Tag: Charts

Digital comics, Dark Horse layoffs, why SPX doesn't reach the civilian, royalties...wow, it's all coming out now, folks.

Okay, so comics sales were kinda crap in March, based on year-to-year comparisons, although better than February. Plus, the top book popped its head above the 100,000 mantle. But ICv2 reports that GN sales were even more problematic:

Diamond has released the figures for March and things are looking up -- at least from February, with comics up 17.13 percent and graphic novels up 13.86 percent. But sales in the first quarter were still down from 2010: Comic sales declined by 8.57 percent and GNs declined by 7.24 percent. Marvel led the month ins dollars and units. PR and charts below. BUT, see John Jackson MIller's analysis:

ICv2 is up with the actual numbers for January and they aren't so hot, as we previously guessed; however, the slow January sales have a number of mitigating factors: * January always sucks * A lot of top books did not ship from DC * The number of products shipped in general was down from December.

Overall, sales were dramatically down in January, with Marvel regaining their top at the spot with FF #587 but Image making their best showing in three years.

As we did yesterday for the print charts, David Brothers data mines comiXology's year end-charts. There isn't that much to go on (only a top 10 in a few categories) but some trends do emerge, including, as with GNs, a preponderance of creator-owned work.

With Diamond's year-end sales charts released, along with year-to-year comparisons, the pundits are out in force, making all kinds of observations and suggestions. We'll try to run them down in an orderly fashion but you might want to get a cuppa...there are a lot of them,. We've bolded things for skimmers, however.

First off, heroic John Jackson Miller has taken all the sales charts and given us the Top 1000 Comics and Top 1000 GNs of 2010. Jackson finds softening in every region of the periodical chart:

The other day ICv2 released their sales estimates for December, and the year ended on a mixed note, as we previously reported: Comics were down 7.5 percent, while graphic novels were up a gaudy...

The "Return of Bruce Wayne" and "Brightest Day" brands continued to be the driving force behind DC's periodical output in October. While most of the Batman books were on hiatus, a bunch of one-shots, collectively titled Bruce Wayne: The Road Home, filled the gap. Other October releases include the low-profile miniseries Knight and Squire and JLA/The 99. Consequently, average sales of the DC Universe line remained relatively flat.

For your infographic entertainment, we've just posted Diamond's raw info in our popular "Sales Chart" category. We've also posted the top 50 Indies, Top 50 Indie GNs, Top 50 Manga, and Top 25 Small...

Diamond has released their November basic data dump, and no sales rebound sight, with overall sales down 8.28 percent from a year ago and down 6.64 percent from November. However, graphic novel sales surged 14.84 percent since last year, driven by sales of THE WALKING DEAD trade collections. John Jackson Miller already has his preliminary analysis up. Diamond has recently started releasing much more information on comparative sales -- I'm told this is because the partial figures they were releasing were giving rise to inaccurate projections by such folks as Miller. We have a lot more data to go on on how the market changes from year over year; let's be judicious in how we analyze it. Overall, the comics market is down 5.66 percent YTD in dollars and -4.18 percent in units from 2009. While that isn't a great number, considering the economy, it could be worse.

It's fitting that September's top selling comic features an image of Wolverine crouching atop a giant turd, because overall, sales were in the crapper, and the whole quarter was in the dumpster, ICv2 tells us. If you think we're exaggerating, the normally understated ICv2's use of the word "Sucked" is a strong indicator.