{"id":4816,"date":"2013-09-06T19:02:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T19:02:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-08-01T15:14:38","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T20:14:38","slug":"august-2013-comics-orders-soften-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/06\/august-2013-comics-orders-soften-on\/","title":{"rendered":"August 2013 comics orders soften on lower release volume"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0<\/a><\/b><\/div>\n

I’ve been beyond busy and honestly focused on other sales charts this month\u2014 my Star Wars: Kenobi<\/b><\/i><\/a> novel opens at #12 on next week’s New York Times<\/i> hardcover bestseller list<\/b><\/a> \u2014 but the comics market waits for no man, so let’s go to the numbers.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Diamond Comic Distributors<\/b> released its preliminary sales data<\/b><\/a> for August 2013, and it’s the sort of report that may prompt nervousness in some quarters. But in fact, quarters<\/i> are the entire issue. For while retailers’ orders dropped 14.29% versus the year before \u2014 the biggest drop since January 2011<\/b><\/a> \u2014 if July’s final day had been part of August, we’d be looking at two pretty normal months instead of one boom month and one slide. Sales for the quarter, meanwhile are still hanging in there.
\nOrders for comic books, graphic novels, and magazines appear to have been around $38.3 million in August, the lowest dollar amount seen since April 2012<\/b><\/a>. Led by Marvel’s Infinity<\/i> #1<\/b><\/a>, comics dollar sales were off 10%. But, again, the calendar conspires to complicate matters. We’re comparing a four-week month with five-week months in both last month<\/b><\/a> and in August 2012<\/a><\/b>. We already know that there’s about a 11% or so bonus to having an extra week, because it means more new titles and reorders can ship \u2014 but we can also see it in the number of releases. The total number of new comics shipped in August 2013 was 406, with 212 new graphic novels. This is down from totals of 465 and 295 respectively last month. There was simply less new material debuting.<\/p>\n

We also know the market absolutely gorged on graphic novels in July \u2014 up a far greater amount than expected \u2014 and it’s possible retailers brought some orders into July that normally would have been in August. Further, August is a month with no pricey, blockbuster TPB or HC releases \u2014 any month Walking Dead Vol. 1<\/b><\/i><\/a> is the top book, you know that: it’s the standard retailers turn their dollars toward.<\/p>\n

So July-August looks very weird, but it may balance out. Looking at the overall data, July and August together had orders of more than $85.1 million in 2013; in 2012, that figure was $84.7 million. We’re similarly up when comparing the last three months. The monthly report is an imprecise measure; it wobbles. If July 31 had been August 1, we’d have two fairly normal looking months.<\/p>\n

COMPARATIVE SALES
\nSTATISTICS<\/div>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
DOLLARS<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
UNITS<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
AUGUST 2013 VS. JULY 2013<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
COMICS<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
-15.30%<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
-14.93%<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
GRAPHIC NOVELS<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
-24.55%<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
-24.81%<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
TOTAL COMICS\/GN<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
-18.33%<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
-15.77%<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
AUGUST 2013 VS. AUGUST 2012<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
COMICS<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
-10.39%<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
-11.21%<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
GRAPHIC NOVELS<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
-22.09%<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
-25.68%<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
TOTAL COMICS\/GN<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
-14.29%<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
-12.50%<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
YEAR-TO-DATE 2013 VS. YEAR-TO-DATE 2012<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
COMICS<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
9.82%<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
7.38%<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
GRAPHIC NOVELS<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
6.59%<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
4.55%<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
TOTAL COMICS\/GN<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
8.79%<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
7.16%<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

The top comic books:<\/p>\n