In August, the direct comic book market saw a huge drop in sales, with no single book breaking the 100,000 mark. The good news is September did break the 100,000 benchmark, the bad news it was only one comic… and Wolverine at that. Brightest Day #9 and #10 followed close behind, but the index difference between the two have each issue selling around 85,000 copies each. DC and Marvel split the top ten equally, though DC did triumph in the Top 5 Comics with four titles. Still, those titles had to go up against Wolverine…
The range in the number of comics sold varied greatly over the month, with Boom Studios’ Farscape # selling just under 5,000 issue, with most selling less than 50,000 copies. A lot of people have speculated that the price point woes continue to vex the publishers in this economy, while others are firmly on the Event Fatigue bandwagon, though it is interesting that all the DC titles in the Top 10 were $2.99 and were tied to some event (Brightest Day and Batman), while Marvel didn’t have any big event going on at all. So, why another month (and a Q3) of low sales? Could it be that digital comics are taking a bite out of the direct market in a really big way? While estimates have digital comic sales hitting the $6 million to $8 million range, most comics are still not day and date releases, so that argument can be shot down really quickly.
Take the jump to see the data for yourself (remember, you can sort our table and search for specific data), then share your thoughts on what the heck is going on.
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6 Comments
Good to see that Barry Allen is still a top 15 book.
I didn’t even know the Last Unicorn was being published. <ight need to check the lists more often.
No. 1 of the list was really no surprise at all… who’d resiste a new ongoing of Wolvie?
On a (sort of) related topic, and up Stephen’s digital comics alley, did you see the sales spike Steve Lieber got on his Underground comic after it was bootlegged on 4chan? As a result, he’s making the whole series available for free download on his website, and asking for either a donation or a TPB purchase if people like it.
I think the reason for another month of low sales is squarely on the raising unemployment. The studies that I have read show that the 30-40 year old demographic are the most unemployed group and this could be connected to the decline in comic sales since everyone keeps saying that is the age group comics are written for.
As a person experience I have had to drop all my titles as of the end of September in an attempt to cut costs due to my inclusion in the unemployment market. I think if someone can get the economy to turn around and companies to hire people again then an increase in comic sales would be soon to follow.
Such a steep decline can’t be blamed on just one factor. Digital Comics, even if you have to wait to download, are now an option. Money is tight, hours being cut back, people loosing their jobs. Comic book quality is just scraping the bottom of the barrel. Add these up and it just about sums it all up.