Comics shops in North America ordered nearly $41 million worth of comic books, hardcover graphic novels, and trade paperback collections in November, using a spate of new Marvel first issues to keep pace with last year’s clip.
According to preliminary data released this morning by Diamond Comic Distributors, the four-week month ended just a few hundred thousand dollars behind last November’s five-week month, which was the best month in the immediate aftermath of the DC relaunch. And this November actually topped that month in unit sales for periodicals.
The aggregate sales changes:
STATISTICS
|
DOLLARS
|
UNITS
|
|
|
NOVEMBER 2012 VS. OCTOBER 2012
|
||
|
COMICS
|
-8.02%
|
-3.80%
|
|
GRAPHIC NOVELS
|
-24.88%
|
-23.67%
|
|
TOTAL COMICS/GN
|
-13.66%
|
-5.42%
|
|
NOVEMBER 2012 VS. NOVEMBER 2011
|
||
|
COMICS
|
3.55%
|
2.59%
|
|
GRAPHIC NOVELS
|
-10.86%
|
-10.29%
|
|
TOTAL COMICS/GN
|
-1.10%
|
1.63%
|
|
YEAR-TO-DATE 2012 VS. YEAR-TO-DATE 2011
|
||
|
COMICS
|
14.56%
|
11.27%
|
|
GRAPHIC NOVELS
|
14.78%
|
14.25%
|
|
TOTAL COMICS/GN
|
14.63%
|
11.50%
|
All-New X-Men #1 was the top comic book for the month, and was one of seven Marvel first issues in the Top 10. It’s the first time in a long while that Marvel had this many entries in the top-sellers list: you have to go back to February 2009, the first reorder month for the Obama Spider-Man issue, to get to a month where Marvel has eight entries in the Top 10.
We will not know until next week the actual sales levels of the individual titles, but IDW had announced that the preorder sales for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #1, a Nov. 28 release, had topped 100,000 copies — and as we see, the title is not in the Top 10. Again, when publishers announce sales, they could be accounting for overseas copies and in some cases newsstand draws, neither of which would be reflected in the Diamond totals; we’ll see where everything winds up.
The Top 10 comics:
|
RANK
|
DESCRIPTION
|
PRICE
|
VENDOR
|
|
|
1
|
$3.99
|
Marvel
|
||
|
2
|
Batman #14
|
$3.99
|
DC
|
|
|
3
|
Captain America #1
|
$3.99
|
Marvel
|
|
|
4
|
Deadpool #1
|
$2.99
|
Marvel
|
|
|
5
|
Indestructible Hulk #1
|
$3.99
|
Marvel
|
|
|
6
|
Iron Man #1
|
$3.99
|
Marvel
|
|
|
7
|
Fantastic Four #1
|
$2.99
|
Marvel
|
|
|
8
|
Uncanny Avengers #2
|
$3.99
|
Marvel
|
|
|
9
|
Justice League #14
|
$3.99
|
DC
|
|
|
10
|
Thor: God of Thunder #1
|
$3.99
|
Marvel
|
|
RANK
|
DESCRIPTION
|
PRICE
|
VENDOR
|
|
|
1
|
$14.99
|
Image
|
||
|
2
|
Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland HC
|
$22.99
|
DC
|
|
|
3
|
Adventure Time Vol. 1
|
$14.99
|
Boom
|
|
|
4
|
Fairest Vol. 1: Wide Awake
|
$14.99
|
DC
|
|
|
5
|
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Vol. 1
|
$19.99
|
DC
|
|
|
6
|
Avengers Vs. X-Men HC
|
$75.00
|
Marvel
|
|
|
7
|
The Boys Vol. 12: The Blood Doors Off
|
$19.99
|
Dynamite
|
|
|
8
|
The Walking Dead Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye
|
$9.99
|
Image
|
|
|
9
|
Scalped Vol. 10: Trails End
|
$14.99
|
DC
|
|
|
10
|
Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 1: Redemption
|
$14.99
|
DC
|
|
Publisher
|
Dollar
Share
|
Unit
Share
|
|
Marvel Comics
|
34.35%
|
40.23%
|
|
DC Comics
|
30.04%
|
33.25%
|
|
Image Comics
|
7.70%
|
6.67%
|
|
IDW Publishing
|
5.60%
|
5.07%
|
|
Dark Horse Comics
|
4.72%
|
3.75%
|
|
Dynamite Entertainment
|
3.71%
|
3.33%
|
|
Boom! Studios
|
1.90%
|
1.81%
|
|
Eaglemoss Publications Ltd
|
1.40%
|
0.33%
|
|
Viz Media
|
1.33%
|
0.45%
|
|
Random House
|
0.97%
|
0.25%
|
|
Other Non-Top 10
|
8.28%
|
4.86%
|
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.
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