{"id":5184,"date":"2011-12-09T17:56:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-09T17:56:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-08-01T16:29:18","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T21:29:18","slug":"november-2011-puts-industry-back-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/09\/november-2011-puts-industry-back-in\/","title":{"rendered":"November 2011 puts industry back in black for 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It’s almost a done deal: 2011 will be the first up year for the comic book direct market since 2008, resuming the trend of the early 2000s and giving the industry nine years of growth out of the past 11. Diamond Comic Distributors<\/b><\/a> released its November Top 100s<\/b> and Comparative Sales Statistics<\/b> this morning, and they report not just double-digit increases in comics unit and dollar sales, but also for graphic novels and trade paperbacks, which had been the laggard category. Find the top-sellers list here<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The result is likely the best month of 2011, sales-wise \u2014 an increase of 19.44% over the past month. My back-of-the-envelope calculations put the month at something over $42 million. The overall figure for Direct Market orders in the year is close to $389 million, a figure which incorporates some slight revisions (which I mention below). Diamond will release its Top 300s with full data next week.
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The DC relaunch continues to make a big splash, of course, but the top-sellers list for the month<\/a><\/b> includes several #1s from Marvel. Not a single issue in the Top 10 had an issue number above #3, and when the list is heavy with debut and early issues of series, we generally get a strong month. Comics unit sales were up a ginormous 31.19% over last November<\/b><\/a>, which, as I reminded readers last month, wasn’t a tough comparative to beat. Comics unit sales are now up 7% for the year; we’ve got a good shot at getting back above 75 million Top 300 comics sold for the year.<\/p>\n

A significant help to the market this month, again, came from the graphic novels and trade paperbacks, which rose 12.43%. Several hardcovers ranked highly in unit sales, and that usually means a good month dollar-wise. The Batman: Noel Deluxe Edition<\/b><\/i><\/a> hardcover topped the charts, followed by Dark Horse’s Hellboy: House of the Living Dead<\/b><\/i><\/a> hardcover. The trade category is the only one that’s still off for the year, and it’s not out of the question that it too could at least pull even.<\/p>\n

The aggregate figures:<\/p>\n