With the U.S. in the grips of the deepest economic downturn in 80 years, sales of periodical comics and graphic novels were down just 5% in the first quarter of 2009 versus Q1 of 2008.  In a quarter that has been described as the “worst retail environment in memory,” as an era when “flat is the new up,” a five percent decline is a drop that most retail sectors in the American economy can only dream about.  Sales of periodical comics were down 6% for the quarter, but graphic novel sales were up enough to trim the overall drop in comic and graphic novel sales to just 5%.

 

For the month of March sales of periodical comics were down 7%, but graphic novel sales rebounded from a rare decline in February to post a 6% gain in March, which brought the overall decline in comics and graphic novels in March down to 5%.  Graphic novel sales were aided in March by a huge boost in sales of the Watchmen graphic novel, which boosted by the release of Watchmen movie, soared to over 32 thousand, posting the best graphic novel sales number through Diamond since last August’s record-setting 43K figure that resulted from a major Watchmen consignment program initiated by DC.

For an overview and analysis of the best-selling comics and graphic novels in March, see "No Comic Over 100K in March."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during March, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--March 2009."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during March, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--March 2009."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during February, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--February 2009."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during February, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--February 2009."

For an overview and analysis of the best-selling comics and graphic novels in February, see "'Obama' Comic on Top Again."  For an analysis of the dollar trends in February, see "Comics Down Slightly in February."

For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through March 2009, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 100 GNs Index."