Mayo Report for 2011-12
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Top Comics List Top Comics Breakdown Top Trades List Top Trades Breakdown
DC continued to have the majority of the items at the top the comic book best seller list in December 2011. The strong sales of "Justice League," "Batman," "Action Comics" and "Green Lantern" continue while "Avengers: X-Sanction" and "Defenders" are the latest first issues to keep Marvel in the top ten.
Marvel had no titles sell over 100,000 units to retailers in December. In November the "Point One" one shot, "Avenger Spider-Man" #1 and "Uncanny X-Men" #1 all sold over 100,000 units. In December, "Avenging Spider-Man" #2 dropped by 45.89% down from the first issue sales of an estimated 112,114 units to approximately 60,682 units. "Uncanny X-Men" #1 sold about 109,902 units while #2, which also shipped in November, dropped by a little over 34% down to about 72,479 units. In December, "Uncanny X-Men" #3 sold an estimated 64,112 units which amounts to a drop of another 11.55% from the second issue.
These drops over at Marvel are not unique. "Incredible Hulk" #1 was the top selling Marvel title in October 2011 selling around 106,472 units. In November, the second issue fell 24.74% down to an estimated 72,479 units with the title dropping another 42% down to around 46,446 units with the third issue in December. With "Avengers X-Sanction" #1 selling around 93,380 units and the new "Defenders" #1 launching at an estimated 85,969 units, Marvel is having a hard time keeping titles in the upper end of the charts. It wasn't that long ago that Marvel had a firm lock on the top of the comic sales charts.
If we take a look at the way the top ten comics usually shake out during the final order era which started in March 2003 when Diamond first started reporting invoiced sales to retailers instead of what stored had pre-ordered, Marvel has usually had the most items in the top ten slots:
As should be expected, at this end of the chart an item filled by Marvel or DC is usually done at the expense of the other. In January 2005 and January 2008, DC wasn't able to place a single item in the top ten slots. Marvel has always had at least two items in the top ten and in January 2005, it took all ten slots.
Over those 106 months, only 15 items not publisher by DC or Marvel have made it into the top ten. "Project Superpowers" #0 in January 2008 was the top seller of those 15 items with around 113,104 units. The lowest selling of the 15 was "Spawn" #200 in January 2011 with an estimated 65,448 units. The majority of the list of 15 top ten comics not by Marvel or DC was various issues of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8" by Dark Horse.
Getting into the top ten is not easy. But the number of items in the top 10 slots is only part of the picture. The more interesting chart is how many units those items equated to:
As the black dotted line shows, the total number of units sold by the top ten comics fluctuates from month to month. The top ten in May 2006 sold over twice as much as the top ten in February 2011. Notice the shift in how those sales for the top ten used to be mainly at Marvel and are now shifting over to DC. Late 2006 and early 2007 should serve as a cautionary tale for DC as they were seeing a clear upswing in 2005 and 2006 only to see Marvel domainate the top ten in 2007 and 2008 with hits like "Civil War" and the 2007 relaunch of the Avengers titles. The Avengers titles were relaunched again in 2010 and given the current sales levels of those titles, odds are good that we may see yet another relaunch of that franchise at the end of the "Avengers vs X-Men" event.
If we pull back a bit and look at the split of top 100 by items and units we see the way that the mid-list titles influence this bigger picture:
The differences between the high points and low points are still there but not as pronounced. This estimated unit sales chart implies a downward trend for comics in the top 100 not published by DC or Marvel. But, we see a much more even sales trend for the comics not by DC and Marvel if we pull back and look at the full list of the top 300 comics:
From this vantage point, what had appeared to be a mirror image item count trend in the top 10 and top 100 is gone. There are still usually more items not publisher by DC or Marvel on the top 300 list each than is published by either of those two companies. Each of these publishers may not be sales juggernauts by themselves but they have to potential to compete as a group against Marvel and DC. It is all a matter of perspective.
Another matter of perspective is who "won" December 2011. DC had 42.94% of the total unit sales for the top 300 comics compared to the 39.72% for Marvel. So, by that yardstick, DC won. Diamond reported Marvel had 34.43% of the overall unit share (which included comics, trades and items not listed on the top sellers charts) compared to the 33.74% for DC. Each of these different yardsticks results in a different winner. Both pieces of data have value but only if they are understood for what they are. Neither is more right that the other. They simply measure different things. Both yardsticks indicate the competitive nature of the current market.
Neither DC nor Marvel clearly dominates sales over the other right now and that is a good thing because it forces both to actively compete against the other. Hopefully this will bring out the best in both companies. That in turn, hopefully, will bring out the best from the other publishers as well.
