The New 52 - Second Month Sales More Impressive Than First

The misogyny in the new 52 makes me wish I had a daughter so I could ban her for buying them.

Unfortunately my son already thinks all super hero comics are "silly dad stuff"

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This is a song about a super hero named Tony. Its called Tony's theme.
Jagged Reged: 23/01/04

So I took a look at the Top 300 comics distributed by Diamond US from 01/2003 - 10/2011. The top 300 is where all the action is, and represents nearly all of the comic orders for the month.

Keep in mind that these are only orders placed to the direct market buyers (ie. comic stores) and do not include orders placed by other retailers (bookstores / newstands) or orders placed to Diamond International (excludes UK sales). However, this data is a very good representation of how comic sales are performing overall.




Lots of interesting tidbits....

• Total units (comics) sold dropped significantly the last three years, with 2011 on track to be down...until the DC reboot/relaunch in August 2011 (Justice League launch)
  • 2008 down -4.6% vs. prior year, or -3.9 million units
  • 2009 down -7.9% vs. prior year, or -6.4 million units
  • 2010 down -7.6% vs. prior year, or -5.7 million units
  • 2011 down -8.2% (as of July) vs prior July, or -11.8 million units
  • 2011 down -1.1% (as of October) vs prior October, or -2.3 million units...gain of +9.5 million units in three months

• From January 2003 - August 2011 DC has held the market share lead over Marvel four times (4/104 months), with the last time it happened in October 2007. DC has now held the market share lead over Marvel for two consecutive months (September and October 2011)

• The Top 300 comics had gone 14 consecutive months (June 2010 - July 2011) with negative month vs same month/prior year sales...until the DC relaunch/reboot, with August (+13.6%), September (+19.8%) and October 2011 (+31.1%) all positive
  • Orders for DC in October 2011 were approx. 4.26 million units, an increase of +132% compared to October 2010 DC orders
  • Orders for Marvel in October 2011 were approx. 2.41 million units, an increase of +16.7% compared to October 2010 Marvel orders

There is no doubt that long term growth is the measuring stick for success with the DC reboot/relaunch. However, as a long time comic reader and fan of the medium, this is all fantastic news for the readers and the industry.

Now, if Marvel would only catch on that $3.99 is a bad price point (as well as $5.99 for a preview book!)....

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Go Team Venture!

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