Today's graph compresses the timeline of yesterday's graph to compare apples to apples: issue by issue of Comicchron.com sales numbers for recently canceled DC titles. The trend becomes pretty obvious here as ballooning early enthusiasm quickly deflates to a sloping plateau before finally petering out altogether. Note the recurring late series crossover spikes as Blue Beetle #20 is a Sinestro Corps crossover and both Manhunter #13 and 26 got boosts from Infinite Crisis-related stories. I wonder how big those spikes would have been if little plastic rings had been involved?

DC's sales cancellation threshold, while dependent on editorial discretion, is approximately 15,000 units. That's the white line in the graph above. Unless "Blackest Night" or the arrival of Keith Giffen can earn Booster Gold some new regular readers, it looks like the series will be targeted for termination by issue 50. I find that unacceptable. So spread the word, Boosterphiles, and lets see if we can't get some more air under Booster's sails.

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I certainly hope that Booster Gold never gets canceled (again). But curiosity got the better of me, and I compared the sales numbers for Booster Gold against some recent DC titles that got the axe for poor sales. It's pretty easy to spot a recurring trend in Comicchron.com's statistics. Here's hoping Booster Gold's recent sales spike is more than just outlier data.

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A better indicator of Booster Gold's relative sales than yesterday's graph is probably today's comparison of Booster Gold's sales against its position in Comicchron.com's Top 300 sellers each month. Note that in general, Booster Gold's sales position has fallen at a steeper rate than its actual sales rate. Yesterday's graph indicated a gradual decline in the overall numbers of the highest selling book each month, so clearly there must be more books selling higher numbers than Booster Gold now than before. That's probably good for the industry but bad news for Booster Gold.

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Comparing monthly sales of Booster Gold Volume 2 to the top monthly seller, it would seem that the series isn't really doing too badly, all things considered. While monthly sales of the "flavor-of-the-month" book vary wildly from month to month, Booster Gold's audience looks comparatively stable despite its naturally shrinking audience. Comicchron.com statistics indicate that industry per unit sales have been declining steadily in recent years (down about 14% since 2006 even as industry revenue is increasing from increased per unit pricing), so some decline in unit sales must be expected beyond those associated with a diminishing audience over time.

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According to Comichron.com, Booster Gold Volume 2 debuted with sales of 53,685. That's a pretty respectable number, and it's pretty much in line with the expected sales for a first issue from DC. It's pretty much been the usual slow but steady decline since.

However, that benchmark was topped recently by interest in the "Blackest Night" crossover. As previously mentioned, Booster Gold #26 was part of the "Blackest Night" ring promotion, and retailers were encouraged to increase their orders dramatically to "earn" the option to buy plastic rings for their customers. (I don't mean to sound too disrespectful here. This is a pretty clear indication, if we needed one, that crossover tie-ins to mega events can drive sales. And while I personally don't care for Blackest Night, I certainly do want a Legion of Super-Heroes ring. ) This promotion created a sales aberration in Booster Gold's favor.

The question now is whether that increased exposure will provide any long-term sales boost to the series. We'll take a look at that with a few more graphs later this week.

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