Comments on: Captain Britain Is Too Cancelled

By: Dwight Williams

Dwight Williams — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 14:22:09 +0000

Three years later, and we can still do with an answer to that question. Same goes for any comics-reading nation with access to North American publishers’ wares, come to think of it.

And I still miss MI-13, too.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:13:10 +0000

You’re right, Marvel could have made this decision by taking into account more than declining sales. They might have thought that there was little possibility of interest in the title or characters for other media (TV, film). They might be on a kick where they’re tying their titles more closely together, so something set in another country isn’t of as much interest. Heck, some other creator with more pull may have wanted to use one of the characters elsewhere. There are a variety of possible other factors that went into their decision. But usually, it’s looking at sales (both numbers and direction) and costs.

Where does the 40% figure come from, by the way? I’m always curious about more sources of factual numbers in comics, since there are so few of them.

By: Comic Guru (Kristian Barry)

Comic Guru (Kristian Barry) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:23:05 +0000

I’m sorry but I’ve been hearing this ill informed crap about sales being the excuse to cancel Captain Britain and it really needs to stop here.

Britain accounts for 40% of worldwide comic book sales but they are not taken into account by Diamond US when calculating their sales charts.

If you calculated Captain Britains sales in Britain which are disproportionally larger than America’s it would be around the 50 mark in chart position. Very probably higher in recent months due to online petitions and a ramping up of the superb story.

Fight for this title. Tell Marvel to rethink. For me this title outsells Amazing Spiderman almost every month and thats virtually a weekly title. If you don’t believe me look at the sales charts at the front of my website. They are based on sales and not on what I buy in. Which ironically is exactly the opposite of the charts that Diamond publish officially.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:47:39 +0000

I’m not making an argument, Paul, just reporting that the title will be ending and noting that it’s rare for a creator to be so open about the matter.

By: Paul O'Brien

Paul O'Brien — Wed, 20 May 2009 12:49:52 +0000

I’m not quite sure I see your point, Johanna. Sales on this title have been plummetting at an alarming rate from day one. I see nothing to suggest that the cancellation announcement made matters worse. If anything, it stabilised a bit after that.

And second, this wasn’t a typical case of internet rumour-mongering – Marvel actually announced the cancellation in error and then retracted it. Frankly, given the sales at that time, the retraction was more surprising than the original announcement.

By: JE

JE — Wed, 20 May 2009 07:20:20 +0000

And just right after I decided to pick up the trade.

Just great.

By: David Oakes

David Oakes — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:54:16 +0000

Damn.

(And saving $3, while nice, really isn’t a bright side.)