September Sales figures are online

[Kevin Boyd]

And comics and graphic novels are up again - 7% over sales in September 2003.

 

This continues the trend that has been ongoing thru most months in 2004 - with the notable exception being July 2004 (which had four ship weeks as opposed to July 2003's five).

 

http://www.icv2.com./articles/home/5868.html

 

Comic and graphic novel dollars were up 7% in September, despite tough comparisons with September 2003, when JLA/Avengers #1 contributed over $1 million to the month's dollar total. Comic dollars were up 5%, and graphic novels were up a more robust 19% vs. 2003.

 

The strength in 2004 came below the top 25 comics, for which dollars were over $1 million less than the dollars in the top 25 comics in September 2003.

 

The third quarter was another solid one, with over-all sales for the category up 6% over 2003. Graphic novels led the way with a 14% increase; comics were up 4%.

[Kevin Boyd]

The Top 300: http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/5865.html

 

Here are the top 25:

 

1 SUPERMAN BATMAN #12 DC -139,516

 

2 ASTONISHING X-MEN #5 MAR - 131,552

 

3 IDENTITY CRISIS #4 (Of 7) DC - 128,837

 

4 SUPERMAN #209 DC - 116,827

 

5 ULTIMATE X-MEN #51 MAR - 94,965

 

6 UNCANNY X-MEN #448 MAR - 94,708

 

7 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #65 MAR - 94,174

 

8 UNCANNY X-MEN #449 MAR - 93,839

 

9 AVENGERS #502 (#87) MAR - 93,105

 

10 AVENGERS #501 (#86) MAR - 91,054

 

11 X-MEN #161 MAR - 90,591

 

12 X-MEN #162 MAR - 89,878

 

13 ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #11 MAR - 87,620

 

14 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #512 MAR - 87,236

 

15 ULTIMATE NIGHTMARE #2 (Of 5) MAR - 87,221

 

16 X-MEN END BK 1 DREAMERS & DEMONS #3 (Of 6) MAR - 84,001

 

17 WOLVERINE END #5 (Of 6) MAR - 79,578

 

18 MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #6 MAR - 71,492

 

19 BATMAN #632 DC - 71,236

 

20 WOLVERINE #19 MAR - 65,046

 

21 TEEN TITANS #16 DC - 64,177

 

22 TEEN TITANS #15 DC - 63,136

 

23 JLA #105 DC - 60,836

 

24 STRANGE #1 MAR - 59,974

 

25 JLA #106 DC - 59,838

[Kevin Boyd]

Sales Slip in seasonal Softness: Identity Crisis Bucks Trend

 

Sales on the top comic titles slid across the board in September, in a normal seasonal decline in sales compared to August. Identity Crisis was the only title in the top five that bucked the trend with an increase, and Teen Titans the only other title in the top 25 that grew.

 

The increase in sales of Identity Crisis between #3 and #4 wasn't the only sign of strength for the title; #3 sold another 10,000 copies in September, and #2 sold 8,800.

 

DC had a slightly better showing at the top of the list than usual, with three of the top four books and eight of the top 25. Marvel had the rest of both lists.

http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/5867.html

[Kevin Boyd]

Top Graphic Novels for September 2004:

 

http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/5866.html

 

The Top 10:

 

1 ULTIMATE X-MEN VOL 9 TEMPEST TP $10.99 MAR 6,981

 

2 CHRONICLES O/CONAN VOL 5 SHADOW I/T TOMB TP $15.95 DAR 5,450

 

3 HELLSING VOL 4 TP $13.95 DAR 4,609

 

4 ESSENTIAL SUPER VILLAIN TEAM UP TP $16.99 MAR 4,602

 

5 AUTHORITY HUMAN O/T INSIDE HC (MR) $24.95 DC 4,573

 

6 MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN VOL 1 DOWN AMONG DEAD MEN TP $9.99 MAR 4,096

 

7 INU YASHA VOL 19 TP $8.95 VIZ 4,060

 

8 BONE ONE VOL ED SC $39.95 CAR 3,982

 

9 WALT DISNEYS THREE MUSKETEERS $3.95 GEM 3,783

 

10 BATMAN I/T EIGHTIES TP $19.95 DC 3,719

[Kevin Boyd]

New number 1's debuting in September - how did they perform?

 

#24 - Strange #1 - 59,974

#35 - Gambit #1 - 46,994

#37 - Nightcrawler #1 - 45,491

#42 - Hulk & Thing: Hard Knocks #1 (of 4) - 44,302

#53 - Catwoman: When in Rome #1 (of 6) - 40,206

#57 - GI Joe vs. Transformers Vol. 2 #1 - 39,016

#58 - Black Widow #1 (of 6) - 38,653

#68 - Bullseye's Greatest Hits #1 (of 5) - 34,371

#69 - Madrox #1 (of 5) - 33,752

#71 - Transformers The War Within Vol. 3 #1 - 33,502

#80 - Jubilee #1 - 31,287

#81 - Adam Strange #1 (of 8) - 30,895

#87 - Marvel Knights 2099 Daredevil #1 - 29,784

#88 - Marvel Knights 2099 Punisher #1 - 29,007

#91 - Elektra: The Hand #1 (of 5) - 28,694

#93 - Marvel Knights 2099 Mutant #1 - 28,160

#105 - Marvel Knights 2099 Black Panther #1 - 25,139

#107 - Warlock #1 - 24,890

#109 - Marvel Knights 2099 Inhumans #1 - 24,612

#119 - Batman Strikes! #1 - 22,397

#121 - Justice League Unlimited #1 - 21,941

#124 - Marvel Age Spider-Man Team-Up #1 - 20,801

#129 - Marvel Age Hulk #1 - 19,975

#138 - Marvel 65th Anniversary Special - 18,016

#141 - Metal Gear Solid #1 - 17,659

#157 - Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer #1 - 14,126

#158 - Humankind #1 Wizard Con Cover - 13,998

#164 - Megacity 909 #1 - 13,264

#189 - Victory Vol. 2 #1 - 9,132

#194 - Youngblood Genesis #1 - 8,783

 

Once we get into the last 100 of the top 300, most of the #1 issues are reorders from July and August or very low ordered indie books.

 

 

18/30 (60%) of the new number ones in September 2004 were published by Marvel Comics.

 

5/30 (17%) were published by DC.

 

7/30 (23%) were published by other.

[awe4one]

And comics and graphic novels are up again - 7% over sales in September 2003.

 

I have to say Kevin...I'm surprised at these numbers...

 

Jim

[Kevin Boyd]

How about long-running series? Let's take a look at the titles that have been around longer than 5 years (or 60 issues, whicher comes first) that are in the top 150:

 

Note: the numbers for the top 25 are elsewhere in this thread

 

#4 Superman #209

#6 Uncanny X-Men #448

#7 Ultimate Spider-Man #65

#8 Uncanny X-Men #449

#9 Avengers #502 (helped by Disassembled)

#10 Avengers #501 (helped by Disassembled)

#11 X-Men #151

#12 X-Men #152

#14 Amazing Spider-Man #512

#19 Batman #632 (hurt by War Games)

#23 JLA #105

#25 JLA #106

#26 Daredevil #65 (anniversary special) - 56.547

#29 Daredevil #64 - 52,259

#32 Fantastic Four #518 - 48,939 (hurt by Disassembled)

#33 Detective Comics #798 - 48,782 (helped by War Games)

#38 Robin #130 - 45,406 (helped by War Games)

#43 Flash #214 - 44,124 (Identity Crisis x-over)

#44 Nightwing #97 - 44,038 (helped by War Games)

#46 Action Comics #819 - 42,385

#49 Green Lantern #181 - 41,531

#50 JSA #65 - 41,459

#52 Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #183 - 41,174 (helped by War Games)

#60 Adventures of Superman #632 - 38,111

#64 Thor #84 - 37,342 (helped by Disassembled - but not much)

#73 Iron Man #88 - 32,932 (not helped by Disassembled)

#75 Birds of Prey #73 - 32,070 (helped somewhat by War Games)

#83 Spawn #138 - 30,817

#97 Wonder Woman #208 - 26,628

#120 Spider-Girl #78 - 22,076

#132 Star Wars Republic #69 - 19,647 (number 69?)

#142 Witchblade #79 - 17,104

#148 Hellblazer #200 - 16,342 (that's terrible performance for a 200th issue)

 

Some long running series got a series boost in the arm from crossovers

 

The Batman titles that jumped up (on average) about 10,000 copies in September. Batman saw only a slight decline of a ~1,000 copies, I would have expected a larger drop.

 

Disassembled has had a tremendous effect on the Avengers (a jump of about 30,000 copies from the ~65000 copies sold pre-#500) while the related titles Cap, Iron Man, Thor, Cap & the Falcon maintained sales from the increases of ~4000 copies they saw last month from Disassembled.

[Alberto1975]

Personally, I am surprised to see Marvel's Excalibur so high, while She-Hulk is pretty far down the list.

But I guess those are the numbers, even though I don't really know anyone who buys Excalibur, and I know tons of people who say how great She-Hulk is...

 

Oh well...

 

Another question, why are Marvel Age series so low? Is it because most of them are distributed outside of regular comic stores since they are for younger audiences?

[Kevin Boyd]

Personally, I am surprised to see Marvel's Excalibur so high, while She-Hulk is pretty far down the list.

But I guess those are the numbers, even though I don't really know anyone who buys Excalibur, and I know tons of people who say how great She-Hulk is...

 

Oh well...

 

Well, there's the X-Men factor. Excalibur is very much a renamed X-Treme X-Men, and it sells slightly less than X-Treme's numbers. Plus there are a lot of people that buy all of the X-Men books and nothing else, and it is written by Claremont and features Xavier and Magneto.

 

She-Hulk is one of those unproven characters who has had at least two previous series under her belt, plus female superheroes traditionally do not sell as well as male heroes (not sure why). It launched at ~34000 copies last march (inflated because it was a new #1), but it has settled in at ~25,000 copies over the last few months. Word of mouth will hopefully keep the title going, and the upcoming tpb will help.

 

Another question, why are Marvel Age series so low? Is it because most of them are distributed outside of regular comic stores since they are for younger audiences?

 

The majority of the comic buying audience steers clear of books that are aimed at children. These books should (and they are), do better at outlets where children actually are - like Target, Wal-Mart, bookstores, corner stores, etc.

[rob_react]

 

She-Hulk is one of those unproven characters who has had at least two previous series under her belt, plus female superheroes traditionally do not sell as well as male heroes (not sure why). It launched at ~34000 copies last march (inflated because it was a new #1), but it has settled in at ~25,000 copies over the last few months. Word of mouth will hopefully keep the title going, and the upcoming tpb will help.