{"id":4164,"date":"2017-09-08T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-07-30T18:19:56","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T23:19:56","slug":"augusts-comics-orders-cant-compare-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2017\/09\/08\/augusts-comics-orders-cant-compare-to\/","title":{"rendered":"August’s comics orders can’t compare to 2016’s Rebirth boom; Dark Nights: Metal, Paper Girls top charts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Full-line relaunches of the scale DC<\/b> engineered in 2016 with “Rebirth” and 2011 with the “New 52” are colossal market-distorting moments, making a hash of the comparative statistics both when their sales are reported, and when any future month’s sales are later compared with them. It takes a while for a revamped line to find its new equilibrium\u2014sales levels that are achievable regardless of variants or the issue number on the cover\u2014and only then are month-to-month or year-over-year comparisons of much use.<\/p>\n

So when I warned a few weeks ago that August 2017 would not be the month to look to for any kind of revival in the comic shop market’s fortunes, there was good reason: August 2016<\/a><\/b> was the epicenter of the Rebirth sales earthquake, with more than 10 million comic books shipping<\/a><\/b>. It was the first time that mark had been seen in two decades, thanks in part to the Rebirth titles being returnable. Consequently, sales for last month were way off the previous year’s pace, according to this morning\u2019s report from Diamond Comic Distributors<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\n

\"<\/span>Shipments were down 26% in new comic book units, and overall retail dollars spent on comics, graphic novels, and magazines dropped by nearly 21%.\u00a0Comichron<\/b> calculates that $45.7 million in product shipped, down from the previous August\u2019s 21st century record of $57.7 million; we also have revised our July figure down slightly here on the site, to $40.76 million. (Both Augusts had five shipping weeks, so that’s not a factor.) Overall sales stand at $347.67 million, down about $41 year to date, or about 10.5%.<\/p>\n

These are, in historic terms, significant drops. The period from June to August was down 20.5% against those Rebirth\/Civil War II months a year ago, the worst three-month year-over-year comparison since\u2026 well, we have to go back 20 years to September 1997<\/a><\/b> though November 1997<\/a><\/b>, the first set of year-to-year comparatives I ever calculated. Marvel\u2019s \u201cHeroes Reborn\u201d<\/a><\/b> event in September 1996<\/a> <\/b>and the wedding of Superman<\/a> <\/b>had been succeeded in 1997 by \u201cHeroes Return,\u201d<\/a> <\/b>which didn\u2019t fare as well. Top 300 unit sales in that three-month stretch in 1997 were off 21.9%, and graphic novels, while growing, weren\u2019t yet much of a factor. There are certainly worse year-over-year drops in the 1990s before that.<\/p>\n

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But while the 2017 drops are up there on the list, \u201cHeroes Reborn\u201d only rebooted four titles; a bigger explanation for the 1997 collapse, even beyond reboot fatigue, was the number of comics shop failures. Absent that in 2017 and given that DC relaunched so many more books, the scope of 2017\u2019s comparatives may say more about Rebirth\u2019s strength last year they do about conditions today.<\/p>\n

So once you catch your breath after reading those numbers, it\u2019s worth looking at some things going on under the surface. It\u2019s no surprise that DC\u2019s August sales weren\u2019t able to come remotely near comparing with its performance last year; the company had been tracking ahead of its 2016 performance earlier in the spring, but now accounts for about a third of the industry\u2019s 2017 shortfall in the Direct Market.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, August wasn’t a bad month for DC, volume-wise, when compared with more normal recent months; its sales were actually higher than the last five-week pre-Rebirth month in 2016. DC had the top seller in Scott Snyder <\/b>and Greg Capello<\/b>\u2019s Dark Nights: Metal<\/i> #1<\/b>,<\/a> the launching point for DC\u2019s fall event; the\u00a0second printing of the issue<\/a><\/b>\u00a0went on sale this past Wednesday.\u00a0Priced at $4.99, it stands a chance at being the publisher\u2019s release of the year in dollar terms, given how the cheaper lenticular and non-lenticular Batman issues added up. \u00a0The first issue of Rebirth was priced at $2.99; once we see the full numbers on Monday, we\u2019ll have a better notion of the scope of what might be coming in September as the Metal event gets more fully underway.<\/p>\n

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Marvel<\/b>\u2019s position is also interesting. Secret Empire<\/a><\/i><\/b>\u00a0came to an end with three releases; #10<\/b>, the finale, outranked the previous two issues. Again, through the spring, Marvel had been responsible for 100% of the industry\u2019s shortfall for the year, but as of August that\u2019s down to only around half, now that DC\u2019s facing its toughest comparatives from last year. Further, while Marvel\u2019s shipments continued to be down, it\u2019s pared back its losses \u2014 only off around 10% this month as compared with the 21% drop the whole market suffered. With “Legacy”<\/a><\/b>\u00a0launching, there\u2019s a chance for some ground to be made up.<\/p>\n

It should also be noted that after everything else that\u2019s happened in 2017, Image<\/b>, Dark Horse<\/b>, and Dynamite<\/b> remain ahead of where they were this time last year in terms of retail dollars ordered. Pockets of strength are good to see, because true recessionary times in comics tend to pull everything down. Image continues to be bolstered by strong graphic novel performances: <\/i>Paper Girls <\/i>Vol. 3<\/a><\/b> was the top-seller this month, and one of five Image GNs in the top 10.<\/p>\n

The comparative statistics:<\/p>\n