Marvel‘s Secret Wars #8 was the top-selling comic book in the comic shop market in December, according to information that Diamond Comic Distributors released today.
As suggested by the bottom line projection in our end-of-year post, retailers ordered $52.9 million worth of comic books, graphic novels, and magazine in December, up a considerable 21.85% over the same month in 2014. That was enough to push the 2015 totals higher, to $579.18 million, up 7.17%.
In an unusual happenstance, December had five shipping weeks, as did last December; often the holidays push one of the reporting weeks into January.
Comics dollar sales spiked significantly, up 25% over the same month a year ago. November’s top title slipped to second place with its second issue, Dark Knight III: The Master Race #2.
Graphic novel sales rebounded nicely to end the year, with a pricey title topping the list that isn’t a familiar name in print: The Private Eye, a hardcover collecting a digital comic by Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin. An Image title priced at $49.95, it no doubt contributed to the 14% increase in graphic novel dollar sales that December saw year-over-year.
Here’s the comparative sales statistics for the month, including those for the fourth quarter. This table also obviously includes the final percentage changes for 2015 overall:
| DOLLARS | UNITS | |
| December 2015 vs. November 2015 |
||
| Comics | -2.14% | 0.68% |
| Graphic Novels | 12.73% | 7.36% |
| Total Comics/GNs |
1.53% | 1.09% |
| December 2015 vs. December 2014 |
||
| Comics | 25.05% | 18.63% |
| Graphic Novels | 14.12% | 7.03% |
| Total Comics/GNs |
21.85% | 17.80% |
| 4th Qtr 2015 vs. 3rd Qtr 2014 |
||
| Comics | 20.26% | 16.49% |
| Graphic Novels | -9.97% | -21.18% |
| Total Comics/GNs |
10.28% | 12.95% |
| 4th Qtr 2015 vs. 4th Qtr 2014 |
||
| Comics | 13.84% | 6.43% |
| Graphic Novels | -7.43% | -11.24% |
| Total Comics/GNs |
7.20% | 5.06% |
| Year 2015 vs. Year 2014 |
||
| Comics | 8.99% | 6.54% |
| Graphic Novels | 3.14% | 3.35% |
| Total Comics/GNs |
7.17% | 6.28% |
The market shares for the year were previously reported, but the market shares for December are as follows:
| Dollar share |
Unit share | |
| Marvel | 37.09% | 41.87% |
| DC | 29.32% | 29.93% |
| Image | 10.29% | 10.65% |
| IDW | 5.31% | 4.10% |
| Dark Horse | 3.05% | 2.43% |
| Boom | 1.91% | 1.71% |
| Dynamite | 1.63% | 1.55% |
| Titan | 1.38% | 1.21% |
| Oni | 0.89% | 0.74% |
| Viz | 0.82% | 0.31% |
| Other | 8.31% | 5.50% |
Moving along, the top sellers for the month:
| Comic Book |
Price | Publisher | |
| 1 | Secret Wars #8 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 2 | Dark Knight III: The Master Race #2 |
$5.99 | DC |
| 3 | Star Wars #13 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 4 | Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 |
$3.99 | DC |
| 5 | Batman #47 | $3.99 | DC |
| 6 | Guardians of Infinity #1 |
$4.99 | Marvel |
| 7 | Darth Vader #14 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 8 | Harley’s Little Black Book #1 |
$4.99 | DC |
| 9 | Star Wars Annual #1 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 10 | Darth Vader Annual #1 | $4.99 | Marvel |
The graphic novels:
| Graphic Novel |
Price | Publisher | |
| 1 | The Private Eye Deluxe Edition HC | $49.99 | Image |
| 2 | Harley Quinn Volume 2: Power Outage |
$16.99 | DC |
| 3 | Avatar The Last Airbender Vol. 11: Smoke & Shadow Part 2 |
$10.99 | Dark Horse |
| 4 | Batman Vs. Superman | $9.99 | DC |
| 5 | Saga Volume 5 | $14.99 | Image |
| 6 | We Can Never Go Home | $9.99 | Black Mask |
| 7 | Harley Quinn Vol. 3: Kiss Kiss Bang Stab HC |
$24.99 | DC |
| 8 | Star Wars: Darth Vader Vol. 1: Vader |
$19.99 | Marvel |
| 9 | Civil War | $24.99 | Marvel |
| 10 | Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows |
$17.99 | Marvel |
Finally, we have the figures for how many new items were released, broken down by format and publisher:
| Comics shipped | Graphic novels shipped |
Magazines shipped | Total shipped |
|
| DC | 98 | 36 | 1 | 135 |
| Marvel | 81 | 27 | 0 | 108 |
| Image | 77 | 16 | 0 | 93 |
| IDW | 50 | 29 | 0 | 79 |
| Dark Horse |
32 | 17 | 0 | 49 |
| Boom | 31 | 9 | 0 | 40 |
| Dynamite | 23 | 9 | 0 | 32 |
| Titan | 17 | 6 | 4 | 27 |
| Viz | 0 | 17 | 0 | 17 |
| Oni | 8 | 4 | 0 | 12 |
| Other | 139 | 138 | 41 | 318 |
| Total | 556 | 308 | 46 | 910 |
Next up here at Comichron will be the updates to the Comics of the Century, followed by the December 2015 final estimates and the Top Thousand Comics lists.
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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