DC was the top publisher for comic retailers during Q2 2020, leading Marvel Comics by over 11 share points, based on sales of periodical comics and graphic novels tracked at point-of-sale by the ComicHub system at stores selling American comics around the world.  DC’s share win is not a surprise, as it pursued a more aggressive release strategy than Marvel, pushing to get comics out beginning in late April, even as Diamond Comic Distributors was shut down (see "DC To Resume Releasing New Comics April 28").  And we know from Comichron’s analysis of COVID-era comic releases on Twitter that DC released 95  comic issues in May and June, compared to Marvel’s 18.

During the period for which these reports were generated, there were roughly 85 stores using the ComicHub system, with rapid increases in the number of stores reporting expected as we incorporate future months.  As this is a small, non-random sample of over 3,000 stores selling American comics worldwide, these market shares may not be typical for all stores, but do represent a variety of locations and store emphases.  And for the first time, these market share calculations represent actual sales to consumers during the period, not sales to stores.

The monthly lists of comics and graphic novels released by Diamond reflect the sell-in to comic stores, that is, what the shops are buying to sell to their customers.  ComicHub tracks how many of these are actually sold by comic shops (see "ICv2 Insider Sessions: ComicHub Opens the Black Box").

Our calculations are based on Q2, rather than a single month, as there were only a handful of new titles released in April and May, and many stores were shut down or operating in a limited capacity in those months (and in some cases, in June as well).

We also did Q2 charts for the top 20 comics (see "Top 20 Comics – Q2 2020") and graphic novels (see "Top 20 Direct Market Graphic Novels – Q2 2020").

Comic Store Market Share (Dollars) – Q2 2020

Publisher

Market Share

DC Entertainment

37.4%

Marvel Comics

25.7%

Image Comics

10.3%

BOOM! Studios/Archaia

4.3%

IDW Publishing/Top Shelf Productions

4.2%

Dark Horse Comics

4.0%

VIZ Media/Perfect Square/Sublime

2.1%

Dynamite Entertainment

1.3%

Oni Press/Lion Forge/Limerence

1.2%

First Second Books/Square Fish/St Martins

0.7%

Other

8.8%