Sales Charts

I imagine that most people read articles about comic book sales in a darkened room, in a enclosed and private space - perhaps curtained...

by Marc-Oliver Frisch August was another strong month for DC -- that's always worth pointing out, given the rather dire numbers of the publisher's comic-book...

The September sales estimates are out.  DC had jumps across the board for their Zero Month promotion, so the retailers certainly responded to that....

Here's my piece for PW on The ICV2 conference with coverage of the white paper, kids panel, digital panel and worldwide publishing panel. Analyzing...

I hate to differ with Torsten but I think Wednesday still counts as a Day Zero becuase of the ICv2 conference—a lot of people...

The AVENGERS VS X-MEN crossover continues to dominate most of Marvel's major titles in August, but this month also has the launch of two new titles - GAMBIT and HAWKEYE - plus the official 50th anniversary issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, and the start of Neal Adams' FIRST X-MEN mini. DC had a slightly greater share of the North American direct market this month. But it was close, leading Marvel by 36% to 35% in terms of units, and 33% to 32% in dollars.

DC was the top publisher in September by a solid margin, with it's month of Zero issues convincingly beating Marvall, which had the #1 book in AvX #11. The comparative statistics are an interesting case -- sales are down significantly against August, but that was a five week month. Year-to-year this is the first time we're comparing New 52 to New 52, and comcis sales are down while GN sales are up in double digits. Year to date is up for 2012 however. In general, a strong year continues, and Marvel better print up some more variant covers.

It’s the beginning of the month and given the recent talk about Chris Ware's bestseller, I thought I'd check to see how it was...

While we all know that Amazon rankings are easily gamed and represent dozens not hundreds of copies sold, it's worth noting that Chris Ware's...

______________________________________________________________ The New York Times has been running weekly bestseller lists for graphic novel hardcovers, paperbacks, and manga (the latter segregated out to keep them...

As retailers keep slashing their orders on Before Watchmen and the replacement "New 52" titles, DC's overall figures decline again in July. That, in itself, is not surprising, however, and the company is still doing quite well. I see no reason to disagree with anything prominent retailer Brian Hibbs said in his recent look at "New 52" numbers. With regard to DC's overall performance, Hibbs makes some of the same points that I've been making here in the months since the relaunch, and as far as his own store is concerned, his observations seem to match the market climate. "The reboot was a remarkable success," Hibbs says, and: "There hardly could have been a better result." I agree, all things (such as the stifled potential of the comic-book format and the stifling way the major publishers are set up now, structurally) considered. But it's also worth remembering that what we talk about now when we talk about comic-book sales that are "doing quite well" and a relaunch that's "a remarkable success," and note that "there hardly could have been a better result," are the kinds of sales figures we used to see more regularly five years ago, when the DC Universe imprint was publishing fewer comic books than it is now. (From 2007 through 2009, the average number of published DC Universe titles was 52. From 2010 through August 2011, it went up to 57. Since the relaunch in September 2011, it's been an average 63 DC Universe titles per month. "Keeping it at 52"? Not very much, Dan DiDio.)

Although only a few hundredths of a point apart in units, DC edged out Marvel in dollars for a win in August's sales charts. DC was led by BATMAN: EARTH ONE and the rest of its Batman franchise; while Marvel's two issues of AVX led the single issue charts. Sales month over month, year to year and year to date were all up significantly.