Secret Empire #0

Say what you will about the storyline, Secret Empire #0 was the #1 comic for April according to the statistics just released by Diamond. Marvel also widened its traditional lead over DC after falling behind in units in March. Marvel topped DC 34.95%  to 30.49% in dollars and 38.23% to 34.34% in units, still a bit closer than in past years.

The Batman “button” issue was the #2 seller for the month, showing controversy sells, and the Flash lenticular cover also charted.

Hellboy Into the Silent SeaIn comparisons, there are a lot of down numbers, particularly among graphic novels, down double digits from last year. In overall sales, dollars are down 5.74% but units are still up 5.04%.

I’m not sure what’s behind the big drop in graphic novels, and people I’ve spoken to aren’t quite sure either. Last year’s April GNs included the smash Wonder Woman Earth One, and Deadpool collections were selling briskly after the movie became a phenomenon, so I’m sure that had something to do with it. Marvel’s first Star Wars trades were also big sellers.

In general, I’m guessing that maybe the lackluster periodicals of 2016 are now being collected into lackluster trades? Since Diamond never released it’s year end numbers (BOO DIAMOND)  we’ll never be able to make a direct comparison.

DC’s BATMAN VOLUME 2: I AM SUICIDE TP led the GN charts, and the Rebirth collections seem to be doing okay. Marvel had no GNs in the top ten. Dark Horse and Image had two each.

John jackson Miller’s generaly more informed commentary for the month is up, noting the year has started with soft sales.

dollar-shareunit-share

 

PUBLISHER

DOLLAR

SHARE

UNIT

SHARE

MARVEL COMICS

34.95%

38.23%

DC ENTERTAINMENT

30.49%

34.34%

IMAGE COMICS

10.54%

9.86%

DARK HORSE COMICS

4.46%

3.06%

IDW PUBLISHING

3.63%

2.95%

BOOM! STUDIOS

2.27%

1.95%

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

1.44%

1.60%

VIZ MEDIA

1.30%

0.48%

TITAN COMICS

1.30%

1.20%

ARCHIE COMICS

0.90%

0.79%

OTHER NON-TOP 10

8.73%

5.55%

COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS

DOLLARS

UNITS

APRIL 2017 VS. MARCH 2017

COMICS

-9.47%

-5.31%

GRAPHIC NOVELS

-10.77%

-6.00%

TOTAL COMICS/GN

-9.87%

-5.36%

TOYS

-45.50%

-39.17%

APRIL 2017 VS. APRIL 2016

COMICS

-11.28%

-4.66%

GRAPHIC NOVELS

-17.18%

-15.47%

TOTAL COMICS/GN

-13.18%

-5.62%

TOYS

-20.01%

-21.08%

YEAR-TO-DATE 2017 VS. YEAR-TO-DATE 2016

COMICS

-2.53%

6.89%

GRAPHIC NOVELS

-12.41%

-14.02%

TOTAL COMICS/GN

-5.74%

5.04%

TOYS

-6.38%

-5.57%

PAGE_BREAK: PageBreakNEW TITLES SHIPPED

PUBLISHER

COMICS SHIPPED

GRAPHIC NOVELS SHIPPED

MAGAZINES SHIPPED

TOTAL

SHIPPED

MARVEL COMICS

93

41

0

134

DC ENTERTAINMENT

78

33

1

112

IMAGE COMICS

57

11

1

69

IDW PUBLISHING

47

15

0

62

DARK HORSE COMICS

20

21

0

41

BOOM ENTERTAINMENT

26

12

0

38

VIZ MEDIA

0

30

0

30

TITAN COMICS

23

2

1

26

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

15

6

0

21

ARCHIE COMIC PUBLICATIONS

12

3

0

15

OTHER NON-TOP 10

108

112

31

251

TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS

RANK

DESCRIPTION

PRICE

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

SECRET EMPIRE #0

$4.99

FEB170758-M MAR

2

BATMAN #21 LENTICULAR EDITION (THE BUTTON)

$3.99

NOV169200 DC

3

X-MEN GOLD #1

$4.99

FEB170777-M MAR

4

X-MEN BLUE #1

$4.99

FEB170767-M MAR

5

THE FLASH #21 LENTICULAR EDITION (THE BUTTON)

$3.99

NOV169204 DC

6

BATMAN #20

$2.99

FEB170191-M DC

7

BATMAN #21 (THE BUTTON)

$2.99

NOV169198-M DC

8

STAR WARS #30

$3.99

FEB170955-M MAR

9

WEAPON X #1

$3.99

FEB170790-M MAR

10

THE WALKING DEAD #166 (MR)

$2.99

FEB170686 IMA

TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS

RANK

DESCRIPTION

PRICE

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

BATMAN VOLUME 2: I AM SUICIDE TP

$16.99

JAN170376 DC

2

HELLBOY: INTO THE SILENT SEA HC

$14.99

DEC160056 DAR

3

SAGA VOLUME 7 TP (MR)

$14.99

JAN170850 IMA

4

SUPERMAN VOL. 2: TRIALS OF THE SUPER SON TP

$16.99

JAN170383 DC

5

ALL-STAR BATMAN VOL. 1: MY OWN WORST ENEMY HC

$24.99

JAN170374 DC

6

SAGA DELUXE EDITION VOLUME 2 HC (MR)

$49.99

FEB170708 IMA

7

BATMAN VOLUME 10: EPILOGUE TP

$16.99

JAN170385 DC

8

JUSTICE LEAGUE VOLUME 2: OUTBREAK TP

$16.99

JAN170380 DC

9

AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER VOL. 15 TP

$10.99

DEC160088 DAR

10

RED HOOD & THE OUTLAWS VOL. 1: DARK TRINITY TP

$16.99

JAN170381 DC

PAGE_BREAK: PageBreakTOP 10 BOOKS

RANK

DESCRIPTION

PRICE

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

WONDER WOMAN TALKING FIGURE & ILLUSTRATED BOOK KIT

$12.95

FEB172203 HAC

2

MASTERS OF SPANISH COMIC BOOK ART HC

$39.99

NOV161453 DE

3

THE SHADOW DOUBLE NOVEL VOLUME 116 SC

$14.95

JAN172333 SAN

4

STAR WARS BIG GOLDEN BOOK: A NEW HOPE

$10.99

FEB172246 RAN

5

ATTACK ON TITAN ADVENTURE SC

$10.99

DEC161774 KOT

6

LEGEND OF ZELDA: ART & ARTIFACTS HC

$39.99

JUL168360 DAR

7

LEGEND OF ZELDA: HYRULE HISTORIA HC

$34.99

SEP120055 DAR

8

TOKYO GHOUL: PAST SC NOVEL

$12.99

FEB172098 VIZ

9

STAR TREK: CATS HC

$14.95

FEB172242 CHR

10

STAR WARS: CLASSIC STICKER BOOK SC

$12.95

FEB172243 ABR

TOP 10 TOYS

RANK

DESCRIPTION

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

SUICIDE SQUAD: HARLEY QUINN PX MAF EX AUG162979 MED

2

HARLEY QUINN: RED WHITE & BLACK STATUE BY JIM LEE SEP160380 DC

3

DC ICONS: WONDER WOMAN ACTION FIGURE OCT160343 DC

4

DC COMICS BOMBSHELLS: RAVEN STATUE OCT160332 DC

5

POP! MARVEL: BLADE VINYL FIGURE JUL168820 FUN

6

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES 40TH-ANNIVERSARY 6-INCH FIGURES JAN178152 HAS

7

HARLEY QUINN: RED WHITE & BLACK STATUE: INJUSTICE 2 OCT160338 DC

8

DC ICONS: DEATHSTROKE ACTION FIGURE OCT160344 DC

9

DC DESIGNER SERIES: STARFIRE BY AMANDA CONNER STATUE SEP160381 DC

10

POWER RANGERS LEGACY 6-INCH ACTION FIGURES NOV169036 BAN

TOP 10 GAMES

RANK

DESCRIPTION

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

MAGIC THE GATHERING TCG: SHADOWS OVER INNISTRAD BOOSTERS FEB162979 WIZ

2

PATHFINDER ROLEPLAYING GAME: BEGINNER BOX NEW EDITION SEP138188 PAI

3

MARVEL HEROCLIX: MERCS FOR MONEY FAST FORCES 6-PACK NOV162999 NEC

4

MARVEL HEROCLIX: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY OCT168616 NEC

5

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: SHADOWS OF THE PAST BOARD GAME APR160482 IDW

6

MOUSE GUARD ROLEPLAYING GAME BOXED SET (2ND EDITION) FEB151158 BOO

7

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: STAR WARS GAME OCT168253 HAS

8

YU-GI-OH! DUELIST SAGA FEB173203 KON

9

DC HEROCLIX: THE JOKER’S WILD BOOSTER BRICK JUL163367 NEC

10

SUPERNATURAL TRIVIAL PURSUIT FEB173217 USA

 

PAGE_BREAK: PageBreakHow does Diamond calculate the charts? It all starts at the comic book shop.

Data for Diamond’s sales charts — which includes the monthly market shares and all top product charts — are compiled by Diamond Comic Distributors from sales made to thousands of comic book specialty shops located in North America and around the world. Additional sales made to online merchants and other specialty retailers may be included as well.

Unit and dollar market shares are calculated based upon orders for comic books, graphic novels, and magazines invoiced and shipped to Diamond customers during any given month, which comprises pre-orders, advance reorders, and reorders, minus any copies that are received back from a title marked as returnable. Please note that comics marked with an asterisk (*) have had their reported quantities reduced due to retailer returnability, and thus may rank lower on the charts than their actual sales would reflect.

The category tables in this press release are ranked by units sold by Diamond to its accounts for the comic books, graphic novels, and books categories and by the dollars invoiced by Diamond for the toys and games categories.

The New Titles Count Chart includes all titles that were invoiced by Diamond to retailers for the first time during the month and is not the official solicited title count for the month. Variant edition comic books and graphic novels at the same price point count as a single SKU. Variant edition comic books, lenticular covers, digital combo packs, and graphic novels at different price points count as separate SKUs for each edition.

***

ABOUT DIAMOND COMIC DISTRIBUTORS (DCD)—Diamond is at the nexus of comics and pop culture merchandise. Based in Baltimore, MD, DCD is the world’s largest distributor of English-language comic books and pop-culture related merchandise, servicing thousands of specialty retailers worldwide. For more information, visit Diamond on the web at www.diamondcomics.com.

© 2017 Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. All rights reserved. Diamond, the Diamond logo, Diamond Books logo, and PREVIEWS are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Diamond Comic Distributors in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective copyright owners.

9 COMMENTS

  1. Note that the Batman lenticular and the regular covers are listed separately. Adding them together it’s fairly certain that issue #21 of BATMAN outsold SECRET EMPIRE #0 by a good measure.

    -B

  2. A good month for Marvel but the devil’s in the details. Out of all of their books in the top 10, all of them are debut issues for either event crossover mini’s or new titles, and issue 2 for all of them will see drops. Some of those drops will be 50% at least. The only exception is Star Wars #30, a franchise Disney handed them on a platter. Amazing Spider-Man will likely continue to be their MU sales flagship without relying on a #1 issue (for the moment) and that likely will be around 70k or less.

    Also, whoa, Marvel shipped 93 comics in one month! That’s 23 a week! They’d have to trim the line drastically just to be even with DC. Maybe they need to focus on making few books better than on spamming the market. Seriously, nobody wanted stuff like SOLO.

  3. And yes, Marvel has released 46 more comics so far this year than last, a year-over-year increase for 2017 of about 13.5%. Same number of ship weeks. Marvel’s GN output in the same frame is almost unchanged. Marvel accounts for more than half the increase Diamond has reported in the number of new comics released in 2017.

  4. The large drop-ff in graphic novel sales through Diamond is disconcerting. I’ll be curious to see if GN sales are going to other outlets (Amazon, bookstores, etc.) or are disappearing all together. If it’s the latter, then comics are in much more trouble than we think…

  5. April graphic novel sales were up at my store though not as much as last year. The reason graphic novel sales are down at Diamond is because the majority of DM stores are mostly capes and tights stores and Marvel and DC trades are selling poorly as usual. Other publisher’s trades are flying out the door. Floppies continue their death spiral. Secret Empire #0 is a complete flop as well as #1. The Secret Empire story is unreadable. Batman and Flash blew Secret Empire out of the water. I am sure that Secret Empire #0 and #1 will keep a lot of store’s $1 boxes well stocked for quite some time. Face it people, Marvel is never coming back, and that is a good thing. People will be forced to start reading good comics from other publishers instead…..

  6. I’d be willing to bet most graphic novel sales are moving to book retailers. Is just the native environment for most people looking to buy books. Plus I can say over the last year I allocated more of my comics money to single issues (because they’re all so good right now) and less money for collected editions. And thanks for clarifying why the 2 separate line items for the Button issues, John.

  7. Someone should add up both of the Batman #21 (2 – lenticular & 7 – standard) and Flash #21 (5 lenticular and the standard – not in top 10). Curious where they ranked combined. Could they be the top 2? Or maybe Batman 1 and Flash 3.

    And of course Marvel make more % than DC. They have 15 more comics a month and 9 more trades a month.

  8. Marvel’s latest cancellation is BLACK PANTHER AND THE CREW, canceled after two issues. (Issue #1 sold 35,604 copies according to ICV2.com; orders for issue #2 probably came in at 17,000 or fewer.) Clearly, retailers and fans did not want or need three ongoing Black Panther series. That means TOTALLY AWESOME HULK, HAWKEYE, and MONSTERS UNLEASHED are next on the chopping block.

    Steve

Comments are closed.