It looks like all the marketing for The New 52 is paying off for DC Comics. The publisher is reporting record breaking presale figures for several of its relaunch titles.

The Warner Bros. unit revealed in a story in Tuesday’s Los Angeles Times that pre-orders for Justice League No. 1, which goes on sale Aug. 31, are already higher than 200,000. That makes it the bestselling comic book of 2011. In addition six other No. 1 titles — Batman, Action Comics, Green Lantern, Detective Comics, Superman and Flash — have pre-orders higher than 100,000, making them among this year’s bestselling comics too.

This is a temporary break in the steady decline of comic book sales over the past three years. We will just have to see whether or not DC can build on the momentum of The New 52.

[The Shakedown]

These sales figures are impressive by industry standards today, but they barely make par with the kind of sales figures the industry saw in the 70’s and 80’s. Realistically, of the 52 titles launching in September, only about a third of them will maintain any kind of real audience. AndI’d be okay with 17-20 really good titles as opposed to 17-20 good titles and 30-35 junk titles. I know DC is all about the number 52, but it seems like a terrible waste in resources.

What I’m really interested to see, is how DC’s new same-day digital distribution system will affect comic book sales. To date, they will be the first company to offer their new issues in both traditional print and digital formats on the same day. Realistically, I think it could be a boon to the industry.

[Source] LA Times