Updated on December 10, 2021
Here’s my thoughts on stories of interest from the past week.
Media
July 2019 direct market comic sales
Comichron reports that the top-selling single-issue direct market comics for July are:
- House of X #1 (Marvel)
- Powers of X #1 (Marvel)
- Amazing Spider-Man #25 (Marvel)
- The Walking Dead #193 (Image)
- Batman: Last Knight on Earth #2 (DC)
“The Walking Dead” ranked that high because it’s the final issue in the long-running series. Said cancellation news came rather suddenly. Speaking of series winding down, “Scooby-Doo Team-Up” #49, the series’ next-to-final issue (featuring Metamorpho), saw 5,351 issues ordered.
On another note, the top-selling trade paperbacks/graphic novels for July are:
- Joker (Black Label) (DC)
- Bad Weekend (HC) (Image)
- Deadly Class, vol. 8: Never Go Back (Image)
- They Called Us Enemy (IDW)
- Adventure Zone, vol. 2: Murder on Rockport Limited (First Second)
The most interesting title out of these is #4, George Takei’s graphic novel biography about his early childhood in a World War II Japanese internment camp.
Amazon’s 30 cents a gallon gas promo gets shut down by the police
Amazon ran a series of promotions for its 1950s-set Prime Video show “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” which is up for a whopping 20 Emmy award nominations.
As part of an August 15 “Maisel Day” promotion, Amazon had 1959 pricing on items at various restaurants, stores, and so forth. Unfortunately, this also extended to a Santa Monica, California gas station, which had gas at 30 cents a gallon (8 cents a liter). This caused a massive traffic jam, leading the local police to shut the promotion down.
For a comparison, gas price website Gas Buddy reports that the normal lowest price for gas in Santa Monica is currently $3.39 a gallon (90 cents a liter).
Smithsonian magazine offers free tickets for Museum Day 2019
Smithsonian magazine is partnering with museums across the country to offer free admissions for this year’s “Museum Day” on Saturday, September 21. You can obtain general admission tickets for up to two people for one museum in your area.
For those that miss out, I’ll note some libraries offer free museum passes for local museums.
Technology
Podcast news
Spotify’s offering podcast creators detailed listener data via its “Spotify for Podcasters” dashboard, now out of beta.
Stitcher is partnering with Marvel to offer a podcast version of Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross’ 1994 miniseries “Marvels.” Yes, Stitcher’s still around, and clearly wants more attention in the increasingly competitive world of podcasts.
