Harley Quinn 0

Marvel edged out DC for sales, but DC had a strong 1-2 punch in the top comics for November with Batman and, surprisingly, the all-star Harley Quinn #0 issue. Marvel’s top book was Amazing X-Men #1.

It was a four-week month so sales were down overall, against last month, and year to year, although graphic novels held their own. Sales are still up overall 11% over 2012 and graphic novels are up over 5%.

Perhaps the big news was the performance of the “Next Seven” with incremental gains for publishers down the charts claiming a more substantial share of the dollars for the month. All those giant omnibuses are paying off. I think JJ Miller has a chart that shows every publisher’s share month to month and this would be a good time to look at it.

Marvel Comics was November’s top publisher, edging DC Entertainment 29.97% to 29.24% in Dollar Share and 33.65% to 31.90% in Unit Share.

In the graphic novels, to no one’s surprise, Walking Dead Volume 19 led the way.

dollar-share

unit-share

TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS

PUBLISHER

DOLLAR

SHARE

UNIT

SHARE

MARVEL COMICS

29.97%

33.65%

DC ENTERTAINMENT

29.24%

31.90%

IMAGE COMICS

8.67%

9.77%

IDW PUBLISHING

6.68%

6.26%

DARK HORSE COMICS

6.11%

4.91%

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

3.20%

3.00%

BOOM! STUDIOS

1.90%

1.92%

EAGLEMOSS COLLECTIONS

1.86%

0.44%

VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT

1.58%

1.74%

VIZ MEDIA

1.19%

0.42%

OTHER NON-TOP 10

9.59%

5.99%

NEW TITLES SHIPPED

PUBLISHER

COMICS SHIPPED

GRAPHIC NOVELS SHIPPED

MAGAZINES SHIPPED

TOTAL

SHIPPED

DC ENTERTAINMENT

85

29

1

115

MARVEL COMICS

74

34

0

108

IDW PUBLISHING

46

31

0

77

DARK HORSE COMICS

37

31

0

68

IMAGE COMICS

42

14

0

56

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

30

18

0

48

VIZ MEDIA

0

25

0

25

BOOM! STUDIOS

20

3

0

23

VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT

8

2

0

10

EAGLEMOSS COLLECTIONS

0

0

9

9

OTHER NON-TOP 10

64

116

16

196

 


COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS

 

DOLLARS

UNITS

NOVEMBER 2013 VS. OCTOBER 2013

COMICS

-18.80%

-18.95%

GRAPHIC NOVELS

-9.72%

-14.98%

TOTAL COMICS/GN

-16.07%

-18.65%

NOVEMBER 2013 VS. NOVEMBER 2012

COMICS

-1.21%

-8.43%

GRAPHIC NOVELS

14.59%

11.44%

TOTAL COMICS/GN

3.39%

-7.12%

YEAR-TO-DATE 2013 VS. YEAR-TO-DATE 2012

COMICS

11.09%

7.69%

GRAPHIC NOVELS

5.55%

3.92%

TOTAL COMICS/GN

9.33%

7.39%

 

TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS

RANK

DESCRIPTION

PRICE

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

BATMAN #25

$4.99

SEP130143-M DC

2

HARLEY QUINN #0

$2.99

SEP130227-M DC

3

AMAZING X-MEN #1

$3.99

SEP130740-M MAR

4

SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #4

$3.99

AUG130213-M DC

5

FOREVER EVIL #3

$3.99

SEP130164-M DC

6

INFINITY #6

$5.99

SEP130661-M MAR

7

ALL-NEW X-MEN #18

$3.99

SEP130749-M MAR

8

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #22

$3.99

SEP130697-M MAR

9

BATMAN/SUPERMAN #5

$3.99

SEP130223-M DC

10

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #21

$3.99

SEP130696 MAR

 


TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS

RANK

DESCRIPTION

PRICE

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 19: MARCH TO WAR TP

$14.99

SEP130566 IMA

2

YU-GI-OH! 5DS VOLUME 5 GN

$9.99

SEP131376 VIZ

3

FAIREST IN ALL THE LAND HC (MR)

$22.99

JUL130257 DC

4

BATMAN: NIGHT OF THE OWLS TP (N52)

$19.99

AUG130291 DC

5

THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS VOLUME 3 TP

$14.99

MAY130427 IMA

6

INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US VOLUME 1 HC

$19.99

JUL130242 DC

7

NOWHERE MEN VOLUME 1: FATES WORSE THAN DEATH TP

$9.99

MAY130486 IMA

8

BATMAN IN DETECTIVE COMICS VOL. 2: SCARE TACTICS (N52)

$16.99

AUG130290 DC

9

S.H.I.E.L.D. ORIGINS TP

$7.99

SEP130732 MAR

10

HAWKEYE VOLUME 1 HC

$34.99

JUN130677 MAR

TOP 10 BOOKS

RANK

DESCRIPTION

PRICE

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

DOCTOR WHO: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO 50 YEARS OF DOCTOR WHO

$20.00

JUL131467 PEN

2

DC SUPER HEROES: BATMAN: HARLEY QUINN’S SHOCKING SURPRISE TP

$4.95

AUG131589 CAP

3

STAR TREK: LIGHT UP STARSHIP ENTERPRISE KIT

$12.95

JUL131508 RUN

4

LEGEND OF ZELDA: HYRULE HISTORIA HC

$34.99

SEP120055 DAR

5

STAR WARS: DEATH STAR OWNERS TECHNICAL MANUAL

$30.00

SEP131510 RAN

6

SPECTRUM VOLUME 20 TP

$35.00

AUG131579 PUB

7

THE SHADOW DOUBLE NOVEL VOLUME 78

$14.95

SEP131509 SAN

8

DOCTOR WHO OFFICIAL ANNUAL 2014

$12.99

MAR131467 PEN

9

THE ART OF SEAN PHILLIPS HC (MR)

$39.99

JUL130989 DE

10

DC SUPER HEROES: BATMAN: BAT MITE’S BIG BLUNDER TP

$4.95

JUL131458 CAP

TOP 10 TOYS

RANK

DESCRIPTION

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

DC COMICS: THE NEW 52 SUPER HEROES VS. SUPER VILLAINS 7-PACK JUN130321 DC

2

MICHAEL JORDAN: REAL MASTERPIECE #23 “ROAD UNIFORM” FIGURE MAR138258 ENT

3

SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN: THE KISS STATUE MAY130269 DC

4

BATMAN BLACK & WHITE: THE JOKER STATUE BY GREG CAPULLO MAY130280 DC

5

MARVEL SELECT: CLASSIC THOR ACTION FIGURE JUL138075 DST

6

MARVEL SELECT: THOR: THE DARK WORLD: THOR ACTION FIGURE MAY131784 DST

7

BATMAN BLACK & WHITE: BATMAN STATUE BY GREG CAPULLO MAY130281 DC

8

BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS SERIES 1: THE JOKER ACTION FIGURE JUL130282 DC

9

JUSTICE LEAGUE: WE CAN BE HEROES 7-PACK BOX SET AUG120308 DC

10

BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS SERIES 1: BATMAN ACTION FIGURE JUN130307 DC


TOP 10 GAMES

RANK

DESCRIPTION

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

MARVEL HEROCLIX: INVINCIBLE IRON MAN BOOSTER BRICK SEP132436 NEC

2

RISK: THE WALKING DEAD SURVIVAL EDITION OCT128267 USA

3

MONOPOLY: THE WALKING DEAD SURVIVAL EDITION OCT128266 USA

4

GAME OF THRONES: WESTEROS 4D CITYSCAPE PUZZLE AUG132098 4D

5

MARVEL HEROCLIX:AVX: AVENGERS STARTER SET AUG138092 NEC

6

MARVEL HEROCLIX: AVX: X-MEN STARTER SET AUG138093 NEC

7

MARVEL HEROCLIX: INVINCIBLE IRON MAN BOOSTER PACKS SEP132435 NEC

8

THE WALKING DEAD TV BOARD GAME: THE BEST DEFENSE MAR132230 CRY

9

DC HEROCLIX: BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS BOOSTER PACKS JUL138429 NEC

10

FIREFLY BOARD GAME MAY132319 ALL

5 COMMENTS

  1. The market share graphs of which you speak are here:
    http://www.comichron.com/vitalstatistics/marketshares.html

    And yeah, good eye. I thought Marvel and DC’s combined dollar share of 59.21% looked low-ish, but it is in fact the first time it’s been under 60% since April 2003, when Dreamwave had the #2 book. The lowest the combined total has been in the Diamond Exclusive Era is 48.03% in February 1998, when bankruptcy-era Marvel had a truncated slate of titles.

  2. The high month for Other on that chart in my data is April 1998 — and in those days, Other meant anything but Marvel, DC, Image, and Dark Horse. Wizard broke 3% but wasn’t really a comics publisher, and of the rest, only Viz had grown to the point of breaking the 2% mark. In later years, I did add two more publishers to the graphic — Crossgen and IDW — including retroactively removing their contribution to the Other category — but obviously, there wasn’t any in April 1998. The more standardized look at “Other” is simply Diamond’s sum of non-Top-10 publishers — and in April 1998 it was very high, nearly 20%.

    It gets there because Marvel and DC’s slates were so small, and even with Image much larger then (around 15%) the other titles made for more of Diamond’s stock. There were 41 (!) publishers in the Top 300 — contrast that to 15 or 16 most months these days. When you look at just the Top 300, the other 37 publishers had 114 titles on the list, with a dollar share of the list approaching 20% — and then the after-300s are almost all indies, with cover prices well above what the four largest publishers were charging. $1.95 and $1.99 were still the modal prices at DC and Marvel and for Spawn; the indies were $2.95 and higher. I think there’s also a manga effect on the TPB list starting to come into play.

    It’s not an ideal graphic in that what it includes does change over time — but if I just had it always display the Top 5, we wouldn’t be able to see individual publishers by name.

  3. Correction — the high for “Other” on the chart does pass 33%, in February 1998, a dead month for the major publishers if there ever was one.

    There’s another element that in the mid-1990s was pumping up smaller publisher performance on Diamond’s charts: Diamond’s market shares up until September 1998 reflect preorders, not what actually shipped. Diamond continued to publish preorder and final data side-by-side for a while after that, and we saw that there was a slight bias toward smaller publishers in the preorder data: they solicited more things that did not come out. So “Other” rates before September 1998 may be inflated — by a point at most, probably.

Comments are closed.