June 2017 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Comics Shipped to North American Comics Shops
Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

June 2016 was the biggest month in comics in 20+ years, thanks to Rebirth and Civil War II — and that fact, plus the absence of a fifth shipping week, led to a pretty brutal comparison for June 2017. Marvel finished the first half of 2017 off $17.8 million at full retail versus its performance in the same period in 2016, accounting for 94% of the market's $19 million shortfall. As that would suggest, the market minus Marvel turned slightly negative for the half-year in June as well.

The individual weeks in June were the strongest of the year to that point, however; $46.09 million divides to $11.52 million per shipping week, the highest total since October. The second quarter beat the first quarter by 7.84% — as it should in any kind of normal situation — and 2017's new comics units during the first half, though infused with overship and 25-cent Image copies, were up from the year-to-date in 2016 by 2.56%. Graphic novels continued to underperform.

June produced a new most-ordered comic book of the year: Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #1, out in advance of the Spider-Man: Homecoming film, which would go on to a successful July debut. The issue also had a variant in the Marvel Collector Corps box.

An important mark was crossed, for better or worse, in June: the average comic book offered in the Top 300 topped $4 for the first time, landing at $4.03 and setting a new record. Removing the Dark Knight III Master Race #9 Collector's Edition, at $12.99, subtracts only two cents from the total; the median cover price offered was $3.99.  Previously, the weighted comics average — all Top 300 comics dollars divided by units — had crossed the $4 mark several times, only to return; the weighted average in June was actually the lower of the two measures, at $4.01.

June's performance puts 2017 behind 2016's pace at this point, but the market has recovered in past years from slow starts. The comics market only gets about 48% of its annual business in the first half of the year; the second half is increasingly where the action is. Click to read our 2016 end-of-year report.

Read more in our preliminary and final analysis posts for the month. You can also click to skip to the Top Graphic Novels for the month.

The report below was my 250th consecutive monthly distributor sales report, since starting back in September 1996. Read about the history of these reports, and be sure to check out all our other monthly reports.

—John Jackson Miller

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 300 chart plus any post-#300 items from its Top Independent and Small Publisher charts.
If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.
Items marked with asterisks [*] had their reported orders reduced by 10% due to returnability.
Click to read the methodology for this table's estimates.
Distributor charts are regional commodity reports, not measures of a work's total reach. Read our FAQ.
The links lead to current listings for each item on eBay. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

June 2017 Graphic Novel Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks Shipped to North American Comics Shops Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 300 Graphic Novel charts, plus any post-#300 items from its Top Independent and Manga charts. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.

The links lead to title details on Amazon (paid links). You can also find the books at your comics shop.

Graphic novel sales continued to be extremely weak in June, off 30% in total units for the month. Graphic novel orders during the first half of the year were off more than 21% versus the same period during the previous year.