Sales Charts

Spider Island and 1969 topped July's sales figures, just released by Diamond, with AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #666 topping the periodicals, and LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN CENTURY #2: 1969 topping the GN sales. Sales were down from 2010 and down sharply from June -- however, June was a five week month, and July only four. The overall market is down about 7% in both units and dollars for the year. IDW was the #3 publisher in dollars, while Image was #3 in units; DC has closed the gap against Marvel quite a bit from the dismal May that is what many say unleashed the relaunch plans. Tables, charts and more info below.

June was another down month, with periodical comics sales down 4.62 percent from June of 2010. The GN picture was more complicated. Overall, these numbers paint a pretty dicey picture for the Fantasy Economy. (See Larry Marder's comment's here). June 2010 may have been an abnormal month for GN sales but there is a need for more franchises like Hellboys, Chews and Narutos.

It was a great month for being ultimate, being afraid and flashing.

It's a mix of publishers at the top of the charts for the month of June, led by The Walking Dead and Buffy.

The indestructible beat of NARUTO led the way.

The death of a Spider-Man and shuffling zombies led comics and GN sales in June, according to Diamond's just released figures. Sales were up from a dismal May, but still lag last year about 7% overall.

While we can't answer that question, one creator, Michael Jasper has been making his percentage of sales available for IN MAPS AND LEGENDS, a fantasy comic with touches of steampunk and SF. It got its start as a Zuda competition winner but has since returned to the creators and they've been selling it digitally everywhere. Since IN MAPS AND LEGENDS is available on every platform, and is in a universally popular genre it's an interesting chart:

The Walking Dead gets a huge boost this month as the recent storyline is a big hit. The number two issue this month is Kirby Genesis from Dynamite, though as a one dollar title its sales are somewhat inflated. Coming in at number three is the IDW launch of a Rocketeer anthology. Further down the chart we have new Star Wars comics from Dark Horse, the most recent GI Joe relaunches from IDW, a new Megaman title from Archie, and a bunch of Image comics with increased sales.

Despite the debut of this year's big blockbuster series Flashpoint, average DC comic-book sales were down in May. In part, that's because Flashpoint itself came in 13,000 units below the magical 100K mark and ended up charting second after Marvel's Fear Itself #2, which has to be quite a disappointment for DC. On the other hand, most of the rest of DC's line didn't join in the crossover until June, so the overall numbers may still pick up. The other notable thing about DC's May output is that there wasn't a lot of it. The number of new comic books released by DC in May was 59, which, along with January 2004, holds the record for the fewest number of books released by the company since Diamond started publishing data on actual sales. Looking at the solicitations, it's not hard to find the reason: None of the five Green Lantern film tie-in books scheduled for May came out (one of them still hasn't been published as I'm writing this), while the launch dates of Static Shock and Batwoman were pushed back to September. And, while we're at it, the David Finch vehicle Batman: The Dark Knight remained in limbo in May. DC's Web site currently lists issue #3 for July 13 and issue #5 for August, with no information on #4. So not even DC seems entirely sure what's going on with the book.

It's month two of event season, and FEAR ITSELF tie-ins are starting to crop up across the Marvel Universe. And there's also the relaunch of MOON KNIGHT - wisely given a clear run in a month that's otherwise pretty light on new titles. DC's FLASHPOINT event also gets underway in May, but with the crossover titles not hitting until June, it's no surprise that Marvel were once again the top company in the direct market. They led DC by 46% to 28% in unit share and by 42% to 27% in dollars. All of this, of course, could be turned upside down in September - a month which will be unpredictable if nothing else. But for now, let us cast our minds back to a simpler time. Thanks as always to ICV2.com for allowing us to use these figures. And a reminder for newer readers: these numbers only relate to the North American direct market. They don't cover newsstands, or foreign markets. And the same material will also (eventually) sell in digital and trade paperback format, so the total sales will be higher. On the other hand, these numbers reflect the orders placed by direct market retailers - it doesn't follow that all the copies were actually sold to customers. But the longer a book has been going, the more accurate the retailers' estimates ought to be.

Although both sales charts seemed to show incremental gains in March and April for comics periodical sales, everything at the top seems to have slid bay in May ICv2 reports. Comics sales were down a whopping 17.3% and NO comic -- not even the debut of DC's highly touted FLASHPOINT mini - topping 100k copies sold. Although FLASHPOINT did very well in reorders, the low initial orders show that event fatigue is very real where comics retailers are concerned.

Diamond has released its first charts for May and FEAR ITSELF #2 led the periodicals -- beating out FLASHPOINT #1 -- while Garth Ennis's CROSSED collection topped the GN charts. In the information supplied by Diamond, sales increases in non-comics products -- trading cards, games, and collectibles -- reflect their continued emphasis on growing those parts of the business.