Mayo Report for 2012-Summary

Mayo Report: 2012 Summary Comics
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Mayo Report: 2012 Summary Trades
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A lot can change in a year and a lot did change in the comic book market during 2012. The year started off rough for Marvel with the top selling Marvel title in January 2012 selling below 64,000 units while DC had three titles selling over 100,000 units. Between the Marvel Now initiative and "Amazing Spider-Man" #700, Marvel ended the year with multiple titles selling over 100,000 units.

The top selling comic of the year was "The Walking Dead" #100 with over 300,000 units. Most of the comics in the top 20 of the year end list were from Marvel, the majority of which were issues of "Avengers vs X-Men". From DC, "Batman" #13 and "Justice League" #12 both made it into the top 20/ but then something interesting happens. Everything from rank 21 through 40 is an issue of "Batman" or "Justice League" except for the recent "Captain America" #1 at rank 39.

While DC might not be placing as high on the list or getting the sales over 170,000 units, the DC titles at the upper part of the title are ongoing titles, not miniseries. If DC can keep this up and get a few other titles consistently selling like this, they will have a huge sales advantage of Marvel. The estimated sales of 2,397,835 units for 13 issues of "Avengers vs X-Men" published in 2012 benefited Marvel in 2012. But the average sales on that title of approximately 184,449 units will have zero carry over into 2013. Conversely, the 13 issues of "Batman" DC published in 2012 totaled to around 1,801,797 units in 2012, averaging around 138,600 units each. This average will change over the course of 2013 but it gives DC a strong title going into 2013. The sales of "Batman," "Justice League" and the other top selling titles for DC are there to be had or lost in 2013 depending on the ongoing quality and popularity of those titles. The sales for the top Marvel titles are, in most cases, gone since those titles have ended.

Sure, Marvel can replace the sales on those titles with new titles. The key difference is DC has titles it can bank on now. New titles at DC add to the existing sales while the Marvel Now titles are replacing existing sales. Of course, by the end of 2013 we could be looking at a very different situation. A change of creative teams could drastically alter how key DC titles perform while some of the Marvel Now titles could settle in near the top of the month sales list. The initial sales data for the Marvel Now titles make is seem a little unlikely those titles will sell over 100,000 on a sustained basis like some of the DC titles have. But, frankly, I'm a bit surprised by both the sales level and longevity of those sales for titles like "Batman" and "Justice League."

The chart of both the units and dollars from month to month show a clear upward trend with a peak in May and a dip in September:

The peak in May reflects a strong month for both DC and Marvel while the dip in September reflects an unusually weak month for Marvel as seen by these charts which split the units and dollars by publisher.

The aggregate of all of the other publishers had continued growth over the course of the year with July being a particularly good month for the other publisher. Many of the top talents at Marvel and DC started out at smaller publishers. Seeing steady grown in these other publishers is a great sign for the industry. These titles can be risky for retailers to carry but can also bring in a readership not served by the mainstream Marvel and DC titles.

While the month to month picture looks fairly good during 2012, the picture of the advances and declines paints a less favorable picture:

The fact titles drop in sales as they age is nothing new. This standard attrition is why publishers, Marvel in particular, tend to restart titles so often. This initial bump in sales is short lived but this infusion of sales seems to be increasingly needed.

In 2011, the New 52 reboot at DC skewed the numbers significantly. The Marvel Now initiative was spread across a number of months and didn't skew the numbers as sharply in any particular month. The net gain of around 30,000 units in May is a very positive sign for the industry. A net gain of 30,000 estimated units may not seem like much. It equates to the sales of a single issue. It isn't a massive net gain. What makes it special is it is the first time gains have outpaced declines within a given month since diamond first started reporting sales to retailers in March 2003. The gains on the various Batman titles during the "Night of the Owls" crossover in May are an obvious explanation for the strong month for DC and the net gain in sales for ongoing titles. This shows sales for ongoing titles can go up in aggregate and there is an option to a constant restarting and shuffling of titles.

Overall, 2012 was a good year according to the top comics lists. While not as good as 2006 to 2008, 2012 was a stronger year than most of the last decade.

The rolling 12 month average has been picking up steam over the last year coinciding with the New 52 from DC. DC continues to have a number of very strong selling titles and Marvel Now gives Marvel the chance for similar success. The other publishers are gaining strength giving readers a number of alternatives to the super-hero dominated output of Marvel and DC.

This year is starting off on much better footing than 2012 did and hopefully we will see strong and robust sales across the industry during the course of 2013.


Order index data provided courtesy of Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. and used with permission.

For additional comic book sales information, check out The Comic Chronicles.

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