Sales Charts

We're entering a period of disruption, if we're not already well into it. Is it something in the air, an upcoming election, the increasing consolidation of big media/big tech, millennials taking over? Probably all of that. And how does that affect comics? Of late the "slow patch" hit by direct market periodicals due to faltering by the Big Two seems to have cast all of this into discussion. Kate Leth, a creator and also a former comics shop employee, has a much linked to post about the direct market process which talks about how pre-ordering is key in what she calls a "system [that] is so deeply twisted":

by Dave Carter Greetings, sales charts fans! It's time once again to look at Image Comics's sales figures. Just a reminder that I'm not doing this...

  The September sales slowdown that many have predicted based on DC and Marvel glitches was revealed in Diamond's figures released earlier today. While the gap between Marvel and...

Greetings, sales charts fans! It's time once again to look at DC's sales figures. Back in June 2014, DC kicked off their freely-orderable variant (f.o.v.) cover program (or as DC has taken to calling them, open-to-order variants) with Bombshell variants with covers by Ant Lucia that evoked pin-up art from the 1940s. It was a big success, with the comics sporting them seeing huge gains and has spun off into a line of statues. So it makes sense that DC would want to return to the Bombshells theme, and this month sees a batch of all-new Bombshells covers as well as the launch of a DC Comics Bombshells comic (reprinting the digital-first comic of the same name). It's a moderate success this time out, especially compared to last month's Teen Titans Go! variants (all of those sporting both variants see a jump up in sales this time out), and the comic itself sells very well for a digital-first comic. While we can be fairly sure that the f.o.v.s are giving a boost beyond the natural sales level for titles bearing them, it is clear that the size of that boost is greatly dependent on the demand for that month's theme (or rather the perceived demand by retailers, which as in all cases on these charts has to stand in for actual consumer demand).

by Xavier Lancel Welcome to a new analysis of the Marvel sales.  I'm French, that's why I'm talking funny. Please address your complaints to my...

And as the month's charts and solicitations roll out, here's ICv2's analysis for August. It is an unsettled time in the universe with...

Diamond has released the top 300 charts for August, so you can see the total rankings. Once again, individual hits for Dark Horse, Archie...

Marvel still ruled the roost in August, according to figures just released by Diamond, and DC lagged 14 points in units, but gained a...

Yes, that's right: Image. I know I usually do the DC Comics sales summaries here at The Beat, but while Heidi looks for someone to step in and handle the Indy comics chart I volunteered to do a column focusing on Image. With around seventy titles each month they're about as large (titles-wise) as Marvel or DC, so I figure they should have their own column, yes? Warning: The commentary may be even more mis-informed than usual...

The important thing to remember when looking at Image's sales numbers is that they're not really playing the same game as other comics companies. My understanding (and I'm sure you'll all correct me if I'm wrong in the comments below...) is that Image charges a flat fee for producing, listing and distributing comics, so that after that fee and the printing costs, whatever is left over goes directly to whoever supplied the comic. (This may be different for the official Image partners...)

Greetings, sales charts fans! It's time once again to look at DC's sales figures. (Warning: This month's column contains a higher amount of ranting than usual...) July was not a good month, sales-wise, for DC Entertainment. Compared to June, the average sales per title dropped by over 8K, and they sold 300K fewer total units in the NA direct market, despite offering nine more titles. Sales were down across the board, in many cases significantly, except for one title: Batgirl. Why did things drop so significantly? Three main reasons:

We've already seen today that just jumping on a new, fresh direction isn't enough to make a sales success, but what about over at Marvel? As I've noted their whopping sales have been led by the astonishing success of their Star Wars comics, but variant covers are also strong in this one. Star Wars #1 had over 100 variants, for instance. The upcoming hip hop variant program wasn't just problematic from a creator standpoint, however, it's also set new levels of frustration for retailers who have to order high on other books just to be able to ORDER copies of the variants, as revealed on Reddit by retailer Calum Johnston and explained at the Outhouse. Apparently a frustrated retailers posted the above annotated order sheet for the variants, showing how high order would have to be.

by Xavier Lancel Welcome to a new analysis of the Marvel sales. Reminder: I'm French, and that's why I'm talking funny. Please address your complaints...