Sales Charts: A strong month for graphic novels in September

Diamond has just released its sales rankings for September 2018, and shocker, Marvel won! Again. Charles Soule and Steve McNiven’s Return of Wolverine #1 was the top periodical, followed by Heroes in Crisis #1 in units and Batman: Damned in dollars.

Graphic novels perked up with a solid 11.74% growth in dollars and 15.36% in units from September 2017, but the reason was easy to see: new volumes of Saga, Walking Dead and Monstress all hitting in the same month.

But sales are pretty flat overall. As in actually flat, as in down -0.55% year to date in dollars from 2017. Which wasn’t that hot a year to begin with. (Units comparisons are more unreliable because of overships and 25¢ comics.)

However, John Jackson Miller the glass-is-half-full to my glass-is-half-empty, sees yet another rebound in his analysis:

Last winter, my reports that the rate of decline was decreasing may have seemed like an exercise in excess optimism. That wasn’t the intention: rather, signs of what might be a market bottom were becoming detectable, and that seemed worth sharing. I tried not to overstate the possible case, as I did in 1998 when I had much less history to look back upon — but it does now appear that the change in trajectory starting last winter was real, and is continuing. The $45.18 million month of September was up $1.6 million, meaning that the year-to-year loss piled up this winter was cut in half for the third month in a row. Year-to-date sales now stand at $389 million, off just a little more than $2 million.

While I don’t think flat sales are a cause to break out the bubbly, it’s also clear that far from being in free fall/dying/going down the toilet, the comics market is pretty stable, at least via Diamond. I don’t think anyone is happy about their sales, and no one  in the DM is seeing huge rates of growth, but as a whole, it’s not shedding readers, either. Flat is the new down, but in case you haven’t caught on to my message here: COMICS ARE NOT DYING. Some old sales tricks that worke din the past are not working now, however.

At a panel on readership at NYCC, retailer Jen King of Space Cadets Collection in Conroe, TX said that she’s seeing growth in smaller periodical-focused comics publishers like Valiant, Vault and Aftershock.  I don’t know if she’s the outlier here, but we seem to have a shallow pool of comics readers out there who are sampling a lot of comics.

But then again, at a panel yesterday at Diversity Comic Con, we got into a lively discussion at the “Future of Comics” panel about periodicals. Too long to summarize here, but a subject for another post. just remind me. Shorter: some people really like periodicals!

TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS

 COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS

NEW TITLES SHIPPED

TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS BY UNITS SHIPPED

TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS BY DOLLARS INVOICED

TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS BY UNITS SHIPPED

TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS BY DOLLARS INVOICED

TOP 10 BOOKS BY UNITS SHIPPED

TOP 10 TOYS BY DOLLARS INVOICED

TOP 10 GAMES BY DOLLARS INVOICED

How does Diamond calculate the charts? It all starts at the comic book shop.

Data for Diamond’s sales charts — which includes the monthly market shares and all top product charts — are compiled by Diamond Comic Distributors from sales made to thousands of comic book specialty shops located in North America and around the world.  Additional sales made to online merchants and other specialty retailers may be included as well.

Unit and dollar market shares are calculated based upon orders for comic books, graphic novels, and magazines invoiced and shipped to Diamond customers during any given month, which comprises pre-orders, advance reorders, and reorders, minus any copies that are received back from a title marked as returnable. Please note that comics marked with an asterisk (*) have had their reported quantities reduced due to retailer returnability, and thus may rank lower on the charts than their actual sales would reflect.

The New Titles Count Chart includes all titles that were invoiced by Diamond to retailers for the first time during the month and is not the official solicited title count for the month. Variant edition comic books and graphic novels at the same price point count as a single SKU. Variant edition comic books, lenticular covers, digital combo packs, and graphic novels at different price points count as separate SKUs for each edition.

Artwork for this press release, containing company logos, pie charts, and covers can be downloaded from Diamond’s website.

ABOUT DIAMOND COMIC DISTRIBUTORS (DCD)—Diamond is at the nexus of comics and pop culture merchandise. Based in Baltimore, MD, DCD is the world’s largest distributor of English-language comic books and pop-culture related merchandise, servicing thousands of specialty retailers worldwide. For more information, visit Diamond on the web at www.diamondcomics.com.

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