November was no October when it came to comics sales, but it didn’t need to be to improve upon last year’s performance. Based on Comichron’s analysis of data released by Diamond Comic Distributors,
comics shops in North America ordered nearly $46 million in printed
product during the month, 8% more than last November — and the gains were made by both comic books and graphic novels. Click to see the sales estimates for
comics ordered in November 2014.
The graphic novel category improved more during the month, up 14.4% thanks in part to the category leader, Walking Dead Vol. 22: A New Beginning, which debuted with first-month orders of nearly 23,000 copies. Sales of the Top 300 graphic novels for the whole year to date are still lagging 1% behind the same grouping last year — but since Diamond reports that all graphic novels sold are up 6%, that means the growth has all been in the “long tail,” the books outside the Top 300. (And there are a lot of them!)
Amazing Spider-Man #9, one of two issues of the title released in the month, led the comics category with sales of more than 135,000 copies. The Top 300 comics for the month outsold the same grouping for last November by nearly 100,000 copies, so that extra Spidey issue could be considered the margin of difference.
Walking Dead returned to its previous sales level, following last month’s Loot Crate-enhanced sales; this would seem to strengthen the case that the October Loot Crate purchase of Walking Dead #132 was likely around 256,000 copies. That’s more than Loot Crate appears to have bought of the Guardians of the Galaxy spinoff Rocket Raccoon #1 earlier in the summer, so it’s likely there’s quite a bit of variance in its orders from set to set. Given how the “crates” can be purchased a la carte as well as by subscription, that would make sense.
The aggregate changes:
November 2014: 6.73 million copies
Versus 1 year ago this month: +2%
Versus 5 years ago this month: +9%
Versus 10 years ago this month: +5%
Versus 15 years ago this month: unchanged
YEAR TO DATE: 75.9 million copies, -3% vs. 2013, +11% vs. 2009, +12% vs. 2004, +6% vs. 1999
ALL COMICS UNIT SALES
November 2014 versus one year ago this month: +5.84%
YEAR TO DATE: -0.11%
November 2014: $25.12 million
Versus 1 year ago this month: +2%
Versus 5 years ago this month: +16%
Versus 10 years ago this month: +35%
Versus 15 years ago this month: +44%
YEAR TO DATE: $287.5 million, +1% vs. 2013, +22% vs. 2009, +48% vs. 2004, +55% vs. 1999
ALL COMICS DOLLAR SALES
November 2014 versus one year ago this month: +5.47%
YEAR TO DATE: +3.80%
November 2014: $8.8 million
Versus 1 year ago this month: +19
Versus 5 years ago this month: -9%
Versus 10 years ago this month, just the Top 100 vs. the Top 100: +45%
Versus 15 years ago this month, just the Top 25 vs. the Top 25: +39%
YEAR TO DATE: $82.31 million, -1% vs. 2013
ALL TRADE PAPERBACK SALES
November 2014 versus one year ago this month: +14.44%
YEAR TO DATE: +6.16%
November 2014: $33.92 million
Versus 1 year ago this month: +6%
Versus 5 years ago this month: +11%
Versus 10 years ago this month, counting just the Top 100 TPBs: +24%
Versus 15 years ago this month, counting just the Top 25 TPBs: +59%
YEAR TO DATE: $369.8 million, +1% vs. 2013
ALL COMICS AND TRADE PAPERBACK SALES
November 2014 versus one year ago this month: +8.36%
YEAR TO DATE: +4.52%
November 2014: approximately $45.77 million (subject to revision)
Versus 1 year ago this month: +8%
Versus 5 years ago this month: +31%
Versus 10 years ago this month: +59%
YEAR TO DATE: $496.96 million, +5% vs. 2013
RELEASES
New comic books released: 499
New graphic novels released: 301
New magazines released: 32
All new releases: 832
The average comic book in the Top 300 cost $3.71; the average comic book
retailers ordered cost $3.73. The median and most common price for comics offered was $3.99. Click to see comics prices across time.
As mentioned Friday, Comichron projects the comic shop market will complete the year with
orders totaling around $542 million, up a
little less than 5% over 2013. You can contribute to that total by visiting your local comic shop; find one here.
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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