Finishing a chore that built up while waiting to see what Diamond would do, November 2020’s rankings based on our retail dataset’s initial orders are now online. That’s the month when Diamond paused its sales reports, setting off this latest ongoing phase of uncertainty. November saw strong sales on a smaller slate, which seems to be the story of the year. Fewer new releases, more copies sold. In these months we’re seeing 25% to 33% fewer new comics released, yet initial order totals beating (in November’s case, handily) the bigger slates of 2019-early 2020. DC pared its offerings in 2018, but not everyone did it. The pandemic refocused everyone on their bestsellers.
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.
Be sure to follow Comichron on Twitter and Facebook, and check out our Youtube channel. You can also support us on Patreon!