and even further on number 3 (by which time usually number one is out on the shelves and they can see how well a title is selling and either order more or less after that. If a shop sells Gaming materials too, they might think this will be a quick sale and bulk up on the number 1 orders, only to get shafted if the quality is bad. If a shop doesn't sell gaming or has little knowledge of it, then they may have heard about games workshop and think this might be the stepping stone to get into games and have ordered a bunch. With this being the second title in the line (I think), if it is a flop too I can see the end coming pretty quickly for the partnership.

 Theophony wrote:
Marvel doesn't look at how well comics sell off the shelf on initial runs, they look at how many the stores buy for the initial run. Shops usually order higher on issue number 1, cut back a couple on issue number two and even further on number 3 (by which time usually number one is out on the shelves and they can see how well a title is selling and either order more or less after that. If a shop sells Gaming materials too, they might think this will be a quick sale and bulk up on the number 1 orders, only to get shafted if the quality is bad. If a shop doesn't sell gaming or has little knowledge of it, then they may have heard about games workshop and think this might be the stepping stone to get into games and have ordered a bunch. With this being the second title in the line (I think), if it is a flop too I can see the end coming pretty quickly for the partnership.

First issue sold between 22k and 25k from the Distributor to the Retail fronts, but I couldnt find sales to individual customers.

Cronch wrote:
The artist probably drew pistol poses, then got the notes how a bolter looks, and just...embiggened the pistol into a bolter.

That does seem like it might be the case, their poses look far more suitable for a pistol. I think it lets down the whole thing quite a lot really, just looks so poorly done.

 Theophony wrote:
Marvel doesn't look at how well comics sell off the shelf on initial runs, they look at how many the stores buy for the initial run. Shops usually order higher on issue number 1, cut back a couple on issue number two and even further on number 3 (by which time usually number one is out on the shelves and they can see how well a title is selling and either order more or less after that.

Marvel is somewhat infamous for overshipping issue one to stores even. I.e they ship more issues then what the stores actually bought (the extra issues are free but the stores have to eat the extra shipping cost). That's one reason for why orders drop so drastically after the first issues.

This is mostly for more prestigious titles though, so they might not do that for semi-obscure GW tie-ins.

Racerguy180 wrote:
I'm guessing in this one the protagonist singlehandedly bests a Keeper of Secrets....armed with only a chainsword.

Sounds pretty accurate to how codex fluff goes...

I rather liked the Calgar run. The admech sidekick was a hoot. Will definitely check this one out too.

 VictorVonTzeentch wrote:


First issue sold between 22k and 25k from the Distributor to the Retail fronts, but I couldnt find sales to individual customers.

In comics we can usually get the unit sales to comic shops through Diamond (I wonder if this will change with the new round of distributor chaos). You generally can't get sell through numbers, only the stores have that and they don't share. That number would also leave out digital sales which are direct.

For a miniseries TPB sales are also important.

With all those cavets 22k is not great for a first issue since #2 will be less than half that and it will decline from there.

But Marvel may want to keep a hold of the property hoping to find the right writer/artist/property combo. Could I see a 40k comic selling 100k copies, or becoming an evergreen hit with steady TPB sales, sure. And were I an editor I'd want to try a few times to find that combo.

Wow, 100k? I doubt there's that many warhammer players in the world...

Cronch wrote:
Wow, 100k? I doubt there's that many warhammer players in the world...

These days 100k is kind of the ceiling for a US comic, that's like a new X-Men #1 level. Is it achievable for 40k, maybe.

IIRC White Dwarf circulation was around 100k for years, and then there are casual fans of novels and video games, lapsed fans and comic fans who'd pick it up as something cool.

I wonder what the number of app subscribers is or the starter set sales?

So let's say a Siege of Terra comic detailing the last hours on Horus' battle barge by an all-star comic team?

With the right marketing and distribution.

Then yeah, maybe.

And if I were Marvel that's the Brass Ring I'd be reaching for, demonstrate capacity, build an audience for Marvel 40k and go for it.

Cronch wrote:
Wow, 100k? I doubt there's that many warhammer players in the world...

There has to be alot more than 100k players in the whole world? I mean there are Warhammer Youtube-channels with several hundred thousand subscribers.

I've definitely felt that the last couple of years of video games, novels and all the other non-gaming stuff have drawn in a few Warhammer-fans that don't even touch the miniatures. Not saying it's a big crowd but a Sisters Of Battle comicbook should be able to sell a 100k copies if it's well done and marketed.

Yeah, I know, BIG if!