It has been made widely known that the
Tales of the TMNT comic book title exists on the whim of Peter Laird, who has continued to publish the book, for the most part out of his own pocket, even though it doesn't sell enough copies to support itself. As such, TMNT fans head toward each new year wondering if
Tales will still be around. As of right now, there is no confirmation for
Tales' existence--or non-existence--in 2010; however, it seems that Diamond Comic Distributors may have made that decision for Mirage already.
Newsarama is reporting today that Diamond has raised its purchase order minimum from $1,500 to $2,500. This means that in order for Diamond to list and distribute a title, it would need to generate $2,500 of revenue
for Diamond (not total). The break down of this is basically that "a typical $3.00 comic would have to sell over 2,100 copies to meet the benchmark."
Tales currently sells for $3.25/book.
The most recent sales data available, for
November 2008, lists estimated sales of 2,381 for
Tales. In comparison, the
January 2008 estimated sales were 2,684. In the months in between, at least the ones where
Tales was ranked in the top 300, a steady decline in sales can be seen. Thus, it can be concluded that
Tales hangs dangerously close to being below Diamond's newly required threshold.
There are about three possibilities for titles that do not currently meet the new threshold:
- Raise the cover price.
- Find different means of distribution.
- Cancel the title
Some titles are likely to move to Web-only, but as we've seen with
TMNT Vol. 4, TMNT fans want their Turtles on paper, making that an unlikely option for Mirage. It appears that this new change is immediate, although a grace period to allow publishers to achieve the newly required numbers is likely. This will make it extremely difficult for
Tales to even get to the end of 2009, and, given Mirage's publishing history, makes cancelation come 2010 nearly certain.
That said, nothing is set in stone. And if you don't pick it up already, now is the time to go to your comic book shop and let them know that you want
Tales of the TMNT!
Toy News International is reporting tonight on a new trade paperback that will collect the three issues that comprised the original TMNT comic book mini-series from Archie comics.
Jim Lawson updated 
