January 2020’s Direct Market comic book sales were slightly down versus January 2019, largely in part to a lower title count than last year. But more on that later.
According to figures released by Diamond Comic Distributors Friday morning, the Wonder Woman #750 anniversary issue was the top comic book in January, following in the footsteps of most of the big number celebrations DC and Marvel have released in recent years.
Wonder Woman #750 was one of just two books for DC in the Top 10 (Batman #86 ranked #7 being the other), with Marvel accounting for the remainder of the eight.
Donny Cates and Nic Klein’s Thor #1 was their top book at #2, followed by Charles Soule and Jesus Saiz’s Star Wars #1 at #3. Star #1 at #10 was perhaps a surprise qualifier for the Top 10.
The highest ranked non-Marvel-DC title was Image’s Spawn #304, ranked #40 for the month.
Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman’s Absolute Carnage, collecting Marvel Comics’ crossover event, was January’s best-selling graphic novel.
Marvel was January’s top publisher as usual with a 39.98% dollar share and a 46.67% unit share. DC placed second (as usual) at 29.33% and 29.73%, respectively. Image was third, with a market share of 5.60% in both categories.
January’s comic book sales were down 6.70% in dollars versus January 2019 (both ‘5th weeks’) and 8.64% in units, while up 5.09% in graphic novel dollars though dead even in units. That starts the year off with a deficit of 3.26% in dollars and 7.99% in units versus 2019.
John Jackson Miller of Comichron explains why the down month.
“Longtime readers of Comichron know that the first quarter of the year is smaller than the other three in dollar terms — and that January is second only to December when it comes to months where year-to-year comparisons have a way of getting messy. For the latter, it’s mostly for the same reason as December: the holidays impact the shipping calendar, and when New Comic Book Day falls makes a difference.
“This year, for example, it’s a five-Wednesday to five-Wednesday comparison from this January to last, but one of the Wednesdays this year isn’t like the rest. New Year’s Day 2020 was a Wednesday, and publishers slated a number of high-profile issues for release by stores that chose to open that day. Yet the day was lighter on new releases than any other New Comic Book Day in the month, and it also had a third fewer releases than the first week of 2019, when New Year’s Day fell on a Tuesday.
“The result this time out was a month that was down 8% or so in the number of new comic books offered to market once the DC card stock variants (which get counted twice) were weeded out, and unit sales for comics were down by a similar amount. Dollar orders for comic books and graphic novels overall were down less, off 3% to $43.37 million. One way to normalize the cross-calendar comparisons is to look at November through January; that grouping was up 3% in dollar orders over the same three months in 2018-19.”
For more check out Comichron.
Diamond’s January 2020 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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|
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COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS
|
|
DOLLARS |
UNITS |
|
JANUARY 2020 VS. DECEMBER 2019 |
||
|
COMICS |
-2.48% |
-1.59% |
|
GRAPHIC NOVELS |
29.62% |
36.99% |
|
TOTAL COMICS/GN |
5.84% |
0.73% |
|
TOYS |
-1.05% |
-4.04% |
|
JANUARY 2020 VS. JANUARY 2019 |
||
|
COMICS |
-6.70% |
-8.64% |
|
GRAPHIC NOVELS |
5.09% |
0.00% |
|
TOTAL COMICS/GN |
-3.26% |
-7.99% |
|
TOYS |
4.00% |
-16.26% |
NEW TITLES SHIPPED
|
PUBLISHER |
COMICS |
GRAPHIC NOVELS |
MAGAZINES |
TOTAL |
|
MARVEL COMICS |
101 |
56 |
0 |
157 |
|
DC COMICS |
98 |
30 |
0 |
128 |
|
IDW PUBLISHING |
35 |
16 |
0 |
51 |
|
IMAGE COMICS |
43 |
7 |
0 |
50 |
|
VIZ MEDIA LLC |
0 |
43 |
0 |
43 |
|
DARK HORSE COMICS |
25 |
9 |
0 |
34 |
|
BOOM! STUDIOS |
22 |
6 |
0 |
28 |
|
SOURCE POINT PRESS |
16 |
3 |
0 |
19 |
|
DYNAMITE |
14 |
4 |
0 |
18 |
|
TITAN COMICS |
6 |
2 |
3 |
11 |
|
OTHER NON-TOP 10 |
130 |
235 |
28 |
393 |
|
TOTAL |
490 |
411 |
31 |
932 |
TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS BY UNITS SHIPPED
|
RANK |
DESCRIPTION |
PRICE |
VENDOR |
|
1 |
WONDER WOMAN #750 |
$9.99 |
DC |
|
2 |
THOR #1 |
$4.99 |
MAR |
|
3 |
STAR WARS #1 |
$4.99 |
MAR |
|
4 |
X-MEN #4 |
$3.99 |
MAR |
|
5 |
X-MEN #5 |
$3.99 |
MAR |
|
6 |
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #1 |
$4.99 |
MAR |
|
7 |
BATMAN #86 |
$3.99 |
DC |
|
8 |
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #38 |
$3.99 |
MAR |
|
9 |
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #37 |
$3.99 |
MAR |
|
10 |
STAR #1 |
$3.99 |
MAR |
TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS BY DOLLARS INVOICED
|
RANK |
DESCRIPTION |
PRICE |
VENDOR |
|
1 |
WONDER WOMAN #750 |
$9.99 |
DC |
|
2 |
THOR #1 |
$4.99 |
MAR |
|
3 |
STAR WARS #1 |
$4.99 |
MAR |
|
4 |
X-MEN #4 |
$3.99 |
MAR |
|
5 |
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #1 |
$4.99 |
MAR |
|
6 |
X-MEN #5 |
$3.99 |
MAR |
|
7 |
THE JOKER/HARLEY: CRIMINAL SANITY #2 (MR) [*] |
$5.99 |
DC |
|
8 |
BATMAN: CURSE OF THE WHITE KNIGHT #6 |
$4.99 |
DC |
|
9 |
IRON MAN 2020 #1 |
$4.99 |
MAR |
|
10 |
VENOM: THE END #1 |
$4.99 |
MAR |
TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS BY UNITS SHIPPED
|
RANK |
DESCRIPTION |
PRICE |
VENDOR |
|
1 |
ABSOLUTE CARNAGE TP |
$29.99 |
MAR |
|
2 |
DIANA: PRINCESS OF THE AMAZONS TP |
$9.99 |
DC |
|
3 |
WATCHMEN TP |
$24.99 |
DC |
|
4 |
LEAGUE OF LEGENDS: LUX TP |
$15.99 |
MAR |
|
5 |
HOUSE OF X/POWERS OF X HC |
$60.00 |
MAR |
|
6 |
STRANGER THINGS: ZOMBIE BOYS TP |
$10.99 |
DAR |
|
7 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOLUME 22 GN |
$9.99 |
VIZ |
|
8 |
BLACK HAMMER VOL. 4: AGE OF DOOM PART II TP |
$19.99 |
DAR |
|
9 |
GREEN LANTERN: LEGACY TP |
$9.99 |
DC |
|
10 |
WONDER WOMAN: WARBRINGER TP |
$16.99 |
DC |
TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS BY DOLLARS INVOICED
|
RANK |
DESCRIPTION |
PRICE |
VENDOR |
|
1 |
INCREDIBLE HULK BY PETER DAVID OMNIBUS VOL. 1 HC |
$125.00 |
MAR |
|
2 |
CONAN THE BARBARIAN: THE ORIGINAL MARVEL YEARS OMNIBUS VOL. 3 HC |
$125.00 |
MAR |
|
3 |
HOUSE OF X/POWERS OF X HC |
$60.00 |
MAR |
|
4 |
ABSOLUTE CARNAGE TP |
$29.99 |
MAR |
|
5 |
DAREDEVIL BY BENDIS & MALEEV OMNIBUS VOL. 1 HC |
$100.00 |
MAR |
|
6 |
JUNJI ITO: NO LONGER HUMAN HC (MR) |
$34.99 |
VIZ |
|
7 |
WATCHMEN TP |
$24.99 |
DC |
|
8 |
BATMAN: BLACK & WHITE OMNIBUS HC |
$125.00 |
DC |
|
9 |
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: DAREDEVIL VOL. 14 HC |
$75.00 |
MAR |
|
10 |
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN EPIC COLLECTION: MAXIMUM CARNAGE TP |
$39.99 |
MAR |