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.
PUBLISHER MARKET SHARES
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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 |
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| Dollar Market Share – August 2013 |
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| Unit Market Share– August 2013 |
every d.c. book in the top ten is 3.99. i dont think thats an accident
@ 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.
Have Diamond said how they’ll handle the $3.99/$2.99 thing for the September charts?
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
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.
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
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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).
I find plenty of good stuff to read at $3, bypassing all $4 titles….
their ‘hold the line’ campaign was about 3 years ago wasn’t it?? It doesn’t mean it lasts forever.
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.
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.
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