March was a strange month for the comic book industry. While Marvel was able to make the most money (Amazing Spider-Man #25 sold for $9.99), DC was able to ship more books than anyone else. There has been a lot of back and forth over the last couple of weeks with a lot of fingers being pointed, but the final numbers are here, and it is somewhat disappointing.
With the increase in cover prices, overall money billed was up 15% compared to February 2017, but the number of comics shipped was down by nearly 5%. So far that tracks, and compared to last year at this time, comic sales and the number of issues sold were up 6.02% and 8.93% respectively. Again, it seems like a good sign, but comics are still double shipping from DC Comics. The real disappointment comes from the year to year and first quarter data provided to us from Diamond Comic Distributors. Compared to the year to date 2017 and 2016, the dollar amount only grew .7% even though the number of comics shipped (not sold) was up 11.05%. All of this culminates in the first quarter comparisons, where the amount of billable funds slipped by 15% and the number of comics shipped also slipped 12.69%.
Here is the data for you to look at. What are your thoughts and reactions?
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