The November 2012 sales numbers are out for the world of comics, and I’m here to extract what they all mean and what the cool and interesting tidbits from them are. After all, there is a lot of information in there, so we’ll try to help you separate the signal from the noise.
For more on these numbers, make sure to check John Jackson Miller’s superb site Comichron. He’s been doing this for a long time and is far better with these numbers than I could ever claim to be.
1. Marvel Now!’s #1’s dominate the charts…
WOW. I expected Marvel Now!’s debut to be big, but 9 of the top 14 books were Marvel Now! #1’s. Led by All-New X-Men’s mammoth number of nearly 182,000, the Marvel Now! books blew up the charts, as the top 10 books (two of which were DC’s Batman and Justice League) sold over 110,000 copies. I can’t remember the last time this happened, and I know it’s not sustainable, but it’s still really damn impressive.
2. But Marvel Now!’s #2’s showed quick declines
As I said, it’s predictable that the giant sales numbers for the first issues would not be sustainable for Marvel Now!, but all five of the Marvel Now! books that double shipped saw huge declines. Each book saw dips of at least 33.35%, with All-New X-Men #2 having the biggest decline: it sold 46.92% less than #1.
While we don’t know everything about these books, it seems to me that the huge amount of variants drove some of those big numbers. Without double digit variants to back them up, these books dropped down to numbers that are likely much closer to the real sales levels.
Also, as a point of comparison, DC’s biggest dropping #2 book in the New 52? The long canceled Blackhawks, which dropped just 20.77% between its debut and second issue. Those books likely were inflated by being returnable, but still – that number is under two thirds the decrease of even the lightest drop in Marvel Now! books.
3. A litany of surprises scattered within the month’s sales
We had heard that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #1 from Katie Cook and Andy Price was destined to sell a lot, but its #15 finish made it the top non Marvel or DC book with just over 80,000 sold. Far more surprising to me was Masks #1 from Dynamite Forces finishing at #25. Sure, it’s Alex Ross and Chris Roberson, but a $3.99 book tied to a range of properties that aren’t exactly huge any more? Doesn’t seem like a book destined to be a huge seller. Shows what I know.
4. DC’s “Death of the Family” Event Buoys Second/Third Tier Books
“Batman” itself seeing a huge upswing tied to the Death of the Family “event” is unsurprising, but to me, seeing books like Suicide Squad and Catwoman finishing at #26 and #27? Man, it really shows the commercial viability of the Joker and tying other, struggling books tighter into the Batman world. Often, tying books into each other doesn’t really do much besides slightly submerge both books, but when it comes to Batman? Sorry My Little Pony, Batman is magic, not friendship.
5. Distance makes the heart grow fonder when it comes to “Saga”
Most books take breaks and they suffer in sales. Image’s “Saga?” They take a designed two month break, release a trade paperback, and then come back to a greater than 6,000 issue increase. That’s pretty damn incredible, but honestly, in many ways this has been the year of “Saga.” We’ll talk more about why in the next week, but in terms of sales, this book from Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples just gets better and better.
