Okay I stand corrected. When I saw the double digit rises in sales for July 2014 vs July 2013 I assumed it had to be because it was a five month vs four month, But according to John Jackson Miller it was five vs five making July 2014 the biggest month in the Diamond Exclusive Era with $53.6 million in sales. BUt this is due mostly to having the highest amount of product—including variants etc— ever in the Diamond era.
July in recent years has tended to be a month where things really get going for comics; sales did indeed, reaching their highest dollar value in the Diamond Exclusive Era which began in 1997. Comics shops in North America ordered more than $53.6 million in comics, graphic novels, and magazines, topping $50 million for the second time and besting October’s previous Diamond-Era record of $50.3 million.
It was a five-week month against a five-week month, so that factor is not in play; what it was was a month in which a lot of new comics shipped. Diamond Comic Distributors shipped 530 new comic books in July, which is the highest figure seen since Diamond began releasing those statistics one year ago. The release of 312 graphic novels was also the highest seen in a year — and when one of those books is Walking Dead Vol. 21, it’s likely to be a decent July. The result was a month with the largest year-over-year change since last September: comics and graphic novel sales were up 14.52% over a year ago. The seven-month total has now topped $300 million, and is ahead 2.22% year-to-year.
I eagerly await Miller’s in depth analysis of the month!
But… print is dead, I thought?
This tracks for me — July ’14 was my largest month in 25 years of business, and was up a whopping 25.2% from last July. Jinkies.
-B
It was the big, beautiful Doom Patrol Collection. (My first big DC purchase in years.) Oh, no, sorry — that contributed more to the WEIGHT, not the dollar amount.
I had a huge month in July. So much good stuff came out, and judging off the next few months’ worth of solicits, the trend should continue. The quality in comics has almost never been higher, along with the sheer amount of decent comics out. It’s a brave new world out there with lots of pick from for all types of readers.
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