In 2018, a recovery underway in the comic-book retail market gave out at the end of the year, with DC drastically cutting back its number of comic-book releases; ultimately, the year just missed being an improvement over the previous one. The same will not be true of 2019, as strength in Marvel‘s X-Men line and a return to a more normal number of DC releases yielded a November that was ahead of the same month in the previous year in every single category Comichron tracks. Retailers ordered $42.34 million worth of comic books, graphic novels, and magazines from Diamond Comic Distributors, an increase of 4.3%, or about $1.75 million.
The full comics sales estimates will appear here on Monday.
The stronger November brings 2019 so far to $488.69 million, an increase of 2%, or about $10 million, over the first eleven months of 2018. While there’s some question about how December will be tabulated (about more later), we believe there’s no way 2019 will finish below 2018. That would make for the first growth year for the portion of Diamond sales that we track since 2016.
Comic-book orders were up about 3% in both units and dollars in November, a rare case where the two categories’ performance was nearly the same. It’s an indication that the mean price paid for comics overall was relatively close to the average price of all comics offered.
Retailers ordered 6.62 million comic books in the month: while a middling performance among this year’s four-week months, it was still enough to beat November 2018. Fifty-one more comic books were released this November versus last November, although probably a third of that increase comes from DC’s cardstock books getting multiple entries.
The number of comic books ordered from Diamond by retailers through November 30 stands at 77.06 million copies: that’s down about a million copies, or nearly one and a half percent, from the same point in 2018. But 2% fewer new comic books were released so far in 2019 versus 2018, so unit sales per release are tracking better. The gap for the year will probably wind up being less than a million copies, by the time December’s done.
Marvel led in both dollar and unit market shares, thanks to New Mutants #1 and the other “Dawn of X” titles, as well as Absolute Carnage #5 and Deadpool #1; the publisher took the top seven spots. But it was DC that saw the most significant year-over-year gains, thanks in no small part to the aforementioned boost in its number of releases.
Diamond reports DC’s number of new comics at 96, but we believe that a good bit of that comes from the splits between cardstock and regular covers; the true number of releases is closer to 80. Considering that DC had only 67 comics out in November 2018 — on the way down to totals in the low fifties last winter — that’s an important change. The number of retail dollars paid for DC products overall appears to have grown 20% in the month, year-over-year.
Image continued to have fewer new comics releases — 40, versus 57 last November — but it did score a hit in Undiscovered Country #1, which placed eighth. The title’s orders were reduced for chart purposes due to returnability, so its real ranking may or may not be higher.
Aided by the Firefly: The Sting graphic novel, Boom appears to have had a strong month, with a year-to-year increase rivaling DC’s and a dollar market share of 3.46%, meriting fourth place. It was Boom’s highest market share since the Loot Crate title Bravest Warriors: Tales from the Holo John #1 helped it hit 3.96% in May 2015. The November 2019 performance is more significant, since it came organically from Direct Market orders.
Graphic novel orders were up 4% in units and 7% in dollars, notable in that 19 fewer (or 5%) graphic novels were released in the month, year-over-year. Graphic novels are likely to finish down for the year, but only slightly — and remember, comics retailers order graphic novels from more sources than just Diamond.
The hardcover collection of DCeased led the unit sales chart; Savage Sword of Conan: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 2 led the dollar chart.
Seven DC titles made the Top 10 for dollars; the Crisis on Infinite Earths Box Set (seen at left) placed second. At $500 each at full retail, it doesn’t take nearly as many units to make the dollar charts!
The comparative sales statistics are here. Disregard the October-to-November comparisons, as that month had an extra Wednesday (and Halloween ComicFest to boot), making comparisons less meaningful:
| Dollars | Units | |
|---|---|---|
| November 2019 Vs. October 2019 | ||
| Comics | -28.87% | -24.86% |
| Graphic Novels | -12.33% | -14.39% |
| Total Comics/Graphic Novels | -24.86% | -24.19% |
| Toys | -8.72% | -13.86% |
| November 2019 Vs. November 2018 | ||
| Comics | +3.12% | +2.91% |
| Graphic Novels | +7.43% | +3.94% |
| Total Comics/Graphic Novels | +4.30% | +2.98% |
| Toys | -1.30% | +15.09% |
| Year To Date 2019 Vs. Year To Date 2018 | ||
| Comics | +4.10% | -1.42% |
| Graphic Novels | -3.21% | -8.65% |
| Total Comics/Graphic Novels | +2.02% | -1.96% |
| Toys | 19.15% | 21.54% |
The market shares:
| Publisher | Dollar Share | Unit Share |
|---|---|---|
| Marvel | 37.41% | 42.68% |
| DC | 30.72% | 32.41% |
| Image | 7.90% | 7.87% |
| Boom | 3.46% | 3.07% |
| IDW | 3.42% | 3.04% |
| Dark Horse | 3.38% | 2.37% |
| Dynamite | 2.03% | 1.45% |
| Viz | 1.48% | 0.56% |
| Titan | 0.70% | 0.50% |
| Oni | 0.57% | 0.46% |
| Other | 8.93% | 5.59% |
The top-selling comics by units are here. The asterisk by Undiscovered Country denotes it was returnable:
| TOP COMIC BOOKS (by units) | PRICE | PUBLISHER | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Mutants #1 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 2 | X-Men #2 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 3 | Absolute Carnage #5 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 4 | X-Force #1 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 5 | Fallen Angels #1 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 6 | Deadpool #1 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 7 | Amazing Spider-Man #33 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 8 | Undiscovered Country #1* | $3.99 | Image |
| 9 | Batman #82 Acetate Cover | $3.99 | DC |
| 10 | Amazing Spider-Man #34 | $3.99 | Marvel |
The top-selling comics by dollars:
| TOP COMIC BOOKS (by dollars) | PRICE | PUBLISHER | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Mutants #1 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 2 | Absolute Carnage #5 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 3 | X-Force #1 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 4 | X-Men #2 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 5 | Deadpool #1 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 6 | Fallen Angels #1 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 7 | Undiscovered Country #1* | $3.99 | Image |
| 8 | Batman: White Knight Presents: Von Freeze #1 | $5.99 | DC |
| 9 | Scream: Curse of Carnage #1 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 10 | Amazing Spider-Man #33 | $3.99 | Marvel |
The top-selling graphic novels by units:
| TOP GRAPHIC NOVELS (by units) | PRICE | PUBLISHER | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DCeased HC | $29.99 | DC |
| 2 | Firefly: The Sting HC | $19.99 | Boom |
| 3 | Immortal Hulk Vol. 5: Breaker of Worlds | $15.99 | Marvel |
| 4 | November Vol. 1 HC | $16.99 | Image |
| 5 | Superman: Year One HC | $29.99 | DC |
| 6 | Legend of Korra Part 2: Ruins of Empire | $10.99 | Dark Horse |
| 7 | Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Allegiance | $15.99 | Marvel |
| 8 | League of Legends: Lux | $15.99 | Marvel |
| 9 | Savage Avengers Vol. 1: City of Sickles | $15.99 | Marvel |
| 10 | Stranger Things: Six | $17.99 | Dark Horse |
The top-selling graphic novels by dollars:
| TOP GRAPHIC NOVELS (by dollars) | PRICE | PUBLISHER | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Savage Sword of Conan: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 2 HC | $125.00 | Marvel |
| 2 | Crisis On Infinite Earths Box Set HC | $500.00 | DC |
| 3 | Absolute Swamp Thing By Alan Moore Vol. 1 HC | $99.99 | DC |
| 4 | Dceased HC | $29.99 | DC |
| 5 | Doom Patrol: The Bronze Age Omnibus HC | $125.00 | DC |
| 6 | Superman: Year One HC | $29.99 | DC |
| 7 | Firefly: The Sting HC | $19.99 | Boom |
| 8 | Batman By Snyder & Capullo Omnibus Vol. 1 HC | $125.00 | DC |
| 9 | New Teen Titans Omnibus Vol. 4 HC | $99.00 | DC |
| 10 | Marvel Masterworks: Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 31 HC | $75.00 | Marvel |
Finally, the number of new items offered. Remember, the real DC number for comics is closer to 80:
| Publisher | Comics shipped |
Graphic Novels shipped |
Magazines shipped |
Total shipped |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DC | 96 | 31 | 0 | 127 |
| Marvel | 84 | 36 | 0 | 120 |
| Image | 40 | 15 | 0 | 55 |
| IDW | 36 | 14 | 0 | 50 |
| Dark Horse | 22 | 22 | 0 | 44 |
| Boom | 19 | 15 | 0 | 34 |
| Viz | 0 | 27 | 0 | 27 |
| Dynamite | 14 | 9 | 0 | 23 |
| Titan | 8 | 7 | 1 | 16 |
| Oni | 3 | 4 | 0 | 7 |
| Other | 152 | 200 | 24 | 376 |
| TOTAL SHIPPED | 474 | 380 | 25 | 879 |
We haven’t learned yet how Diamond intends to treat the comics shipping early in December with an on-sale date of January 1. In the past, issues straddling the New Year have sometimes been counted with December, sometimes with January. It’s a limited number of releases, so its impact might not be very large. The most noticable effect of the decision would probably be on January, which will be up against a five-week month in year-to-year comparisons. 2019 itself doesn’t look like it’ll need January 1’s books to finish ahead for the year.
A two-point increase, if it holds, would be the best year-over-year increase since 2015. A $525-530 million year, which looks likely, would represent around a 25% increase over the $418 million in sales in 2010, a decade earlier; adjusted for inflation, that’s an still an increase of about 8%.
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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