While this September had one fewer shipping weeks than last September, comics sales nonetheless bested their performance from a year ago, according to a preliminary report issued this morning from Diamond Comic Distributors.
Comichron estimates that comics ships in North America ordered $46.33 million in comic books, graphic novels, and magazines in the month of September, up more than 2% over the same month last year. That figure includes 8.15 million comic books, an increase of nearly 16% over last September’s figure of 7.04 million copies. As reported here last month, we’re now able to track overall comic book sales both into the future and all the way back to the start of 2011.
Sales were off from the blockbuster August — although not by much at all once you consider August’s fifth shipping week. Retailers ordered 2.05 million comics per shipping week in August versus 2.04 million comics per week in September. Compare that with last September, when retailers ordered 1.41 million comics per shipping week, and you have a month — led by DC’s Batman #6 — that looks pretty good on the comics side.
And while graphic novels — led by Image’s Walking Dead Vol. 26 — When we’re looking at dollars, September was actually stronger per week than August was: retailers ordered $11.58 million in comic books, graphic novels, and magazines per shipping week in September, versus $11.53 million per week in August. All this is encapsulated in our new, Comichron-exclusive weekly sales breakdown, which breaks down each month by the number of “New Comics Days”:
| September 2015 | August 2016 | September 2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comics ordered in month | 7,046,700 | 10,260,000 | 8,145,400 |
| Total value of comics, GNs, and magazines ordered in month |
$45,330,000 | $57,660,000 | $46,334,000 |
| New Comics Days in month | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| Comics ordered PER SHIP WEEK in month |
1,409,140 | 2,052,000 | 2,036,350 |
| Total value of comics, GNs, magazines ordered PER SHIP WEEK in month |
$9,066,000.00 | $11,532,000.00 | $11,583,500.00 |
The weekly breakdown above is an imperfect measure for a number of reasons — the number of new monthly comics released does not increase by 25% when you add a fifth shipping week to a month, so a four-week month should look a little stronger than a five-week one when controlling for the number of New Comics Days. But adding the measure should serve as a reminder of the calendar’s role.
The aggregate changes over time:
| Dollars | Units | |
|---|---|---|
| September 2016 vs. August 2016 | ||
| Comics | -23.78% | -20.61% |
| Graphic Novels | -8.25% | -8.37% |
| TOTAL COMICS/GNs | -19.65% | -19.79% |
| September 2016 vs. September 2015 | ||
| Comics | 9.23% | 15.61% |
| Graphic Novels | -10.94% | -14.46% |
| TOTAL COMICS/GNs | 2.20% | 12.57% |
| 3rd Quarter 2016 vs. 2nd Quarter 2016 | ||
| Comics | 8.61% | 14.57% |
| Graphic Novels | -10.41% | -12.89% |
| TOTAL COMICS/GNs | 2.60% | 12.16% |
| 3rd Quarter 2016 vs. 3rd Quarter 2015 | ||
| Comics | 18.31% | 23.20% |
| Graphic Novels | -8.66% | -13.19% |
| TOTAL COMICS/GNs | 9.40% | 19.79% |
| Year-to-Date 2016 Vs. Year-to-Date 2015 | ||
| Comics | 3.32% | 1.59% |
| Graphic Novels | 1.15% | -0.82% |
| TOTAL COMICS/GNs | 2.65% | 1.39% |
The market shares found DC again at the top of both categories:
| Publisher | Dollar Share | Unit Share |
|---|---|---|
| DC | 36.53% | 43.45% |
| Marvel | 31.40% | 30.75% |
| Image | 9.04% | 8.80% |
| IDW | 4.60% | 3.55% |
| Dark Horse | 3.23% | 2.43% |
| Boom | 2.38% | 1.95% |
| Titan | 1.29% | 1.27% |
| Viz | 1.10% | 0.39% |
| Oni | 1.02% | 0.79% |
| Dynamite | 0.94% | 0.78% |
| Other | 8.46% | 5.84% |
Batman #6
was, as noted, the top-ordered comic book of the month. The issue is not marked
with an asterisk, and thus did not have its orders reduced for
returnability. Same for issue #7, which placed third.
| Comic Book | Price | Publisher | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Batman #6 | $2.99 | DC |
| 2 | All-Star Batman #2* | $4.99 | DC |
| 3 | Batman #7 | $2.99 | DC |
| 4 | Civil War II #5 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 5 | Justice League #4* | $2.99 | DC |
| 6 | The Walking Dead #158 | $2.99 | Image |
| 7 | Trinity #1* | $2.99 | DC |
| 8 | Supergirl #1* | $2.99 | DC |
| 9 | Suicide Squad #2* | $2.99 | DC |
| 10 | Justice League #5* | $2.99 | DC |
As noted, a new Walking Dead volume led the Top 10 Graphic novels for the month:
| Graphic Novel | Price | Publisher | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Walking Dead Vol. 26: Call To Arms Tp (Mr) | $14.99 | Image |
| 2 | Wonder Woman: The True Amazon HC | $22.99 | DC |
| 3 | Batman Vol. 8: Superheavy | $16.99 | DC |
| 4 | Batman Vol. 9: Bloom HC | $24.99 | DC |
| 5 | The Fix Vol. 1 | $9.99 | Image |
| 6 | Avatar: The Last Airbender Vol. 13: North And South Part 1 | $10.99 | Dark Horse |
| 7 | Secret Wars | $34.99 | Marvel |
| 8 | Batman: The Killing Joke Special Edition HC | $17.99 | DC |
| 9 | Justice League Vol. 7: The Darkseid War Part 1 | $16.99 | DC |
| 10 | Harley Quinn Vol. 4: A Call To Arms | $16.99 | DC |
And here’s how many new books and comics came out from publishers in the month:
| Comics shipped |
Graphic Novels shipped |
Magazines shipped |
Total shipped |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marvel | 82 | 40 | 0 | 122 |
| DC | 76 | 36 | 0 | 112 |
| Image | 53 | 18 | 1 | 72 |
| IDW | 40 | 13 | 0 | 53 |
| Dark Horse | 26 | 18 | 0 | 44 |
| Boom | 24 | 14 | 0 | 38 |
| Viz | 0 | 23 | 0 | 23 |
| Titan | 17 | 2 | 3 | 22 |
| Dynamite | 16 | 4 | 0 | 20 |
| Oni | 9 | 2 | 0 | 11 |
| Other | 115 | 131 | 12 | 258 |
| TOTAL | 458 | 301 | 16 | 775 |
We’ll be back on Monday with not just the final estimates — but our first twenty-year sales tracks on the Top 300 comics, both in terms of comics and dollars.
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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