The following link (for as long as it’s up) will take you to an article in the Philadelphia Daily News in which the writer lists what he considers to be the top ten “Next Generation” novels. Seven of them are written by me, and one more of them is one of the group books I wrote with Mike Friedman and Bob Greenberger. Not bad. http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/2002/12/12/living/4721661.htm
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Some months ago, with SUPERGIRL sales sagging and Leonard Kirk leaving the title, I came up with what was essentially a “Hail Mary” pass. I talked the DC Powers That Be into letting me do a storyline involving the return of Kara.
My reasoning was simple: Who wasn’t reading the book? (1) People who had become bored with the current storyline. (2) People who had dismissed the series from the get-go because any Supergirl who wasn’t Kara Zor-El was of no interest to them. By doing “Many Happy Returns,” I figured I could snag both groups. A fresh storyline to pull back lost readers, and the Kara angle to haul in first-timers. It was a “Hail Kara” pass to attend to what I felt were alarmingly sagging numbers.
As near as I could tell subsequently, it was a success in both regards. There was a lot of preliminary buzz, and many people were saying that they’d never read the title but were going to give it a look.
And then the solicits came in for #75, and I knew without question we were pretty much dead. Sales were up an anemic 2000 copies. Fan interest had not translated to retailer interest. Why should they? Knock the Marvel no-reorder policy as much as you want, but by this point, the retailers are trained. A Marvel title sells out, they’re screwed. A DC title sells out, they figure more copies are in the offing. The only deficiency in the reasoning comes when the initial low orders becomes a book’s death warrant.
Which is what happened here.
I’ve known for some months that “Supergirl” is going away. Frankly, I kept hoping for a last minute reprieve. Then the numbers came in on #76, showing an impressive lack of any confidence whatsoever as numbers went almost right back to pre-#75 levels, and that was that. Supposedly numbers are now climbing back up. Too little, too late.
Well, at least this incarnation of “Supergirl” was around longer than every other comic bearing that title combined. We did a lot of good work and I worked with some great people: Gary Frank, Leonard Kirk, Robin Riggs, Ed Benes, and long-suffering editor Mike McAvennie. And, of course, current editor Lysa Hawkins, who will be my editor on the new original series, “The Fallen Angel” (more about which later.)
And issue #80 goes out with a bang. Seems I’ve had a lot of experience writing last issues lately.
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A few folks are taking me to task about the intro I wrote to Peter’s remembrance of Carol Kalish. Since some folks had trouble noticing it the first time (my name at the bottom, Peter being referred to in the third person) I want to make clear that I wrote it, not Peter– he was busy doing something important, taking care of his new daughter.
In an effort to keep Peter out of it, I reply to it on my own weblog. Alas, I’m sure we’ll get around to it again when I start reprinting the BID columns dealing with Enemies of Ellison…
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