Walt's Comic Shop 2023 — In Numbers! Part 1 (of 3): General Trends, the 2023 Top150 Bestsellers + Top100 All-Time-Bestsellers (UPDATED!)

2023 was another crazy year for Walt's Comic Shop. Our revenue skyrocketed once again, increasing by 91%, which is truly phenomenal. I am extremely proud of Team Walt's work and immensely grateful to our customers for their loyalty! You rock!

However, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. Upon a closer look, our growth doesn't seem as rosy, at least not completely. In true startup fashion, we're still struggling a bit with profitability. Don't worry, we're in the black, but just barely. And if we want to continue growing healthily and investing in our business, things will need to change in 2024 (chill-pill-disclaimer: we won't raise prices, the big book deals will stay etc ).

The main culprit of our resource consumption was quickly identified, and it's something many of you can relate to: we simply purchase too much! Following the shock of Summer 2022, when Marvel left us high and dry with their Omni releases, putting us under significant pressure, I decided to diversify our offerings. Once you have employees and liabilities, you can't just pause during a drought. I realised that our 'small operation' wasn't so small anymore and needed better foresight. For me, foresight naturally means buying more comics!

The premium hardcovers, especially the Omnis, should remain the centerpiece of our business. But at the same time, Walt's should become a 'full-fledged' comic shop, including single issues, thin trade paperbacks from current runs, indie graphic novels, and a major focus on manga.

We aimed to have nearly all new US releases available. We invested a lot of energy into manga, and I'm glad that it now accounts for over 10% of our revenue. However, this stock expansion was not only costly but also very time-consuming. We went from 2 to 5 distributors, not to mention the exclusive deals we're negotiating with various small publishers. The man-hours, storage space, and the physical and digital handling of the sheer number of titles (we currently carry over 20K individual products) were a tremendous effort. 

What I want to say is: In the end, it paid off. We have sold more comics than ever to more people than ever. We will just be a bit more cautious in terms of selecting our titles for resale. After a few years of experimenting, we now know what works well and what doesn't. We have already made corrections with the singles, and the manga will follow. Primarily, it means that we will no longer be opening up new product categories left and right. Instead, we will focus on what you most like to buy, and we will continue to try to offer you the best possible price for it.

And now let's take a closer look at 2023!

Let's start with the main bestseller chart, and with a bit of explanatory text beforehand: These are the TOP 150 selling books in 2023. We have excluded Singles and Manga and will present them later in their own charts. If the title still has 'Pre-Order' in its title, it means it's not released yet. All variants have been consolidated into one title. The 3 Ultimate Spider-Man Omnibus covers are now listed as one. The same applies to pre-orders and sales after release: As long as the sale took place in 2023, it will be consolidated under one title. For sales spanning two or several years, there will be an All-Time Top 100 in the second part.

The first two titles have a significant lead over the third place. 'Ultimate Spider-Man 3' continues the extremely strong numbers of its predecessors, and it's no wonder Marvel has already announced the next volume. 'Thor by Aaron' is by far the most universally acclaimed title from Marvel's modern era. Volume 1 was number 2 last year, and the second volume remains at this level.

However, a closer look at the TOP 10 reveals that the winner of the year is not Aaron, nor Marvel, but a certain Mr Remender. He secures five places in the TOP 10 with reissues of his classics 'Fear Agent' and 'Black Science.' Additionally, he places three more titles in the TOP 150. I bet it was a special Christmas at the Remenders... Image scores not only with Remender but with almost all its Big Books: 'Invincible' sold excellently in several formats, but the new HC Compendiums rule supreme. The reissue of the 'Lazarus' volumes by Rucka and Lark performed surprisingly well, considering the series had somewhat faded from the limelight (and no one seems to talk about Vol 4 anymore).

Places 11-13 make it clear that the Omnibus has now also become the preferred format for recent runs. Zdarsky's 'Daredevil,' which only concluded in 2023, was immediately honored with an Omnibus. Hopefully, this will make Marvel reconsider the short lifespan of their ongoings series. Sure, it's not easy to keep good creators for several years, but it's now evident that it can be very lucrative beyond monthly sales. Predicition: The next massive  Marvel hits will be the 'Omnibised' X-Men Krakoa era. Hope we get some announcements soon!

There were also a few disapoinments: The 'Monster-Sized Hellboy' didn't do that great. I guess it's hard to beat the elegance and readability of the Library Editions. And despite being the most pre-ordered Marvel Omnibus of all time according to Omar, the 'Rom Omnibus' with its 4 (why, Marvel, WHYYYYY???) variant covers only managed to reach the meager rank of 79 in the end. Not bad at all for a ROM book if you ask me, I just don't get how this one sold more copies than Thor by Aaron or UXM V5 in the US. 

Now, rank 58 is particularly special: The Conan "de-facto Artist Edition" with our exclusive cover made some waves in the collectors community. And brought corresponding sales. The Artist Edition format is becoming more mainstream, and with each new announcement we get more pre-orders — but "our Conan" is clearly our best-selling Artist Edition, yet. Another reason to be hugely excited about the coming spring!!

2023 also marks DC's return to the Omnibus format. While they never completely disappeared, they had a rather shadowy presence in DC's publishing program. Despite a bit of a slowdown after a promising surge, with several TP Compendiums and Absolutes announced, DC ensures that more and more of their fantastic series from the 90s to today are being collected for the first time. Additionally, DC has indulged us with more 'Oversized Hardcovers': be it the very popular Black Label books at our store or newly released (Batman) classics: Oversized always sells with the Walties!

As I was working on the numbers (Is it work if you do it during your vacation?), I noticed that we now have a few perennial Omni sellers in the non-superhero category: 'Gotham Central,' 'Alias' (aka Jessica Jones), or the 'Absolute Swamp Things.' I love this fact and really hope for more material of this sort in oversized HC (Hellblazer, more Vertigo Omnis in general, reprints of Fade Out and 'Kill or be Killed' etc)

Of course, you’ll notice that Big Books still dominate our sales (and hopefully always will!). This doesn't mean that other formats sell poorly, just that Big Books are particularly popular with us. Strangely, our best-selling trade this year is 'Batman Year One.' Maybe because we offer it at a particularly good price? The other two TP top-sellers were from Marvel: Tradd Moore's psychedelic opus with Dr. Strange and 'New Mutants Vol 3 Epic Collection' (just Vol 4 left, then it's complete!)

Now, let's shift our focus to the All-Time Bestsellers. This is particularly interesting because some titles have significant sales spread over two distinct phases: the pre-order phase and the release phase (for example). And, of course, it's also worth examining because some publications have the potential to become long-term hits, while others don't!

Wow. Those are A LOT of Omnis, huh? Only two paperbacks and good dozen of Oversized Hardcovers here and there. And lots of Bendis content in the TOP10! Surprised to see House of M so far up. It was a big thing back in the day and something many fans wanted to see in Omnibus format for a long time. Also cool to see Gotham Central just barely missing the TOP10. It's one of the few titles, which started selling in 2021 already and it seems to continue doing so, DC must be very happy about it. 

Hope you had fun studying those big book numbers! Next up, I take a close look at Graphic Novels & Collected Editions and on Manga, in the second part of our Numbers series.