PhantomStranger

http://www.previewsworld.com/Home/1/...ticleID=173124

The fourth volume of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples' Hugo Award-winning series, Saga Volume 4 from Image Comics, was the best-selling graphic novel in 2015. In total, Image Comics had seven graphic novels in the top ten, including all five volumes of Saga.

In addition to the five volumes of Saga from Image Comics, two volumes of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead were also among the top ten — Volume 23: Whispers Into Screams at E5 and Volume 1: Days Gone Bye at #8.

Marvel Comics had two titles in the top ten, led by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven's Civil War at #4. Also in the top ten was Jason Aaron and John Cassaday's Star Wars Volume 1: Skywalker Strikes at #10.

Rounding out the top ten, perennial seller Batman: The Killing Joke Deluxe Edition from DC Entertainment by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland ranked #6 for the year.

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The first non-Batman DC book on this list? SUPERMAN EARTH ONE HC VOL 03 at #33. It's kind of sad the only DC book to hit the top ten is something Alan Moore wrote decades ago. Is Saga really this popular or has some external factor driving sales I am not aware of? I have seen it heavily promoted at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Image seems to be doing very well even if you don't count The Walking Dead.

fujishig

I'm kinda surprised Ms Marvel is up there.

But this is only Diamond distribution, right? Brian Hibbs usually does a Bookscan breakdown in his Tilting at Windmills column (last year's is here: http://www.comicbookresources.com/ar...comics-in-2014)

It's actually kind of an odd list if you think about it; it's not like Marvel is dominating, their sole entry in the top 10 (well, besides Star Wars) is Civil War, and the first Spider-man title is down in the 100s, the Edge of Spider-verse collection (which is crap, because they took it out of the Spider-verse big HC so they could sell this Spider-gwen story on it's own).

I'm a bit surprised stuff like Batgirl isn't higher, since I would think that would sell better in collections. But then between Amazon and places like InStocktrades and such (well, I guess Instocktrades may go through Diamond), who pays sticker price for tpbs at the comic book store?

kodave

Wow, Marvel should be thrilled with Ms. Marvel.

Otherwise, one might think Marvel and DC should be concerned so little of their new stuff is resonating with direct market customers in a big way. The first portion of that list is basically just Image books and of course Batman books, both old and new.

I don't know if that's because direct market customers are more likely to be buying single issues of the Big 2 rather than trades, or if it's because the Image trades are generally priced lower and more reasonably than Marvel and DC's trades, but that probably isn't what Marvel and DC want to see.

If I'm recalling monthly sales reports correctly, DC's sales have been not-so-hot lately any way you slice it, with Marvel whipping their ass and Image growing stronger too. If the loose continuity of DC You doesn't help improve sales I don't know what will.

PhantomStranger

I would guess this is for Diamond distribution only, though they make up a lot of the market. It seems like cheaper trades priced under $14.99 do comparatively better through Diamond, which makes sense. I've noticed that Amazon hardly discounts the cheaper Image trades compared to their Marvel/DC brethren. I am much more inclined to purchase a cheap $10 trade at a comic book store since I know most online places other than Instocktrades won't heavily discount them.

kodave

It is just Diamond, so "direct market customers."

Image certainly provides an attractive price on so many of their first volume trades, and even the subsequent trades are reasonably priced.

Marvel, on the other hand, has largely gone off the rails with stuff like $20 for a 6 issue trade. DC TPBs seem to be fairer priced than that. The TPB pricing works when it's something that catches on, like Hawkguy or Ms. Marvel. But otherwise nearly everything else ends up in the clearance piles. And I guess DC can't really catch a break despite their reasonable-ish pricing.

Josh-da-man

Doesn't Diamond also distribute TPBs, HCs, and GNs to the bookstore market?

kodave

For the most part, bookstores/Amazon/B&N get their collected editions via their usual book distribution channels and not via Diamond. That's why the direct market gets their books two weeks before bookstores/Amazon/B&N for the most part. I suppose it's possible but not very probable that a store could elect to use Diamond as their GN/trade distributor, but they probably get a better discount by sticking with their normal line of distributors than they do by opening a separate account with Diamond where they would be starting from scratch having to order a certain dollar amount every month to get certain wholesale discount levels from Diamond.

majorjoe23

I believe Diamond is the bookstore distributor for some companies though, like Image.

kodave

Upon Google-ing, there's Diamond Comic Distributors and Diamond Book Distributors. It's my understanding that when we get data about the industry, it's for the direct market comic book shop side of things from Diamond Comic Distributors. If a non-comic shop like a bookstore or a mass market retailer wants to buy from Diamond, they would do so via Diamond Book Distributors, and I don't believe we get any data reported from that business entity or at least it's not included with all of these numbers we get for the direct market.

fumanstan

I've always wondered how the movies reflect sales of comics, so it's neat to see how titles like Civil War, Infinity Gauntlet, Deadpool, and even Dark Knight are up there due to their movie collections. Love Saga, never realized it sold that well.

Mike86

It makes sense because when the films come out you're a bit more likely to find the trades of whatever story a film is based on in certain retailers than you normally would be outside of a comic book shop.

davidh777

Saga is really good and seems to have generated some mainstream appeal, though I liked the earlier issues better than the ones I've read recently. I think the only current series I'm reading are all Image: Saga, Lazarus, The Walking Dead, and Invincible. There are a few other current series that I've sampled but not kept up on (Hawkeye, some New 52).