July in recent years has tended to be a month where things really get
going for comics; sales did indeed, reaching their highest dollar value
in the Diamond Exclusive Era which began in 1997. Comics shops in North
America ordered more than $53.6 million in comics, graphic novels, and
magazines, topping $50 million for the second time and besting October’s
previous Diamond-Era record of $50.3 million.
It was a five-week month against a five-week month, so that factor is not in play; what it was was a month in which a lot of new comics shipped. Diamond Comic Distributors shipped 530 new comic books in July, which is the highest figure seen since Diamond began releasing those statistics one year ago. The release of 312 graphic novels was also the highest seen in a year — and when one of those books is Walking Dead Vol. 21, it’s likely to be a decent July. The result was a month with the largest year-over-year change since last September: comics and graphic novel sales were up 14.52% over a year ago. The seven-month total has now topped $300 million, and is ahead 2.22% year-to-year.
The aggregate sales changes:
| JULY 2014 VS. JUNE 2014 |
DOLLAR CHANGE | UNIT CHANGE |
| COMICS | 32.22% | 29.25% |
| GRAPHIC NOVELS |
21.04% | 24.64% |
| TOTAL COMICS/GN |
28.66% | 28.88% |
| JULY 2014 VS. JULY 2013 |
||
| COMICS | 19.23% | 14.73% |
| GRAPHIC NOVELS |
4.84% | 4.59% |
| TOTAL COMICS/GN |
14.52% | 13.87% |
| YEAR-TO-DATE 2014 VS. YEAR-TO-DATE 2013 |
||
| COMICS | 1.76% | -3.16% |
| GRAPHIC NOVELS |
3.25% | 5.27% |
| TOTAL COMICS/GN |
2.22% | -2.51% |
As has been reported elsewhere, a ginormous purchase of copies of Rocket Raccoon #1
was made by Loot Crate, a reseller that repacks pop cultural items to
sell to subscribers. Loot Crate has a Diamond account and buys
non-returnably like the other retailers — and so, like non-Direct Market
sellers like Hastings, its figures are reflected in the numbers. The Guardians of the Galaxy tie-in was the #1 comic book for the month.
The top-sellers:
| TOP COMIC BOOKS |
PRICE | VENDOR | |
| 1 | ROCKET RACCOON #1 |
$3.99 | Marvel |
| 2 | BATMAN #33 | $4.99 | DC |
| 3 | AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #4 |
$3.99 | Marvel |
| 4 | ORIGINAL SIN #5 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 5 | SPIDER-MAN 2099 #1 |
$3.99 | Marvel |
| 6 | ORIGINAL SIN #6 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 7 | JUSTICE LEAGUE #32 |
$3.99 | DC |
| 8 | GRAYSON #1 | $2.99 | DC |
| 9 | THE LEGENDARY STAR-LORD #1 |
$3.99 | Marvel |
| 10 | HARLEY QUINN #8 | $2.99 | DC |
| TOP GRAPHIC NOVELS and TRADE PAPERBACKS |
PRICE | VENDOR | |
| 1 | THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 21: ALL-OUT WAR PART 2 |
$14.99 | Image |
| 2 | AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER VOL. 8: RIFT PART 2 |
$10.99 | Dark Horse |
| 3 | DEADLY CLASS VOLUME 1: REAGAN YOUTH |
$9.99 | Image |
| 4 | SAGA VOLUME 1 | $9.99 | Image |
| 5 | BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY: SECONDS GN |
$25.00 | Random House |
| 6 | DEADPOOL VOLUME 5: THE WEDDING OF DEADPOOL |
$15.99 | Marvel |
| 7 | SAGA VOLUME 3 | $14.99 | Image |
| 8 | STAR WARS: THE LUCAS DRAFT |
$19.99 | Dark Horse |
| 9 | BATMAN VOLUME 1: THE COURT OF OWLS |
$16.99 | DC |
| 10 | LAZARUS VOLUME 2: LIFT |
$14.99 | Image |
The market shares, which include Archie above 2% thanks to the Life with Archie issue:
| DOLLAR SHARE |
UNIT SHARE | |
| Marvel | 35.09% | 38.39% |
| DC | 28.18% | 31.32% |
| Image | 9.25% | 9.82% |
| IDW | 5.21% | 4.11% |
| Dark Horse |
5.02% | 3.80% |
| Dynamic Forces/Dynamite |
2.18% | 2.16% |
| Archie | 2.04% | 1.88% |
| Boom | 1.76% | 1.78% |
| Eaglemoss | 1.05% | 0.24% |
| Zenescope | 1.05% | 0.87% |
| Other | 9.18% | 5.62% |
And here’s what Diamond shipped in the month:
| Comics Shipped | GNs Shipped | Magazines | Total Shipped |
|
| Marvel | 93 | 36 | 0 | 129 |
| DC | 97 | 31 | 0 | 128 |
| Image | 66 | 17 | 0 | 83 |
| IDW | 48 | 31 | 0 | 79 |
| Dark Horse |
39 | 29 | 0 | 68 |
| Dynamic Forces/Dynamite |
40 | 4 | 0 | 44 |
| Boom | 29 | 4 | 0 | 33 |
| Zenescope | 14 | 4 | 0 | 18 |
| Archie | 15 | 5 | 0 | 20 |
| Eaglemoss | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| Other | 89 | 151 | 39 | 279 |
| Total | 530 | 312 | 49 | 891 |
More next week…
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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