The comic book Direct Market wasn’t able to sustain the sales momentum it began the year with. Thanks to the fewest number of new comic books published in one month since Diamond started reporting the stastistic about six years ago, February 2019 sales finished below the same month in 2018. Though in the very early going, sales are still up for the year.
According to figures released by Diamond Comic Distributors Friday morning, Scott Snyder and Jock’s The Batman Who Laughs #3 from DC was the month’s best-selling comic book, followed by Batmam #64 and Batman #65, both by Joshua Williamson and Guillem March. All told, DC accounted for five of the Top 10 titles overall.
Marvel published the other five of the Top 10, including Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman’s Venom #11 as the fourth best-selling title of the month.
Image Comics’ The Walking Dead #188 by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard was the highest ranking non-DC-Marvel title at #28.
Tom King and Mitch Gerads’ Mister Miracle from DC was February’s best-selling graphic novel. Marvel published seven titles among that category’s Top 10, including Christos Gage and Clayton Crain (and others)’s Spider-Geddon at #2.
As usual, Marvel was February’s top publisher, leading in dollar share with 40.20% and unit share with 44.48%. DC, as usual, was second, with a dollar share of 28.69% and unit share of 30.64%. Image was third, with a 9.49% dollar share and a 9.30% unit share.
According to John Jackson Miller of Comichron, the decline over last year can mostly be attributed to one thing – title count, including just 59 new comic book titles from DC.
“Februaries usually have the smallest slate of any month in comics; combine that with DC’s announced plan to pare back its offerings, and you’ve got in February 2019 the fewest new comics released in any month since Diamond started reported new release totals in July 2013. St. Martin’s Press made it into the market share Top 10, something not likely to happen when the traditional comics publishers are releasing at normal levels. DC and Image both released a third fewer new comics versus last February, Marvel released a few more; consequently, Marvel’s overall dollar sales grew 9% while DC and Image’s revenue dropped.
“But those two publishers’ total sales were only off by around 15%, suggesting the comics they did release performed better. Indeed, February’s average comic book sold 14,830 copies to retailers versus 14,038 last February, an increase of 6%. Eight of the last 12 months, average copies per issue have increased year-over-year — which is usually one of the goals behind trimming lines back. March looks to be stronger for DC with Detective Comics #1000, so we’ll see how much more fine-tuning of release levels takes place.”
The February 2019 Market Share, Comparative Sales Data, New Titles Shipped and Top 10 Comic Books Units and Dollars and Top 10 Graphic Novels Units and Dollars charts follow below.
TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS
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COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS
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DOLLARS |
UNITS |
|
FEBRUARY 2019 VS. JANUARY 2019 |
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|
COMICS |
-21.31% |
-18.10% |
|
GRAPHIC NOVELS |
-26.09% |
-25.43% |
|
TOTAL COMICS/GN |
-22.71% |
-18.65% |
|
TOYS |
-19.93% |
-35.10% |
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FEBRUARY 2019 VS. FEBRUARY 2018 |
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COMICS |
-6.06% |
-8.47% |
|
GRAPHIC NOVELS |
-3.16% |
-8.47% |
|
TOTAL COMICS/GN |
-5.27% |
-8.47% |
|
TOYS |
20.34% |
18.44% |
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YEAR-TO-DATE 2019 VS. YEAR-TO-DATE 2018 |
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COMICS |
4.82% |
-1.51% |
|
GRAPHIC NOVELS |
5.00% |
-2.56% |
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TOTAL COMICS/GN |
4.87% |
-1.59% |
|
TOYS |
27.83% |
39.44% |
NEW TITLES SHIPPED
|
PUBLISHER |
COMICS |
GRAPHIC NOVELS |
MAGAZINES |
TOTAL |
|
MARVEL COMICS |
86 |
40 |
0 |
126 |
|
DC |
59 |
28 |
1 |
88 |
|
IMAGE COMICS |
47 |
19 |
0 |
66 |
|
DARK HORSE COMICS |
24 |
13 |
0 |
37 |
|
IDW PUBLISHING |
22 |
11 |
0 |
33 |
|
BOOM! STUDIOS |
21 |
10 |
0 |
31 |
|
VIZ MEDIA |
0 |
27 |
0 |
27 |
|
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT |
20 |
1 |
0 |
21 |
|
SEVEN SEAS ENTERTAINMENT |
0 |
21 |
0 |
21 |
|
ONI PRESS |
4 |
3 |
0 |
7 |
|
OTHER NON-TOP 10 |
106 |
131 |
22 |
259 |
|
TOTAL |
389 |
304 |
23 |
716 |
TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS BY UNITS SHIPPED
|
RANK |
DESCRIPTION |
PRICE |
VENDOR |
|
1 |
THE BATMAN WHO LAUGHS #3 |
$4.99 |
DC |
|
2 |
BATMAN #64 |
$3.99 |
DC |
|
3 |
BATMAN #65 |
$3.99 |
DC |
|
4 |
VENOM #11 |
$3.99 |
MAR |
|
5 |
HEROES IN CRISIS #6 |
$3.99 |
DC |
|
6 |
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #15 |
$3.99 |
MAR |
|
7 |
UNCANNY X-MEN #12 |
$3.99 |
MAR |
|
8 |
THE FLASH #64 |
$3.99 |
DC |
|
9 |
UNCANNY X-MEN #11 |
$7.99 |
MAR |
|
10 |
AVENGERS: NO ROAD HOME #1 |
$4.99 |
MAR |
TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS BY DOLLARS INVOICED
|
RANK |
DESCRIPTION |
PRICE |
VENDOR |
|
1 |
THE BATMAN WHO LAUGHS #3 |
$4.99 |
DC |
|
2 |
UNCANNY X-MEN #11 |
$7.99 |
MAR |
|
3 |
BATMAN #64 |
$3.99 |
DC |
|
4 |
BATMAN #65 |
$3.99 |
DC |
|
5 |
VENOM #11 |
$3.99 |
MAR |
|
6 |
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #16 |
$4.99 |
MAR |
|
7 |
HEROES IN CRISIS #6 |
$3.99 |
DC |
|
8 |
RETURN OF WOLVERINE #5 |
$4.99 |
MAR |
|
9 |
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #15 |
$3.99 |
MAR |
|
10 |
UNCANNY X-MEN #12 |
$3.99 |
MAR |
TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS BY UNITS SHIPPED
|
RANK |
DESCRIPTION |
PRICE |
VENDOR |
|
1 |
MISTER MIRACLE TP (MR) |
$24.99 |
DC |
|
2 |
SPIDER-GEDDON TP |
$24.99 |
MAR |
|
3 |
INFINITY WARS TP |
$34.99 |
MAR |
|
4 |
IMMORTAL HULK VOLUME 2: GREEN DOOR TP |
$15.99 |
MAR |
|
5 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOLUME 17 GN |
$9.99 |
VIZ |
|
6 |
DEADPOOL: SECRET AGENT DEADPOOL TP |
$14.99 |
MAR |
|
7 |
MAN-EATERS VOLUME 1 TP |
$12.99 |
IMA |
|
8 |
INFINITY GAUNTLET: DELUXE EDITION TP |
$34.99 |
MAR |
|
9 |
CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL. 1: WINTER IN AMERICA TP |
$17.99 |
MAR |
|
10 |
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN BY NICK SPENCER VOL. 2 TP |
$15.99 |
MAR |
TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS BY DOLLARS INVOICED
|
RANK |
DESCRIPTION |
PRICE |
VENDOR |
|
1 |
MISTER MIRACLE TP (MR) |
$24.99 |
DC |
|
2 |
HE MAN & THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE OMNIBUS HC |
$150.00 |
DC |
|
3 |
CAPTAIN MARVEL/MS. MARVEL: A HERO IS BORN OMNIBUS HC |
$100.00 |
MAR |
|
4 |
VENOMNIBUS HC VOL 02 |
$125.00 |
MAR |
|
5 |
INFINITY WARS TP |
$34.99 |
MAR |
|
6 |
INFINITY GAUNTLET: DELUXE EDITION TP |
$34.99 |
MAR |
|
7 |
SPIDER-GEDDON TP |
$24.99 |
MAR |
|
8 |
STAR WARS BY JASON AARON OMNIBUS HC |
$125.00 |
MAR |
|
9 |
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: LUKE CAGE POWER MAN VOL. 3 |
$75.00 |
MAR |
|
10 |
WONDER WOMAN BY PHIL JIMINEZ OMNIBUS HC |
$75.00 |
DC |