Last June was the biggest month in comics in 20+ years, thanks to Rebirth and Civil War II — and the fifth week giveth, the fifth week taketh away. Pick your explanation, but the totals were very definitely down in June 2017, according to a report issued this morning by Diamond Comic Distributors. Comichron’s analysis puts comic shop orders of comic books, graphic novels, and magazines at $46.09 million in the four-week month, down considerably from last year’s record $58.59 million in a month with one additional shipping week. The comparative was always going to be extremely hard to beat, which is why we warned you about it early.
The news isn’t all dire, so let’s hit the brighter spots first: Under the hood, if you divide sales by the number of weeks in the month, the individual weeks in June were the strongest all year to date. That $46.09 million divides to $11.52 million per shipping week, the highest total since October. The second quarter beat the first quarter this year by 7.84% — as it should in any kind of normal situation — and 2017’s new comics units so far, though infused with overship and 25-cent Image copies, are up from the year-to-date last year by 2.56%.
On the other hand, that’s the only category that’s up for the year. Comics dollars are slightly off, and combined comics, graphic novels, and magazines stand at $261.18 million for the year, off from $280.16 million in the more editorially front-loaded 2016. We were off even more, though, by this time in June 2011, and DC’s New 52 relaunch brought the market almost to even by the end of the year.
(Update: Looking more closely, just three issues last June — Civil War II #1, Batman #1, and Batman Rebirth #1 — accounted for $3.72 million, or nearly a third of the margin last June had over this June. Blockbusters still matter — or at least, the absence of them does.)
The big laggard this year continues to be graphic novels, possibly in part a reflection of a weaker fall and winter last year for new releases, since now is when those comics are being collected. There may also be a dynamic of retailers keeping their powder dry, as July has a heavy release slate coming. Flying Colors‘ Joe Field tweeted yesterday about the challenges involved with ordering for July.
The aggregate sales:
| Dollars | Units | |
|---|---|---|
| June 2017 Vs. May 2017 | ||
| Comics | -0.43% | -5.91% |
| Graphic Novels | -13.01% | -8.00% |
| Total Comics/GN | -4.31% | -6.08% |
| Toys | -18.49% | -38.75% |
| June 2017 Vs. June 2016 | ||
| Comics | -18.38% | -20.16% |
| Graphic Novels | -28.04% | -30.14% |
| Total Comics/GN | -21.34% | -21.06% |
| Toys | -20.11% | -37.01% |
| Year-To-Date 2017 Vs. Year-To-Date 2016 | ||
| Comics | -0.0384 | 0.0256 |
| Graphic Novels | -12.99% | -13.50% |
| Total Comics/GN | -6.77% | 1.15% |
| Toys | -2.84% | -6.29% |
| Second Quarter 2017 Vs. First Quarter 2017 | ||
| Comics | 8.21% | 1.37% |
| Graphic Novels | 6.99% | 17.06% |
| Total Comics/GN | 7.84% | 2.47% |
| Toys | -12.46% | -6.82% |
| Second Quarter 2017 Vs. Second Quarter 2016 | ||
| Comics | -7.68% | -4.64% |
| Graphic Novels | -15.03% | -13.50% |
| Total Comics/GN | -10.01% | -5.41% |
| Toys | -3.19% | -11.96% |
The market shares found Marvel leading in both categories:
| Dollar Share | Unit Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Marvel | 38.54% | 42.82% |
| DC | 30.61% | 31.76% |
| Imge | 8.86% | 9.00% |
| IDW | 4.24% | 3.18% |
| Dark Horse | 3.46% | 2.47% |
| Boom | 1.83% | 1.61% |
| Dynamite | 1.79% | 2.07% |
| Titan | 1.02% | 0.76% |
| Viz | 1.01% | 0.36% |
| Oni | 0.79% | 0.59% |
| Other | 7.84% | 5.37% |
Marvel’s Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #1 led the new comics charts, a month in advance of the successful Spider-Man: Homecoming movie launch.
| COMIC BOOK | PRICE | PUBLISHER | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #1 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 2 | Dark Days: The Forge #1 | $4.99 | DC |
| 3 | Star Wars: Darth Vader #1 | $4.99 | Mar |
| 4 | Batman #24 | $2.99 | DC |
| 5 | Dark Knight III: The Master Race #9 | $5.99 | DC |
| 6 | Batman #25 | $3.99 | DC |
| 7 | Edge of Venomverse #1 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 8 | Secret Empire #4 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 9 | Secret Empire #5 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 10 | The Walking Dead #168 | $2.99 | Image |
And The Wicked & The Divine Vol. 5 led the graphic novel chart for the month:
| GRAPHIC NOVEL | PRICE | PUBLISHER | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Wicked & The Divine Vol. 5: Imperial Phase I | $16.99 | Image |
| 2 | DC Super Hero Girls Vol. 3: Summer Olympus | $9.99 | DC |
| 3 | Motor Crush Volume 1 | $9.99 | Image |
| 4 | Descender Volume 4: Orbital Mechanics | $16.99 | Image |
| 5 | Spider-Man/Deadpool Volume 2: Side Pieces | $16.99 | Marvel |
| 6 | Teen Titans Vol. 1: Damian Knows Best | $16.99 | DC |
| 7 | Harley Quinn Vol. 2: The Joker Loves Harley | $16.99 | DC |
| 8 | Star Wars: Doctor Aphra Volume 1: Aphra | $17.99 | Marvel |
| 9 | A.D.: After Death HC | $24.99 | Image |
| 10 | Nightwing Vol. 2: Back To Bludhaven | $16.99 | DC |
DC’s number of new comic-book releases rose quite a lot over the Rebirth-shortened slate from last June, while Marvel’s dropped.
| Publisher | Comics shipped | Graphic Novels shipped | Magazines shipped | Total shipped |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marvel | 101 | 39 | 0 | 140 |
| DC | 84 | 36 | 1 | 121 |
| Image | 55 | 15 | 1 | 71 |
| IDW | 51 | 17 | 0 | 68 |
| Dark Horse | 22 | 20 | 0 | 42 |
| Boom | 23 | 9 | 0 | 32 |
| Titan | 15 | 14 | 2 | 31 |
| Dynamite | 23 | 2 | 0 | 25 |
| Viz | 0 | 22 | 0 | 22 |
| Oni | 12 | 6 | 0 | 18 |
| Other | 116 | 142 | 19 | 277 |
| Total | 502 | 322 | 23 | 847 |
It’ll still be a while yet, however, before we see whether Marvel’s Legacy initiative makes a difference.
We do know the market overall did well last year according to our just-released joint report with ICV2, with book channel up more than the Direct Market is off so far this year; it’ll be interesting to see whether that market has been unaffected by the slowdown in graphic novels in comics shops.
Check back here Monday for the sales estimates for the month. It’ll be my 250th consecutive monthly report — haven’t missed a month yet!
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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