As noted here Friday, the comics shop market made up considerable ground in July comparison with a weak July 2017, thanks to the Batman wedding storyline and several high-profile launches. Retailers ordered $44.64 million worth of comic books, graphic novels, and magazines in the month; the year-to-date deficit, piled up in winter, was cut in half to less than 2%. Click to see the comics sales estimates from July 2017.
Both Marvel and DC contributed, combining for a dual market share of 70.69%, the highest proportion of the market seen since October 2011, right after the debut of the New 52. DC’s Batman #50 led the comics list with nearly 441,000 copies shipped; it was the third regularly priced item of the year to top 400,000 copies.
While DC announced both it and Catwoman #1 would be made returnable owing to retailer concerns over the storyline and its premature revelation online, Diamond Comic Distributors did not adjust the issues’ numbers downward for returnability. This is normal, in keeping with practices regarding comics that are not made returnable until after they’ve been ordered; comics become returnable after they’ve been ordered and/or shipped all the time, and those items are not adjusted in tables. The end-of-year totals always account both for returns and for reorders; Batman #50 did lead comics in the reorder charts twice during the month.
Market share leader Marvel beat its July 2017 dollar sales by 16%, aided by Amazing Spider-Man #1 (more than 289,000 copies) and Captain America #1 (more than 167,000 copies), among other launches. DC’s dollar sales were up 29% year over year, a figure exactly matched by IDW, which followed up a June in which it had a recent-record-low number of new comic books on the shelves (19) with nearly three times as many, 56.
Die Die Die #1, which shipped without being solicited and went on sale July 11, landed in 174th place even though it was the highest-circulation Image book of the month. That’s because its initial shipment, reportedly equal to the 80,000 or so copies shipped of Robert Kirkman‘s previous launch, Oblivion Song #1, was provided to retailers at no charge, and Diamond confirmed it had treated those copies as promotional items.
Retailers reordered 9,975 copies of Die Die Die #1 in July in the United States and Canada, and it is those copies that appear in Diamond’s tables. The number of copies in circulation, however, is more than 90,000.
See the vital statistics, after the jump:
| TOP 300 COMICS SHIPPED (in UNITS) |
||
| July 2018 | 6.93 million copies | |
| 1 Year Ago | 6.27 million copies | +11% |
| 5 Years Ago | 7.32 million copies | -5% |
| 10 Years Ago | 7.2 million copies | -4% |
| 15 Years Ago | 6.35 million copies | +9% |
| 20 Years Ago | 7.25 million copies | -4% |
| Top 500 Comics Shipped (Units) | 7.34 million copies | |
| ALL Comics Shipped in Month (Units) |
7.68 million copies | +10% |
| Year To Date | 45.01 million copies | |
| 1 Year Ago | 47.03 million copies | -4 |
| 5 Years Ago | 49.02 million copies | -8 |
| 10 Years Ago | 46.74 million copies | -4 |
| 15 Years Ago | 40.66 million copies | 11 |
| ALL Comics Shipped Year to Date (Units) |
49.32 million copies | -7% |
| TOP 300 COMICS SHIPPED (in DOLLARS) |
||
| July 2018 | $28.82 million | |
| 1 Year Ago | $24.01 million | +20% |
| 5 Years Ago | $26.89 million | +7% |
| 10 Years Ago | $23.4 million | +23% |
| 15 Years Ago | $17.76 million | +62% |
| 20 Years Ago | $17.61 million | +64% |
| Top 500 Comics Shipped (Dollars) |
$30.54 million | |
| ALL Comics Shipped during Month (Dollars) |
+17% | |
| Year To Date | $183.01 million | |
| 1 Year Ago | $180.75 million | +1% |
| 5 Years Ago | $177.34 million | +3% |
| 10 Years Ago | $149.13 million | +23% |
| 15 Years Ago | $114.17 million | +60% |
| ALL Comics Shipped Year to Date (Dollars) |
+1% | |
| TOP GRAPHIC NOVELS SHIPPED (in DOLLARS) |
||
| July 2018 (Top 300 GNs) | $5.91 million | |
| July 2018 (Top 100 GNs) |
$3.36 million | |
| July 2018 (Top 50 GNs) |
$2.05 million | |
| July 2018 (Top 25 GNs) |
$1.18 million | |
| Versus 1 Year Ago |
$6.03 million | -2% |
| Versus 5 Years Ago (Top 300) |
$7.93 million | -25% |
| Versus 10 Years Ago (Top 100) |
$5.18 million | -35% |
| Versus 15 Years Ago (Top 50) |
$2.57 million | -20% |
| Top 500 Graphic Novel Shipped in Month (Dollars) |
$7.13 million | |
| ALL Graphic Novel Shipped in Month (Dollars) |
-9% | |
| Year To Date | $41.25 million | |
| 1 Year Ago | $51.01 million | -19% |
| ALL Graphic Novel Dollars Shipped Year to Date (Dollars) |
-8% | |
| TOP 300 COMICS plus TOP GNs SHIPPED (in DOLLARS) |
||
| July 2018 (including Top 300 GNs) |
$34.73 million | |
| July 2018 (including Top 300 GNs) |
$32.18 million | |
| July 2018 (including Top 100 GNs) |
$30.87 million | |
| July 2018 (including Top 25 GNs) |
$30 million | |
| Versus 1 Year Ago |
$30.03 million | +16% |
| Versus 5 Years Ago (Top 300) |
$34.52 million | -7% |
| Versus 10 Years Ago (Top 50) |
$28.58 million | +1% |
| Versus 15 Years Ago (Top 50) |
$20.33 million | +62% |
| Top 500 Comics & Top 500 GNs Shipped in Month (Dollars) |
$37.66 million | |
| All Comics & GNs Shipped in Month (Dollars) |
+10% | |
| Year To Date | $224.24 million | |
| 1 Year Ago | $231.79 million | -3% |
| ALL Comics & GNs Shipped Year to Date (Dollars) |
-2% | |
| ALL COMICS AND GNs SHIPPED (in Dollars) |
||
| July 2018 | $44,639,900.00 | |
| Versus 1 Year Ago |
$40.77 million | +10% |
| Versus 5 Years Ago |
$46.83 million | -5% |
| Versus 10 Years Ago |
$41.52 million | +8% |
| Year To Date | $296.092 million | |
| 1 Year Ago | $301.947 million | -2% |
| TITLE SPECIFICS | ||
| TOP SELLING COMIC BOOK | ||
| Batman #50 | 440,819 copies at | $4.99 |
| 50th PLACE COMIC BOOK |
||
| Titans #23 | 33,060 copies at | $3.99 |
| 100th PLACE COMIC BOOK |
||
| Spawn #287 | 20,130 copies at | $2.99 |
| 150th PLACE COMIC BOOK |
||
| Medieval Spawn Witchblade #3 |
13,161 copies at | $2.99 |
| 200th PLACE COMIC BOOK |
||
| Britannia Lost Eagles of Rome #1 |
7,635 copies at | $3.99 |
| 300th PLACE COMIC BOOK |
||
| Lowlifes #1 | 3,941 copies at | $3.99 |
| 400th PLACE COMIC BOOK |
||
| Mall #1 | 1,920 copies at | $3.99 |
| 500th PLACE COMIC BOOK |
||
| Justice League No Justice #4 |
824 copies at | $3.99 |
| NEW RELEASE VOLUME |
||
| New Comics Released |
449 | |
| New Graphic Novels Released |
318 | |
| New Magazines Released |
26 | |
| Total New Print Items Released |
793 | |
| PRICING | ||
| Average Cover Price of Comics in the Top 300 |
$3.95 | |
| Average Cover Price of Comics in the Top 300, weighted by orders |
$4.16 | |
| Average Cover Price of Comics in the Top 25 |
$4.39 | |
| Median Cover Price of Comics in the Top 300 |
$3.99 | |
| Most Common Cover Price of Comics in the Top 300 |
$3.99 |
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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