Sponsored by Battle Quest Comics
By Brian Hibbs
Because we’re no longer able to provide you a look at the national sales of graphic novels as seen by BookScan, here’s the next best thing I can do. This is an overview of the best-sellers for Comix Experience, my neighborhood-driven comic book store located in San Francisco, California, for 2025.
Just in case this is your first time reading a sales report from us, let me give you a little background and a longer look at my CV. My name is Brian Hibbs and I own Comix Experience at 305 Divisadero St in the City of San Francisco. I first opened, in this same location, almost 37 years ago on April 1st, 1989, when I was a very young, callow, but so utterly sure of myself!, young man of a mere twenty-one years old. And over the ensuing decades I have helped built this store into, I think, one of the best neighborhood comic book stores in the United States of America. We have a mere 1200 square feet on the sales floor, but we’re packed with an appreciation of the entire medium of comics. We are a very rare store that predicates our business, almost exclusively, on new comic books, either in periodical or “graphic novel” formats. We have (virtually) no “merchandise”, or anything pop culture related. No games. No cards. Just comics. I have spent my entire life thinking that it’s better for us to do one single thing the best we possibly can do, then a bunch of things kinda half-assed. If you don’t live locally, but you’d still like to support our efforts, we have a webstore you can buy from, as well as a pair of Graphic Novel Clubs that you will soon get sick of hearing me plug.
San Francisco is currently home to eight comic book stores. The stores are, well us… as well as Amazing Fantasy, Cards & Comics Central, Invisible Jet Comics, Isotope, Mission: Comics, Silver Sprocket and Sour Cherry Comics. This number of stores is significantly down from twenty-four stores when I opened in 1989, so comics in San Francisco are not precisely what they were back in the day. We had no new stores close or open this year (though Invisible Jet is back in their original space after spending a year or so in a pop-up space after a fire). We are just down the block from San Francisco’s best game store, Gamescape, who is similarly mono-focused in doing one product category the best they can. I opened CE in this specific location at least partially because Gamescape was just down the block! (They were, as I recall, 2 years old at that point?)
There are also something around two dozen independent book stores many of which that also carry a solid selection of “graphic novels” (which is usually really just a highfaluting name for “bound collection of comics”, and isn’t really any different in any substantial way from “comic book”, except that it makes people feel better about themselves) – But as far as I can tell by viewing and conversation, it still is the comics specialty stores that are selling the most comics material in SF, and it is my belief that Comix Experience is likely the single strongest comics specialty store in SF. The local chain Books Inc was bought out by Barnes & Noble in 2025, so it is no longer true that there are no chain stores in SF, although B&N is keeping the local “Books, Inc.” branding
San Francisco’s broader economy has, in my opinion, gone all kinds of sideways since the pandemic — with tech and their interests by and large accelerating the already existing unaffordability of one of the US’s most lovely cities. In 1989 our apartment a block from the store was about $500/month, and if you were willing to live communally, you could likely find rent of $100 or so. This link (likely dynamically updating, so may not show the same after Jan 2026) says “average” rent in SF is now $3148. Yow. Artists and dreamers have a very hard time living here any longer. Unless you work in tech… which now appears obsessed with replacing humans with AI. I swear, pretty much 100% of the advertising in bus shelters and on “bus wraps” that I see in my daily travels around the city are pushing AI slop and replacing humans with computers. Heck, robot cars have largely taken over the town at this point (maybe not for the better). All of this has led to a have vs have not economy where it’s more or less impossible to staff a retail business with people who don’t have “some other way” of paying their costs (domestic partner, relatives, etc) – I would actually go so far as to suggest this is likely true for the majority of comic store owners as well! This is a thing we all do for love, not so much money. Yet, at the same time, the local economy in SF is so desperately uneven that we had a pretty massive number of people applying for our latest job openings – more than I have ever seen before in decades of doing this.
As I noted, I have been selling comics since 1989, and we’re the oldest comic store with the same ownership in the same location in San Francisco. For a third of a century I’ve written “Tilting At Windmills”, a regular column about comics retailing, also published in two volumes from IDW Publishing; I’ve been a judge of the Eisner Awards (Comics’ equivalent of the Oscars); I’ve sat on the Board of Directors of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (an organization that protects the First Amendment rights of comics creators), I was one of the original founders of ComicsPRO (the comics retailer trade organization); and I even led a successful Class Action lawsuit against Marvel Comics that won more than a million dollars for comic book retailers internationally because Marvel mis-solicited years’ worth of comics. But I just run what is just a modest neighborhood shop.
Comix Experience went through some significant staff changes in ’25 – my manager, Zoe, quit suddenly in January (almost certainly my fault, if I am to be honest), and Katt and Katie have/are leaving (amicably!) very soon. Also Jordan Willox, who has been the Producer for the GN Club shows for a decade needed to move on at the end of the year. So right now we’re staffed primarily with a bunch of new people (Kipling, Jordyn and Charlie) – they’re going to be an exceptional group all together in the end, but we’re still a few months from me saying that I can pull back from over-working myself keeping it allll together. Especially in Q4, gosh have I been carrying a lot of weight this year. Much like Det. Murtaugh, I also am getting too old for this shit. It will be all better by Q2 ’26, I’m aiming!!!
A bit more than ten years ago, in response to rising costs in San Francisco (some things never change, I guess!), we launched an international Graphic-Novel-Of-The-Month Club where we curate the best comics to come out each month, and conduct in-depth interviews with the authors (and signed bookplates, too!) for literally hundreds of folks around the country (and globe!) We also have a sibling club for kids age 8-13 (“middle readers”). We’re now well past 300 hour-plus long, serious interviews with a diverse lot of comics creators, and I think I’ve really gotten good at interviewing creators, so absolutely check out the channel! We started a smaller number of audio-only “Podcast” versions of those same shows, which you can get here, or wherever you get your podcasts. “Like and subscribe” as the kids say!
CV and background out of the way, then, how did the store do in 2025?
I have to sadly go with “mixed”! Overall sales were down 1.5% year-over-year. Q1 and Q2 were up, Q3 and Q4 were down – Q4 in particular was down by 6.5%. Yow. Most of that was Nov (down over 10%!) – I put a pretty huge amount of that in “San Francisco Blues”, really – I don’t think I have ever had so many people tell me they’d been fired than in the last few months! But shit seems pretty “K-shaped” to me for sure – I see plenty of plenty of rich bros around time, but middle class and worse are all underwater. I also put a good deal of it on both my failure to correctly assess some of the opportunities for periodical comics in 2025 (as much of a Year of Change as I can think of in comics in a long time!) – the pubs are also pretty “guilty” of this, as we’ll discuss in a bit — as well as the longer tail of the Diamond bankruptcy and how it impacts my particular store, and choices I have made about what we support, and how and where and when and how we get our comics and graphic novels.
Especially in the wake of a +8% growth in 2024, a -1.5% loss in 2025 is pretty disheartening, but
I’ve lived through many up-and-down cycles of business since 1989, and I’ve yet to pull several of the ripcords I could. Do you know what local small businesses in your area really need? It is your support! Me? I’ve got a pair of Graphic Novel-of-the-month clubs that make a real difference for us. Did I ask you to join already??? Do eet!
When it comes down to what we’re selling, in 2025 63% of our sales were from new and used graphic novels. 36% were from periodical-format comics (including back issues); these numbers are within a half percent of last year, so steady as she goes, as far as that shape? Almost 1.5% of sales are from supplies (bags, boards, boxes, etc), while the last (around 1%) is from everything else. For our sales, 89% comes from credit cards — which means we’re only making ~98% of our stated sales there because fees soak the profit away! But, overall, no percentage changed very meaningfully from last year.
Since it is our largest category, let’s talk about BOOKS sales at Comix Experience.
One important consideration here is that these numbers DO NOT include the Graphic-Novel-Of-The-Month Club numbers, each and every one of which would top the #1 in-store book! We’re selling somewhere between two hundred and four hundred copies of each selection each month, depending on whether it is kids club, or adult. In fact, we’ve been told that, for at least some of the titles we selected, the book club order is an actual meaningful percentage of sales, impacting sell outs or triggering further printings. However, when I report on the charts below this section, I am only reporting retail sales, not club sales. There is a real and meaningful difference between a subscription box, and a walk-in customer pulling a Jefferson out of their pocket at the counter!
Here is what our 2025 GNC selections were, in order of release – the hotlinks below will take you to the book itself on our online store. For the video interviews with the creators, please check our YouTube channel! It is rich and full of information, comics knowledge and passion for the genre!!
ADULT CLUB selections for 2025
January 2025 I Heart Skull-Crusher
February 2025 The Murder Next Door
March 2025 Raised by Ghosts
April 2025 The Pedestrian
May 2025 Paranoid Gardens
June 2025 You & Me on Repeat
July 2025 In the End we All Die
August 2025 Welcome to the Maynard
September 2025 Space Opera Xanadax
October 2025 Assorted Crisis Events
November 2025 Black Arms to Hold You Up
December 2025 Anzuelo
KIDS CLUB selections for 2025
January 2025 Mendel The Mess Up
February 2025 Mr. Muffins
March 2025 Bring Me The Head of Susan Lomand
April 2025 A Song For You & I
May 2025 Halfway to Somewhere
June 2025 Creature Clinic
July 2025 Karmopolis
August 2025 Into The Bewilderness
September 2025 Adorable Empire
October 2025 North For the Winter
November 2025 Ten-Ton Terrier Titan
December 2025 Good Old-Fashioned Korean Spirit
(If I am allowed to say it again, I think it is a SUPERB program, and I really invite you to JOIN TODAY! Each of these books also all have a substantial creator interview that goes with them, which you can find here)
(I also can sell you pretty much all of these excellent books, and virtually all of the adult ones all have author-signed bookplates, too! Go buy a few, wouldja?)
Again: NONE of the club copies are counted in here as “sales-to-walk-in-customers” – if we did, our Top 24 books would ONLY be these titles — when any of the preceding books appear on the list, it is because we sold additional copies to walk-in customers!
So anyway, at Comix Experience (which I say again: book-forward comics shop), here are the Top 111 best-selling BOOKS – this is by NUMBER OF COPIES SOLD
Comix Experience BOOK Best Sellers 2025, By Quantity Sold
| 1 | SAGA TP VOL 12 |
| 2 | DETECTIVE BEANS GN VOL 01 CASE OF MISSING HAT |
| 3 | RAISED BY GHOSTS TP |
| 4 | ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN TP VOL 01 THE LAST AMAZON |
| 5 | BENEATH THE TREES WHERE NOBODY SEES TP |
| 6 | I HEART SKULL-CRUSHER TP VOL 01 |
| (tie) | ITS LONELY AT THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH TP |
| (tie) | LITTLE BIRD FIGHT FOR ELDERS HOPE TP |
| (tie) | PEDESTRIAN TP VOL 01 |
| 10 | WE CALLED THEM GIANTS HC |
| 11 | RUNE GN VOL 01 TALE OF A THOUSAND FACES |
| 12 | ABSOLUTE BATMAN TP VOL 01 THE ZOO |
| (tie) | NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE TP VOL 01 |
| 14 | MANY DEATHS OF LAILA STARR TP |
| (tie) | MURDER NEXT DOOR GRAPHIC MEMOIR |
| 16 | RARE FLAVOURS TP |
| 17 | ALL-STAR SUPERMAN TP DC COMPACT COMICS EDITION |
| (tie) | BIRDKING TP VOL 01 ESCAPE FROM FEATHER HILL |
| 19 | BOWLING WITH CORPSES & OTHER STRANGE TALES HC LANDS UNKNOWN VOL 01 |
| (tie) | NICE HOUSE BY THE SEA TP VOL 01 |
| (tie) | PARANOID GARDENS TP |
| 22 | ADVOCATE HC |
| (tie) | INTO THE BEWILDERNESS GN |
| (tie) | ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN BY HICKMAN TP VOL 01 MARRIED W CHILDREN |
| 25 | FAMILY STYLE MEMORIES OF AMERICAN FROM VIETNAM GN |
| 26 | SAGA TP VOL 01 |
| (tie) | ZODIAC GRAPHIC MEMOIR GN |
| 28 | HELEN OF WYNDHORN HC |
| (tie) | HOOKY GN VOL 01 |
| (tie) | KNIVES A CRIMINAL BOOK HC |
| (tie) | ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN BY JONATHAN HICKMAN TP VOL 02 THE PAPER |
| (tie) | WAR ON GAZA ONESHOT |
| (tie) | YOU AND ME ON REPEAT GN |
| 34 | SAGA TP VOL 11 |
| (tie) | THIEVES GN |
| 36 | ASSORTED CRISIS EVENTS TP VOL 01 |
| (tie) | DUNGEON CRITTERS SC GN |
| (tie) | PLAIN JANE & MERMAID GN |
| 39 | SUPER BOBA CAFE GN VOL 01 |
| (tie) | SUPERGIRL WOMAN OF TOMORROW TP |
| 41 | A SONG FOR YOU & I GN |
| (tie) | FAR SECTOR TP |
| (tie) | IN THE END WE ALL DIE GN |
| (tie) | INVINCIBLE COMPENDIUM TP VOL 01 |
| (tie) | POKEMON LETS FIND POKEMON SPECIAL COMPLETE HC ED |
| (tie) | PRECIOUS METAL TP |
| (tie) | SPECTATORS HC |
| 48 | ABSOLUTE BATMAN HC VOL 01 THE ZOO |
| (tie) | ANZUELO GN |
| (tie) | BUG BOYS YA HC GN VOL 01 |
| (tie) | CARTOONISTS CLUB GN |
| (tie) | DOG MAN GN VOL 14 BIG JIM BELIEVES |
| (tie) | MR MUFFINS TP |
| (tie) | SPACE OPERA XANADAX ACROSS THE UNKNOWN DIMENSIONS OF THE GALAXY OGN |
| 55 | ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER TP VOL 01 MARTIAN VISION |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN TP VOL 01 LAST DUST OF KRYPTON |
| (tie) | BATMAN THE COURT OF OWLS TP DC COMPACT COMICS EDITION |
| (tie) | BERSERK DELUXE EDITION HC VOL 01 |
| (tie) | WATCHMEN TP |
| (tie) | WATCHMEN TP DC COMPACT COMICS EDITION |
| 61 | COMPLETE PERSEPOLIS TP |
| (tie) | INCAL HC |
| (tie) | UNFLATTENING |
| 64 | 4 KIDS WALK INTO A BANK TP |
| (tie) | BATMAN HUSH TP DC COMPACT COMICS EDITION |
| (tie) | BATMAN THE LONG HALLOWEEN TP DC COMPACT COMICS EDITION |
| (tie) | BLUEY FIVE MINUTE STORIES |
| (tie) | DOG MAN GN VOL 12 SCARLET SHEDDER |
| (tie) | NIGHTWING 2021 TP VOL 01 LEAPING INTO THE LIGHT |
| (tie) | NIMONA GN |
| (tie) | POWER FANTASY TP VOL 01 |
| (tie) | SOMETHING IS KILLING CHILDREN TP VOL 01 |
| (tie) | SUPERMAN SMASHES THE KLAN TP |
| (tie) | THIS WAS OUR PACT GN |
| (tie) | UZUMAKI 3IN1 DLX ED HC JUNJI ITO |
| 76 | ALL STAR SUPERMAN TP BLACK LABEL |
| 77 | COOK KOREAN COMIC BOOK WITH RECIPES SC |
| (tie) | DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH TP VOL 05 |
| (tie) | GUY SHE WAS INTERESTED IN WASNT A GUY AT ALL GN VOL 01 |
| (tie) | HILO GN VOL 11 GREAT SPACE IGUANA |
| (tie) | INVINCIBLE COMPENDIUM TP VOL 02 |
| (tie) | ITS JEFF TP JEFF-VERSE |
| (tie) | NANCY AND SLUGGOS GUIDE TO LIFE |
| (tie) | PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 01 |
| (tie) | RADIANT BLACK TP VOL 01 A MASSIVE-VERSE BOOK MV |
| (tie) | RUNE GN VOL 02 TALE OF THE OBSIDIAN MAZE |
| (tie) | SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING TP BOOK 01 |
| (tie) | SAGA TP VOL 10 |
| (tie) | SNOOPY BEAGLE SCOUT ADVENTURES TP |
| (tie) | SPIDEY & HIS AMAZING FRIENDS CONSTRUCTION DESTRUCTION |
| (tie) | TEN TON TITAN TERRIER TP |
| (tie) | WELCOME TO MAYNARD TP |
| 93 | BLACK ARMS TO HOLD YOU UP GN |
| (tie) | BLACK HOLE COLLECTED SC |
| (tie) | CALVIN & HOBBES VOL 15 INDISPENSABLE CALVIN & HOBBES |
| (tie) | CREATURE CLINIC GN |
| (tie) | CULT OF THE LAMB TP VOL 01 THE FIRST VERSE |
| (tie) | DEADLY CLASS TP VOL 01 REAGAN YOUTH |
| (tie) | DESCENDER COMPENDIUM TP |
| (tie) | DOG MAN GN VOL 13 BIG JIM BEGINS |
| (tie) | FAR SECTOR TP DC COMPACT COMICS EDITION |
| (tie) | HEAD LOPPER TP VOL 01 ISLAND OR A PLAGUE OF BEASTS |
| (tie) | HELLBOY OMNIBUS TP VOL 01 SEED OF DESTRUCTION |
| (tie) | MAUS SURVIVORS TALE TP VOL 02 HERE MY TROUBLES BEGAN |
| (tie) | MONSTRESS TP VOL 01 |
| (tie) | ROBOT DREAMS TP |
| (tie) | SNOTGIRL TP VOL 04 |
| (tie) | SQUIRE GN |
| (tie) | STAR TREK LOWER DECKS WARP YOUR OWN WAY TP |
| (tie) | TMNT THE LAST RONIN HC |
| (tie) | ULTIMATE X-MEN TP VOL 01 FEARS AND HATES |
Every single one of these books sold more than one copy a month each month of the year (on average) – most sold much much better than that
It shouldn’t be any massive surprise, but I am absolutely thrilled by the range and variety of our sales – not just from genre, but also creator’s voice as well as intended audience. This list makes me super proud to sell the comics, yo!
Some notes:
To start at #1, the latest SAGA is our best seller for the year, which is impressive given that it didn’t come out until April. BUT! It’s not a triple-digit number, which is where I start to really salivate. SAGA has lost a whole lot of audience — in fact there were NO new issues of the serialization released in ’25, which is pretty shocking given that the book had previously taken a multi-year hiatus to, we had thought, give BKV and Fiona time and space to start releasing issues reliably again? It’s great to have the release at the #1 position, but it’s something less than half of what it would have been a few years before.
At #2 we have our first Kid’s Book, DETECTIVE BEANS, which is a real corker. This was a Kid’s Club pick — in Oct of 2024! So all 12 months of the spectacular sales of this amazing book in 2025 were to kids and parents. This has been OOS from Simon for the last two months or so, and we’re about to run out of copies entirely if it doesn’t come back to print toot suit. This is going to be a theme this report, just watch
At #3 is the lovely 1980’s Bay Area living memoir RAISED BY GHOSTS. This was an adult GN Club pick… in March of ’25, but it has kept steadily selling throughout the year because it’s really really good. It’s also published by Fantagraphics, so it’s more likely than not that your average comic book store isn’t selling many copies?
At #4 is our first title from comic’s “Big Two” — DC’s published ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN. There have been massive OOS issues with stocking “Absolute” comics from DC, and while we’re looking at books here. in comics they’re all also typically first or second week sell-outs with slow-to-go reprints coming. Here in this case, it looks like this book went OOS for about six weeks in early September, then the next printing only lasted from mid Oct to Mid Dec before selling out again. I am HOPING I might have stock again in Mid Feb at this point?
Here might be a good place to explain that virtually all books only “turn” maybe 3-4 times a year, and so stocking more than 1 copy at a time is usually a mug’s game. In point of fact, we carry less than 400 book titles that have a “minimum point” that is greater than “1”, and I’m absolutely positive I could make that closer to half that number if I need to be more aggressive about it. So, as a result, when you find a book that is blowing through 3+ copies a week, that’s a really hard thing to adjust to as a store. ESPECIALLY when the book had sold SO well as a periodical before it — doesn’t everyone already have it?? Well, ABSOLUTE is a really new paradigm for how comics are flowing. I will add here that, to a certain extent, the fact that ABS WW placed this much better than ABS BATMAN is purely a function of luck of me timing a reorder or two properly before the books flew out of stock. Had I been able to receive all of the copies that I wanted on reorders (especially over December!), the odds are very very very high that ABS BAT would have been the #1 book of the year for us, with ABS WW in at #2, instead of this kind of lopsided look.
For #5 through #10, these are all previous GNC selections — some (I HEART SKULL CRUSHER and THE PEDESTRIAN) from 2025, the rest from 2024 (or, actually, even earlier — LITTLE BIRD is from 2022’s selections!). This confirms to me that we have good taste, ha!
At #11 is also a GNC pick — this time from the kid’s side though! Much like DETECTIVE BEANS, it’s really nice to “discover” a new excellent and steady series for kids. RUNE is really great stuff, and speaks widely to kids. Also worth noting: Published by Nobrow, so expecting that it’s not available in most comics stores?
At #12, I will mostly say “see #4”, but this likely should have been the #1 book this year if DC had had it in stock every week since release.
The tie, NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE, was also a GNC pick, and seems like how DC is trying to tentpole their Vertigo relaunch around. Though, similar to SAGA, the production delays on the serialization seem like a massively unforced error to this viewer. If the sequel wasn’t running a half-year behind right now, the whole project almost certainly would be selling better.
#14’s MANY DEATHS OF LAILA STARR and #16’s RARE FLAVOURS are both Ram V and Filipe Andrade collaborations, and are both the kind of comics that civilians really respond to. Still, the last time I was able to order RARE FLAVOURS was back in August. #14’s tie, MURDER NEXT DOOR was also (Like RARE FLAVOURS) a GNC pick — and is published by Street Noise Books, so I’m thinking I might be the only store in America who has it in our top 25?
#17 is the “Compact” edition of ALL-STAR SUPERMAN. Super-personally, I think the “compact” editions are way way way too small, often obscuring what’s great about the original comic (or being borderline unreadable — Hi, ARKHAM ASYLUM!), and this is clearly “in the wake of the film”. But I ended up making more money selling the full-size version of ASS, than the cheaper, smaller Compact edition
The tie at #17 is BIRDKING, and every year, JUST AS IT SHOULD BE, I have at least one “I never saw THAT coming!” book on my list. BIRDKING is that one. I don’t know that any member of the staff has ever handsold this book, and it doesn’t have special face out or anything, and yet it crept into the best-sellers list all by itself. GO, baby, go!
#19 is BOWLING WITH CORPSES, which had about 3 months OOS this year — would have placed higher if it was available the whole year. Just below this Top 25 also includes HELEN OF WYNDHORN, which, similarly, went OOS the week it was released, then took ~3 months to come back, and would have, likely placed much higher if it was in stock when most folks were asking about it.
We have ties to include NICE HOUSE BY THE SEA (semi-technically v3 of NICE HOUSE), and PARANOID GARDENS, showing Gerard Way still has solid comics juice (Chris Weston’s art surely helps!!)
The set of ties at #22, include local hero Eddie Ahn’s ADVOCATE, our third kid’s pick with INTO THE BEWILDERNESS, and our very first Marvel title with v1 of ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN. This kind of area is where I expected the ABSOLUTE books to sell, for the record, but those far exceeded that.
And we end the top 25 with Thien Pham’s great FAMILY STYLE. Man, do I like selling comics!
As is typical, I am really really proud of the breadth of this list, and seeing it presented this way always makes me think, “Damn, I own a really good comics shop, don’t I?” Hell yeah, that pretty makes it all the ups and downs of comics worth it, really.
Now, that list was sorted by number of copies sold, or really, number of humans that bought one, but as a small retail business, I actually run on dollars sold! It doesn’t inherently change most of the books you already saw, but it absolutely changes just how important they were to the bottom line. I’ll just give you twenty-five titles this time. The start of the list doesn’t change much!
Comix Experience BOOK Best Sellers 2025, By Dollars
| 1 | INVINCIBLE COMPENDIUM TP VOL 01 |
| 2 | SAGA TP VOL 12 |
| 3 | RAISED BY GHOSTS TP |
| 4 | DETECTIVE BEANS GN VOL 01 CASE OF MISSING HAT |
| 5 | INVINCIBLE COMPENDIUM TP VOL 02 |
| 6 | LITTLE BIRD FIGHT FOR ELDERS HOPE TP |
| (tie) | PEDESTRIAN TP VOL 01 |
| 8 | ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN TP VOL 01 THE LAST AMAZON |
| 9 | BERSERK DELUXE EDITION HC VOL 01 |
| 10 | WE CALLED THEM GIANTS HC |
| 11 | BENEATH THE TREES WHERE NOBODY SEES TP |
| 12 | INCAL HC |
| 13 | BOWLING WITH CORPSES & OTHER STRANGE TALES HC LANDS UNKNOWN VOL 01 |
| 14 | MURDER NEXT DOOR GRAPHIC MEMOIR |
| 15 | I HEART SKULL-CRUSHER TP VOL 01 |
| 16 | NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE TP VOL 01 |
| 17 | COMPLETE CALVIN & HOBBES SC SLIPCASE ED |
| 18 | HELEN OF WYNDHORN HC |
| (tie) | KNIVES A CRIMINAL BOOK HC |
| 20 | SAGA COMPENDIUM TP VOL 01 |
| 21 | ADVOCATE HC |
| 22 | ABSOLUTE BATMAN TP VOL 01 THE ZOO |
| 23 | BIRDKING TP VOL 01 ESCAPE FROM FEATHER HILL |
| 24 | DESCENDER COMPENDIUM TP |
| 25 | RUNE GN VOL 01 TALE OF A THOUSAND FACES |
There were 4694 graphic novels that we sold at least a single copy, at full cover price, in 2025. We carry something approaching 7200 books, which is maybe too much chum lurking about, but that’s what you need to do to sell books. This month, we’ve removed roughly 1500 books from stock to at least try to closer-size our stocking.
But what about the periodicals at Comix Experience? Well, it’s a different picture for sure!. Here’s the Top 100 by number of copies sold!
Comix Experience COMICS Best Sellers 2025, By Quantity Sold
| 1 | MARVEL DC DEADPOOL BATMAN |
| 2 | BATMAN #1 |
| 3 | DC MARVEL BATMAN DEADPOOL |
| 4 | ABSOLUTE BATMAN #4 |
| 5 | ABSOLUTE BATMAN #5 |
| 6 | ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER #1 |
| 7 | ABSOLUTE BATMAN #6 |
| 8 | ABSOLUTE BATMAN #8 |
| 9 | ABSOLUTE BATMAN #7 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE BATMAN #9 |
| 11 | ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER #2 |
| 12 | SAGA #71 |
| 13 | ABSOLUTE BATMAN #13 |
| 14 | BATMAN #2 |
| 15 | ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #3 |
| 16 | ABSOLUTE BATMAN #10 |
| 17 | ABSOLUTE BATMAN #12 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #4 |
| (tie) | SAGA #72 |
| 20 | ONE WORLD UNDER DOOM #1 OF 9 |
| 21 | ABSOLUTE GREEN LANTERN #1 |
| 22 | ABSOLUTE BATMAN #15 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #5 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #6 |
| 25 | ABSOLUTE BATMAN #11 |
| 26 | ABSOLUTE FLASH #1 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #7 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #4 |
| 29 | ABSOLUTE BATMAN #1 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER #3 |
| 31 | ABSOLUTE BATMAN #14 |
| (tie) | OUT OF ALCATRAZ #1 |
| 33 | BATMAN #3 |
| 34 | ABSOLUTE BATMAN 2025 ANNUAL #1 |
| (tie) | GODZILLA VS SPIDER-MAN #1 |
| 36 | ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #5 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #6 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #13 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #8 |
| (tie) | BATMAN #158 |
| 41 | ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER #4 OF 12 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #9 |
| 43 | ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER #5 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #10 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #11 |
| (tie) | BATMAN #4 |
| (tie) | GODZILLA VS FANTASTIC FOUR #1 |
| 48 | DC KO #1 OF 4 |
| (tie) | GODZILLA VS HULK #1 |
| 50 | ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER #6 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #7 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #8 |
| 53 | ABSOLUTE EVIL #1 ONE SHOT |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE FLASH #2 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE GREEN LANTERN #2 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #12 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #15 |
| 58 | TALES OF PARANOIA ONE SHOT |
| 59 | BATMAN #159 |
| 60 | ABSOLUTE BATMAN #3 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #9 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #14 |
| (tie) | ONE WORLD UNDER DOOM #2 OF 9 |
| 64 | ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #10 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #1 |
| 66 | BATMAN #160 |
| (tie) | GODZILLA DESTROYS THE MARVEL UNIVERSE #1 |
| (tie) | X-MANHUNT OMEGA #1 |
| 69 | IMPERIAL #1 OF 4 |
| 70 | ABSOLUTE FLASH #3 |
| 71 | DC KO #2 ACETATE OF 4 |
| (tie) | FANTASTIC FOUR #1 |
| (tie) | GODZILLA VS AVENGERS #1 |
| (tie) | ONE WORLD UNDER DOOM #3 OF 9 |
| (tie) | SUMMER OF SUPERMAN SPECIAL #1 ONE SHOT |
| (tie) | UNCANNY X-MEN #11 |
| (tie) | WHAT IF MICKEY & FRIENDS BECAME AVENGERS #1 |
| 78 | ABSOLUTE GREEN LANTERN #3 |
| (tie) | LOVE & ROCKETS MAGAZINE #16 |
| (tie) | ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #14 |
| (tie) | UNCANNY X-MEN #8 |
| (tie) | X-MEN #12 |
| 83 | ABSOLUTE BATMAN #2 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #11 |
| (tie) | ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #3 |
| (tie) | ONE WORLD UNDER DOOM #6 OF 9 |
| (tie) | ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #13 |
| (tie) | UNCANNY X-MEN #13 |
| (tie) | X-MEN #10 |
| 90 | ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER #7 |
| (tie) | ONE WORLD UNDER DOOM #5 OF 9 |
| (tie) | ULTIMATE WOLVERINE #1 OF 12 |
| (tie) | UNCANNY X-MEN #10 |
| (tie) | UNCANNY X-MEN #12 |
| (tie) | UNCANNY X-MEN #9 |
| 96 | IMPERIAL #2 OF 4 |
| (tie) | JEFF THE LAND SHARK #1 |
| (tie) | ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #15 |
| (tie) | ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #16 |
| (tie) | ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #19 |
| (tie) | X-MEN #13 |
| (tie) | X-MEN #14 |
Kind of less to actually discuss here, because of so much clustering from ABSOLUTEs and such? But the one thing I can absolutely positively say: if I was more aggressive about stocking periodicals, and if I had really and properly grasped the sales potential of ABSOLUTE, we almost certainly would have sold, minimum, 10%, and maybe as much as 25% more of the top 100 comics.
ABSOLUTE BATMAN #1, for example, went through TEN printings so far, despite coming out like fifteen months ago, in October 2024. It’s our #29 best seller for 2025, whoa. If I had access to reorders for all fifty-two weeks of 2025, I’m sure it would have been a top 20 release, and maybe even a top 10. THIS IS MY FAULT, of course, for not reading the tea leaves right — but it’s just simply not how periodical comics historically sell in San Francisco! I can show you so many “A-list” titles that only sell ten (or less!) copies off the racks (that is not including preorders, of course) these days. When you add it to the typical pattern for, I am not kidding, virtually every comic book ever that you sell fewer copies of #4 than you sold of #3, that you sold of #2, that you sold of #1, and that 90% or better of periodicals don’t sell any rack copies past the second week on sale, it’s hard to wrap your head around how to adapt to a success.
The nature of periodical comics costs means that if you’re not hitting a 90%+ sell-through, in San Francisco at least, you’re almost certainly doing nothing more than breaking even. This is exactly the reason we’ve become a BOOK store over the years, right? Periodical sales are all only profitable while they’re on sale, while book sales are additive. I already earned back my investment in, say, WATCHMEN, by 1990 at the latest – every copy sold since then is “pure profit”. Periodicals mostly get a week, maybe two, of actual sales, in the real world, even when you’re still racking them for 8-12 additional weeks in my experience. These are extremely hard habits and learned experiences to break, I got to tell you, because they become fundamental calculations for most stores.
The Marvel / DC crossover can be a fine example: the Marvel version (“Deadpool / Batman #1”) sold out, completely and utterly, in the first week on sale. I made a nice profit on that. I ordered a tiny bit more on the DC version (not at all confusingly called “Batman / Deadpool #1”), and despite it being my 3rd best-selling periodical this year, I’ve just barely made a small profit on it, so far. I still have 41 copies left sitting on the racks! From a simple look at the sales report you’d most likely think, “bang, money!”, but yeah, not yet. Maybe, eventually….
What else? #20 is ONE WORLD UNDER DOOM which, while it dropped off over the nine issues, is a really strong result for a “Marvel event” (they do too many of them for them to usually “work”, IMO – compare it to IMPERIAL #1 down at #69?) – did virtually nothing for the “tie in” books here, but the main core was very solid and well received selling a good number of copies.
Similarly, the Godzilla vs Marvel comics did pretty solid – “vs Spider-Man” did the best (no real shock?), but as long as I kept reordering them, they kept selling. G vs Spidey sold more than 2x the best-selling Spider-Man alone comic this year for us.
Tied at #31 is OUT OF ALCATRAZ #1, though it’s set here in SF, and Christopher Cantwell and Tyler Boss were here to sign out copies
DC KO #1 did well at #48, but like so many other DC comics, had there been more stock, it likely would have done better.
I am pretty impressed the first new Robert Crumb comic book (TALES OF PARANOIA) in like 16 years came in at #58 for us. Also sold out from the publisher in maybe a month, capping its max placement. I also feel good that 2025’s issue of LOVE & ROCKETS sold as many copies as the best-selling issue of an “Ultimate” comic from Marvel
Also points for WHAT IF MICKEY & FRIENDS BECAME AVENGERS and JEFF THE LAND SHARK #1 making the top 100, right? The world needs more cute.
Yeah, but in general, I missed out on maxxing my sales on many periodicals. The biggest bottleneck to periodicals selling more continues to be my inherent conservatism in risking unsold copies.
I’m not going to bother with a dollar sort on this list – there’s just not that much of a difference!
For a last thing, here is “market share” for us. This is books AND comics combined together (along with everything else), but still not including any GN Club pulls – these are ONLY retail sales! I cut off listing anyone not approximately 1% of sales, so this is our Top 19 publishers, as a result. Where you see “imprints”… that’s putting together all imprints from those book-market publishers – outfits like Penguin Random House have literally dozens of different imprints that they own!
Publishers by Percentage of Comix Experience Sales 2025
| 1 | DC COMICS | 17.61% |
| 2 | MARVEL COMICS | 17.29% |
| 3 | IMAGE COMICS | 11.48% |
| 4 | DARK HORSE | 6.34% |
| 5 | VIZ LLC | 3.58% |
| 6 | PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE Imprints | 3.42% |
| 7 | FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS | 3.23% |
| 8 | BOOM ENTERTAINMENT | 2.86% |
| 9 | IDW PUBLISHING | 2.50% |
| 10 | MACMILLAN imprints | 2.38% |
| 11 | DRAWN & QUARTERLY | 1.79% |
| 12 | ONI PRESS | 1.67% |
| 13 | SCHOLASTIC Imprints | 1.61% |
| 14 | ABRAMS imprints | 1.56% |
| 15 | KODANSHA COMICS | 1.51% |
| 16 | HARPERCOLLINS Imprints | 1.47% |
| 17 | ANDREWS MCMEEL | 1.20% |
| 18 | TITAN COMICS | 0.95% |
| 19 | MAD CAVE STUDIOS | 0.93% |
| All Other Publishers combined | 16.63% |
Despite only listing 19 pubs here, we sold at least one item from 246 different publishers in 2025, sourced from about twelve distributors that we ordered at least twice from during the year — there are four distros we place an order with 52 weeks a year. Material selling out at wholesale continues to be the biggest brake on my ability to sell things – if publishers (who have the best ROI of any of the publisher-distributor-retailer legs of the stool!) printed more copies of things that I could reorder, I would be selling more product. I have to assume this is true for most retailers everywhere?
That’s the Comix Experience 2025, feel free to leave any comments in the comments section below!
Also? Don’t forget to look at the new issue of COMIX EXPERIENCE ONOMATOPOEIA, where we currently are showing you what’s shipping in March of 2025. Also, also scope on our weekly lists of new releases, as well as our 2026 Graphic Novel Club events, on the events page. Or, heck, just scan through the history of Comix Experience that we have captured in pics. This is a fantastic time to join the Graphic Novel Club, because we’ve got a great stack of books coming to you throughout the next year, and it’s the most direct way you can support Comix Experience if you want the kind of store that we are to continue into the upcoming years.
Happy New Year to You!
Sponsored by Battle Quest Comics
I learn more from TaW about the retail part of the industry than from anything else. Always fascinating and a good/fun read. Thanks for doing the hard work, Brian! Hope all is well with you and yours!