By Avi Ehrlich
owner of Silver Sprocket radical indie comic book store and publisher
[Editor’s note: we’re once again running some sales chart information for 2023 provided to us from various sources. Last year Avi Ehrlich, owner of the amazing Silver Sprocket comics shop – and publisher of Silver Sprocket Comics – shared their bestsellers list with us, along with some commentary. And here’s the 2023 edition.]
Here are the sales figures on Silver Sprocket’s 500 top grossing comics of 2023 from our flagship retail storefront in San Francisco, which focuses exclusively on independent, creator owned, and DIY small-press. Aside from the 2023 rankings, we are also sharing how the same titles sold in 2022 and 2021, to show that a quality book has staying power and is worth championing well past its on-sale date.
With an emerging generation of comics readers who grew up on Tumblr, Webtoons, and Manga, our industry must not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by failing to champion the ever diversifying and fantastic world of contemporary comics beyond those owned by aging massive media conglomerate IP farms.
The fierce independence of comic shops in the direct market is its greatest strength and fatal flaw. Despite our frustrations, publishers and distributors are forced to listen and be responsive to the needs of this motley crew. But with limited access to data, we are at a disadvantage to the larger chains who can reference regional trends and implement what works well for one location across the rest of their stores, making it harder for the direct market to recognize breakout indie hits and keep abreast of best practices. The work with metadata being championed by ComicsPro is a step in the right direction, but only the start as we desperately need better granular sales data and communication.
To this end I present here one more data point in the form of total transparency about our sales of evergreen banger indie comics worth considering for your shop and personal enjoyment, because at the end of the day this is supposed to be fun!
While you’re at it, give our Silver Sprocket published books a shot. They’re displayed just like everything else in our store and are top sellers simply because they have quality stories, engaging artwork, top notch production quality, and quite simply slay.
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More store photos:
RE: ” But with limited access to data, we are at a disadvantage to the larger chains who can reference regional trends and implement what works well for one location across the rest of their stores, making it harder for the direct market to recognize breakout indie hits and keep abreast of best practices”
It is my belief that BookScan data shows that there are effectively few “breakout indie hits” in larger chains?
Brian, I think the point is that there are “breakout indie hits” within the relatively small world of people interested in smaller-press/alternative comics (“Frog in the Fall” and “Stages of Rot” being good examples), but that (without retailers like Silver Sprocket publishing their sale figures) most direct-market comic shops – let alone chain bookstores – don’t even realize that these comics exist, so the comics don’t have the chance to reach a wider audience and achieve greater sales.
Well, I will strongly disagree that “most direct-market comic shops don’t even realize these comics exist” because the nature of product solicitation in the DM means that Silver Sprocket has virtually identical access to catalog and informational resources as any other publisher. They’re also one of the few companies that is distributed by (at least) Diamond as well as Lunar. Pointing to OUTSIDE the DM (“large chains who can reference regional trends”) would seem to me to be incorrect when the best selling Silver Sprocket book shows under 500 copies in BookScan in 2023 – and that includes 100% of sales of “large chains”. Sprocket’s success in the book market (which is not fully represented by BookScan, obviously!) is NOT “large chains”, but in indie stores who don’t have any reporting juice at all. I am ALL FOR Sprocket reporting their store sales, and doing it here on the Beat, but putting any kind of weight on “chains” would appear to be counter-factual in all ways.
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