Marvel’s X-Men #1 hid a secret bonus page linked with a QR code. Image Comics has clarified how they’re arriving at their Top 10 sales lists. DC has launched a Discord server. All on Comic Book Club News for July 16, 2024.
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Episode Transcript:
X-Men #1 hid a bonus page.
Image Comics clarifies its Top 10 lists.
DC launches a Discord server.
This is Comic Book Club News for July 16, 2024.
X-Men #1 From Marvel Hid A Bonus Page Linked To A QR Code:
Did you read Marvel’s X-Men #1 last week? I mean, really read all of X-Men #1? Because you might have missed a secret bonus page, linked to a QR code in the issue.
On the page, which is available to read on Marvel’s website, new villains the 3K are seen in shadow discussing the events of the issue, where the X-Men defeated a group called Fourth School. The four — actually five characters — discuss what to do about the X-Men, and their Great Work… Only designated by mysterious names: The Zealot, The Doctor, The Means, and The Chairman.
While we’ll have to wait to find out who they are, several of the members look like Cassandra Nova, Namor, someone wearing Xavier’s Krakoa helmet, and a shadowy woman with a man with long hair behind her.
Editor Tom Brevoort addressed the digital bonus page in his newsletter this week, noting that this will be ongoing with the new X-Men books. Said Brevoort: “It was a bonus page to begin with, an extra page—we didn’t scale back the contents of X-MEN #1 in order to do it. And it gave us a page whose contents we could conceal until the day of release, thus avoiding any early spoilers. You’ll find that we’re doing similar pages in most of the new X-launches. They’re a little free bonus, a little extra—sort of a modern day equivalent of that ‘Things To Come’ page that ran in the first issue of the Claremont/Lee X-MEN #1.“
So what are the things to come? We’ll have to stay tuned when the second new X-Men book, Phoenix, drops this week.
Image Comics Clarifies How They Arrive At Their Top 10 Lists:
Yesterday, we reported that Image Comics is posting its own Top 10 sales lists of titles from the previous month. However, what wasn’t clear was how they were arriving at these lists. Well, now we know.
Per a PR rep for Image Comics, they clarified to Comic Book Club that the new top 10 lists are only tracking new releases — meaning new single-issue comics and graphic novels or trades released in the month they’re being reported on. In addition, the single issue list is generated off of the “number of orders placed by the Direct Market (comic shops)” and the books list is off the “number of orders combined placed by the Direct Market (comic shops) + Book Market (Amazon, B&N, independent bookstores, etc).”
While I realize this is the sort of nerdy minutiae only a select few — read, me — care about, it does, in particular, explain why perennial backlist best-sellers like Saga, Invincible, and The Walking Dead do not appear on the books list. And for the single issues list, important to note that these are orders by comic book shops, versus the customer sales figures used when this podcast discusses the monthly top sellers lists.
That said? Having direct data from a comic book publisher is a great thing to have — and thanks to Image for the clarification. And now, back to your regularly scheduled non-nerdy stuff. You know, comic book news.
DC Launches Discord Server:
In a move that could not possibly go wrong in any way, DC has launched their own, official Discord server in advance of San Diego Comic-Con.
Via AIPT, the server includes a number of features including exclusive content, multiple channel types, planned “town hall-style audio events,” discussion forums, and weekly content. And as a bonus, according to fans who have joined the server chatting about it on other social media, it’s already been taken over by folks arguing about Zack Snyder movies. As you’d expect.
If you join the server and attend SDCC, you can get a limited edition poster at the con, while supplies last. I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether dealing with Snyder Cut discourse for two weeks is worth a poster or not.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And release the Discord Cut!
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