Last year, April provided a big rebound from a weak winter in comics sales; this year’s winter was strong in comics shops, and its April was better still. Retailers ordered $56.72 million in comic books, graphic novels, and magazines in April, according to Diamond Comic Distributors, beating last October’s Diamond Era record by more than $600,000.
Last April’s sales were up 17% over the same month in 2013, but had the advantage of a fifth shipping week that April 2013 did not have. This April had five shipping weeks so it’s an even comparison — and even so, it was up by even more: 17.75%.
A lot can be attributed to strength in graphic novel orders, which have been generally softer than sales for comics this year: with a new Walking Dead volume and the Avengers: Rage of Ultron hardcover in the mix graphic novels were up 13.45%. The industry now stands up 12% year-over year.
The aggregate sales changes:
| DOLLARS | UNITS | |
| APRIL 2015 VS. MARCH 2014 |
||
| Comics | 32.70% | 27.45% |
| Graphic Novels |
41.29% | 41.25% |
| TOTAL COMICS/GNs |
35.22% | 28.45% |
| APRIL 2015 VS. APRIL 2014 |
||
| Comics | 19.75% | 22.50% |
| Graphic Novels |
13.45% | 10.03% |
| TOTAL COMICS/GNs |
17.75% | 21.40% |
| YEAR-TO-DATE 2015 VS. YEAR-TO-DATE 2014 |
||
| Comics | 15.58% | 16.22% |
| Graphic Novels |
4.37% | -3.63% |
| TOTAL COMICS/GNs |
12.00% | 14.47% |
Marvel’s Star Wars #4 led the charts; Star Wars titles have taken the #1 slot in the Direct Market comic shops every month this year. (Orphan Black #1 in February topped the charts because of its sales through Loot Crate; there weren’t any comics in the April Loot Crate, but it’s not clear from the initial lists whether anything in April saw any boosts similar repackagers.) DC’s weekly Convergence series had five weeks to work with, and took five slots in the Top 10.
| Description | Price | Vendor | |
| 1 | Star Wars #4 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 2 | Convergence #0* | $4.99 | DC |
| 3 | Convergence #1* | $4.99 | DC |
| 4 | Batman #40 | $4.99 | DC |
| 5 | Darth Vader #4 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 6 | Convergence #2* | $3.99 | DC |
| 7 | Convergence #3* | $3.99 | DC |
| 8 | Kanan: The Last Padawan #1 |
$3.99 | Marvel |
| 9 | Convergence #4* | $3.99 | DC |
| 10 | Princess Leia #3 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| Description | Price | Vendor | |
| 1 | The Walking Dead Vol. 23 |
$14.99 | Image |
| 2 | Avengers: Rage of Ultron HC |
$24.99 | Marvel |
| 3 | Fables Volume 21: Happily Ever After |
$17.99 | DC |
| 4 | Batman Vol. 5: Zero Year: Dark City |
$16.99 | DC |
| 5 | Saga Volume 4 | $14.99 | Image |
| 6 | Jupiter’s Legacy Vol. 1 |
$9.99 | Image |
| 7 | Harley Quinn Vol. 1: Hot In The City |
$16.99 | DC |
| 8 | Batman Volume 6: The Graveyard Shift HC |
$24.99 | DC |
| 9 | The Walking Dead Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye |
$14.99 | Image |
| 10 | Lumberjanes Vol. 1 | $14.99 | Boom |
Marvel and DC’s market shares were closer this month, owing partially to Convergence. The eighth spot for Titan marks the highest that publisher’s ever been:
| Dollar Share |
Unit Share | |
| Marvel | 34.15% | 36.33% |
| DC | 30.91% | 33.90% |
| Image | 10.23% | 11.18% |
| IDW | 6.00% | 4.78% |
| Dark Horse | 3.65% | 2.92% |
| Boom | 2.17% | 1.98% |
| Dynamite | 2.05% | 1.78% |
| Titan | 0.95% | 0.90% |
| Avatar | 0.94% | 0.73% |
| Oni | 0.89% | 0.54% |
| Other | 8.05% | 4.97% |
Finally, new release volume. Diamond shipped 543 new
comic books this April, versus 481 last April. But last October saw even
more new releases — 590 comics and 60 additional new graphic novels—and yet this April’s topline sales were higher. It’s not just how many books are coming out, it’s what the books are.
Below are the number of items that Diamond reported sales on for the first time in April:
| Comics shipped |
Graphic Novels shipped |
Magazines shipped |
Total shipped |
|
| Marvel | 88 | 40 | 1 | 129 |
| DC | 88 | 33 | 1 | 122 |
| IDW | 61 | 31 | 0 | 92 |
| Image | 74 | 15 | 0 | 89 |
| Dark Horse |
32 | 24 | 0 | 56 |
| Boom | 39 | 11 | 0 | 50 |
| Dynamite | 35 | 4 | 0 | 39 |
| Avatar | 12 | 2 | 1 | 15 |
| Titan | 7 | 3 | 4 | 14 |
| Oni | 8 | 5 | 0 | 13 |
| Other | 101 | 146 | 37 | 284 |
| TOTAL | 545 | 314 | 44 | 903 |
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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