The Q1 market share numbers from the 125+ stores using ComicHub tell the story (see "Comic Store Market Shares – Q1 2024"). The market share spread between Marvel and DC reached 17.3 share points, up over 6 points from Q1 2023. Marvel held nearly 40% of the direct market, with a 38.9% share, while DC had only a 21.6% share. Image’s share was up, to 12.4%, behind the Energon Universe titles, the Spawn #350 issue, and the first Ghost Machine title. The spread between Marvel and DC increased even more in Q2 (see "Comic Store Market Shares – Q2 2024").
Bob Schaefer of Dragon’s Lair in San Antonio, the store with the top comic volume in the chain, laid out some of his best sellers. "Ultimate Spider Man and Transformers are still two of our best-selling books, because people just really like the books," he said. "We're still selling a large quantity of that, Batman, and X Men, Wolverine, Spawn, even with the line expansion that McFarlane's done, has been very steady, because he keeps the price point down to $2.99. Ghost Machine had a pretty good start for us. It's settled down as the second issues have been coming out, but for an indie thing, it's still selling good numbers. DSTLRY books, the first issues all seem to do very well, and the rest of the series will sell steadily, but there's a big drop between number one and number two. It's partly a result of the oversized format that's hurting them, and the higher price points."
DC’s decline is causing broad concern. "DC cut their lines pretty substantially and leaned in more to variant covers that have up-priced cover prices," Brian Hibbs of Comix Experience in San Francisco noted. "That appears to be their model now; it doesn't seem like it's working."
John Robinson of 13-store mostly Midwest comic store chain Graham Crackers Comics made a broader point to which every direct market retailer would agree. "When we don't have the Big Two firing on all cylinders, we all hurt, and unfortunately that's what we're dealing with currently. If DC can get back on track we would all be in a much better place."
Retailers rued the long breaks in Image’s Saga run, which have sharply reduced demand, and it was used both as an example of the success that can accrue when a quality creative team do an extended run on a book, and the harm to sales when the run is interrupted.
Multiple sources, including Marvel President Dan Buckley in an interview with ICv2 (see "Interview with Dan Buckley"), have been expressing concern about creating excitement around new periodicals, increasing store visits, and recruiting new Wednesday warriors, and our interviewees this time around expressed some of the same sentiments.
"The people who already buy comics are still buying comics, but they're coming in less and less often," Hibbs observed. "For the most part, they're only buying what's already in their box and then moving on immediately, which is not good for the state of comics."
Robinson described similar trends in the Graham Crackers stores. "Stores’ subscriber levels are holding steady, which is miraculous considering the number of long time subscribers/old-timers that we're losing due to their frustration with publishing schedules/prices/variant cover behavior," he said.
We’re hearing generally positive things about the summer, with some big launches (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 at 300,000 copies, for one), and a wide range of books that will hit key audiences. Overall, despite modest declines for some and serious long-term concerns, the tone in the comics biz has improved from a year ago, with some recent and expected hits brightening the mood.
This article is a summary of an article from ICv2 Pro, and Internal Correspondence #105. For the complete article, see "In Depth – Comics and Graphic Novel Sales Mixed") or the complete issue of Internal Correspondence #105, on our Pro site (click here).