October was an interesting month for comics as the industry saw an increase in revenue of 9% over last year at this time. At first it may appear to be due to larger sales, but when one examines the Top 50 books, 18 titles had a price point of $3.99, or roughly 36% of the books shipping for the month.
The least expensive book was GI JOE: A New Beginning #0, which cost $1.00. The most expensive was Gemstone’s Uncle Scrooge #380 with the high price of $7.99. While there are a lot of $3.99 books, $2.99 still rules the roost (barely), but I really hope the big publishers don’t look at that Gemstone book, and think it would be a good idea to raise prices that high.
Marvel and DC dominated the the charts this month, easily taking the top 64 spots on the chart. Dark Horse, who normally places in the Top 20, makes its first appearance of the month in the number 86 spot with Helloby: Inside the Church of Moloch One-Shot. Why such a decline? The company didn’t have a single Buffy, the Vampire Slayer issue shipping during the month. IDW beat Dark Horse with GI Joe: A New Beginning #0 placing 65th on the list.
Even though IDW Publishing placed ahead of Dark Horse in terms of issue ranking, Dark Horse was able to come in third place for the month’s market share. The big two took the largest part of the pie, walking away with 82% of the market share. Dark Horse, IDW Publishing, and Image all came away with just over 3%, making this a tough month for the indie publishers.
[table=19]* – Combined multiple covers with same SRP.
** – Returnable Title. Order Index calculated at a reduced level to account for possible returns.
The Top 100 Graphic Novels tomorrow.
2 Comments
“The most expensive was Gemstone’s Uncle Scrooge #380 with the high price of $7.99. While there are a lot of $3.99 books, $2.99 still rules the roost (barely), but I really hope the big publishers don’t look at that Gemstone book, and think it would be a good idea to raise prices that high.”
What are the Gemstone books, 80 ad-free pages, squarebound, cardstock covers, high-quality interiors?
If Marvel wants to roll its line over to that exact model, folding books like IRON MAN and MS. MARVEL into the MIGHTY title, or IRON FIST and NEW AVENGERS into a SPIDER-MAN title, I’d be glad to follow. I mean, every book a low-end graphic novel? Team books with all their members’ solo features in the same book? What’s not to like?
While sales appear to be up, volume is down. If the publishers continue the way they are going, then they will not get new readers, old readers will drop off or stop, and then they will try another useless crossover event to change the universe forever until it is forgotten by the new crossover event that will change the universe forever until the next one comes along.
When I was a teen and in college, I was ding a great deal. After marriage and children, I cut that in half. If other people follow my pattern, and I know many who have because it life, New readership will not widen. Sometimes keeping it simple is good. Not everything need to be so complex that you need 20 yeof clues to finally get it. Sometimes you do not even need to answer the question.
What was I talking about? What about those Giants!!
Long Live the Legion!!!!