{"id":4106,"date":"2017-12-15T16:24:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T16:24:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-07-30T18:05:30","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T23:05:30","slug":"dcs-doomsday-clock-helps-make-november","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/15\/dcs-doomsday-clock-helps-make-november\/","title":{"rendered":"DC&#8217;s Doomsday Clock helps make November 2017 second best month of year; GN orders grow"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: right;\">\n<i><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'arial' , 'helvetica' , sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><i><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'arial' , 'helvetica' , sans-serif;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/ComichronNovember2017Preliminary-1.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"328\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"386\" data-original-width=\"753\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'arial' , 'helvetica' , sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<style type=\"text\/css\">\n table.tableizer-table {<br \/>\n  font-size: 12px;<br \/>\n  border: 1px solid #CCC;<br \/>\n  font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;<br \/>\n }<br \/>\n .tableizer-table td {<br \/>\n  padding: 4px;<br \/>\n  margin: 3px;<br \/>\n  border: 1px solid #CCC;<br \/>\n }<br \/>\n .tableizer-table th {<br \/>\n  background-color: #104E8B;<br \/>\n  color: #FFF;<br \/>\n  font-weight: bold;<br \/>\n }<br \/>\n<\/style>\n<p><span style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/DoomsdayClock1-1.jpg\" alt=\" See eBay listings for this issue\" width=\"208\" height=\"320\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"1200\" data-original-width=\"781\" \/><\/span><b><i><a href=\"http:\/\/shrsl.com\/p2au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Doomsday Clock<\/a><\/i><\/b> and its continuing Batman-related event during the<b><i> Justice League<\/i><\/b> movie&#8217;s release month combined to give <b>DC<\/b>\u00a0<b>its strongest month of 2017 by far <\/b>in November 2017, outstripping its previous November (which also had five shipping weeks) by 21%. That&#8217;s a major beat, and a reversal after a long string of comparatives against Rebirth months; we&#8217;re now into comparisons with the 2016 months where Rebirth issues weren&#8217;t returnable.<\/p>\n<p>It was enough to give the Direct Market its second-best month of 2017, as retailers ordered almost exactly $47 million in comic books, graphic novels, and magazines from Diamond in the month. It would have been better had DC&#8217;s strength been matched elsewhere \u2014 but orders for the market minus DC were down 15% year-over-year, including, unusually, <b>Image<\/b>, which had been pacing ahead of its 2016 performance all year. So the overall market was down 5.8% versus <b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.comichron.com\/monthlycomicssales\/2016\/2016-11.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the previous November,<\/a><\/b> but that&#8217;s the lowest decline since we got into the Rebirth comparative months.<\/p>\n<p>It was the first month with no Image graphic novels in the Top 10 since <a href=\"http:\/\/www.comichron.com\/monthlycomicssales\/2016\/2016-01.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>January 2016<\/b><\/a>. It&#8217;s something that&#8217;s happened a few times this decade, but not very often. Only 14 new Image GNs were released, against even fewer (9) last November; Image appears to do the bulk of its holiday graphic novel releases earlier in the fall. Still, graphic novels had a good month, up 2.21% over the previous November. With\u00a0<b><i>Star Wars: The Last Jedi<\/i><\/b>\u00a0releasing, the franchise again topped the graphic novel charts with\u00a0<b><i><a href=\"http:\/\/shrsl.com\/p2aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Star Wars: Darth Vader Vol. 1: Imperial Machine<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><span style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/aug171045-1.jpg\" alt=\" Find this book at TFAW.com\" width=\"209\" height=\"320\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"610\" data-original-width=\"400\" \/><\/span><\/div>\n<p>So we now have one positive category, with the others down only in single-digits percentage-wise \u2014 with the exception of comic book unit sales, which were off 13.28%. Recall, however, that November 2016 was a significant month for Marvel overship volume. We&#8217;re going to get into some more months like as the winter progresses.<\/p>\n<p>To get back to another five-week November to compare with before 2016, you have to go to <b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.comichron.com\/monthlycomicssales\/2011\/2011-11.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 2011<\/a><\/b>, the strongest autumn month following the New 52 relaunch. November 2017&#8217;s sales beat those from that month easily, $47 million to $41.28 million. That&#8217;s an increase of 14% and demonstrates that, while 2017 has been a definite rough patch, major growth took place in the market following the last market lull, and we&#8217;re still at a higher plateau.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re looking now at a year between $525 and $530 million in overall comics, graphic novels, and magazines ordered, likely down 9%; comic book units are looking at around 90 million copies for the year, off around 9%. The latter is lower than recent levels, but, again, higher than 2013 and previous years of the decade.<\/p>\n<p>The comparatives:<\/p>\n<table class=\"tableizer-table\">\n<thead>\n<tr class=\"tableizer-firstrow\">\n<th><\/th>\n<th>Dollars<\/th>\n<th>Units<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><b>November 2017 Vs. October 2017<\/b><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Comics<\/td>\n<td>-3.63%<\/td>\n<td>-4.73%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Graphic Novels<\/td>\n<td>19.29%<\/td>\n<td>27.04%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Total Comics\/GNs<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>3.11%<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>-2.54%<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Toys<\/td>\n<td>45.65%<\/td>\n<td>39.93%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>November 2017 Vs. November 2016<\/b><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Comics<\/td>\n<td>-9.45%<\/td>\n<td>-13.28%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Graphic Novels<\/td>\n<td>2.21%<\/td>\n<td>-1.73%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Total Comics\/GNs<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>-5.80%<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>-12.36%<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Toys<\/td>\n<td>-4.88%<\/td>\n<td>-20.66%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Year-To-Date 2017 Vs. Year-To-Date 2016<\/b><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Comics<\/td>\n<td>-9.89%<\/td>\n<td>-8.38%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Graphic Novels<\/td>\n<td>-9.32%<\/td>\n<td>-11.72%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Total Comics\/GNs<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>-9.72%<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>-8.65%<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Toys<\/td>\n<td>-11.01%<\/td>\n<td>-18.12%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Among the bright spots, <b>Dynamite&#8217;s<\/b> orders were up nearly 50% over the same month in the previous year. That was enough to vault the publisher into fifth place. The market shares:<\/p>\n<table class=\"tableizer-table\">\n<thead>\n<tr class=\"tableizer-firstrow\">\n<th>Publisher<\/th>\n<th>Dollar Share<\/th>\n<th>Unit Share<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Marvel<\/td>\n<td>34.29%<\/td>\n<td>34.52%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<td>33.71%<\/td>\n<td>39.37%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Image<\/td>\n<td>8.07%<\/td>\n<td>8.26%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>IDW<\/td>\n<td>4.04%<\/td>\n<td>3.66%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Dynamite<\/td>\n<td>2.20%<\/td>\n<td>2.15%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Dark Horse<\/td>\n<td>2.08%<\/td>\n<td>1.53%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Boom<\/td>\n<td>2.06%<\/td>\n<td>1.61%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Viz<\/td>\n<td>1.34%<\/td>\n<td>0.53%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Titan<\/td>\n<td>1.31%<\/td>\n<td>1.07%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Oni<\/td>\n<td>1.23%<\/td>\n<td>0.76%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><i>Doomsday Clock<\/i>&#8216;s regular and lenticular versions ended 1-2 in the rankings; it&#8217;s already been reprinted. The promo button appears to have helped, and\u00a0<b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ebay.com\/sch\/Modern-Age-1992-Now\/900\/i.html?LH_Auction=1&amp;_from=R40&amp;_nkw=doomsday+clock+1&amp;_sop=5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">many of the eBay auctions for the book<\/a><\/b> seem to be going with the button as a package deal. The top-selling comics:<\/p>\n<table class=\"tableizer-table\">\n<thead>\n<tr class=\"tableizer-firstrow\">\n<th><\/th>\n<th>COMIC BOOK<\/th>\n<th>PRICE<\/th>\n<th>PUBLISHER<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>1<\/td>\n<td><b><a href=\"http:\/\/shrsl.com\/p2au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Doomsday Clock #1<\/a><\/b><\/td>\n<td>$4.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>2<\/td>\n<td>Doomsday Clock #1 Lenticular Edition<\/td>\n<td>$5.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>3<\/td>\n<td>The Batman Who Laughs #1<\/td>\n<td>$3.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>4<\/td>\n<td>Batman Lost #1<\/td>\n<td>$4.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>5<\/td>\n<td>Batman #35<\/td>\n<td>$2.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>6<\/td>\n<td>Batman #34<\/td>\n<td>$2.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>7<\/td>\n<td>Batman: The Devastator #1<\/td>\n<td>$3.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>8<\/td>\n<td>Captain America #695<\/td>\n<td>$3.99<\/td>\n<td>Marvel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>9<\/td>\n<td>Batman Annual #2<\/td>\n<td>$4.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>10<\/td>\n<td>Star Wars #38<\/td>\n<td>$3.99<\/td>\n<td>Marvel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>The top-selling graphic novels:<\/p>\n<table class=\"tableizer-table\">\n<thead>\n<tr class=\"tableizer-firstrow\">\n<th><\/th>\n<th>GRAPHIC NOVEL<\/th>\n<th>PRICE<\/th>\n<th>PUBLISHER<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>1<\/td>\n<td><b><a href=\"http:\/\/shrsl.com\/p2aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Star Wars: Darth Vader Vol. 1: Imperial Machine<\/a><\/b><\/td>\n<td>17.99<\/td>\n<td>Marvel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>2<\/td>\n<td>Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe&#8230; Again<\/td>\n<td>$15.99<\/td>\n<td>Marvel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>3<\/td>\n<td>The Flash Vol. 4: Running Scared<\/td>\n<td>$14.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>4<\/td>\n<td>Wonder Woman Vol. 4: Godwatch<\/td>\n<td>$16.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>5<\/td>\n<td>Rick And Morty Volume 1<\/td>\n<td>$19.99<\/td>\n<td>Oni<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>6<\/td>\n<td>Star Wars: Rogue One Adaptation<\/td>\n<td>$19.99<\/td>\n<td>Marvel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>7<\/td>\n<td>Journey To Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Captain Phasma<\/td>\n<td>$16.99<\/td>\n<td>Marvel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>8<\/td>\n<td>Superman Volume 4: Black Dawn<\/td>\n<td>$16.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>9<\/td>\n<td>Star Wars: Darth Maul: Son Of Dathomir<\/td>\n<td>$15.99<\/td>\n<td>Marvel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>10<\/td>\n<td>Justice League Vol. 4: Endless<\/td>\n<td>$16.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>And the total number of new items shipped:<\/p>\n<table class=\"tableizer-table\">\n<thead>\n<tr class=\"tableizer-firstrow\">\n<th>Publisher<\/th>\n<th>Comics<br \/>\nshipped<\/th>\n<th>Graphic<br \/>\nNovels<br \/>\nshipped<\/th>\n<th>Magazines<br \/>\nshipped<\/th>\n<th>Total shipped<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<td>95<\/td>\n<td>36<\/td>\n<td>0<\/td>\n<td>131<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Marvel<\/td>\n<td>85<\/td>\n<td>46<\/td>\n<td>0<\/td>\n<td>131<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Image<\/td>\n<td>68<\/td>\n<td>14<\/td>\n<td>0<\/td>\n<td>82<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>IDW<\/td>\n<td>43<\/td>\n<td>26<\/td>\n<td>0<\/td>\n<td>69<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Boom<\/td>\n<td>25<\/td>\n<td>16<\/td>\n<td>0<\/td>\n<td>41<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Titan<\/td>\n<td>23<\/td>\n<td>10<\/td>\n<td>8<\/td>\n<td>41<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Viz<\/td>\n<td>0<\/td>\n<td>40<\/td>\n<td>0<\/td>\n<td>40<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Dynamite<\/td>\n<td>25<\/td>\n<td>9<\/td>\n<td>0<\/td>\n<td>34<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Dark Horse<\/td>\n<td>14<\/td>\n<td>12<\/td>\n<td>0<\/td>\n<td>26<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Oni<\/td>\n<td>8<\/td>\n<td>2<\/td>\n<td>0<\/td>\n<td>10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Other<\/td>\n<td>156<\/td>\n<td>244<\/td>\n<td>30<\/td>\n<td>430<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>TOTAL SHIPPED<\/td>\n<td>542<\/td>\n<td>455<\/td>\n<td>38<\/td>\n<td>1035<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>The final estimates will be online here Monday. In the meantime, don&#8217;t spoil the movie for anyone!<br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><i><\/i><i><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Doomsday Clock and its continuing Batman-related event during the Justice League movie&#8217;s release month combined to give DC\u00a0its strongest month of 2017 by far in November 2017, outstripping its previous November (which also had five shipping weeks) by 21%. That&#8217;s a major beat, and a reversal after a long string of comparatives against Rebirth &#8230; <a title=\"DC&#8217;s Doomsday Clock helps make November 2017 second best month of year; GN orders grow\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/15\/dcs-doomsday-clock-helps-make-november\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about DC&#8217;s Doomsday Clock helps make November 2017 second best month of year; GN orders grow\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[39,17,52],"class_list":["post-4106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2017-sales","tag-diamond-monthly-reports","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4106"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6308,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106\/revisions\/6308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}