Sales Charts

Late ship, late schmip: despite well documented problems getting their product out on time, Marvel still crushed it in October, according to sales figures just released by Diamond. Marvel opened up a commanding 22% lead in dollar share and a 26% lead in units...in fact Marvel 48% of units is the largest margin I remember seeing since I started doing these charts—and they only shipped 68 titles compared to 80 in September. And in another rare occurence, the entire top 10 periodical comics were Marvel. Ouchie. It's another kick in the grass for DC's nascent DC You line and means DKIII can't come soon enough. DC's unit share of 21.85% (down from 26% in September) and units of 22.92% (down from (26.32%) are also lows. Image was #3 with single digits once again.

We look at the quietest month for Marvel in a very long time. Despite the lack of new series, there's some surprising reprint activity! What does it mean for All New, All Different Marvel?!

Another day, another battle for cult favorite titles launched in the DC You initiative. How do they do this time?

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...)