FINAL NORTH AMERICAN

COMICS MARKET ESTIMATES FOR

APRIL 2007   

Initial reports provided by Diamond Comic Distributors

Calculations by John Jackson Miller

Analysis: Civil War trades propel big April 
 
Several Civil War releases created a huge month for trade paperbacks in April, helping the market to an 15% overall increase over the same month last year, according to John Jackson Miller's analysis of the sales reports released by Diamond Comic Distributors on May 21.

Trade paperbacks were up 44% over last April, but comic book sales were up significantly as well, said Standard Catalog of Comic Books co-author Miller, who researches comics circulation on his specialty site, The Comics Chronicles.

"The overall market is $15 million ahead of where it was this time last year," Miller said. "Prospects continue to be good for another up year in 2007.

Comics unit sales: The Top 300 comic books had retailer orders of approximately 7.13 million copies in April, up 12% from the same month last year, when the total was $6.25 million copies.

To date, unit sales for the Top 300 each month add up to 27.43 million copies, up 10% over last year's total of 24.86 million copies.

Marvel's Fallen Son: Wolverine topped the list with more than 157,000 copies, with Fallen Son: Avengers taking third with more than 140,000 copies.

Comics dollar sales: The Top 300 comic books had sales worth $21.82 million in April. The total is 12% more than last April's total of $19.5 million. more than the same month last year.

To date this year, comics dollar sales stand at $85.96 million, up 13% over last year's total of $75.8 million.
 
 
Trade paperbacks: The Top 100 Trade Paperbacks and graphic novels reported by Diamond had orders worth $5.11 million at full retail in April, an increase of 44% over the same month last year, when the figure was $3.55 million. In the year to date, the Top 100 trades frome each month amount to $17 million, up 17% over last year's total of $14.59 million.

Adding the Top 100 trades to the Top 300 Comics for the month yields $26.93 million, an increase of 17% over the $23.05 million ordered in the same month last year. In the year to date, this category stands at $102.96 million, up 14% over last year's sum of $90.39 million.
 

Exclusive: Diamond’s “overall” sales: In the most inclusive category calculated by anyone in comics, CBG is able to estimate Diamond’s total sales for comics and trade paperbacks, including all those not in the Top 300/100 every month.
 
“Diamond publishes dollar market shares for its top 20 publishers across all comics, trade paperbacks, and magazines,” Miller said. “Knowing the exact total orders of any publisher on that list right down to the oldest backlist item allows you to calculate Diamond’s total orders across these product groups.”
 
The April 2007 total was $34.8 million, which increases to $30.29 million, when Diamond’s estimated United Kingdom orders are added. The figure is down 15% from the $38.53 million ordered in the U.S. in the same month last year. 

In the year to date, overall sales stand at $134.1 million, up 12% from last year's $119.29 million.

Miller cautions that the “overall” category overstates comics’ actual performance to the extent that magazines that do not have comics content are included. The comics publishers’ market shares would actually be slightly higher, if ancillary items were removed.

Market shares: Marvel placed 93 comics in the Top 300 in April to DC's 91. IDW placed 15 offerings there, giving it the fourth most titles on the list. Marvel led all market share categories.
 

Price analysis: The average comic book on Diamond’s Top 300 list cost $3.32, up from $3.20 in the same month in 2006.
 
The weighted average price – that is, the cost of the average comic book Diamond sold – was $3.06, down from $3.12 last year.
 
The average price of the comics that made the Top 25 was $2.91. 

Historical context: Comics Buyer’s Guide maintains an online library of past sales figures.  The archive of all months posted from September 1996 to the present appears here. For earlier decades, check the Standard Catalog; Miller's ongoing research on this period can be found here.
 
 
Methodology: Diamond keys orders for all comics it lists sales for to Batman, with one “order index point” being equal to 1% of that title’s orders. (With no Batman this month, Diamond used Detective Comics.) Using actual Diamond final orders from titles accounting for more than 25% of Diamond’s Top 300, Miller determined that one point on Diamond’s order index was likely to equal 562 comic books – with a 95% probability that the real figure was between 561 and 563.
 
For more information: Historical graphics for several categories tracked above appear in Comics & Games Retailer magazine. Also, check issues of Comics Buyer’s Guide and CBGXtra.com. Data for comics back to 1960 can also  be found on The Comics Chronicles.