Mayo Report for 2017-11
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Top Comics List Top Comics Breakdown Top Trades List Top Trades Breakdown
November 2017 had 6,538,462 units in the top 300 comics list, an decrease of 490,189 units from last month. DC Comics placed 2,924,477 units in the top 300 comics and was up 215,361 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 44.73% of the total units for the top 300 comics. DC had 8 of the top 10 items with _Doomsday Clock_ #1 taking the top two slots with the lenticular edition outselling the regular edition by 181 units for a combined total of 238,643 units. Various Batman titles accounted for the other six titles DC had in the top ten with half being the Dark Nights: Metal one-shots and the other half being various issues of the _Batman_ title itself.
Marvel Comics placed 2,447,983 units in the top 300 comics and was down 562,524 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 37.44% of the total units for the top 300 comics. Marvel only had two items in the top ten this month: _Captain America_ #695 which was the first issue of the new Legacy volume of the series with 87,101 units and _Star Wars_ #38 with 73,885 units.
Image Comics placed 473,514 units in the top 300 comics and was down 144,753 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 7.24% of the total units for the top 300 comics.
IDW Publishing placed 211,033 units in the top 300 comics and was up 22,553 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 3.23% of the total units for the top 300 comics.
Dark Horse placed 73,819 units in the top 300 comics and was down 10,990 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 1.13% of the total units for the top 300 comics.
The premiere publishers accounted for 93.77% of the units in the top 300 comics this month while all of the other publishers with items in the top 300 accounted for 6.23% of the units.
Dynamite Entertainment placed 122,990 units in the top 300 comics and was up 14,411 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 1.88% of the total units for the top 300 comics. Valiant Entertainment placed 61,001 units in the top 300 comics and was up 4,075 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 0.93% of the total units for the top 300 comics.
Albatross Funnybooks, Benitez Productions, New England Comics, Lion Forge, United Plankton Pictures and Zenescope Entertainment dropped out of the top 300 comics this month.
The up-swing of 2,206,677 units failed to compensate for the down-swing of 2,696,866 units for the month resulting in a month-to-month drop of 490,189 units.
The continuing titles which gained sales category added 203,104 units compared to last month. The two _Justice League_ issues this month tied into the Dark Nights: Metal storyline and got a bump in sales of around 26,000 units as a result.
_Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows_ #13 shot up in sales nearly 40,000 units coinciding with a jump forward 8 years in the storyline. The jump forward in time in the story coincides with the sales bump but it might not be the sole cause of the sales bump or even the main cause. _Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows_ #12 was by a different creative team and had no promotional covers. _Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows_ #13 had a new creative team, a 1-in-10 incentive cover, a 1-in-25 incentive cover and two covers retails could order is they meet or exceeded 125% of their orders of _Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows_ #9 with the regular cover of _Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows_ #13. One of those two meet or exceed covers contained a warning that allocations might occur. If the title contains to sell at this higher level with the next issue which had no promotional covers then there will be clearer evidence that either the jump forward in time or the change in the creative team played a more significant part in the sales bump than the incentive covers.
The continuing titles which shipped more issues category added 253,809 units compared to last month. November has five weeks compared to the four weeks in October resulting in some titles being able to get an additional issue out in November. Marvel titles account for most of the activity in this category.
The continuing titles with reasonably stable sales category removed 2,076 units compared to last month.
The continuing titles which shipped fewer issues category removed 397,287 units compared to last month. The majority of the activity in this category is from Marvel. _Green Arrow_ from DC only released one regular issue this month as opposed to the two regular issues last month. The release of the _Green Arrow Annual_ didn't make of the difference in sales since the issues one of the issues released last month tied in to the Dark Nights: Metal storyline and sold nearly twice the normal sales of the title. The Annual sold about 80% of the normal sales level for the title. That isn't unusual since annuals are higher priced and sometimes have stories a bit disconnected from the main storyline in the regular issues.
The continuing titles which lost sales category removed 1,174,234 units compared to last month. Numerous Legacy titles from Marvel moves into their second month and the sales dropped accordingly. While this Legacy volumes of the titles were not #1 issues, they were still first issues as far as sales trends go. The cloud of confusion caused my the plethora of incentive covers Marvel uses to promote new titles results in the first issue sales of the new volume are meaningless in terms of how the title will sell over time. For instance, _Mighty Thor_ #700 which was both the first issue of the new volume and an "anniversary number" issue. As if those two potential sales bumps weren't enough, factor in the whole Legacy promotion thing and then factor in the 1-in-10 cover, the 1-in-15 cover, the 1-in-50 cover, the two different 1-in-100 covers and the three meet-or-exceed covers and you can see how the sales of _Mighty Thor_ #700 are unlikely to be remotely indicative of how the title will sell normally. _Mighty Thor_ #701 had a 1-in-50 cover but that was it. The result was a drop of 65.36% from one issue of the next.
The new titles category added 1,123,040 units compared to last month. Marvel had a bunch of new Legacy titles while DC launched a new year long event title. Keep in mind the numbers for _Doomsday Clock_ on this chart only include the regular version. The lenticular edition with the dollar high cover price went into the Annuals/Specials category.
For some reason _Batman: The Dark Prince Charming_ Book 1 hardcover was on the top comics list. It would have topped the list of top trades by a wide margin had it been listed over there.
The returning titles category added 242,946 units compared to last month. Since not everything is scheduled to ship every month it is common for titles to come and go from the list from month to month.
The suspended titles category removed 532,653 units compared to last month. _Dark Nights: Metal_ skipping a month was the big thing in this category. _Saga_ ended a story arc last month and is on a scheduled hiatus until February or March.
The defunct titles category removed 567,665 units compared to last month. Most of the items at the top of this category are Marvel which isn't surprising given Legacy involved ending the existing volumes and starting up new volumes with higher issue numbers. Given the limited lifespan of Marvel titles over the past few years, Legacy seems to be a move in a different direction. More than likely, the only change will see is the carry over of issue numbering between retitled volumes. In other words, if _Invinicible Iron Man_ ever reverts back to just _Iron Man_ will might keep the same numbering sequence across the switch instead of reverting to a new #1 with each new volume. Either way, I expect to see Marvel titles to continue being in this category as it seems unlikely that Legacy will put an end to the "Season length" titles over at Marvel. The length of a "season: being determined by the amount of time between the events which spawn and kill the various titles.
The annuals/specials category added 263,633 units compared to last month. The heavy DC showing in this category this month is a reflection of DC practice of releasing annuals during five week months. Since _Doomsday Clock_ #1 was the only issue to have a lenticular edition, I'm treating it as a special issue of the series. The other issues solicited so far all have variant covers at the same price as the regular cover so those sales will get aggregated in with the regular edition going forward.
The non-series category added 120,145 units compared to last month. New items this month added 420,143 units while items from last month removed 299,998 units from the month-to-month total. The Dark Nights: Metal one-shots and the _Dark Days: The Forge And The Casting Directors Cut_ resulted in an increase of 46,658 units this month over last month.
The Legacy One-shots of _Silver Sable and the Wild Pack_ #36, _Darkhawk_ #51, _Master of Kung Fu_ #126, _Not Brand Echh_ #14, _Power Pack_ #63 added a combined total of 80,694 units so don't expect any of those to be continued any time soon.
The _New Talent Showcase_ from DC sold 9,415 units. An anthology comic by unknowns which is unlikely to impact the continuity of the characters is a hard sell to being with and the $7.99 price point didn't help.
The reorders category removed 22,951 units compared to last month.
Most of the drop in the total for the top 300 comics from last month to this month came from Marvel titles. The top 18 issue to issue drops were all Marvel titles and ranged from a drop of 25,665 units on _Champions_ #16 to a drop of 81,332 units of _Mighty Thor_ #701. The four issues with the largest issue to issue unit gains were also Marvel titles: _Punisher_ #218, _Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows_ #13, _Daredevil_ #595 and _Moon Knight_ #188. Some of this is a reflection of the heavy promotional pushes on the initial issues of Legacy titles. Regardless of the reason, Marvel titles tend to have unstable sales with spikes and drops resulting from some issues having numerous incentive covers and others having none. It is the eternal debate between focusing on the boosting sales of particular issues versus boosting sales of the series overall. With variant covers, event tie-ins, new creative teams and major shifts in story direction, it is easy to engineer ways to get a bump in sales on a particular issue. But the numbers have shown these techniques rarely increase the ongoing sales of the title. Getting the right creative team with the right tone and style at the right time can lead to an ongoing increase in sales as we've seen from time to time. But that seems to be a matter of luck as skill otherwise we'd see increases in sales with most new creative teams. So expect to see some major ups and downs in sales on Marvel titles during the launch of the various Legacy titles while DC might experience stronger than normal sales with both _Dark Nights: Metal_ and _Doomsday Clock_ going on.
