sales charts
Quote of the day | Is DC Comics a two-man operation?
Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns (via Bleeding Cool)
“The 26 best-selling DC single issues were all written or co-written by either Geoff Johns or Grant Morrison.”
–Techland’s Douglas Wolk makes a startling observation about Diamond’s 2010 sales charts. I mean, I knew Johns and Morrison were DC’s two bestselling authors by a long shot, and since I enjoy their work a great deal I’m pretty happy about that, but that level of dominance is really stunning to me. Moreover, Wolk goes on to note that “The best-selling DC single issue that was neither a Batman comic nor a tie-in to Blackest Night/Brightest Day was Superman #700, at position #109.” In other words, DC’s dominant writers have made the properties on which they work — predominantly Batman and Green Lantern — DC’s dominant franchises as well. Even superstar writer J. Michael Straczynski’s much-ballyhooed Superman debut failed to gain much traction relative to the Johns/Morrison juggernaut.
I think it’s safe to assume that Johns is being pulled in more and more directions by his Chief Creative Officer duties — the same position, keep in mind, that Joe Quesada recently relinquished his Editor-in-Chief gig to focus on over at Marvel. Meanwhile, Morrison is a writer whose work meets with frequent delays at the best of times, and who has a full slate of creator-owned work and various media projects (Hollywood screenplays and adaptations, the indie flick Sinatoro, My Chemical Romance videos, etc). Finally, there’s no way to tell how the Green Lantern movie will affect fan interest in the franchise. That’s a lot of eggs to have in relatively few baskets.
- January 11, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Quote of the day | 2010′s bestsellers and half-full glasses
“Fun fact! NINE of the TOP TEN graphic novels in 2010 were creator-owned books! Walking Dead, Kick-Ass and Scott Pilgrim among them.”
–Savage Dragon cartoonist Erik Larsen, speaking the truth. Of course, the flip side of this is that NINE of the TOP TEN graphic novels in 2010 had major Hollywood properties to thank for much of their notoriety, Walking Dead, Kick-Ass, and Scott Pilgrim among them. (The tenth was a Superman book that got over with mass audiences largely on the strength of a fortuitous press comparison to Twilight.) I don’t mean to short-change the success of Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, Charlie Adlard, Mark Millar, John Romita Jr., and Bryan Lee O’Malley, but proponents of creator ownership and creators’ rights probably ought not break out the MISSION ACCOMPLISHED banner just yet.
- January 10, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
The Walking Dead, Scott Pilgrim maintain their grips on bookstores
The Walking Dead: Compendium One
The Walking Dead and Scott Pilgrim dominated graphic novel sales in bookstores in December, claiming nine of the Top 10 spots on the Nielsen BookScan chart.
Buoyed by the record-setting first season of the AMC television adaptation, zombie comic landed the top spot with The Walking Dead: Compendium One, the $60, 1,088-page collection of the first 48 issues of the Robert Kirkman-Tony Moore-Charlie Adlard series. Three volumes of The Walking Dead, including new editions of the first two collections, appeared in the Top 10, and five in the Top 15.
All six volumes of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim made the Top 10, which could be attributed to the November release of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World on DVD and Blu-ray — or a sign that the series is on its way to becoming a perennial bestseller.
Meanwhile, Superman: Earth One, the hardcover graphic novel whose blockbuster sales led J. Michael Straczynski to abandon the Superman and Wonder Woman monthly series so DC Comics could fast-track a sequel, plummeted from No. 1 on the chart to No. 15. The retail news and analysis site ICv2.com suggests the book may be a victim of availability — there may not be enough additional copies to replenish what’s been sold — rather than a decrease in interest. Indeed, Superman: Earth One is No. 5 after nine weeks on The New York Times hardcover graphic books list.
- January 6, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Comics fall short of the 100,000-copy mark (again)
Batman: The Return
Publishing | Following its grim snapshot of year-to-date dollar sales in the direct market, ICv2.com has released a dreary analysis of the November charts: For the third time in 2010, the top-selling title failed to crack the 100,000-copy mark. Batman: The Return, priced at $4.99, sold about 99,500 copies, compared to the 144,000 sold by November 2009′s top title, Blackest Night #5. According to the retail news and analysis site, 20 of the Top 25 titles experienced a drop last month. As ICv2 noted last week in its initial report, dollar sales of comics were down 10.2 percent when compared with November 2009, while graphic novels jumped 14.84 percent, tied to the release of the 13th volume of The Walking Dead (it sold more than 19,000 copies). [ICv2.com]
Digital publishing | Google on Monday unveiled Google eBooks, a web-based e-book platform/digital storefront that boasts “the world’s largest selection of ebooks.” Dan Vado offers brief commentary. [TechCrunch]
- December 7, 2010 @ 07:08 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Wolverine #1, the top seller in September
Publishing | John Jackson Miller delves into September’s grim direct-market sales figures and discovers a (relative) bright spot: Sales of lower-tier titles — those that don’t crack Diamond’s Top 300 — appear to be increasing, to record levels. “How do we know?” Miller writes. “Believe it or not, a record for high sales was actually set in September. The 300th place comic book, Boom’s Farscape #11, sold more copies to retailers in September than in any month since November 1996: 4,702 copies. That’s a record for the period following Marvel’s return to Diamond. This bellwether tells us about the shape of the market, and how prolific the major and middle-tier publishers are; when many of their titles are being released and reordered, higher-volume titles tend to push farther into the list.”
However, the higher you go on the list, the worse things look: “The average comic book in the Top 25 is selling more poorly in 2010 than in 2003. At the very top of the chart, 2010′s average top-sellers are about 25% off what the best-sellers of 2003 were doing.” [The Comichron]
- November 1, 2010 @ 08:07 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Brightest Day #7 (August's top-selling comic)
Retailing | Laura Hudson surveys a handful of retailers about what part higher cover prices may have played in August’s plummeting comics sales. “This summer has underperformed, and I think [the $3.99 price point] is a big part of it,” says Chris Rosa of Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles, “but also I think the lack of an event and the fact that the big books at both [companies] are extended denouements to events. There’s nothing really inspiring people to run out to the stores. People are tired of buying four Avengers titles at $3.99 a pop.” [Comics Alliance]
Publishing | Tom Mason looks at the return of Atlas Comics: “If you were 13 years-old in 1975 when the original books were out, you’d be 48 today. In other words, the age of the average direct market fanboy. But in order for these new books to succeed, they’d have to appeal beyond nostalgia because with most Marvel and DC comics at $4.00 a pop, you’ve got to have something special and excellent to lure some of those buyers into your own circus tent.” [Comix 411]
- September 17, 2010 @ 08:05 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Brightest Day #7
Publishing | Chart-watcher John Jackson Miller wades into the grim direct-market sales figures for August, and notes that they mirror the state of the market in 2000: “Like 2010, 2000 was a year with a successful super-hero movie release — the first X-Men film. In that year, however, it had little impact on the market partially due to the cash-poor position of retailers at the time — and we might expect retailers were in the same position this year. [...] In 2000, by contrast, the reason wasn’t the general economy, but rather the seven-year industry recession that preceded it. Another similar element: price increases. From 1999 to 2000, Marvel went from benchmarks of $1.99 and $2.50 to $2.50 and $2.99. Other titles increased as well; $2.95 first became the industry’s median price in late 1999. The 2000 jumps are one of the more drastic previous increases by percentage — eclipsed, of course, by the current $2.99-to-$3.99 move.” [The Comichron]
Legal | India’s Delhi High Court has refused to hear a complaint by Archie Comics challenging the use of the name “Archies” by Mumbai-based Purple Creations. The court said it had no jurisdiction in the matter because Archie doesn’t have an office in India. [Deccan Herald]
- September 15, 2010 @ 08:03 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1
Sales charts | Although Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World performed poorly at the box office, it continues to boost sales of the Bryan Lee O’Malley series on which it’s based. The six volumes claimed the top six spots on BookScan’s list of graphic novels sold in bookstores in August, followed at No. 7 by the latest volume of The Walking Dead, whose television adaptation debuts on Halloween on AMC. [ICv2.com]
Legal | The owners of BATS BBQ in Rock Hill, South Carolina, are digging in for a legal battle after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from DC Comics, which objects to their attempts to trademark the restaurant’s logo. [The Herald]
Publishing | Mark Millar discusses CLiNT Magazine, his new monthly venture with Titan Magazines that debuts today in the United Kingdom. [Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser]
- September 2, 2010 @ 08:13 AM by Kevin Melrose
One Piece sells more than 20 million copies — just this year
One Piece
It’s well-established that Eiichiro Oda’s comedy-adventure One Piece is wildly popular, setting one record after nother in Japan, where the 59th volume received a 3.2 million-copy first printing. Once that figure has sunk in, here’s another one for you: One Piece has sold more than 20 million copies this year alone — four times that of Naruto, the second-highest selling manga.
That news arrives just as it’s confirmed that, beginning next week, Oda is taking a well-deserved month-long break from the series that’s been serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump virtually nonstop since August 1997.
- August 27, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
X-Men #1
Publishing | Direct-market comics sales fell 12 percent in July versus the previous year, with only Marvel’s X-Men #1 breaking the 100,000-copy mark, thanks to incentive covers and heavy marketing behind a series relaunch. The sixth issue of DC Comics’ summer crossover, Brightest Day, came in at No. 2 with about 94,600 copies.
The news is better in the graphic novel category, where sales climbed 3 percent, buoyed by strong performances by all six volumes of Scott Pilgrim — the final book in the series debuted with sales of more than 21,000 — and the 12th volume of The Walking Dead. Overall sales declined 9 percent in July. [ICv2.com]
Conventions | Wizard World Chicago Comic Con kicks off Friday in Rosemont, Illinois. Guests include Brian Azzarello, Art Baltazar, J. Scott Campbell, Gary Friedrich, Michael Golden, Mike Grell, Greg Horn, Joe Madureira, Bill Sienkiewicz, Jill Thompson and Ethan Van Sciver. [Daily Herald]
- August 19, 2010 @ 08:04 AM by Kevin Melrose
Blackest Night, Scott Pilgrim continue their chart conquests
Blackest Night hardcover
DC Comics’ Blackest Night and Oni Press’ Scott Pilgrim continue their domination, claiming a combined 11 spots on July’s BookScan chart and 12 spots on this week’s New York Times graphic books bestseller list. The books were so formidable that just six manga cracked BookScan’s Top 20.
Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, the sixth and final volume of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel series, topped both the BookScan and New York Times paperback lists. In fact, O’Malley’s books took the top six spots on the latter chart.
Blackest Night titles filled out six of the 10 slots on the Times’ hardcover graphic books list, led by Rise of the Black Lanterns at No. 2.
Dark Horse’s Troublemaker, by Janet Evanovich, Alex Evanovich and Joelle Jones, continued its strong performance, leading the Times’ hardcover list for the second week while debuting at No. 2 on the BookScan chart.
- August 6, 2010 @ 08:18 AM by Kevin Melrose
Scott Pilgrim, Blackest Night dominate New York Times lists
Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 6
The New York Times spotlights the debut of author Janet Evanovich’s first graphic novel Troublemaker (with daughter Alex and artist Joelle Jones) atop its graphic books bestseller list. The title’s performance probably should be expected, though, considering the popularity of her Stephanie Plum novels.
What I find more interesting is the domination of the hardcover and paperback charts by two series: DC Comics’ Black Night collections, and the entire run of Oni Press’ Scott Pilgrim.
Buoyed by the release last week of the final volume of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s acclaimed series, and anticipation for the Aug. 13 debut of Edgar Wright’s film adaptation, the Scott Pilgrim books claimed the top six spots on the paperback list, with Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour debuting at No. 1. (As we reported earlier this week, the initial 100,000-copy printing of the sixth volume sold out at the distributor level within a few days of its release.)
Meanwhile, on the hardcover list, five Blackest Night collections fell into place behind Troublemaker: Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps, Vols. 1 and 2; Blackest Night; Blackest Night: Green Lantern; and Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps.
- July 30, 2010 @ 08:19 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Chew, Vol. 2: International Flavor
Publishing | The direct market saw a 21-percent jump in graphic novel sales in June, reversing the category’s dismal trend. ICv2.com notes that’s the best year-over-year comparison since June 2008. Periodical sales, meanwhile, remained virtually unchanged, inching up just 1 percent from June 2009.
DC’s Arkham Asylum: Madness, by Sam Kieth, led the graphic novel list with modest sales of about 7,400. The No. 2 title, the second volume of John Layman and Rob Guillory’s Chew, actually experienced an increase in sales in its second month on the chart. The periodicals list was topped by the first issue of Marvel’s relaunched New Avengers — one of four Avengers titles in the Top 10 — with about 129,000 copies. John Jackson Miller has additional analysis. [ICv2.com]
- July 13, 2010 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Avengers #1
Publishing | Direct-market comics sales rebounded in May, increasing 15 percent from the same month last year. Sales of graphic novels, however, fell 13 percent. Diamond’s list of Top 300 periodicals was led by Avengers #1 with an estimated 163,867 copies — 50,000 more than second-place Siege #4 (the final issue of the Marvel miniseries). The lackluster graphic-novel chart was topped by the ninth volume of Ex Machina, with fewer than 5,000 copies. Once again The Walking Dead was a standout, with 12 volumes charting — including a reprint of the six-year-old Days Gone Bye collection, which came in at No. 19 with about 2,300 copies. [ICv2.com]
Internet | Kimberly Saunders looks at how scanlation aggregators hide titles on their websites, removing yaoi titles from the prying eyes of Google — Google’s AdSense application doesn’t permit sites with sexually explicit content — and seemingly satisfying take-down notices from publishers: “MangaFox is not alone in trying the shell game, either. AnimeA have game on as well. Visit their site, click on a manga title they have supposedly removed, (all Viz so far, just like MangaFox) and up comes a message that it is licensed and you have to buy it. But if you have a page bookmarked, or come via a search engine, and click on a listed numbered chapter of (name of removed manga), guess what? Yes, it is there, just hidden and inaccessible from the main page in an attempt to appear compliant …” [The Kimi-chan Experience, via Deb Aoki]
- June 21, 2010 @ 08:28 AM by Kevin Melrose
Quote of the day | George Gene Gustines, on Justice League: Cry for Justice
Justice League: Cry for Justice
“Despite some often-beautiful artwork by Mauro Cascioli, the series, written by James Robinson, was almost universally derided. [...] Such vitriol! If Cry for Justice was on Facebook, it would be de-friended, yet here it is on the hardcover list. Is its best-selling status the equivalent of gawking at a traffic accident, or are comic-book fans complaining even as they vote the opposite way with their dollars?”
– New York Times writer George Gene Gustines, on the debut of the Justice League: Cry for Justice hardcover
at No. 6 on the newspaper’s graphic novel bestseller list
- June 18, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Kevin Melrose