Spring arrived in the comics industry with sales up considerably in the Direct Market, according to preliminary data released by Diamond Comic Distributors. Comics shops in North America appear to have ordered $41.3 million worth of comics and graphic novels in March, beating the previous year’s total by nearly 23%.
The first quarter of the year wasn’t able to top the last quarter of 2012 — that would have been extremely difficult — but it made a good run at it, coming in at around $122 million versus $128 million for the fourth quarter. And it beat the first quarter of 2012 handily, by nearly 20%, or $20 million. That’s one of the bigger year-to-year quarterly increases we’ve seen.
And whereas the first quarter of 2012 had 13 shipping weeks, the first quarter of 2013 only had 12, because the comics that shipped first week of January were invoiced to retailers in December and not counted with this year.
The aggregate sales figures:
|
DOLLARS
|
UNITS
|
|
|
MARCH 2013 VS. FEBRUARY 2013
|
||
|
COMICS
|
3.05%
|
2.78%
|
|
GRAPHIC NOVELS
|
7.77%
|
17.00%
|
|
TOTAL COMICS/GN
|
4.36%
|
3.71%
|
|
MARCH 2013 VS. MARCH 2012
|
||
|
COMICS
|
26.28%
|
21.43%
|
|
GRAPHIC NOVELS
|
14.33%
|
7.78%
|
|
TOTAL COMICS/GN
|
22.59%
|
20.31%
|
|
FIRST QUARTER 2013 VS. FOURTH QUARTER 2012
|
||
|
COMICS
|
-4.13%
|
-3.62%
|
|
GRAPHIC NOVELS
|
-6.00%
|
-2.09%
|
|
TOTAL COMICS/GN
|
-4.70%
|
-3.51%
|
|
FIRST QUARTER 2013 VS. FIRST QUARTER 2012
|
||
|
COMICS
|
21.38%
|
18.62%
|
|
GRAPHIC NOVELS
|
16.22%
|
12.38%
|
|
TOTAL COMICS/GN
|
19.78%
|
18.15%
|
|
RANK
|
DESCRIPTION
|
PRICE
|
VENDOR
|
|
|
1
|
Guardians of the Galaxy #1
|
$3.99
|
Marvel
|
|
|
2
|
Age of Ultron #1
|
$3.99
|
Marvel
|
|
|
3
|
Batman #18
|
$3.99
|
DC
|
|
|
4
|
Wolverine #1
|
$3.99
|
Marvel
|
|
|
5
|
Age of Ultron #2
|
$3.99
|
Marvel
|
|
|
6
|
Justice League #18
|
$3.99
|
DC
|
|
|
7
|
Age of Ultron #3
|
$3.99
|
Marvel
|
|
|
8
|
Superior Spider-Man #5
|
$3.99
|
Marvel
|
|
|
9
|
Justice League of America #2
|
$3.99
|
DC
|
|
|
10
|
All New X-Men #8
|
$3.99
|
Marvel
|
|
RANK
|
DESCRIPTION
|
PRICE
|
VENDOR
|
|
|
1
|
Batman HC Vol. 2 The City of Owls
|
$24.99
|
DC
|
|
|
2
|
Batman SC Vol. 1 The Court of Owls
|
$16.99
|
DC
|
|
|
3
|
Hawkeye SC Vol. 1 My Life as Weapon Now
|
$16.99
|
Marvel
|
|
|
4
|
Avatar Last Airbender SC Vol. 4 Search Part 1
|
$10.99
|
Dark Horse
|
|
|
5
|
Walking Dead SC Vol. 1 Days Gone Bye
|
$14.99
|
Image
|
|
|
6
|
Avengers Vs. X-Men SC
|
$34.99
|
Marvel
|
|
|
7
|
Kick-Ass 2 SC
|
$19.99
|
Marvel
|
|
|
8
|
Kick-Ass 2 Prelude Hit-Girl Prem HC
|
$24.99
|
Marvel
|
|
|
9
|
Saga SC Vol. 1
|
$9.99
|
Image
|
|
|
10
|
Earth 2 HC Vol 1 The Gathering
|
$22.99
|
DC
|
|
PUBLISHER
|
DOLLAR
SHARE
|
UNIT
SHARE
|
|
MARVEL COMICS
|
39.96%
|
43.78%
|
|
DC COMICS
|
27.09%
|
29.88%
|
|
IMAGE COMICS
|
8.01%
|
7.88%
|
|
IDW PUBLISHING
|
6.34%
|
5.24%
|
|
DARK HORSE COMICS
|
4.72%
|
4.16%
|
|
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT
|
2.16%
|
1.87%
|
|
BOOM! STUDIOS
|
1.68%
|
1.49%
|
|
EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS LTD
|
0.97%
|
0.20%
|
|
VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT LLC
|
0.86%
|
0.84%
|
|
AVATAR PRESS INC
|
0.83%
|
0.60%
|
|
OTHER NON-TOP 10
|
7.38%
|
4.06%
|
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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