ICv2 has released its October sales estimates, and the bad news is that sales slipped almost everywhere:

Sales to comic stores on the top titles in October, the first month since the global economic crisis has been front page news for the full month, appear to have slipped, with only two titles in the top 25 eking out an increase over the previous month’s issues. Amazing Spider-Man #573 displayed the “Colbert Bump,” picking up sales over the previous issue; and Batman #680, the penultimate issue in the RIP storyline, also gained. But other than that, declines of a few percentage points vs. the previous issue were the norm.


But the good news is that dollar sales were up a “robust” 9%. What? HOW???

The gains weren’t in circulations at the top of the chart, where most titles were down. But ten of the top 25 books were $3.99 this October, compared to only two $3.99 books in October of 2007, so price increases are certainly a factor. Another is strength at the bottom of the chart, where the #300 title clocked over 4,200 copies, vs. just 3,000 copies for the #300 title a year ago.


That bottom chart strength is especially noteworthy in the shrinking economy. Dizamn, maybe these things ARE recession proof after all.

More: October Top 300 Comics Actual
October Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual

2 COMMENTS

Comments are closed.