With more complete publisher information available, we’ve revised the final estimates for comics, trade paperback, and magazine orders placed through Diamond in December 2009 — and thus, for the entire year:
OVERALL DIAMOND SALES (including all comics, trades, and magazines)
December 2009: $35.67 million
Versus 1 year ago this month: -10%
Versus 5 years ago this month: +17%
4th Quarter 2009: $104.81 million, -9% versus 4Q 2008
2009 YEAR-END: Approximately $429.67 million, -2% vs. 2008, +30% vs. 2004
The small upward revision isn’t enough to help 2009 catch up with 2008, but we are now almost in line with 2007. As noted in our end-of-year report and its comments section, there’s a somewhat larger margin of error associated with the Overall statistic this year. The upshot remains: whatever happened at the cash register, retailers did not spend appreciably less building their comics inventories in 2009.
Comichron founder John Jackson Miller has tracked the comics industry for more than 25 years, including a decade editing the industry’s retail trade magazine; he is the author of several guides to comics, as well as more than a hundred comic books for various franchises.
He is the author of novels including Star Wars: Kenobi, Star Wars: A New Dawn, Star Trek: Discovery – The Enterprise War, and his upcoming release, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – The High Country. Read more about them at his fiction site.
Be sure to follow Comichron on Twitter and Facebook, and check out our Youtube channel. You can also support us on Patreon!