Earlier today, I posted news of Dan Dare #1’s strong sales in the UK and a round up of just some of the reviews I found about the title (which have apparently astonished some Dan Dare fans who didn’t like the book).

Hopefully, my blog post makes it clear that the strong sales are UK sales — there was no claim in Virgin’s press release that Dan Dare sales are as strong in the US. Indeed, recently published Diamond orders suggest to me that retailers there were basing their orders for Dare on their orders for other recent revamps of British characters.

Most Virgin books don’t sell big numbers but Diamond orders for Dan Dare #1 are much higher than for some of their other titles — 9,434 according to trade site ICV2.

If you look at Diamond orders for September 2006, orders for Albion #6 were 9,465, compared with 18,791 for #1 back in June 2005. Battler Briton #3, another Garth Ennis title, had orders of 9,985 in September 2006, more than for Albion #6.

Some downthetubes readers have sugested UK retailers may have under ordered Dan dare #1 and been caught out. I’m not sure if the ICV2 figures include UK orders — I don’t think they do — but I would think that UK retailers would perhaps order more copies of a comic featuring such a big UK hero by a top ‘Brit’ writer, but it’s clear they haven’t ordered enough – we’ve had lots of people asking me where they can get copies.

It will be the orders for #2 and 3 that will be telling, but of course, those will have been placed before the sales of #1 were known.

Virgin is of course not dependent on the English language versions of its comics — I assume there will be a translated edition of Dan Dare in the works for India, where they also sell, and perhaps Hong Kong, too, where theire John Woo book has apparently done very well (and was one of their best selling titles).

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.

Categories: British Comics