Sales Charts

The business news website ICv2 isn't known for being hyperbolic. So when Milton Griepp said that this month's comics sales had "plummeted" everyone leaped up, screaming, knocking over chairs and spilling drinks everywhere.

Sales of comics and graphic novels through Diamond Comic Distributors dropped substantially in August with periodical comics falling 17% and graphic novels down 21%.  There wasn’t a single comic title even close to the 100,000 in August. 

If it weren't for the continued strength of SCOTT PILGRIM trades, the GN drop would have been even more grisly. On the periodical side, there was no big book, but, said ICv2, Certainly "the lack of one big title can’t account for everything." The grim details immediately set the punditocracy to arms, perhaps sniffing the hint of burning smoke in Tom Spurgeon's Doomapocalyptigeddon which he descried from his aerie high in the Misty Mountains, the same distant smell of charring paper and brimstone that we've been picking up for the last few weeks.

by Paul O'Brien The big launch for July is the new ongoing X-MEN series, which duly makes its debut at the top of the chart. Also this month, as the X-books' "Second Coming" crossover ends, the Daredevil-centred SHADOWLAND event begins. The Young Avengers return in AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE. And from the Icon imprint, there's the debut issue of Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev's SCARLET. Needless to say, Marvel were once again the top company in the direct market, leading DC by 43% to 35% in terms of unit share, and 39% to 32% in dollars.

Vampires beat zombies this month, as the first issue of IDW’s new series based on the True Blood TV show is the top selling...

ICv2 posted their sales for July yesterday, but bucking a recent trend, periodical sales were down while GN sales were up a bit, mostly...

by Marc-Oliver Frisch After unleashing a deluge of new titles in May, DC Comics' lineup of major periodicals was fairly restrained in June. There were...

by Paul O'Brien It's a month of relaunches and new titles, as the "Heroic Age" branding continues. June saw the relaunch of NEW AVENGERS,...

Buffy may be on a break, but that doesn’t mean that a Joss Whedon book isn’t the top selling “indie” comic this month as Serenity takes the top spot. Further down the list we have lots of Red Sonja comics, a Goon spin-off by Eric Powell, and yet more adaptations of movies and TV shows. Dark Horse had a 3.53% unit share and a 5.30% dollar share, Image had a 3.38% unit share and a 3.88% dollar share, and IDW had a 3.07% unit share and a 3.67% dollar share. I’ve listed every “indie” title in the top 200, every title from Image, Darkhorse, and IDW (ie. “the front of Previews”), and a selection of others. Thanks to icv2.com and Milton Griepp for permission to use these numbers, which are estimates, and can be found here.

Funnybook Babylon has an interesting charticle looking at the runs of various Vertigo ongoing series over the years, following some speculation that books were being canceled there because of increased scrutiny from DC's new management. Chris Eckert suggests this is not the case, or at least not the only factor, by showing that the lowest selling titles are always canceled, although nowadays the best selling title is something that would have been canceled a decade ago. Eckert also runs a chart showing relative Amazon rankings for various Vertigo trades, a weak metric but all we have to go on.

by Marc-Oliver Frisch DC Comics' periodical business had one of its better months in May, thanks to a host of new launches that were received...

By Matthew Murray Buffy returned to its usual position of top selling "indie" book this month, but its the last issue before it goes on...

A busy month, as SIEGE wraps up, and the Heroic Age books begin, including the debut issues of both AVENGERS and SECRET AVENGERS. The "World War Hulks" crossover begins, "Second Coming" continues in the X-books, and the new ASTONISHING miniseries ship their first issues. Once again, Marvel had the largest share of the North American direct market, beating DC by 46% to 35% in terms of units, and 41% to 31% in dollars. For the benefit of any new readers, bear in mind the following disclaimers. These are estimates of orders placed by stores in the North American direct market. They don't include sales on newsstands, or to other countries (such as the UK). And most of this material will be repackaged in collected editions or made available online, so there will be further sales in other formats. On the other hand, we don't know whether the retailers managed to sell everything they ordered. With books that have been around a while, the retailers presumably have a fairly good idea of how many copies they can sell; with new launches, there's a bit more guesswork involved.

ICv2 has posted its sales estimates for May,  and AVENGERS led the pack with a strong number as overall periodical sales went up by...