Tag: Sales Charts

The death of a Spider-Man and shuffling zombies led comics and GN sales in June, according to Diamond's just released figures. Sales were up from a dismal May, but still lag last year about 7% overall.

While we can't answer that question, one creator, Michael Jasper has been making his percentage of sales available for IN MAPS AND LEGENDS, a fantasy comic with touches of steampunk and SF. It got its start as a Zuda competition winner but has since returned to the creators and they've been selling it digitally everywhere. Since IN MAPS AND LEGENDS is available on every platform, and is in a universally popular genre it's an interesting chart:

Despite the debut of this year's big blockbuster series Flashpoint, average DC comic-book sales were down in May. In part, that's because Flashpoint itself came in 13,000 units below the magical 100K mark and ended up charting second after Marvel's Fear Itself #2, which has to be quite a disappointment for DC. On the other hand, most of the rest of DC's line didn't join in the crossover until June, so the overall numbers may still pick up. The other notable thing about DC's May output is that there wasn't a lot of it. The number of new comic books released by DC in May was 59, which, along with January 2004, holds the record for the fewest number of books released by the company since Diamond started publishing data on actual sales. Looking at the solicitations, it's not hard to find the reason: None of the five Green Lantern film tie-in books scheduled for May came out (one of them still hasn't been published as I'm writing this), while the launch dates of Static Shock and Batwoman were pushed back to September. And, while we're at it, the David Finch vehicle Batman: The Dark Knight remained in limbo in May. DC's Web site currently lists issue #3 for July 13 and issue #5 for August, with no information on #4. So not even DC seems entirely sure what's going on with the book.

It's month two of event season, and FEAR ITSELF tie-ins are starting to crop up across the Marvel Universe. And there's also the relaunch of MOON KNIGHT - wisely given a clear run in a month that's otherwise pretty light on new titles. DC's FLASHPOINT event also gets underway in May, but with the crossover titles not hitting until June, it's no surprise that Marvel were once again the top company in the direct market. They led DC by 46% to 28% in unit share and by 42% to 27% in dollars. All of this, of course, could be turned upside down in September - a month which will be unpredictable if nothing else. But for now, let us cast our minds back to a simpler time. Thanks as always to ICV2.com for allowing us to use these figures. And a reminder for newer readers: these numbers only relate to the North American direct market. They don't cover newsstands, or foreign markets. And the same material will also (eventually) sell in digital and trade paperback format, so the total sales will be higher. On the other hand, these numbers reflect the orders placed by direct market retailers - it doesn't follow that all the copies were actually sold to customers. But the longer a book has been going, the more accurate the retailers' estimates ought to be.

Although both sales charts seemed to show incremental gains in March and April for comics periodical sales, everything at the top seems to have slid bay in May ICv2 reports. Comics sales were down a whopping 17.3% and NO comic -- not even the debut of DC's highly touted FLASHPOINT mini - topping 100k copies sold. Although FLASHPOINT did very well in reorders, the low initial orders show that event fatigue is very real where comics retailers are concerned.

Diamond has released its first charts for May and FEAR ITSELF #2 led the periodicals -- beating out FLASHPOINT #1 -- while Garth Ennis's CROSSED collection topped the GN charts. In the information supplied by Diamond, sales increases in non-comics products -- trading cards, games, and collectibles -- reflect their continued emphasis on growing those parts of the business.

by Paul O'Brien

Event season is upon us again. FEAR ITSELF launched in April, together with its spin-off anthology FEAR ITSELF: THE HOME FRONT. Further down the charts, "Death of Spider-Man" and "Age of X" are also underway. April also sees the relaunches of THOR and HERC, as well the de facto launch of a new series, JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY, continuing from THOR's previous numbering.

It's also worth noting Marvel's increasing trend towards shipping extra issues of ongoing titles, apparently in place of low-selling miniseries. Now that the hordes of Captain America and Thor minis which were used to generate movie tie-in material are out of the way, it's actually thinning out quite a bit at the lower end of the chart.

As usual, Marvel had the largest share of the North American direct market, leading DC by 40% to 27% in dollars and 48% to 27% in units. Of course, FLASHPOINT doesn't start until next month, so you'd expect the gap to be larger than normal in April.

IDW's new Godzilla series grabbed the top spot this month, knocking The Walking Dead from their throne after only one month. Meanwhile Dark Horse released a Dollhouse comic based on the Joss Whedon series of the same name, Dynamite launched a Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris comic with a "Risqué Nude Art" variant cover, and Boom! launched a Hellraiser comic.

Led by the top-selling Batman: The Dark Knight and Batman, Inc., which were back on the racks after a two-month absence, and a double-shipping Green Lantern, DC Comics' periodical sales continued a slow recovery in February. Notably, the February numbers also show modest increases across the rest of DC's line-up. Maybe the company's decision to cancel around 25% of its current ongoing titles and stick to a $ 2.99 price point is encouraging retailers, after all.

It's been a while since we took a look at The New York Times' Graphic Novel best sellers lists. Let's take a peak shall we?

This is the busiest month Marvel have had in quite some time. The big release for March was the relaunch of FANTASTIC FOUR as just plain FF, but the month also sees the prologue to upcoming mega-crossover FEAR ITSELF, two new ongoing titles in VENOM and IRON MAN 2.0, the revival of CrossGen titles RUSE and SIGIL, and issues from the "Death of Spider-Man" and "Age of X" crossovers. We also have the second month of Point One issues - more on that below. As usual, Marvel had the largest share of the direct market, both in terms of dollars (leading DC by 40% to 28%) and unit sales (45% to 32%).

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