Infinity 1.jpg
Marvel was the winner again in August according to today’s just released figures from Diamond. Infinity #1 was the top comics and Marvel meat DC in both units and dollars. Comparative figures were WAY down, however august was a four week month as compared to both August 2012 and July 2013 which were five week months. Diamond noted that comics sales for the year are still up a robust 9.82%.

While Infinity #1 was the top shipping book, when the sales numbers come out it is important to remember that it was heavily discounted to retailers—up to 70%. As a $4.99 book, it still had significant sales obviously.

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PUBLISHER MARKET SHARES

RETAIL MARKET SHARE
PUBLISHER SHARE
MARVEL COMICS 33.70%
DC COMICS 30.16%
IMAGE COMICS 7.86%
IDW PUBLISHING 5.70%
DARK HORSE COMICS 5.47%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 3.01%
BOOM! STUDIOS 2.05%
EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS LTD 1.34%
AVATAR PRESS INC 0.95%
ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT INC 0.94%
OTHER NON-TOP 10 8.83%
UNIT MARKET SHARE
PUBLISHER SHARE
MARVEL COMICS 36.30%
DC COMICS 33.14%
IMAGE COMICS 8.51%
IDW PUBLISHING 4.98%
DARK HORSE COMICS 4.80%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 2.93%
BOOM! STUDIOS 2.07%
ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT INC 1.03%
VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT LLC 0.97%
ASPEN MLT INC 0.65%
OTHER NON-TOP 10 4.63%

NEW TITLES SHIPPED

PUBLISHER COMICS SHIPPED GRAPHIC NOVELS SHIPPED MAGAZINES SHIPPED TOTAL SHIPPED
MARVEL COMICS 67 34 0 101
DC COMICS 83 23 1 107
IMAGE COMICS 39 9 0 48
IDW PUBLISHING 35 18 0 53
DARK HORSE COMICS 29 15 0 44
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 49 4 0 53
BOOM! STUDIOS 20 2 0 22
EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS LTD 0 0 6 6
AVATAR PRESS INC 7 4 0 11
ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT INC 11 3 0 14
OTHER NON-TOP 10 66 100 27 193

COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS

  DOLLARS UNITS
AUGUST 2013 VS. JULY 2013
COMICS -15.30% -14.93%
GRAPHIC NOVELS -24.55% -24.81%
TOTAL COMICS/GN -18.33% -15.77%
AUGUST 2013 VS. AUGUST 2012
COMICS -10.39% -11.21%
GRAPHIC NOVELS -22.09% -25.68%
TOTAL COMICS/GN -14.29% -12.50%
YEAR-TO-DATE 2013 VS. YEAR-TO-DATE 2012
COMICS 9.82% 7.38%
GRAPHIC NOVELS 6.59% 4.55%
TOTAL COMICS/GN 8.79% 7.16%

TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS

RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE ITEM CODE VENDOR
1 INFINITY #1 $4.99 JUN130572 MAR
2 SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #3 $3.99 JUN130176 DC
3 BATMAN #23 $3.99 JUN130199 DC
4 JUSTICE LEAGUE #23 $3.99 JUN130154 DC
5 JUSTICE LEAGUE OFAMERICA#7 $3.99 JUN130146 DC
6 BATMAN SUPERMAN #3 $3.99 JUN130193 DC
7 SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #15 $3.99 JUN130606 MAR
8 SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #16 $3.99 JUN130607 MAR
9 AVENGERS #18 $3.99 JUN130586 MAR
10 ALL-NEW X-MEN #15 $3.99 JUN130641 MAR

TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS

RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE ITEM CODE VENDOR
1 THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 1: DAYS GONE BYE TP $14.99 NOV128157 IMA
2 CHEW VOLUME 7: BAD APPLES TP $12.99 JUN130436 IMA
3 ROCKET RACCOON: TALES FROM THE HALF WORLD TP $7.99 JUN130618 MAR
4 SAGA VOLUME 1 TP $9.99 AUG120491 IMA
5 SAGA VOLUME 2 TP $14.99 APR130443 IMA
6 MY LITTLE PONY DIGEST VOLUME 1 TP $6.99 MAY130361 IDW
7 DEADPOOL VOLUME 2: SOUL HUNTER TP $15.99 MAY130727 MAR
8 SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN VOLUME 2: TROUBLED MIND TP $17.99 MAY130724 MAR
9 THE FLASH VOLUME 1: MOVE FORWARD TP $16.99 MAY130224 DC
10 B.P.R.D.: HELL ON EARTH VOLUME 6: RETURN OF THE MASTER TP $19.99 APR130044 DAR

TOP 10 TOYS

RANK DESCRIPTION ITEM CODE VENDOR
1 THE WALKING DEAD COMIC SERIES 2 ACTION FIGURES APR130580 TMP
2 BATMAN:ARKHAMCITY: SOLOMON GRUNDY DELUXE ACTION FIGURES MAY130274 DC
3 BATMAN: HUSH: THE JOKER/HARLEY QUINN/STEALTH BATMAN ACTION FIGURE 3-PACK MAY130272 DC
4 MAN OF STEEL PLAY ARTS KAI: SUPERMAN ACTION FIGURE MAR138138 SQU
5 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: VENOM UNBOUND FINE ART STATUE DEC121703 KOT
6 DC COMICS: WONDER WOMAN “NEW 52” ARTFX+ STATUE JAN131762 KOT
7 MAN OF STEEL PLAY ARTS KAI: GENERAL ZOD FIGURE MAR138137 SQU
8 BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM: THE JOKER WITH SCARFACE ACTION FIGURE PACK OCT128236 DC
9 INJUSTICE: NIGHTWING VS. SUPERMAN FIGURE 2-PACK APR130269 DC
10 BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM: HARLEY QUINN ACTION FIGURE OCT128235 DC

TOP 10 GAMES

RANK DESCRIPTION ITEM CODE VENDOR
1 MARVEL HEROCLIX: WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN BOOSTER BRICK JUN132403 NEC
2 BIOSHOCK INFINITE HEROCLIX MAR132258 NEC
3 MARVEL HEROCLIX: FEAR ITSELF: THE MIGHTY SCENARIO FEB138561 NEC
4 KICK-ASS 2 HEROCLIX APR138309 NEC
5 PATHFINDER BATTLES: SKULL & SHACKLES BOOSTER BRICK MAY132337 NEC
6 STAR TREK: ATTACK WING STARTER SET MAY132339 NEC
7 BIOSHOCK INFINITE HEROCLIX STARTER SET MAR132259 NEC
8 RISK LEGACY JUN118204 HAS
9 THE LONE RANGER HEROCLIX APR132233 NEC
10 YU-GI-OH! TCG: JUDGMENT OF THE LIGHT BOOSTER APR138126 KON
Dollar Market Shares for August 2013
Dollar Market Share – August 2013
Unit Market Shares for August 2013
Unit Market Share– August 2013

10 COMMENTS

  1. @ grubba

    EVERY book in the top ten is a 3.99 book. These are the best seller franchises and are priced this way because publisher know they will sell no matter what.

  2. yes, but not every publisher has a hold the line at 2.99 policy, sweetheart, thats the point i was making, honey. sometimes think before you type

  3. DC bombs again after last month’s fluke which only happened cause they flooded the market with 91 books, Annuals, Directors Cuts and other expensive stuff. Unit sales must be about 500k lower than August ’12 and even lower than pre-reboot August ’11! DC must be 1.5m units behind 2012 when compared to the first 8 months of both years. New52 GNs also flop as only one is in the Top10 at no.9 outsold even by MY LITTLE PONY! Despite the tricks and DC’s lies the fiasco of the reboot is exposed.

  4. yes, but not every publisher has a hold the line at 2.99 policy, sweetheart, thats the point i was making, honey. sometimes think before you type
    ——————————————————————————————————

    Apparently, neither does DC anymore. With their books shipping in October, the titles that were 40 pages @ $3.99 will simply be 32 page regular sized books @ 3.99. While the top titles will chug right along (Justice League, Batman, Superman Unchained, ect.), I worry about titles such as All-Star Western (my personal favorite DC title) and Justice League Dark (once the crossover ends).

  5. their ‘hold the line’ campaign was about 3 years ago wasn’t it?? It doesn’t mean it lasts forever.

  6. Ok so payin $4 for a comic sucks….but why so much hate towards DC raising their prices? They still held most of their titles at $3 for nerly 3 years while Marvel didn’t. Fact of the matter is stop complaining folks if a titles is good and you like it you will end up buying even if its $5.

    Soon everyne will be at $4 and up and lets see how long before the $5 books come out. Bet Marvel will attempt this in a year or two.

    Finally I dont consider it an impressive win for Marvel…..since their own reboot, most months they are 2-5% higher in Market share and a little more in $ (cause their books are more expensive). Look at this month….they are barely 3% up on DC. I hardly call that a win.

    The real winners here are the indie books. They now account for 35% of the market….thats good. When I started reading comics 23 years ago, Marvel & DC had 80+% of the market.

  7. Naveed:

    I’m not “bashing” DC here. Matter of fact, I appreciate them keeping their price down on so many of their titles as long as they did. However, for those of us raising families, our comic book budgets are small enough as it is. Thus, when $3.99 is the starting point for titles (and once it is, certain books will shoot up to $4.99), some of us will not only have to trim our number of titles we buy, we’ll be much more wary of trying a new title based on blind faith that it’ll be good. No hatred of DC from me—and for that matter, any other publisher. Rising costs of comics, whether I personally like the price hikes or not, are, just like any other item for sale, based on the longstanding phrase “what the market will bear”. And according to the top 10 comics listed, the market, for the most part, will indeed bear the $3.99 price point quite nicely.

Comments are closed.