Mayo Report for 2019-12
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Top Comics List Top Comics Breakdown Top Trades List Top Trades Breakdown
December 2019 had 5,975,490 units in the top 300 comics list, a decrease of 202,702 units from last month. This is well below the monthly average of 6,616,675 units for the top 300 comics list. There was a partial skip week at the end of the month due to the holidays which is reflected in the sales for the month.
Doomsday Clock #12 topped the list with 117,926 units followed by X-Men #3 with 105,708 units. Batman: Last Knight on Earth with 90,058 units and Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child with 88,794 units were the only two other items over 75,000 units. This is the fewest items over 75,000 for the top 300 comics list since January 2015 which also had only four items. Those four items in January 2015 has total sales of 1,304,759 thanks in a large part to Star Wars #1. The four items over 75,000 units in December 2014, however, had total sales of only 393,893 units. This is still far better than the firs half of 2011 when there were less than four items selling over 75,000 units each month.
Marvel Comics placed 2,872,538 units in the top 300 comics, a decrease of 5,397 units and accounted for 48.07% of the total units.
DC Comics placed 2,059,089 units in the top 300 comics, a decrease of 95,435 units and accounted for 34.46% of the total units.
Image Comics placed 321,203 units in the top 300 comics, a decrease of 132,900 units and accounted for 5.38% of the total units.
The premiere publishers accounted for 97.89% of the total units for the top 300 comics this month while all of the other publishers with items in the top 300 accounted for 2.11% of the total units for the top 300 comics.
Here is another chart of the units which shows the relative sales strength of each publisher within the top 300 comics.
That chart really shows how both the gap between Marvel and DC and how much more those publishers sell from the other premiere publishers and the combined sales of all of the other publishers.
Here is a chart of the month-to-month changes in sales for the publishers.
The 132,900 units for Image works out to over 29% of the sales last month. The unique nature of Image with the various studios and the Image Central line make these sorts of drastic shifts in sales from month to month both possible and potentially inevitable. The other aspect is that same decentralized nature of Image means it could potentially bounce back just as quickly.
The up-swing of 2,104,363 units from new and increased sales was not enough to compensate for the down-swing of 2,307,065 units from lost sales for the net decrease of 202,702 units.
Continuing titles which lost sales formed the unsteady base of sales. The new titles and non-series items tried to help compensate for lost sales on the ongoing titles. Continuing titles not losing sales would be a more stable foundation for the top 300 comics sales from month to month.
The 12 titles across the 5 publishers in the continuing titles which gained sales category accounted for 407,953 units in the top 300 comics with an upswing of 65,558 units. Marvel Comics accounted for 50.91% of the change in this category across eight titles while DC Comics accounted for 31.35% of the change in this category with just Superman.
Superman #18 featured what was intended to be a big reveal and while it was within the DC Universe, for the readers it seemed decidedly less so. The 20,552 unit increase of 44.55% on Superman #18 is likely to evaporate with the next issue. Even if the reveal fell flat for the readers, it is a potential game changer narratively and hopefully will set up some new story lines for the character.
The 4 titles across the 2 publishers in the continuing titles which shipped more issues category accounted for 263,372 units in the top 300 comics with an upswing of 118,188 units. There were four shipping weeks in November and four in December.
Marvel Comics dominated this category and accounted for 94.02% of the change in it with the extra issue of Marauders, Excalibur and Daredevil.
The 13 titles across the 8 publishers in the continuing titles with reasonably stable sales category accounted for 147,214 units in the top 300 comics with a downswing of 1,917 units.
The 6 titles across the 2 publishers in the continuing titles which shipped fewer issues category accounted for 196,103 units in the top 300 comics with a downswing of 244,424 units. Marvel Comics accounted for 60.46% of the change in this category and DC Comics accounted for the other 39.54% of the change in this category.
The 114 titles across the 11 publishers in the continuing titles which lost sales category accounted for 2,445,526 units in the top 300 comics with a downswing of 824,907 units.
New Mutants, X-Force, Fallen Angels and X-Men all lost ground this month. The Dawn of X titles are still within the honeymoon period so the drops aren't unexpected. The reorder activity on the first issues of most of the titles is a good sign.
DC Comics accounted for 32.56% of the change in this category. While the monthly drops on most titles wasn't too bad, it impacted most of the line. Legion of Super-Heroes was one of many items offered at two price points and was at rank 69 and 215 and had a combined second issue drop of 52.85% on the second issue. Far Sector had a second issue drop of 52.96%.
The 38 titles across the 10 publishers in the new titles category accounted for 975,893 units in the top 300 comics with an upswing of 975,893 units.
Marvel Comics accounted for 44.36% of the change in this category with titles like Symbiote Spider-Man: Alien Reality, Conan: Serpent War, Incoming, Doctor Strange Surgeon Supreme and Revenge of Cosmic Ghost Rider.
DC Comics accounted for 27.18% of the change in this category with Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child and a new volume of Suicide Squad being the highest profile titles.
Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles launches marking the first comic book crossover of the two properties but not the first pairing of the properties. Raphael, Michaelangelo, Leonardo, Donatello and Venus from the Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation series guest starred in two episode of Power Rangers in Space season of Power Rangers.
The 31 titles across the 12 publishers in the returning titles category accounted for 694,907 units in the top 300 comics.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #100 shipped in December with 53,954 units. It is great to see the property going strong both in sales and creatively.
DC Comics accounted for 57.92% of the change in this category with Doomsday Clock, Batman: Last Knight on Earth, Harleen and Batman: Curse of the White Knight (2019) all returning in December.
The 50 titles across the 16 publishers in the suspended titles category accounted for a downswing of 577,291 units. The small shipping week at the end of the year caused a few titles not ship in December. Christmas falls on Friday in 2020 so that will at least avoid new comics Wednesday falling on a holiday. Shipping companies are usually overloaded during the holiday so we still might end up with a skip week at the end of the year. Ideally, people at the publishers and Diamond will start to think about the holiday scheduling in advance instead of waiting until the last minute and adjusting things. We may see next month if a few Marvel titles like Star Wars #1 and Thor #1 get negatively impacted by the hiccup in the solicitation process that happened in December.
The 37 titles across the 10 publishers in the defunct titles category accounted for a downswing of 603,434 units.
Marvel Comics accounted for 44.60% of the change in this category with the end of Absolute Carnage and Star Wars among other titles. A new volume of Star Wars launched in January and numerous other milestone stories like Absolute Carnage seem to always be going on at Marvel these days. These defunct titles just clear the way for replacement new titles.
The 5 titles across the 5 publishers in the annuals/specials category accounted for 5,611 units in the top 300 comics with a downswing of 57,435 units. Doctor Who: The 13th Doctor Holiday Special #2 was the only annuals/special to ship in December so most of the activity in this category reflects what happened last month more than what happened this month.
The 69 titles across the 5 publishers in the non-series category accounted for 772,725 units in the top 300 comics with an upswing of 772,725 units, a downswing of 549,245 units for a net an increase of 223,480 units.
Marvel continues to be very active in this category with Annihilation Scourge, the True Believers_ line and the 2099 one-shots while DC had a number of Dollar Comics reprints, the Infected and the Tales from the Dark Multiverse one-shots.
The 16 titles across the 3 publishers in the reorders category accounted for 86,419 units in the top 300 comics with an upswing of 81,457 units, a downswing of 42,353 units for a net an increase of 39,104 units.
Marvel had a lot of reorder activity. The activity on the Dawn of X titles isn't surprising. The activity on Civil War II and Secret Wars was a bit unexpected. Further down the list below the top 300 was the other issues of Secret Wars, all five issues of Original Sin, three issues of Avengers: No Road Home and Mosiac #1. The retail rankings don't seem to indicate any sort of major discounting on those issues.
Overall, it wasn't a bad month given the partial skip week at the end of the month.
Superman was the only DC Universe title in the continuing titles which gained sales category, the continuing titles with reasonably stable sales category or the continuing titles which shipped more issues category. Detective Comics and Flash were the only DC Universe titles in the continuing titles which shipped fewer issues category. That leaves the continuing titles which lost sales category with the rest of the ongoing DC Universe titles which shipped in December.
The majority of the DC Universe line isn't selling great. This would both explain the rumors of the 5G retooling and those same rumors also explain the state of the sales. It isn't unreasonable for readers to get a bit jaded when they hear about another potential retcon, reboot or retooling of the DC Universe. After the New 52, Rebirth and now Doomsday Clock, the stability of the DC Universe is questionable. While something like 5G might be needed, it isn't a well the DC can or should keep going back to. For me and many of the listeners of my podcast, 2020 is an important year for DC. Either they continue to unravel the fabric of the DC Universe or they pull things together. If DC does do this rumored 5G retooling, it will either engage readers or alienate them. Either way, it could be a very important year for DC.
For a more in-depth discussion of the sales data, check out the Mayo Report episodes of the Comic Book Page podcast at www.ComicBookPage.com. The episode archived cover the past decade of comic book sales on a monthly basis with yearly recap episodes. In addition to those episodes on the sales data, every Monday is a Weekly Comics Spotlight episode featuring a comic by DC, a comic by Marvel and a comic by some other publisher. If you are looking for more or different comics to read, check out the latest Previews Spotlight episode featuring clips from various comic book fans talking about the comics they love. With thousands of comics in Previews every month, Previews Spotlight episodes are a great way to find out about new comic book titles that may have flown under your comic book radar.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at John.Mayo@ComicBookResources.com.
