Sales Charts: Kiddie comics and Black Cat dominate a down month

June sales charts reveal a sorta blah month after a sorta blah May meaning  were in a sorta blah period.

Marvel whupped DC – with its new stripped down output – and Black Cat #1 by journeymen Jed MacKay and Travel Foreman was the #1 book of the month. Marvel had four books in the Top Ten, DC had five and Image Comics had one: The Walking Dead. We’ll miss you when you’re gone.

Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans’ Die Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker was the top GN seller but after that the list is…frankly shocking. Diamond goes by dollars when they say who won but I’m going to use the unit list because it shows raw number of copies that are being potentially sold to customers – remember these represent only order from retailers, NOT sell through.

1 – DIE VOL. 1: FANTASY HEARTBREAKER TP (MR)

2- DETECTIVE COMICS #1000 DELUXE EDITION HC

3 – DC POSTER PORTFOLIO: STANLEY “ARTGERM” LAU TP

4 – DC SUPER HERO GIRLS: SEARCH FOR ATLANTIS TP

5 – DISNEY DESCENDANTS: EVIE’S WICKED RUNWAY VOL. 2 TP (TokyoPop)

6 – DISNEY DESCENDANTS: EVIE’S WICKED RUNWAY VOL. 1 TP (TokyoPop)

7 -TEEN TITANS: RAVEN TP (DC INK)

8 -BATMAN/THE FLASH: THE BUTTON TP

9 – MIRACULOUS TALES: LADYBUG AND CAT NOIR SEASON 2 VOL. 4 TP (Action Labs)

10 MY HERO ACADEMIA VOLUME 19 GN (Viz)

No fewer than HALF of the chart (more than half if you count My Hero Academia) is material for young readers. TokyoPop has more books than Image. Action Labs is on the list and Dark Horse, IDW and Marvel aren’t. And these are books ordered by comics retailers, not bookstores. And they are kiddie books.

And one of the remaining books is an art poster book and not a comic at all.

What is happening?

At any rate these softened offerings explain the painful 16% drop in GN units sales from this quarter last year. The softening of the GN market in comics shops and bookstores is a real problem at this point, one that isn’t getting much attention outside publishers meetings perhaps.

John Jackson Miller has his analysis here and with his permission, here’s the opening:

We can say two things for sure about the first half of 2019: DC released a lot fewer comic books, and Marvel came close to taking every shelf space its rival vacated. The result was that Marvel beat its own dollar sales performance from the first half of 2018, though not by as much as all those new releases would suggest — whereas DC’s total dollar volume slipped during that period, but not by as much as its fewer new releases would suggest.

The upshot? A Direct Market almost completely flat at midyear, down less than one-half of one percent in dollars. It’s a slight improvement from the trajectory seen in 2018, which was down a whole percentage point; that year’s sales wound up being strongly up once channels outside comics shops were included.

Also, JJM is a friend and I often kid him about being the glass half full to my long time half empty stance. Between us you get…some water. But this month he’s out of control with the headline “June comics sales slightly up, led by Black Cat #1; DC released 24% fewer new comics in first half of 2019.”

It’s true, sales are up – by a statistically insignificant 0.36% – in total comics/gn sales June 2019 vs 2018.

In every other comparison except one they are down!!!! Sometimes by double digits. The exception is Q2 19 v Q1 19, but in June to May, year to year and Q2 19 v Q2 18 sales are down, down, down. Down even. UPDATE: May was a five week month and June only foue, so those are not significant.

Anyway, JJM I love you, but that title is, if not incorrect, misleading.

Please note this is a not a “we’re doomed we’re doomed” post, just noting facts. The softening of the GN market is a problem – I’ll be interested to see Milton and JJM’s analysis of the whole charts later because I’d like to see is possibly the long tail is making up for this in some way. 

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