Bad Idea’s Planet Death #0 will ship 655,000 copies. DSTLRY announces White House Robot Romance. DC Comics is adding four titles to its Finest line.
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Episode Transcript:
Planet Death ships 655,000 copies.
White House Robot Romance brings the heat.
DC adds four to Finest line.
This is Comic Book Club News for March 18, 2025.
Bad Idea’s Planet Death #0 Ships 655,000 Copies:
Last week we revealed that Batman #158, the first issue of the sequel to Batman: Hush, which is called H2SH in case you had forgotten, sold 400,000 copies to comic book stores. Well, get out of here, Batman, because Bad Idea’s Planet Death #0 has sold 655,000 copies.
Per a press release from the publisher, this would make the issue the “largest selling independent comic book in over 30 years, since Jim Lee’s WildC.A.T.S. #1 in 1992.”
So… What’s going on here? Is it shenanigans? While it’s always great to hear about comic book sales doing well, it’s surprising that an upstart publisher is shipping so many copies for their first wide release. There’s certainly a solid creative team behind this: it’s co-written by Derek Kolstad, who created John Wick and Nobody, and Robert Venditti, who knows his way around a comic book. The art is by Tomás Giorello, with colors by Dave Stewart. And the story seems fun, with a lone survivor of an alien attack having to fight his way through enemy lines.
But one indication of how the numbers got so high is that Bad Idea calls out six comic book stores that have placed “major orders,” and later in the release notes that a life-size statue of the main character will tour around stores. Is it possible that the two are tied together? Order 100,000 copies and you get a cool statue to show off? Or perhaps in the extreme it’s a Cowboys & Aliens situation, where the company itself has bought copies that comic book stores can sell at a 100% profit. Bad Idea at this point is better known for their stunts at comic conventions than actual comics, so anything is possible.
Whatever it is, it’s pretty clear that nobody cares about Batman anymore, and Planet Death is the most popular comic in the world. The zero issue hits stores on April 30.
DSTLRY Announces White House Robot Romance:
Chip Zdarsky and Rachael Stott are teaming up for a political sci-fi romance thriller titled White House Robot Romance, from DSTLRY.
In the series, two kitchen robots — Chef-9 and Service-1 — go on the run after they discover the latter is going to be deactivated. Unfortunately, Service-1 is loaded with state secrets, and as they flee the robots slowly start to fall in love, while the whole world hunts them.
Said Zdarsky via press release, “Yes, there’s science fiction and political intrigue here, but the heart is an old-fashioned romance.”
White House Robot Romance does not currently have a release date, but will presumably hit stores some time this year.
DC Adds Four To Finest Line:
DC Comics is adding four titles to its Finest collection, which will hit stores later this year.
Per 13th Dimension, things kick off on August 5 with Justice League: The Return collecting 20 plus issues of Gerry Conway’s run on the title. Then on August 12 Blue Beetle Challenges The Red Knight presents some of Blue Beetle’s earliest adventures in Captain Atom and Blue Beetle, by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko.
On September 2, DC releases Batman: Red Skies, which includes Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover issues and more. And that nicely tees up the October 21 release of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part One. Rather than the umpteenth collection of the classic story, this volume will include only the first four issues of Crisis, as well as concurrently running tie-in issues including several of the issues in the Batman collection, Swamp Thing, Justice League, and even The Losers Special, among others.
All of the collections are full-color and are priced at $39.99.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And it really is too bad about Batman, it was a good run while it lasted.
Got tips or stories you’d like us to cover? Email us at comicbookclublive@gmail.com.
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