The question going into August was whether Marvel Comics #1000, Absolute Carnage #1, and HoX/PoX — the biweekly alternating House of X/Powers of X combo from Marvel — would add enough to the month to offset the fact that August 2018 had an additional shipping week. They were not, though they went some distance toward it, according to data released today by Diamond Comic Distributors. This August’s orders were down year-over-year by a smaller amount than July’s orders were up, and that was the month that got the extra Wednesday this summer. As a result, July and August combined this year clocked in at a slight increase over the same nine-week period last year.
We’ll have the issue-by-issue estimates for the month on Monday; look for them on our August 2019 page.
So we find that after a $45 million month, things are basically still flat for 2019 so far, with retailer orders through Diamond standing at nearly $343 million year-to-date, down less than $1 million from the same eight months in 2018. The largest shortfall in the month by far was in graphic novels, down 20% in dollars versus last August; there was a major sale of graphic novels that month, with many deep discounts. The calendar certainly played a role, as 10% fewer new graphic novels were released.
But it’s also reasonable to speculate that the big-ticket comics had the effect of drawing dollars away from the category; all but two of the top ten comics by units were priced at $4.99 or above. There’s a good chance of record-breaking average cover prices once the full estimates are reported.
The $9.99 Marvel Comics #1000, which some had suggested itself might see record numbers, came in first in dollars but second in units behind Absolute Carnage, which was only $2 cheaper at $7.99. Marvel #1000 also shipped the last week of the month, and we already know that it’s led September reorders in its first week of eligibility, so we haven’t seen the full story on that one. (“Megacomics” priced at $8-10 is a category it’s been difficult to project results for; Action Comics #1000, Detective Comics #1000 and Amazing Spider-Man #800 likely benefited from being parts of existing series, which would have started with bases of subscribers to draw upon.) Marvel was up 6% in dollars in August against a Fantastic Four #1-fortified month from 2018. Marvel’s unit market share last month was almost exactly 50%.
(Update, 6:30 EDT, 9/13: I’ve confirmed that Marvel’s dollar market share, 46.15%, is the highest it’s ever been since Diamond began reporting final order shares in August 1997. The previous high was set just in April. DC’s 24.86% share is its lowest since October 2015; Image’s 6.32% dollar share was its lowest since September 2012.)
DC and Image were down year-over-year, with smaller new comic-book slates from both publishers. Last August, DC had 72 new comic books on the racks; this year, the figure was 64, and it looks like 12 of those were releases that Diamond counted twice because they were cardstock covers priced at a dollar higher. Half as many cardstock covers were offered in August than came out in July: August’s batch included Aquaman #51, Batgirl #38, Batman #76, Catwoman #14, Flash #76 and #77, Green Lantern #10, Justice League #30, Justice League Odyssey #12, and two different versions of DCeased #4. It’s likely that Batman #76, at least, might have appeared in the Top 10 otherwise. Batman/Superman #1 was DC’s top comic book, the only $3.99 issue to make the top ten by dollars.
Image, meanwhile, went from 61 new comics on the racks last August to 47, while its graphic novel slate shrank from 16 new items to just nine, according to Diamond. But it got a strong performance from Walking Dead Vol. 32, which topped graphic novel sales in both units and dollars.
Every comparison in 2019 has needed that caveat that fewer comics have come from DC, which had published 100 more comics by this point in 2018; the numbers to date were 624 in 2018 versus 524 now, a number which is really in the high 400s when the cardstock covers are removed. Image is much the same, having gone from 496 new comics to 398. That factor wanes in the comparisons starting in the 4th quarter.
(Remember, we’re counting unique story interiors here, not
variants; Diamond’s new release charts count how many different stories publishers offered, not how many different SKUs retailers had a chance to carry.) Marvel, for its part, has released 120 more new comics year-to-date than it did last year at this point.
The comparative sales statistics:
| Dollars | Units | |
|---|---|---|
| August 2019 Vs. July 2019 | ||
| Comics | -6.01% | -9.70% |
| Graphic Novels | -5.13% | +0.26% |
| Total Comics/Graphic Novels | -5.78% | -9.06% |
| Toys | -21.40% | -20.06% |
| August 2019 Vs. August 2018 | ||
| Comics | +0.64% | -4.44% |
| Graphic Novels | -20.11% | -21.96% |
| Total Comics/Graphic Novels | -5.76% | -5.94% |
| Toys | -9.65% | +11.91% |
| Year To Date 2019 Vs. Year To Date 2018 | ||
| Comics | +0.92% | -4.37% |
| Graphic Novels | -3.24% | -8.55% |
| Total Comics/Graphic Novels | -0.26% | -4.68% |
| Toys | +24.37% | +31.96% |
The market shares:
| Publisher | Dollar Share | Unit Share |
|---|---|---|
| Marvel | 46.15% | 49.96% |
| DC | 24.86% | 25.96% |
| Image | 6.32% | 6.26% |
| IDW | 4.00% | 4.18% |
| Dark Horse | 3.27% | 2.65% |
| Dynamite | 2.51% | 2.13% |
| Boom | 2.50% | 2.34% |
| Viz | 1.33% | 0.53% |
| Titan | 0.72% | 0.64% |
| Valiant | 0.53% | 0.56% |
| Other | 7.81% | 4.79% |
The top-selling comics by units:
| TOP COMIC BOOKS (by units) | PRICE | PUBLISHER | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Absolute Carnage #1 | $7.99 | Marvel |
| 2 | Marvel Comics #1000 | $9.99 | Marvel |
| 3 | Batman/Superman #1* | $3.99 | DC |
| 4 | House of X #3 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 5 | Powers of X #2 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 6 | House of X #2 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 7 | Powers of X #3 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 8 | Absolute Carnage #2 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 9 | Batman #77 | $3.99 | DC |
| 10 | Batman: Curse of The White Knight #2 | $4.99 | DC |
The asterisk means Batman/Superman‘s reported sales were reduced due to returnability. And remember, Batman #76’s sales were split between editions.
The top-selling comics by dollars:
| TOP COMIC BOOKS (by dollars) | PRICE | PUBLISHER | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marvel Comics #1000 | $9.99 | Marvel |
| 2 | Absolute Carnage #1 | $7.99 | Marvel |
| 3 | Batman/Superman #1* | $3.99 | DC |
| 4 | Superman: Year One #2* | $7.99 | DC |
| 5 | Powers of X #2 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 6 | House of X #3 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 7 | House of X #2 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 8 | Powers of X #3 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 9 | Absolute Carnage #2 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 10 | Batman: Curse of The White Knight #2 | $4.99 | DC |
The top-selling graphic novels by units:
| TOP GRAPHIC NOVELS (by units) | PRICE | PUBLISHER | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walking Dead Vol. 32 | $16.99 | Image |
| 2 | Batman Who Laughs HC | $29.99 | DC |
| 3 | Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass | $16.99 | DC |
| 4 | Watchmen | $24.99 | DC |
| 5 | War of The Realms | $29.99 | Marvel |
| 6 | Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Declassified Slipcase HC | $49.99 | Marvel |
| 7 | Star Wars: Vader: Dark Visions | $15.99 | Marvel |
| 8 | Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug And Cat Noir Season 2 Vol. 4: No Evil Doing | $8.99 | Action Lab |
| 9 | Disney Descendants: Evie’s Wicked Runway Vol. 2 | $15.99 | Tokyopop |
| 10 | Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 1: Final Gauntlet | $17.99 | Marvel |
The top-selling graphic novels by dollars:
| TOP GRAPHIC NOVELS (by dollars) | PRICE | PUBLISHER | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walking Dead Vol. 32 | $16.99 | Image |
| 2 | The Batman Who Laughs HC | $29.99 | DC |
| 3 | Saga Compendium Volume 1 | $59.99 | Image |
| 4 | War of The Realms | $29.99 | Marvel |
| 5 | Joker: The Bronze Age Omnibus HC | $99.99 | DC |
| 6 | Watchmen | $24.99 | DC |
| 7 | Marvel Masters of Suspense: Lee & Ditko Omnibus Volume 1 HC | $100.00 | Marvel |
| 8 | Amazing Spider-Man: Hunted | $39.99 | Marvel |
| 9 | Boys Omnibus Volume 1 | $29.99 | Dynamite |
| 10 | Mister Miracle HC | $34.99 | DC |
Finally, the number of new items offered:
| Publisher | Comics shipped |
Graphic Novels shipped |
Magazines shipped |
Total shipped |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marvel | 88 | 42 | 0 | 130 |
| DC | 64 | 27 | 1 | 92 |
| Image | 47 | 9 | 0 | 56 |
| IDW | 32 | 12 | 0 | 44 |
| Dark Horse | 21 | 18 | 0 | 39 |
| Boom | 19 | 15 | 0 | 34 |
| Dynamite | 17 | 7 | 0 | 24 |
| Viz | 0 | 21 | 0 | 21 |
| Titan | 8 | 6 | 1 | 15 |
| Valiant | 7 | 2 | 0 | 9 |
| Other | 128 | 169 | 22 | 319 |
| TOTAL SHIPPED | 431 | 328 | 24 | 783 |
So an up-and-down year, netting out flat, continues to be the story for 2019 despite all the high-profile releases so far. September 2018 was almost identical in dollar sales to last month, so the next question is whether September 2019‘s heavy hitters, with the addition of Spawn #300, can keep pace. Last September was a very good month for graphic novels, as well, so there’ll be ground to make up in that department as well.
Like 2018 before it, 2019 isn’t far from the low-single-digit percentage increases seen in most of this decade; the final third of the year at least has a shot at getting back there. Helping in that regard will be the fact that this fall, we’ll finally be getting out of the months where we’re comparing against DC new-comics release slates from 2018 that regularly numbered in the 70s and 80s.
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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