September 2023 Comic Book Sales Charts & Commentary (2 of 2)

Alright, if you want to start with the beginning, head over here for part 1, in which I look at more general trends in formats and rank the publishers we sell based on the revenue they generate. 

In the second part I will feature our bestsellers from different segments. 

I bet you are surprised to see 6 (!) Image books in the TOP10 for Pre-Orders. I know I was, even though I monitor the sales every day. And since the first rank is a bundle, there are technically 8 (!!!) Image hardcover books ranked in the TOP10. WOWZA! But it also needs to be said, that it's not every month Rick Remender decides to re-release half of his oeuvre as hardcovers...

Less surprising is that most of the TOP10 are also products we offer through our Big Book Deals promotion. Even though we're bleeding some profit on those books, it has generated the desired outreach and we have had many new customers and a few lapsed one coming back. After our initial decision of offering pre-orders with the "Big Books Pre-Order Program" you could call the Big Book Deals the "Phase 2" for our pre-order game. Prepare yourself for the program to be gradually expanded!

Other than the Faust HC and one IDW Turtles book our preos are in the hands of the big three: Marvel, DC and Image. BTW, this is ranked in units, not in revenue. Still, we only have one TP entering the chart (Doctor Strange Epic V2). Also, those numbers are not complete. If one book has started pre-sales in the last week of August, those August copies won't show here. For a more complete look at this years pre-orders wait for this 2023's year-end lists. 

If Image dominated the pre-order chart, DC takes the crown for the in-stocks: We have experienced a serious  upswing in sales for DC collected editions recently. I didn't hear any other retailers talking about it (not at the New York Comic Con, not in the retailer forums on Facebook, ... everybody is just complaining all the time haha), so maybe it's just us, but: DC is doing really well right now. They have a super-diverse mix or products (TPs, Omnis, Absolutes, small HCs, Deluxes (OHCs), Black-Label-BDs and now also the Compendiums...). And thankfully, the concern that one might have had for a while, that they couldn't keep their prices under control, has not come to pass. And look at Gotham Central! This one keeps selling since its release (and it didn't hurt that our star inhouse-influencer Mike talked it up on his insta-show).

We ordered a significant quantity of Lazarus HCs, anticipating they would last us at least a year. Yet, in under two months, we found ourselves placing a new re-order. This is particularly impressive given that the reprints weren't released alongside a new Vol 4, as was initially announced/rumored. 

You've already seen our figures regarding the distribution of sales by format (in terms of revenue). And for us, singles play only a small (but exquisite!) role. They contribute even less to the profit (in percentage terms), but I have a darn soft spot for the "original format"! It's the very first time I've generated a sales chart for the singles (all variant covers consolidated), and my gut feeling has always been that we sell significantly more Marvel than DC. Our order quantities reflect that. But (at least!) when it comes to rankings, DC is ahead. And by a lot! Could the "good girl" cover art play a vital role in that regard? I wouldn't rule it out...

Aside from the one-shot "Goodbye Eri" by Chainsaw-Man creator Tatsuki Fujimoto and Hayao Miyazaki's "Shuna's Journey" (not strictly a manga, but culturally best categorized in this segment), which remains consistently popular in our brick and mortar store, there are seldom breakout hits when it comes to our manga sales. At least until a new volume of Berserk comes out ;) Though the total number of manga sold is continuously on the rise, it's spreading extremely wide. Most times, a reprint of a sought-after volume x of a popular series or a Junji Ito perennial will outsell a new volume one. And a considerable share of manga sales is people buying whole runs of semi-known series. It's probably more us than manga per se, and I guess if the segment will keep growing new releases will start to become more important, but: we'll see. 

This segment is more audience-targeted than it is strictly categorized. It also includes Art Books and some obscure indie "single issues", but it does not include traditional collected editions: so if the material was previously released in single-issue format, I don't count it (yes, smarty-pants, I'm aware that "From Hell" was initially released in individual prestige editions, but let's just ignore that, okay?). These are generally books that don't target the traditional genre and superhero-adjacent audience but rather cater to an intellectual/alternative milieu. Currently there's a winner every month in this category, and that's Zoe Thorogood's "It's Lonely At The Centre Of The Earth". Unquestionably at the top, she's the biggest star the indie scene has produced since Tillie Walden. The difference is: Zoe actually captures both indie camps, the classic graphic novel enthusiasts as well as the Image/Dark Horse readership. All the other titles in this list only sell 2-3 times a month, which on one hand is really low, but summed up over a year (in the case of titles like "Maus," "From Hell," "Berlin" etc.) can indeed lead to impressive figures. Our brick & mortar store plays a special role in the sale of these titles because they are comics that one might want to flip through and discover first, something that hasn't been effectively replicated online yet. In any case, it's a personal endeavor of mine to shine more light on these titles. This is truly challenging given the overwhelming number of new releases we have to manage on the shop side and that I, as a reader, am exposed to. But we do have Matt, who keeps an eye on new releases (more from the Imagey side of things) and I think we can do better job at showcasing the more offbeat and Fanta/D&Q-type of books in the future...

OK. That's it. Hope you enjoyed it! Do not expect to get this kind of extended reporting every month, though ;) Though I will try and do a piece on sales numbers once a month, where I will try to find a new angle/topic. That is, if you want me to. Nothing motivates more than feedback, so please leave your comments or go to our discord and start a discussion or... something!

Cheers

Walt