Crisis of Multiple Sales

As you might recall, I recently posted an entry where I discussed the upcoming Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 5 in glowing terms. I'm not the only person who feels this enthusiasm. Trust me, I'm as shocked as anyone about lots of people being interested in something I like this much. However, numbers don't lie.

Numbers? Well, yes. Mostly to satisfy my own curiosity, I traveled to the invaluable Comics Chronicles to find the pre-order numbers for previous books in this series. What I found shocked even me. I knew these books had to be popular if they kept making them, but I had no real idea. They are really popular.

With the blessing of Mr. John Jackson Miller, owner of the Comics Chronicles, I've extracted the pertinent data to share with you. These are pre-order numbers ONLY for these books through Diamond Comics Distributors ONLY. In other words, these numbers don't factor in reorders or sales outside of Diamond channels. The numbers in bold are each book's ranking on Diamond's list of top trade paperbacks/graphic novels.

• July 2002 - #2 - Crisis On Multiple Earths - $14.95 - DC - 9,100
  
• October 2003 - #5 - Crisis On Multiple Earths Vol. 2 - $14.95 - DC - 5,544
  
• July 2004 - #7 - Crisis On Multiple Earths Vol. 3 - $14.95 - DC - 5,619
  
• December 2005 - #9 - Crisis On Multiple Earths : The Team-Ups Vol. 1 - $14.99 - DC - 4,566
  
• May 2006 - #4 - Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 4 - $14.99 - DC - 5,568
  
• March 2007 - #12 - Crisis On Multiple Earths : The Team-Ups Vol. 2 - $14.99 - DC - 3,791

It's worth noting that I think those 2002 numbers are probably rounded. Still, ranked number 2? That's higher than even the pre-orders for a collection of Marvel's then-popular title The Ultimates!

Those numbers place the earlier volumes as among DC's best-selling collected editions in recent years. So it's no wonder they would be interested in producing a fifth volume, and hopefully sixth and seventh ones to complete the JLA/JSA team-ups. Ahhhhh, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Will the new volume of Crisis on Multiple Earths bring in similar pre-order numbers? Or will the gap between the last volume and the general softening of the collected edition market drop them drastically? All we can do is wait and see!