Moonstone Forums

Have you fine folks seen THIS? The guy goes out of his way, AGAIN, to bash Moonstone. Has he nothing better to do?

It is rather disapointing to see a grown man behave like this...

Over all it is a positive review – 3 out of 5 is not bad. And and the end of the day, Bryan has some points that I hope Moonstone (and esp. new writer Mike Bullock) take into consideration, this one in particular:

"Secondly, Moonstone have carried on their unforgiveable tradition of the Phantom using his knife to deliberately wound his opponent; sorry, but this sort of thing is unacceptable in a true Phantom story."

That, I agree with. I think that is out of character for the Phantom.

On other hand, I think this is a terribly unprofessional thing to do for a former consultant.

I believe that Mike's run, if the stories are any good, might make sales increase. Just look at all the people online claiming they are going to give the book a try when his run starts.

Sorry, I was more refering to the whole sales thing.

His tone may be a little harsh, but his facts re: sales are correct. Hopefully things will change once Mike's run starts, but only time will tell on that score.

Yes, but he only took into account the Diamond sales. There are many other avenues. A number of phans on these forums use them.

Yes, but those are grains of sand compared with the monopoly that is Diamond. Facts are facts.

If I remember correctly, Mike once stated that Diamond reported that an issue of Lions Tigers and Bears sold 4000 issues or so, while they really sold at least 7000 issues (please correct me if my memory plays tricks to me, Mike), so you may be wrong here, Wraith.

Diamond's published numbers are based on initial orders only.* They do not take into account advance re-orders or normal re-orders. They do not dictate the size of the print run; however most publishers will use those numbers to guesstimate how many issues to print. When a full print run sells out, Diamond does not publish those numbers. Hence, the initial preorder of 4000 and the final sold number of 7000.

Now, all that aside, there's no denying that most books not coming from one of the US big four publishers (and many books that are coming from them) have declined in sales over the last two years, the Phantom included.

However, anyone who makes presumptions of a books health, the popularity of a character or the fiscal strength of a publisher based solely on Diamond's published initial preorder numbers is making a leap of faith to connect dots that aren't all located in the realm of reality.

Moonstone is doing fine, the Phantom is doing fine and anyone who claims otherwise is voicing wishful thinking, not the facts.

* Three months before a book hits stores it is presented in the Diamond Previews catalog. Roughly one month after that catalog comes out, the comic shop owners turn in initial pre-orders for books found therein. After the initial pre-order period concludes, but still well over a month before the book hits stores, retailers can adjust their initial order numbers by placing advance re-orders. After the book comes out, they can then place normal re-orders. It's kooky and odd, but that's how Diamond does it. You can peruse sites like http://www.newsarama.com, http://www.icv2.com or http://www.comicbookresources.com and find many, MANY articles and threads regarding this bizarre process that is seemingly unique to the US comic market.