Brian Hibbs' analysis of the 2015 Bookscan list is up:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/tilting-at-windmills-bookscan-2015-analysis
short version: DC, Image, and Marvel are actually experiencing sales growth in TPB sales at the bookstore markets.
>>80449330
Why "actually"?
This is not a new trend. Only /co/ still brags about muh dying industry.
>>80449330
Top 10 selling DC TPBs/GNs:
1. Killing Joke
2. Watchmen
3. Dark Knight Returns
4. Sandman: Overture
5. Batman: Court of Owls
6. Batman: Year One
7. Batman: City of Owls
8. Suicide Squad vol 1 (New 52)
9. V For Vendetta
10. Batman: Hush
I hope dark horse doesn't lose much more
>>80449437
>8. Suicide Squad vol 1 (New 52)
why
>>80449437
>DC's #2 title in 2015 is "Watchmen," coming in at over 34K in paperback, and another 5013 copies in hardcover (the older edition of the paperback shows up in the bottom of the chart with an additional 248 copies sold). Despite that, the "Before Watchmen" prequels do pretty poorly, with none showing up in the BookScan Top 750, and the best-selling of them ("Comedian/Rorschach") just selling a bare 2613 copies, and the worst-selling ("Ozymandius/Crimson Corsair"), doing a bare 1021.
So the demand for Before Watchmen really wasn't there, but somehow this book is the best selling of the BW bunch.
>>80449330
Watchmen, Batman and Sandman crossovers when
>>80449498
Movie anticipation and has Harley in it.
>>80449557
Probably not Watchmen, only the original Moore/Gibbons book sells.
>>80449498
Because of the coming movie, you goof. It might even climb up higher on the list once the movie actually comes out.
>>80449330
Fuck you OP. I thought it was something to do with the Killing Joke animated movie
>>80449537
Top 10 selling Image TPBs/GNs:
1. Walking Dead Compendium vol 3
2. Walking Dead Compendium vol 1
3. Walking Dead Compendium vol 2
4. Saga vol 4
5. Saga vol 5
6. Walking Dead vol 23
7. Saga vol 1
8. Walking Dead vol 1
9. Walking Dead vol 24
10. Saga vol 2
And because the top 10's so dominated by Saga and Walking Dead, here's the next 10:
11. Saga vol 3
12. Walking Dead vol 22
13. The Wicked + The Devine
14. Miles Behind Us
15. Walking Dead book 11 HC
16. Wytches vol 1
17. Walking Dead book 1
18. Sex Criminals vol 1
19. All Out War, Part 2
20. Rat Queens vol 1
It's almost like people enjoy stories that end.
>>80449330
Seriously guys please buy the first volume of Tokyo Ghost. It comes out March 15th and its only 7 dollars if you preorder it on Amazon.
It's Cowboy Bebop the comic.
>short version: DC, Image, and Marvel are actually experiencing sales growth in TPB sales at the bookstore markets.
Didn't Dido say this a while back? Bookstores are the only growing market right now. Floppies are falling and gitial has stagnated. That's the main reason why they're putting out bimonthlies in Rebirth. It will lead to more trade releases in a year.
>>80449951
>That's a terrific level of growth for Image, and they hit their best year ever in the Top 750, and that's with a general softening of "The Walking Dead!"
>Now "TWD" is still a great big money-maker -- adding the third Compendium (48 issues for $60) really helps that bottom line -- but the first "TWD" Compendia went from 68K in 2014 (and a crazy 96K in 2013) to "just" 60K in 2015 Further, new releases in the six-issue reprint series are slowing as well -- in 2014, the high point was vol. 20 did over 45K, while in 2015, the high point (vol. 23) did just over 34K.
>With that said, "TWD" is still a chart-monster, with all 12 hardcovers (vol. 11 sells almost 15K), and all 25 regular softcovers charting alongside the three Compendia. "TWD" has a massive 38 spaces among the Top 750, or a full five percent of listings! Vol. 1 of the regular softcover of "TWD" reports in with another 27K sold in 2015.
I assume Walking Dead is still going to be ongoing even if the TV show gets canceled at some point, right?
>69,913 -- BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE HC
Sad that this many people let themselves get got like this. No reason to buy a hardcover with less than 100 pages that also has shitty recolors.
>>80450226
Yes he said that.
And yes you're probably right about the bimonthly books. OGNs probably go under there too in trying to push trade sales.
>>80450299
Top 10 selling Marvel TPBs/GNs:
1. Civil War
2. Ms. Marvel vol 1
3. Star Wars: Journey to the Force Awakens
4. Star Wars vol 1 (of the current ongoing)
5. Star Wars: Darth Vader vol 1
6. Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe
7. Ms. Marvel vol 2
8. Infinity Gauntlet
9. Deadpool by Daniel Way vol 1
10. Ms. Marvel vol 3
Yeah, it's no surprise - I have a lot of friends who have gotten into Western comics over the last 5-7 years and I've never seen anybody ever with a floppy. Shit, I fucking hate floppies and I'd sooner drop capeds if it was the only format I was limited to. Unless you're in it for collecting purposes, floppies are kinda pointless - they're so junky.
>>80450110
But Cowboy Bebop is good, I read the first issue of Tokyo Ghost when it came out and it was cliche and uninteresting
>>80450450
Floppies are good because there is no gutter loss like in trades. Digital would be better than floppies if not for DRM bullshit, but it is what it is.
>>80450434
>But having said that, Marvel's growth is real and solid, and goes in some interesting directions. Marvel's #1 book in 2015 is "Civil War," and they shift almost 47K copies in advance of the third Captain America movie having a similar title and story (we think) -- this is more than triple the 15K copies it sold in 2014, as well as being twice the number of copies that they sold of last year's #1 title, the first volume of "Guardians of the Galaxy."
>Coming in at #2 is the first volume of "Ms. Marvel," which sells almost 27K copies. That's a great, and just a tiny bit surprising (and a great improvement over the 10.7K copies it sold the previous year!) -- no movie, no toys, just pure comics driving that amazing success. Vol. 2 of the series comes in at #7, with 15.7K sold, while vol. 3 comes in at #10 and 10.7K sold, and vol. 4 even squeaks in with 4K sold just in December, so this looks like really sustainable sales in a very real way.
Also that GOTG book that Hibbs mentions was the vol 1 of the Bendis run. In this year's chart it's #19 behind Jessica Jones and Squirrel Girl.
>>80449437
Weird how it's Sandman Overture and not Preludes and Nocturnes.
>>80450110
Hi Remender.
>>80449437
Just like I've been saying for months. The floppy market is no longer the focus. That's why Marvel's "SJW" books that sell low are still being made-- they sell well in trades. And that's what DCYou was intended to do, and now what Rebirth is doing.
Years later and the New 52 books are still flying off the shelves because everyone thinks that's where you start to "get into" comics. Part of Rebirth's intent is clearly to recreate that success with a new line of entry point trades.
The fact that Suicide Squad is selling so well despite being a pile of shit is evidence of this.
Weekly comics may be in turmoil, but the trade market continues to experience massive growth. Everyone goes "why aren't the movies bringing in lots of monthly readers?" when the answer is that they're all buying trades instead.
>>80450805
yeah the report notes that
>Other significant DC sales are "Sandman: Overture" coming in as their fourth best-seller with 28K sold, despite only being on sale for a single month in 2015 (and compared to 18.5K sold of "Preludes & Nocturnes" for the entire year)
that's a pretty huge number of preorders and shit
>>80449476
According to Hibbs' article, Dark Horse's manga part is actually improving sales wise while their western part dipped a little. Their top selling book this year is Plants vs Zombies: Lawnmageddon just like last year.
352,791 -- DORK DIARIES 10
296,415 -- DORK DIARIES 9
263,932 -- DRAMA
240,045 -- SMILE
219,421 -- SISTERS
116,683 -- KRISTY'S GREAT IDEA: FULL-COLOR
115,424 -- DORK DIARIES 1
89,774 -- BIG NATE: SAY GOOD-BYE TO DORK
73,258 -- EL DEAFO
69,913 -- BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE HC
69,748 -- JEDI ACADEMY
68,081 -- THE TRUTH ABOUT STACEY: FULL-COLOR
66,898 -- BIG NATE'S GREATEST HITS
66,442 -- THE WALKING DEAD: COMPENDIUM V3 TP
62,666 -- BIG NATE: WELCOME TO MY WORLD
60,493 -- THE WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM V1 TP
60,485 -- BIG NATE: THE CROWD GOES WILD!
58,818 -- HYPERBOLE AND A HALF
58,338 -- PERSEPOLIS 1
58,261 -- DORK DIARIES 9 TALES FRO B&N EDITION
Kids still dominate the trade/ogn market
>>80450805
It's mainly cause it's a new book. New books usually place higher on the chart, which is partly why they wanted to do thiings like Before Watchmen or DK3. If the Sandman movie actually gets made then you'll see Preludes and Nocturnes place higher.
>>80450878
>Everyone goes "why aren't the movies bringing in lots of monthly readers?" when the answer is that they're all buying trades instead.
Ehh, it's not that simple. It seems like movie watchers will buy one trade and then forget about comics while you actually bring in continued consumers via the TV shows (which makes sense given the time investment there). Basically movie fans won't really come back for vol 2. I can't find the link right now but there was an article talking about it.
>>80450993
How does that compare to normal books? I would have thought that would always be the case for kids books to generally do better than adult ones since adults have less time to read on a daily basis while kids basically only have school to take up their time and way more time off like summer break and shit.
>>80451197
YA shit sells in the millions. Those aimed at adults still do pretty well.
>>80450346
>No reason to buy a hardcover with less than 100 pages that also has shitty recolors.
This.
It wouldn't be so bad if they came out with an anniversary or special edition which contained both colored versions of Killing Joke, or at least one version and a couple other Joker stories.
>the "Before Watchmen" prequels do pretty poorly, with none showing up in the BookScan Top 750, and the best-selling of them ("Comedian/Rorschach") just selling a bare 2613 copies, and the worst-selling ("Ozymandius/Crimson Corsair"), doing a bare 1021.
Man, seems everyone just wants to forget BW ever happened.
>>80450434
>8. Infinity Gauntlet
1/10, bravo Marvel
>>80451542
>>80450346
Stay mad.
>>80450110
>It's Cowboy Bebop the comic.
A thriller that for no reason uses space opera tropes?
>>80451638
the new coloring looks like shit senpai, why argue otherwise?
>>80451638
Breh if you don't like Cowboy Bebop kill yourself
>>80451638
>I like to waste money on bad HC editions
>>80449330
kill diamond
People usually prefer to read trades, and why go to a comic store when you can go to a book store and get novels and graphic novels.
A lot of comic teachers and people inside the industry have been saying this for years. The future is graphic novels
>>80450346
>>
It's the only version of Killing Joke currently being published
>>80450674
well, there is your proof that movies DO drive comic sales
>>80451588
I just don't understand why It's time to shit/Bitch to be you right now sold more than the actually good Minutemen/Silk Spectre.
>>80451742
Diamond actually distributes trades of some companies to bookstores though
>>80451764
>plebs buying a bad version instead of holding out for a good one
smhtbhfam
>>80451859
>>plebs buying a bad version instead of holding out for a good one
You will have to buy the original one shot to see the original colors. DC and Bolland both view the current edition as the definitive version.
>>80451889
I don't mean just the colors though. The collection itself is poor value. The story is also available in v2 of the DC Alan Moore collection and you get tons more content.
>>80451830
Civil War was always a top seller before the film announcement though.
Last year there was a movie titled Avengers: Age of Ultron but Bendis' Age of Ultron wasn't even in the top 10 Marvel books ordered (and was even outsold by a GOTG book by Abnett and Lanning)
Only some books do pretty well when there's films (Civil War, Watchmen, Miller Batman) but then there's others that don't receive much bounce (Age of Ultron, Green Lantern). For that matter I think Hibbs said that Daredevil didn't really receive a boost from the Netflix show.
How are Valiant doing?
>>80452033
Oh wait, correction on that, last year there was Age of Ultron but Bendis' Age of Ultron wasn't in the Top 10 (it was ranked #20, like after Jessica Jones, Squirrel Girl, and his own GOTG). It was the 2014 list where his Age of Ultron was outsold by Abnett/Lanning GOTG.
>>80450110
I'm not Rick Remender but I support this message.
Well, I don't agree with that comparison necessarily, but Tokyo Ghost is a good book and I hope it keeps getting made.
>>80452373
>that realization when you've been pronouncing it for years with an M instead of an N
No one corrected me, probably cause they couldn't tell the difference
>>80450110
So it's overrated and plotless?
>>80449437
>Top 10 selling DC TPBs:
>1. Batman
>2. Watchmen
>3. Batman
>4. Sandman: Overture
>5. Batman
>6. Batman
>7. Batman
>8. Harley Quinn
>9. V For Vendetta
>10. Batman
Things like this makes me hate the people who buy comics.
>>80452373
I started reading Tokyo Ghost, but dropped it for the same reason I dropped Black Science and Deadly Class, because it's too fucking depressing. The only Remender title I'm still following is Low, because the art's great, I love aquatic settings and Remender promised it would be a little more upbeat than his other works.Still pissed he killed off the son so soon, I was starting to like him.
