I brought up the “sold out” status only to point out that, unlike most no-name first-timer comic creators our sales did not go down after issue 1 and because of moderate sales, we have a collected book of issues 1-3 out in Jan. and a second series starting in Feb. and 2 more slated there after. I understand completely that all “sold out” means is that retailers had no faith in the book and pre-ordered “safely”, and Image didn’t over print the book high enough to meet demand.
But all that said, that does say something about a book. People bought the copies that were available. And as a first time published creator, that was pretty geeky cool. I can at least cuddle up with the fact that there aren’t 100’s of copies in quarter bins, aching for adoption.

I do apprecaite you taking the time to explain yourself. Not that I feel you owed me any explanation. It’s your writing and column and you have every right to say what you want.

It is a shame about Emissary, as I liked that book quite a bit. I hope our book doesn’t go down hill as of the next series and if it does then that’s the way of it.

Thanks for the closing kind comments. If you ever do get around to reading Sam, I’d love to know what you think. Good, bad, whatever?

Thanks.

Just to be clear, Manny, my criticism lies not with Sam Noir, which I haven’t read yet, but with Shadowline’s characterizing it as a Slimline format title when, even by your own description, it’s clearly not. Any “blanket statements” I mat have made were in reference to the imprint and its business model, based on statements made by Valentino and Simon, and not a judgement of the quality of any particular title.

Simon’s claiming your series is in the Slimline format does it a disservice as it focuses attention on a quantitative comparison that does you no favors. Better to have pointed out that the format and cover price were artistic and/or economic decisions and leave it at that.

As for selling out, we both know (I hope) that doesn’t really mean anything in the direct market where most print runs are based on their pre-orders with a modest overprint, and making a reference to it here makes you seem disingenous or naive. According to ICv2 and CBG, your second issue shipped approx. 3,100 copies in October, and I’d be surprised to hear Shadowline printed more than 5-6,000 copies in total, if that.

By comparison, Emissary #5 was right in the same ballpark and is now cancelled (or on hiatus, if you prefer) as of its 6th issue thanks to even lower pre-orders for issues 7 and 8.

All that said, thanks again for commenting, and I sincerely wish you the best of luck with Sam Noir.

Regarding the price point…
“Fell and Casanova are 16 pages of story/art and 24 total pages. Full color. Sam Noir/After the Cape are B/W (by design) 22 pages of story/art and a total of 24 pages. So, you get 6 more pages for a buck. Fell gives you 8 pages per dollar and Sam Noir gives 7.33 pages per dollar.”

I mainly am commenting because I think it wrong to make blanket assumptions about books. Now, the issue of whether or not you like our book is purely your opinion.
I enjoy Sam Noir and hope to keep making it for some time. Fans and consumers will determine whether or not I will be allowed to.

Thank you.

Manny