IDW has announced its offerings for Free Comic Book Day 2025. Absolute Batman #1 has sold 400,000 copies, making it the best-selling comic of 2024. Skybound has announced an Energon Universe Free Comic Book Day Special.
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Episode Transcript:
IDW announces Free Comic Book Day 2025 titles.
Absolute Batman sells 400,000 copies.
Energon Universe Special announced.
This is Comic Book Club News for November 20, 2024.
IDW Announces Free Comic Book Day 2025 Titles:
Yesterday, we brought you the rundown of books coming from Marvel on next year’s Free Comic Book Day. And now it’s IDW‘s turn, with two big books hitting on May 3, 2025: Godzilla: The New Heroes; and IDW Dark: Find Your New Fear.
In the Godzilla book, IDW is launching a brand-new universe of Godzilla comics, with stories by Tim Seeley, Nikola Čižmešija, Ethan S. Parker & Griffin Sheridan, Pablo Tunica, Chris Gooch, and Oliver Ono. In the book, readers will meet new characters, new Kaiju, and it will be a new launching point for Godzilla continuity. Hopefully not in the world of the 1998 movie, but probably not.
What of the second book? Back at New York Comic Con, IDW announced their new horror line IDW Dark. And Find Your New Fear will give a preview of what to expect, including a sneak peek at Patrick Horvath’s horror sequel Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite of Spring, and Steve Niles and Rodney Barnes on 30 Days of Night: Falling Sun.
But wait, that’s not all! The IDW Dark preview will also include a look at Nightcaps, a “line of oversize one-shots” including Sean Peacock’s Blood Honey, and Gavin Fullerton’s Tuatha.
Free Comic Book Day 2025 will be held on May 3.
Absolute Batman Becomes Bestselling Comic Of 2025:
Absolute Batman from DC Comics has a big Batman, and is a big hit… And now we know how big, as DC has claimed the title of bestselling comic book of 2024.
While exact sales figures for comics often remain a mystery, we’re told that Absolute Batman #1, across all printings sold through the direct market, has sold just under 400,000 copies. That means copies sold directly to comic book stores, and includes the first printing, which sold out at the distributor level in October, the second printing which also sold out in October, and the third printing, which will go on sale in stores on November 27, 2024. In addition, there has been an Absolute Batman: Noir Edition which just hit stores on November 13, highlighting artist Nick Dragotta’s pen and inks.
So how do we know this is the best-selling comic of 2024, based on this number? Well, we don’t exactly, though DC likely has access to internal metrics that we’re not privy to. However, earlier in the year, IDW revealed that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 had sold 300,000 copies to comic book retailers. This — doing some quick math here — is about 100,000 more than that. And back in January, Dynamite announced that ThunderCats #1 sold over 180,000 copies, before heading back for a second printing. Marvel, meanwhile, generally doesn’t share sales figures as they consider them “proprietary business information.” However, it seems feasible that despite their blockbuster Ultimate Universe line, Absolute Batman #1 sales still dwarfed the sales of the competitor.
While this is a far cry from the millions of copies of comics sold in the ’90s and 2000s, the good news is people are buying comics again, and anecdotally, actually reading them rather than purely collecting them to sell later. Congrats to DC! Sounds like the fans are, indeed, All In.
Skybound Announces Energon Universe Free Comic Book Day Special:
Free Comic Book Day is still six-ish months away, but the announcements are coming fast and furious. Up next? Skybound, which will once again release a special focusing on the Energon Universe, and teasing the “first appearance of a major character,” per PR provided to Comic Book Club.
“We’re excited to again participate in Free Comic Book Day and offer some terrific, original stories that are integral to the Energon Universe,” said Executive Editor Ben Abernathy via press release. “Fans are going to be shocked and delighted by what we have in store!”
As with last year’s issue, the Energon Universe Special 2025 will contain three stories featuring G.I. Joe, Transformers, and Void Rivals. The Joe story will be written by Joshua Williamson, with art by Andrea Milana, Void Rivals by Robert Kirkman and Conor Hughes, and Daniel Warren Johnson will return to double-duty on Transformers, both writing and drawing the story. Milana will also provide the cover to the book.
So who is this major new character? Unknown at this time, but given Kirkman is involved I wouldn’t write off “Skuxxoid’s Wife” as a possibility.
Energon Universe Special 2025 hits stores on May 3, 2025.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And wow, that was like a Free Comic Book Day sandwich.
Got tips or stories you’d like us to cover? Email us at comicbookclublive@gmail.com.
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