By John Jackson Miller on 7/28/2008 9:53 PM

More data coming online, in the form of my analyses for the last third of 1996.

In 1996, comics sales to comics shops were mostly handled by three different major distributors: Diamond Comics Distributors, which was the exclusive comics-shop reseller of DC, Image, Dark Horse, and Acclaim comics; Heroes World Distribution, which was the distributor of Marvel comics; and Capital City Distribution, which sold miscellaneous other publishers until its acquisition by Diamond in July. In September 1996, with the market down to two distributors, I began a monthly tracking merging data from Heroes World with Diamond's reported figures.

As the reader will see (presuming I have all the links set up right), this coincided with the beginning of "Heroes Reborn," Marvel's short-lived experiment giving four of its titles to Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld to produce. This period also includes the wedding of Superman, another strong seller.

This is the first monthly distributor data onsite from before 2003, which means that it is all preorder data. As such, it means there are many comics in the listings that did not come out in the months listed. Some had their orders cancelled, so the totals overstate sales by that amount. Meanwhile, the listings also do not include reorders in this era, which means sales are underestimated by a degree. Finally, neither Marvel nor Diamond reported indexed trade paperback sales, although Diamond did provide ratios for its various proiduct areas, from which I've been able to figure minimum values for trade sales. Regard those calculations with a larger grain of salt than the later ones — but they're what we have.

More distributor data will be added in the coming weeks, filling in the gap in both directions. Stay tuned!

By John Jackson Miller on 7/25/2008 1:34 PM

Here's part of a talk I had with Tom Spurgeon of ComicsReporter about comics and recessions. Some of this is stuff I've said elsewhere, but I think the general theory is true — we need to look at front-market and back-market separately, and then you need to look at how the structure of the comics market at any given time either exposes or protects the field from external forces.

Tom is a little surprised I consider the back-market in these discussions, but I think the scale of it is such that it shouldn't be overlooked. I did some figuring a few years ago, using eBay volume and some guesswork, which found it in the low single-digit hundreds of millions, comparable with what Diamond was selling that year. I no longer track back-issue sales to the degree I once had (where I used to track everything when writing my own price guide, as an Overstreet advisor I tend to focus on my specialty area, numeric supply), but I do still think it's a part of the comics economy that definitely impacts the frontmarket. Many of the dealers are the same people who sell new comics, and the health of the backmarket can also be a reflection of enthusiasm in the field.

Definitely check out ComicsReporter when you can — a great resource to have.

 

By John Jackson Miller on 7/21/2008 1:39 PM

Updated! As I surmised last month, June 2008 comics sales in the direct market had an easier time in comparison with June 2007 sales, in part thanks to the second best trade paperback month recorded among Diamond’s Top 100 Trade Paperbacks. While ground was still lost in the narrower categories (such as Top 300 comics units and dollars, down 4% and 3% respectively), the Trade Paperback and wider categories saw increases year-over-year. Overall June 2008 orders were up 5% to nearly $37 million, with Diamond's Top 25 trades up 25% to just over $6 million.

The result is that all categories are still even or slightly off for the second quarter and for the year, but the margins are such that they could be made up in the second half of the year if the market performs even slightly better than it did in the second half of 2007. The overall total (the sum of all Diamond comics, trade paperback, and magazine orders, including items not on the top-sellers charts) is at $208.8 million, just under last year's first half mark of $210.11 million. Diamond's top-selling trade paperbacks category is the only one that's up  — by about $30,000. Diamond sold about 2.6 million fewer comic books in its Top 300 in the first half of 2008 versus the first half of 2007; that's the category with the most ground to make up.

There were four titles above 100,000 copies in estimated sales; perhaps the bigger help to June making up ground was the three trade paperbacks with orders over 10,000 copies.

TOP 300 COMICS UNIT SALES
June 2008: 6.66 million copies
Versus 1 year ago this month: -4%
Versus 5 years ago this month: +20%
Versus 10 years ago this month: -8%
Q2 2008: 20.43 million copies, -6% vs. Q2 2007
YEAR TO DATE:  39.54 million copies, -6% vs. 2007

TOP 300 COMICS DOLLAR SALES
June 2008: $21.37 million
Versus 1 year ago this month: -3%
Versus 5 years ago this month: +32%
Versus 10 years ago this month: +19%
Q2 2008: $65.94 million, -4% vs. Q2 2007
YEAR TO DATE: $125.73 million, -5% vs. 2007

TOP 100 TRADE PAPERBACK DOLLAR SALES
June 2008: $6.06 million
Versus 1 year ago this month: +25%
Versus 5 years ago this month, just the Top 50 vs. the Top 50: +86%
Versus 10 years ago this month, just the Top 25 vs. the Top 25: +155%
Q2 2008: $15.5 million, -3% vs. Q2 2007
YEAR TO DATE: $27.97 million, +0.1% vs. 2007

TOP 300 COMICS + TOP 100 TRADE PAPERBACK DOLLAR SALES
June 2008: $27.43 million
Versus 1 year ago this month: +2%
Versus 5 years ago this month, counting just the Top 50 TPBs: +39%
Versus 10 years ago this month, counting just the Top 25 TPBs: +27%
Q2 2008: $81.8 million, -3% vs. Q2 2007
YEAR TO DATE: $154.06 million, -4% vs. 2007

OVERALL DIAMOND SALES (including all comics, trades, and magazines)
June 2008: ... Read More »

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The ComiChron

By John Jackson Miller on 7/21/2008 1:09 PM

The June 2008 data is out from Diamond Comic Distributors. The Market Shares are below; check here for historical market shares both recently and back to 1998. More to come...

DIAMOND REPORTED DOLLAR SHARES
Marvel • 41.74%
DC • 29.45%
Dark Horse • 7.52%
Image • 4.30%
IDW • 3.10%
Viz • 1.47%
Dynamic • 1.30%
Tokyopop • 1.26%
Wizard • 0.92%
Digital Manga • 0.54%
Avatar • 0.46%
Random House • 0.41%
Udon • 0.36%
Gemstone • 0.34%
Devils Due • 0.31%
Archie • 0.31%
Fantagraphics • 0.28%
Boom • 0.27%
Zenescope • 0.27%
Virgin • 0.25%
Other • 5.14%

DIAMOND REPORTED UNIT SHARES
Marvel • 48.39%
DC • 29.56%
Dark Horse • 5.42%
Other • 3.58%
IDW • 3.28%
Image • 3.08%
Dynamic • 1.67%
Viz • 0.79%
Wizard • 0.72%
Avatar • 0.63%
Tokyopop • 0.54%
Zenescope • 0.43%
Archie • 0.42%
Virgin • 0.28%
Devils Due • 0.27%
Boom • 0.27%
Digital Manga • 0.20%
Gemstone • 0.17%
Random House • 0.15%
Fantagraphics • 0.08%
Udon • 0.07%
Other • 3.58%

By John Jackson Miller on 7/17/2008 8:46 PM

For many years until 1987, Batman was shipped to subscribers through the mails second-class — meaning DC filed postal statements in the title. Beginning in 1960 and for every year thereafter except for 1963 and 1964, it included the sales figures for the title — including all channels, from newsstand and circulation sales in the 1960s to Whitman variant and direct-market sales in the late 1970s. These figures can now all be found on the Batman sales figure page. Note that, again, these sales only go to 1987.

While I'm still developing year-by-year reports to post, I post these "skip-ahead" reports for high-profile titles from time to time. Next up shortly is Incredible Hulk/Tales to Astonish; previous movie-related ones posted include Iron Man and Amazing Spider-Man. There are 373 titles for which I have confirmed Statements in my database; the true number of titles is actually more, but I consider titles like Tales to Astonish, Incredible Hulk Vol. 1, and Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 to be the same record because the same postal permit was used for all of them. As far as the post office is concerned, they're the same ongoing title, whatever the numbering is.