After rebounding in April, comic sales dropped a staggering 19% in May versus May 2008, while graphic novel sales declined by 13%, leading to an overall drop-off for the month of 18%.  A lack of potent #1 issues as well as the absence of Dark Avengers certainly didn’t help comic sales this May, a month in which no single title even came close to breaking the 100K barrier.  In contrast in May of 2008, which boasted seven titles over 100,000, comic sales were boosted by Final Crisis #1, Avengers/Invaders #1, Invincible Iron Man #1, and Giant Size Astonishing X-Men #1, all of which made the top ten along with 4 Secret Invasion titles and two issues of Batman RIP.  The paucity of big event titles and strong #1s, the continuing deep recession, and the financial drag of higher cover prices all worked together to help produce the steep decline in comic numbers in May. The 19% drop in sales of periodical comics was the biggest year-over-year monthly decline since ICv2 began tracking comic book sales.

By combining sales in both April (which had 5 shipping weeks in both 2008 and 2009) and May and then comparing them with 2008, the picture evens out a bit with comic sales down 7% and graphic novel numbers slipping 10% for an overall decline of 8%--a number that is more in line with what happened in the first quarter of 2009 during which comics were off 6% versus 2008.