By John Jackson Miller on 4/24/2007 12:00 AM

And I now have the Top 300 Comics sales estimates and the aggregate sales figures for March 2007 online here. My analysis article, along with the trade paperback data, is here on CBGXtra.

A note about this data and timing, as my reports will be handled a little differently than others you may see (and, indeed, differently from what I used to do when I worked for F+W). Diamond releases not only its Top 300 listings, but market share data and other keys from which observers can estimate the size of the market.

With the Diamond orders of few comic books alone, anyone can calculate a reasonably accurate estimate of sales figures these days. (It was different before they went to Final Order reports — the variances were much higher — but today, most estimates out there hew pretty close to one another. In the case of my reports, I take an additional step. As you might expect, Diamond generates a complete record of what it sells each month for the major publishers — right down to single copies of trade paperbacks on the Star System — and that information, when applied to the market shares, generates the Overall calculations I've been doing for five years on CBGXtra.

Since the timing of that raw information doesn't always synch up with the release of the sales charts, the release of my analysis will vary from month to month, depending on what information has been disseminated. In some months, everything's available and there's very little lag time. Other times, there might be either because of the data being unavailable or scheduling conflicts on my part.

So begin checking The Comics Chronicles around the middle of each month for the prior month's data. On some occasions, if I have time, I may be able to get an intermediate report online, with the Overall final analysis to come.

By John Jackson Miller on 3/18/2007 12:00 AM

And the first of the Monthly Sales charts is now online here, starting with February 2007. You can find the basic chart and statistical abstract here — my extended analysis of the numbers, along with some other details, is over on CBGXtra.

I'll be adding more months to this section as the weeks progress...

By John Jackson Miller on 3/17/2007 12:00 AM

Thanks for visting the Comics Chronicles, alternately known as Comichron (either spelling will get you to the site).

Having worked in comic professionally for may years, I'm really looking at Comichron as a chance to both reclaim the "hobby" element of my comics-collecting life — while providing a location for similarly interested folks to trade information. I've been interested in comics circulation history — a fancy way of saying "how many comics exist" — for years, even before my tenure on Comics & Games Retailer and Comics Buyer's Guide. While there, I was able to focus on the subject in the magazines — and then, after I had gone elsewhere in the company, in books like the Standard Catalog of Comic Books and on the CBG website.

I'm still contributing research to those publications as a freelancer and columnist — but I've still got mountains of information that I'd like to get in front of the people who'd like to use it. I've answered countless inquiries individually from reporters and students looking into the state of the comics market over time; the site gives me a chance to get those answers online, while providing networking to  knowledgeable folk such as Peter Bickford, Milton Griepp, Russ Maheras, John Mayo, and Maggie Thompson.

Again, the Chronicles are, for me, a hobby — I'm beginning modestly with data from the 1960s, and will get more online as I have time. There's a research forum for your questions, for new data submitted by others, and for submitting corrections. Longer-term, I'm exploring other strategies for managing the information online — and I also have a number of data sets that delve into time periods where there really hasn't been much information available. Suggestions and comments are welcome!