Deadpool Creator Rob Liefeld Implies Current Industry Sales Reporting Figures Are Based On A Lie

Over the last several years, the comic book industry has been reporting its figures via a “sample size” from participating stores. Rob Liefeld took to X this week to imply those numbers are false after claiming he sold over 200,000 copies of Youngblood #1.

The comic book industry is in a bizarre state where the access media at places liek ICV2 claim that sales are going up and the industry’s in better shape than it has been in years. They keep giving assurances, but the industry is in a situation where its biggest distributor just declared bankruptcy within the last year, shorting companies in payments by millions, and we’ve seen more comic book retail shops go out of business, as well as publishers like Humanoids throw in the towel.

Meanwhile, the largest companies like Marvel and DC Comics are resorting to gimmicky variant cover tactics and relaunching books with #1 first issues in cynical tactics to try to extract more funds out of collectors instead of trying to generate readers. It doesn’t point to a healthy industry.