With Captain America: The Winter Soldier releasing today, comic shops have managed to soldier through one of the more wretched winters for weather in recent memory without too many negative effects. Diamond Comic Distributors released its preliminary data for orders from the comics ship market for March 2014—and the month in overall dollars came in at approximately $40.7 million, just 1.48% behind the same month last year. (Last March was also a four ship-week month.) That puts the first quarter at $116.6 million, off 4.4% from last year.
Led by the new Walking Dead Vol. 20: All Out War Part 1, graphic novels were the high point of the month, up more than 18% over last March. With close to a two-to-one ratio between comics dollars and graphic novel dollars in the Direct Market, that nearly offset the more than 9% drop in new comics dollars. Batman #29, at $4.99 this month, was the #1 comic book in an soft market for periodicals, but sales reports indicate that April’s Amazing Spider-Man #1 may shake up that picture quite a bit. (It’s the third issue by that name, if I recall, not counting the one that came with the record album; the first one, from 1963, can be had for a mere $2,125 in CGC 2.5, whereas the second one from 1998 runs for under $5.)
The aggregate statistics are below. Don’t sweat the First Quarter 2014 versus Fourth Quarter 2013 change figures—fall always beats winter in a blowout:
| COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS |
||
| March 2014 vs. February 2014 |
DOLLARS | UNITS |
| Comics | 4.11% | 6.32% |
| Graphic Novels | 24.00% | 25.00% |
| Total Comics/GN |
10.22% | 7.93% |
| March 2014 vs. March 2013 |
||
| Comics | -9.47% | -11.83% |
| Graphic Novels | 18.31% | 22.85% |
| Total Comics/GN |
-1.48% | -9.28% |
| First Quarter 2014 vs. Fourth Quarter 2013 |
||
| Comics | -14.30% | -13.77% |
| Graphic Novels | -11.59% | -1.59% |
| Total Comics/GN |
-13.45% | -12.82% |
| First Quarter 2014 vs. First Quarter 2013 |
||
| Comics | -6.89% | -11.40% |
| Graphic Novels | 1.39% | 10.06% |
| Total Comics/GN |
-4.40% | -9.85% |
| Year-To-Date 2014 vs. Year-To-Date 2013 |
||
| Comics | -6.89% | -11.40% |
| Graphic Novels | 1.39% | 10.06% |
| Total Comics/GN |
-4.40% | -9.85% |
Marvel led the market shares in both units and dollars, in a month in which Image’s market share reached a 13-year peak:
| Publisher | Dollar share |
Unit share |
| Marvel Comics | 34.31% | 38.17% |
| DC Comics | 25.94% | 29.02% |
| Image Comics | 11.38% | 11.04% |
| Dark Horse Comics |
6.19% | 5.72% |
| IDW Publishing | 5.29% | 4.51% |
| Dynamic Forces | 2.61% | 2.56% |
| Boom Studios | 1.99% | 1.84% |
| Eaglemoss Publications |
1.59% | 0.35% |
| Avatar Press | 1.14% | 0.94% |
| Random House | 1.04% | 0.26% |
| Other | 8.53% | 5.59% |
The number of new products on the market rebounded. Ten fewer new comics were released, while 23 more graphic novels came out. (A fact that may have contributed to the fortunes of those two categories this month.
| PUBLISHER | COMICS SHIPPED |
GRAPHIC NOVELS SHIPPED |
MAGAZINES SHIPPED |
TOTAL SHIPPED |
| DC | 84 | 28 | 1 | 113 |
| Marvel | 75 | 34 | 0 | 109 |
| Image | 54 | 13 | 0 | 67 |
| IDW | 42 | 22 | 0 | 64 |
| Dark Horse |
42 | 15 | 0 | 57 |
| Dynamic Forces |
34 | 5 | 0 | 39 |
| Boom | 28 | 7 | 0 | 35 |
| Avatar | 11 | 4 | 0 | 15 |
| Random House |
0 | 15 | 0 | 15 |
| Eaglemoss | 0 | 0 | 12 | 12 |
| Other | 63 | 104 | 16 | 183 |
| Total | 433 | 247 | 29 | 709 |
The Top 10 comic books:
| Title | Price | Publisher | |
| 1 | Batman #29 | $4.99 | DC |
| 2 | Superman Unchained #6 | $3.99 | DC |
| 3 | Forever Evil #6 | $3.99 | DC |
| 4 | Sandman Overture #2 | $3.99 | DC |
| 5 | Superior Spider-Man #29 |
$3.99 | Marvel |
| 6 | Daredevil #1 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 7 | Superior Spider-Man #30 |
$3.99 | Marvel |
| 8 | Silver Surfer #1 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 9 | The Walking Dead #124 | $2.99 | Image |
| 10 | Uncanny X-Men #19.Now | $3.99 | Marvel |
And the Top 10 graphic novels:
| Title | Price | Publisher | |
| 1 | The Walking Dead Vol. 20: All Out War Part 1 |
$14.99 | Image |
| 2 | Saga Volume 3 | $14.99 | Image |
| 3 | Nemo: Roses of Berlin HC |
$14.95 | Top Shelf |
| 4 | Avatar: The Last Airbender Vol. 7: Rift Part 1 |
$10.99 | Dark Horse |
| 5 | Chew Volume 8: Family Recipes |
$12.99 | Image |
| 6 | Justice League: Trinity War HC |
$29.99 | DC |
| 7 | Harley Quinn: Welcome to Metropolis |
$19.99 | DC |
| 8 | Adventure Time Vol. 3: Seeing Red |
$11.99 | Boom |
| 9 | Marvel Masterworks: Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 |
$24.99 | Marvel |
| 10 | Stray Bullets Uber Alles Edition |
$59.99 | Image |
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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