Diamond Comic Distributors announced that August was a record month for the direct market, as the distributor announced it shipped ten million non-promotional comic books for the first time in 20 years. Comic shops purchased 10.26 million comics last month.
DC Entertainment had nine of the month’s top ten best-selling comics; in addition to Harley Quinn #1, Scott Snyder and John Romita, Jr.’s All-Star Batman #1 ranked #2, Rob Williams and Jim Lee’s Suicide Squad #1 ranked #3, Suicide Squad Rebirth #1 ranked #5, Batman #4 ranked #6, Batman #5 ranked #7, Justice League #2 ranked #8, Harley Quinn #2 ranked #9, and Supergirl Rebirth #1 ranked #10. Rounding out the top ten, Dan Slott and Giuseppe Camuncoli’s Amazing Spider-Man #16 from Marvel Comics ranked #4 for August. Among the premier publishers, Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard’s The Walking Dead #157 was Image Comics’ best-selling book in July at #13. IDW Publishing’s TMNT Universe #1, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles spin-off, was their top book for the month at #85. Finally, Brian Wood and Mack Chater’s Briggs Land #1, a new series about anti-government extremists in the American west in development as a television series for AMC, was Dark Horse Comics’ top book for August at #127.
This is a huge deal, not only for DC Comics, but comics in general. Here is the weird/funny thing. Many people dismissed July’s win by DC Comics as, “Well, Marvel let’s DC Comics win one month each year.” Maybe Marvel is letting DC win two months this year?
| PUBLISHER | DOLLAR SHARE | UNIT SHARE |
|---|---|---|
| DC ENTERTAINMENT | 39.27% | 44.59% |
| MARVEL COMICS | 30.78% | 32.11% |
| IMAGE COMICS | 7.66% | 7.78% |
| IDW PUBLISHING | 4.92% | 3.53% |
| DARK HORSE COMICS | 3.08% | 2.28% |
| BOOM! STUDIOS | 1.98% | 1.57% |
| DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT | 1.57% | 1.14% |
| TITAN COMICS | 1.19% | 1.09% |
It’s been a wild crazy year, that is for sure, and it is probably one that we will remember for a long time. On the plus side, comic sales are up 8.28% from last month, and up 44.02% from August 2015. On the down side, overall sales for the year are only up .06% compared to 2015. We can hope the sales trend continues for the next three four months and takes that small percentage to a large one by January 2017.
Look for the complete list of the top 300 comics next week.
via Diamond Comic Distributors
1 Comment
Wow! When I saw 10 million I thought it was a typo.