One Year Of The New 52, Part 1

It's been about a year for the "New 52" DC. The first issue of Justice League came out in August, but there were also books from the old universe shipped that month, so I think of September 1st, 2011 as the starting point. Or ending point, as the case may be.

I felt like talking about the New 52 one year in over the next two days. In terms of quantity, buying habits, things like that today, and quality of the books tomorrow.

Some things to consider: Are you buying more DC comics now than you were before the relaunch? Less? Have there been other changes in your buying habits? These could include buying more books from other publishing companies, be it Marvel, IDW, Red 5, whoever. Maybe you've switched to trade-waiting, or switched to buying single issues (because you decided to try some of the first issues and just couldn't wait for the trades). Maybe you decided the New DC wasn't your style, and your focus turned to back issues. Or maybe you stopped buying comics entirely. And there are plenty of other paths, I'm sure.

As for me, I tried to do a count and what I came up with was:

September 1, 2010 - August 31, 2011 (the year prior to the relaunch): 48 new single issues
September 1, 2011 - August 31, 2012 (Year 1 of New 52): 36 new single issues

It's a definite step down from the previous year, though it only represents one fewer comic a month. The dollar gap is even smaller, since Batman Beyond Unlimited is a 4 dollar book. Though it is a bit questionable to count it, since it isn't part of the New 52, but a different title off in its own corner, doing its thing. But what the hey, DC publishes it, I buy it, I'll count it.

I have a general idea what the total for 2012 will be, and it's not only less than the previous two years, but also less than 2008. DC's percentage of the whole for 2012 should be better than '08's, but still not at the levels of 2010 or 2011.

For me, the sales that DC's losing are going to other, smaller publishers, Red 5's Atomic Robo being a major part of that. To be fair, I'm buying less Marvel as well, and the piece of the pie they're losing is going to the same place, so it isn't a DC-specific trend.

I haven't decided to trade wait on anything, though there are a couple of series I've heard enough positive things about to consider picking them up. Eventually. There are a lot of other trades on the list already, and anything else will have to wait its turn. I've continued picking up back issues of things, but I wouldn't say it's accelerated because of the relaunch. There have been a few mini-series I chose to buy as a spur of the moment thing, but all the ongoings I've been tracking down are ones I was already looking for prior to the relaunch.

So my trend since the relaunch is "less money for DC". Well, alright then. Feel free to share how things have been going on your end since the relaunch started, and be sure to come back tomorrow so we can all gripe about how terrible the current crop of books are compared to the ones that were canceled.

Alternatively, we can all gush about how much better the current books are than those that were canceled. Whichever.