Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr
The annual “how did we do” numbers are out over at Comicchron.com with some interesting commentary by Brian Hibbs over at CRB’s Tilting at Windmills. Numbers like this are always interesting to gauge the health of the comic book market, and are something that people should be paying attention to. While these numbers come right out of Diamond, and are for orders only (not necessarily what has sold, just what was ordered by comic book stores), the numbers show that the market is still alive, but not as robust as it has been.
It was a fascinating 2011 for independent comic books, along with the traditional comic book with the DC 52 reboot process. And the numbers from Comicchron show that DC win, placed, and showed in 2011 amazingly well for their efforts, and their marketing. People seemed to really enjoy dropping the baggage and seeing what the comic book characters could really do. But the truth lies in the numbers; it was a 417 million dollar market last year just from Diamond alone. This does not include direct purchasing from publishers, independent wholesalers, or the digital market.
Estimated North American Market
Please note that we used the lower bound numbers from the ranges given at Comicchron for the estimated North American Market for all years 2003 through 2011.
The market contracted two million dollars last year, but how much of that was influenced by the closing of Borders remains to be seen. We know that the Borders closing left a huge hole in Diamond Comics, to the tune of 3.9 million dollars, or about two times the actual decline in sales. In the longer run, the market contracted, although if we add the estimated 5% additional sales that digital brings (based on Amazon Kindle stats from 2010), the market might have actually gone up significantly. Until the comic book industry starts posting reliable stats for digital we won’t really know what overall influence digital had on overall market size in North America.
Unit Sales Top 300 Comic Books
Please note that this data is also from Comicchron, and covers 1997 through 2011.
We showed a slight bump here, while the market contracted two million, overall sales for the top 300 comic book titles were up about 2.5 million dollars for the year and almost 3 million more units moved. How much of this was the new DC 52 reboot remains to be seen in any reliable form. The good news is that there was a bit more money sloshing around in the system, and people bought more stuff. If this is economy related that would be good as people go back to work and feel like they don’t have to make the decision to purchase a comic book or feed their kids or put gas in the car.
What is interesting though is Brian Hibbs take on this whole thing, and if you do not read Tilting at Windmills I highly recommend that you do read this series. He makes the assertion that there is not enough transparency in the Diamond reports, which I tend to agree with. Shipped does not mean sold, and if you look hard enough you can find comic book stores desperate to liquidate the stuff they bought that does not sell. Most comic book stores have backrooms of comic books that they take to conventions hoping to get anything back out of them because they did not sell in store, and they will not sell online at enough of a price to get anything out of it. He also makes an interesting point about creator owned works. I also agree with that because my top selling publishers are Slave Labor Graphics, Broadsword and Zenescope. I work very hard to keep all three of those companies in stock because they always sell regardless of where I am at cover or better prices.
While we debate transparency, the overall market contracted, but more people spent money in 2011, which I really hope means that the recession is on its way out the door after killing off so many retail stores between 2008 and today. It has been a grim four years for any mom and pop shop, or major mega chain, the recession has been an equal opportunity destroyer of industry and retail. Digital sales are still the big unknown out there though, and while I think if digital was really doing well, companies would be trumpeting that from the rooftops even if it pisses off local comic book store owners. But as long as we don’t know we will look at digital depending on our viewpoints, either it is awesome, or it is bad for the local comic book shop. Hopefully 2012 will bring a bit more transparency to the digital market, and the number of actual units sold, not ordered.
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