{"id":4319,"date":"2017-01-12T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-07-31T18:39:55","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T23:39:55","slug":"2016-comics-shop-orders-beat-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2017\/01\/12\/2016-comics-shop-orders-beat-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"2016 comics shop orders beat 2015 &#8212; barely &#8212; after icy December"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: right;\"><\/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<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/201612-1-JusticeLeagueSuicideSquad1-3.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/div>\n<p>As projected here a ways back, comics shop orders of comic books, graphic novels, and magazines finished up for the year, just barely, after a fourth quarter that lost much of the momentum gained in a strong summer. That&#8217;s according to my preliminary analysis of retailer orders just released by Diamond Comic Distributors, which found <b>Direct Market orders at $580.9 million for last year, up just three tenths of a percent <\/b>\u2014 or $1.7 million \u2014 over 2015.<\/p>\n<p>That said, it&#8217;s the fifth straight growth year, and the comics and graphic novel market <i><b>overall<\/b><\/i> is doing quite well, thanks to continued strength in the book channel and <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.comichron.com\/2017\/01\/book-channel-graphic-novel-sales.html\"><b>its reported 12% increase <\/b><\/a>over 2015. And while there will be more analysis here in the coming days, 2016 looks a lot less disappointing when you consider that our year-by-year comparisons are with a black swan (or is that black wampa?) event, the monumental return of <i><b>Star Wars<\/b><\/i> to Marvel&#8217;s comics line in 2015.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/2016review-4.gif\" border=\"0\" \/>Starting right at the beginning of the year with a million-copy first issue, Star Wars alone accounted for about 6% of Direct Market sales in 2015, or an addition of more than $31 million just when you count comics and graphic novels that made the Top 300 lists that year. That&#8217;s a tenfold increase over 2014, when Dark Horse was winding down with the license and published very little new material \u2014 a lot of dollars added to the marketplace. The Star Wars line continued to contribute in 2016, at about two-thirds 2015&#8217;s super-heated pace \u2014 and other comics and graphic novels made up the difference to keep 2016 just barely ahead of the year before. But a repeat of 2015&#8217;s 7% increase overall wasn&#8217;t something market-watchers expected.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, if you look at the growth figures following 2011&#8217;s DC relaunch, you can see a pattern: the Direct Market finding its way to a slower-growth equilibrium following that major event, with a brief blip from Star Wars:<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>2012: +15%<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>2013: +<\/b><b>6%<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>2014: +4%<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>2015: +7%<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>2016: +0.3%<\/b><\/div>\n<p>As you can see, 2012 was huge, coming off one of the market&#8217;s lower points in recent memory. Without the tens of millions of dollars added in 2015 and 2016 by Star Wars comics, we&#8217;d actually be looking at 2015 being the slowdown year, at +1% \u2014 and 2016 would have been an improvement, up 3%.<\/p>\n<p>So part of the story is that, thanks in part to DC&#8217;s Rebirth, the overall market was able to hang in there after a large burst of attention in 2015; the first quarter of 2016 was even able to eke out a slight gain versus the same quarter the year before, which was when the Star Wars launch began. New comics unit sales overall topped 99 million copies, just missing the nine-digit level. The letdown this year has really more been the fourth quarter, just ended: it was off 6%.<\/p>\n<p>The aggregate changes:<br \/>\n<!-- more --><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<table class=\"tableizer-table\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;\">\n<thead align=\"center\">\n<tr class=\"tableizer-firstrow\">\n<th><\/th>\n<th>Dollars<\/th>\n<th>Units<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\"><b>December 2016 Vs. November 2016<\/b><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Comics<\/td>\n<td>-9.01%<\/td>\n<td>-1.79%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Graphic Novels<\/td>\n<td>-11.19%<\/td>\n<td>1.10%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\"><b>Total Comics\/Graphic Novels<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>-9.69%<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>-1.56%<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Toys<\/td>\n<td>-12.28%<\/td>\n<td>-11.75%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\"><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\"><b>December 2016 Vs. December 2015<\/b><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Comics<\/td>\n<td>-18.84%<\/td>\n<td>-8.39%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Graphic Novels<\/td>\n<td>-4.24%<\/td>\n<td>18.44%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\"><b>Total Comics\/Graphic Novels<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>-14.84%<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>-6.66%<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Toys<\/td>\n<td>-36.78%<\/td>\n<td>-46.07%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\"><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\"><b>Fourth Quarter 2016 Vs. Third Quarter 2016<\/b><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Comics<\/td>\n<td>-7.42%<\/td>\n<td>-5.96%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Graphic Novels<\/td>\n<td>0.07%<\/td>\n<td>1.88%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\"><b>Total Comics\/Graphic Novels<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>-5.36%<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>-5.42%<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Toys<\/td>\n<td>-1.80%<\/td>\n<td>-11.85%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\"><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\"><b>Fourth Quarter 2016 Vs. Fourth Quarter 2015<\/b><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Comics<\/td>\n<td>-8.92%<\/td>\n<td>-0.53%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Graphic Novels<\/td>\n<td>1.53%<\/td>\n<td>12.21%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\"><b>Total Comics\/Graphic Novels<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>-6.11%<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>0.30%<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Toys<\/td>\n<td>-22.29%<\/td>\n<td>-30.42%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\"><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\"><b>Year 2016 Vs. Year 2015<\/b><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Comics<\/td>\n<td>-0.11%<\/td>\n<td>1.02%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Graphic Novels<\/td>\n<td>1.24%<\/td>\n<td>2.10%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\"><b>Total Comics\/Graphic Novels<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>0.30%<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>1.10%<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Toys<\/td>\n<td>-9.74%<\/td>\n<td>-14.18%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>The market shares for December follow. Note that these are not the market shares for 2016 overall; those will be along later.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<table class=\"tableizer-table\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;\">\n<thead align=\"center\">\n<tr class=\"tableizer-firstrow\">\n<th><\/th>\n<th>Dollar Share<\/th>\n<th>Unit Share<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Marvel<\/td>\n<td>36.73%<\/td>\n<td>40.50%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">DC<\/td>\n<td>29.47%<\/td>\n<td>29.04%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Image<\/td>\n<td>8.81%<\/td>\n<td>7.70%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">IDW<\/td>\n<td>5.49%<\/td>\n<td>4.10%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Dark Horse<\/td>\n<td>3.17%<\/td>\n<td>2.43%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Boom<\/td>\n<td>2.40%<\/td>\n<td>1.64%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Dynamite<\/td>\n<td>1.99%<\/td>\n<td>6.97%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Titan<\/td>\n<td>1.16%<\/td>\n<td>0.99%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Valiant<\/td>\n<td>1.10%<\/td>\n<td>1.20%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Viz<\/td>\n<td>1.09%<\/td>\n<td>0.34%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Other<\/td>\n<td>8.59%<\/td>\n<td>5.09%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/1114150-3.jpeg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/div>\n<p><b>An important note here: <\/b>remember that the\u00a0 category to care more about is <b>dollar sales<\/b>, and not unit sales, when it comes to market share. As we&#8217;ve seen with <b>Loot Crate<\/b> and when graphic novels are sold at deep discount, a publisher can get a lot of unit share without actually bringing in a commensurate portion of market share. In the above chart, for example, <b>Dynamite<\/b> got a five-point unit share bump thanks to the 25-cent copies of <b><i>Red Sonja<\/i> #0<\/b> it shipped to market. Diamond no longer includes promotionally priced items in the Top 300 chart \u2014books below $1, generally \u2014 so this unit share area is the only place you&#8217;ll see it.<\/p>\n<p>This is important to remember going forward, as it&#8217;ll be happening again with the Image 25-cent comics releasing next month \u2014 and, in a different way, unit share is impacted by the Marvel overship program. Overshipped copies have been and will continue to appear in the Diamond Top 300 charts with no reduction; the books were shipped to market with a cover price above $1, and at least some of them were paid for. But overshipped copies will only impact the unit market shares, and not the dollar ones.<\/p>\n<p>Diamond does provide the information to be able to tell what books are impacted by this; we just haven&#8217;t published it. That changes with the current redesign, which you may have noticed is slowly rolling out here: <b>Comichron will be including the retail or dollar rankings with all its comics and graphic novel charts<\/b> in the future, and you can sort by dollar ranking if desired. We are also retroactively adding dollar rankings where available as we retrofit the earlier pages; you can try it out on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.comichron.com\/monthlycomicssales\/2015.html\"><b>2015 end-of-year page<\/b><\/a> or the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.comichron.com\/monthlycomicssales\/2016\/2016-11.html\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>November 2016<\/b><\/a> page.<\/p>\n<p>On to the top sellers. On the comics side, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shareasale.com\/r.cfm?u=296154&amp;b=44882&amp;m=8908&amp;afftrack=&amp;urllink=www%2Etfaw%2Ecom%2FComics%2FProfile%2FJustice%2DLeague%2DSuicide%2DSquad%2D1%2D%2528of%2D6%2529%5F%5F%5F525034\"><i><b>Justice League\/Suicide Squad #1<\/b><\/i><\/a> led the pack:<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<table class=\"tableizer-table\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;\">\n<thead align=\"center\">\n<tr class=\"tableizer-firstrow\">\n<th><\/th>\n<th style=\"text-align: left;\">COMIC BOOK<\/th>\n<th>PRICE<\/th>\n<th>PUBLISHER<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>1<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<p>Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad #1<\/td>\n<td>$3.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>2<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<p>Inhumans Vs. X-Men #1<\/td>\n<td>$5.99<\/td>\n<td>Marvel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>3<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<p>Dark Knight III: The Master Race #7<\/td>\n<td>$5.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>4<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<p>Batman #12<\/td>\n<td>$2.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>5<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<p>Batman #13<\/td>\n<td>$2.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>6<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Civil War II #8<\/td>\n<td>$4.99<\/td>\n<td>Marvel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>7<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Star Wars #26<\/td>\n<td>$3.99<\/td>\n<td>Marvel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>8<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #1<\/td>\n<td>$4.99<\/td>\n<td>Marvel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>9<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Hulk #1<\/td>\n<td>$3.99<\/td>\n<td>Marvel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>10<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">All-Star Batman #5<\/td>\n<td>$4.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>And on the graphic novel side, <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2ifck1a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i><b>Love is Love<\/b><\/i><\/a> from IDW was the top seller:<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<table class=\"tableizer-table\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;\">\n<thead align=\"center\">\n<tr class=\"tableizer-firstrow\">\n<th><\/th>\n<th style=\"text-align: left;\">GRAPHIC NOVEL<\/th>\n<th>PRICE<\/th>\n<th>PUBLISHER<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>1<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Love Is Love<\/td>\n<td>$9.99<\/td>\n<td>IDW<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>2<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Batman Volume 9: Bloom<\/td>\n<td>$16.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>3<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Descender Volume 3: Singularities<\/td>\n<td>$14.99<\/td>\n<td>Image<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>4<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Wolverine: Old Man Logan<\/td>\n<td>$29.99<\/td>\n<td>Marvel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>5<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">I Hate Fairyland Volume 2: Fluff My Life<\/td>\n<td>$14.99<\/td>\n<td>Image<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>6<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Invincible Iron Man Volume 1: Reboot<\/td>\n<td>$17.99<\/td>\n<td>Marvel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>7<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Star Wars: Poe Dameron Vol. 1: Black Squadron<\/td>\n<td>$19.99<\/td>\n<td>Marvel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>8<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Doctor Strange Volume 1: Way Of Weird<\/td>\n<td>$19.99<\/td>\n<td>Marvel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>9<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Batman Volume 10: Epilogue HC<\/td>\n<td>$22.99<\/td>\n<td>DC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td>10<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Black Science Vol. 5: True Atonement<\/td>\n<td>$14.99<\/td>\n<td>Image<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>There were about 14% fewer new comics released in December, which is about what you&#8217;d expect for a five-week-versus-four-week comparison; there were only 4% fewer new graphic novels, which is why that category fared a little better relative to comics.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<table class=\"tableizer-table\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;\">\n<thead align=\"center\">\n<tr class=\"tableizer-firstrow\">\n<th style=\"text-align: left;\">Publisher<\/th>\n<th>Comics<br \/>\nshipped<\/th>\n<th>Graphic<br \/>\nNovels shipped<\/th>\n<th>Magazines<br \/>\nshipped<\/th>\n<th>Total<br \/>\nshipped<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Marvel<\/td>\n<td>89<\/td>\n<td>42<\/td>\n<td>0<\/td>\n<td>131<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">DC<\/td>\n<td>84<\/td>\n<td>33<\/td>\n<td>1<\/td>\n<td>118<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Image<\/td>\n<td>47<\/td>\n<td>18<\/td>\n<td>1<\/td>\n<td>66<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">IDW<\/td>\n<td>42<\/td>\n<td>17<\/td>\n<td>0<\/td>\n<td>59<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Boom<\/td>\n<td>26<\/td>\n<td>12<\/td>\n<td>0<\/td>\n<td>38<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Dark Horse<\/td>\n<td>26<\/td>\n<td>10<\/td>\n<td>0<\/td>\n<td>36<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Titan<\/td>\n<td>21<\/td>\n<td>5<\/td>\n<td>4<\/td>\n<td>30<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Dynamite<\/td>\n<td>18<\/td>\n<td>9<\/td>\n<td>0<\/td>\n<td>27<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Archie<\/td>\n<td>11<\/td>\n<td>2<\/td>\n<td>0<\/td>\n<td>13<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Viz<\/td>\n<td>0<\/td>\n<td>13<\/td>\n<td>0<\/td>\n<td>13<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Other<\/td>\n<td>114<\/td>\n<td>133<\/td>\n<td>25<\/td>\n<td>272<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr align=\"center\">\n<td style=\"text-align: left;\">Total<\/td>\n<td>478<\/td>\n<td>294<\/td>\n<td>31<\/td>\n<td>803<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Diamond shipped 5,812 different new comics in 2016; that compares to 5,689 in 2015. It shipped 3,768 new graphic novels in the year, up from 3,362.<\/p>\n<p>The full December estimates will be posted Friday morning; Diamond will release the 2016 year-end tables later on. We&#8217;ll update the 2016 landing page when that happens, and add some more analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As projected here a ways back, comics shop orders of comic books, graphic novels, and magazines finished up for the year, just barely, after a fourth quarter that lost much of the momentum gained in a strong summer. That&#8217;s according to my preliminary analysis of retailer orders just released by Diamond Comic Distributors, which found &#8230; <a title=\"2016 comics shop orders beat 2015 &#8212; barely &#8212; after icy December\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2017\/01\/12\/2016-comics-shop-orders-beat-2015\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about 2016 comics shop orders beat 2015 &#8212; barely &#8212; after icy December\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[54,21,52],"class_list":["post-4319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2016-sales","tag-diamond-annual-reports","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4319","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=4319"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6350,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4319\/revisions\/6350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}