6.Planet-Sized X-Men
7.X-Men
13.Wolverine
18.Marauders
22.X-Force
35.Way of X
38.X-Factor
40.Hellions
41.New Mutant
44.Excalibur
45.Sword
56.X-Corp
67.Children of Atom
68.X-Men Legends
123.Cable
I mean, things are still looking good overall compared to other ongoing Marvel titles (e.g., Daredevil [#59], Guardians of the Galaxy [#69], Iron Man [#106] and Eternals [#107]), but I do get the feeling we’re going to get a bit of a relaunch (I’m thinking everything but X-Men and Wolverine might end, and new titles/volumes will launch) after Inferno to bring the sales back up.
Marauders seems to be doing well. At least better than I thought. I might check it out.
I really wish companies showed their digital numbers, I'm guessing the digital market is starting to overtake the store market at this point, especially with pandemic. (Side note: saying "biggest since pandemic started" is such a marketing phrase lol)
All I know about comichon is they measure how many issues bought by stores. Not sold. But i don't think comic shops would purchase that many comics without a demand from their customers for it.
Looks like the series that were ending got something of a boost for their last issues. Maybe Cable will get something similar this month.
Something to consider in those sales is that it was an event month for many X-men titles. That usualy messes up the value of the sales data. Since it usualy brings in those who didn't care about the series but feel obligated to get their issues too in order to have the full event experience.
Albeit the size of the boost compared to the previous month is usualy a good indicator of how well an event was recieved.
Seems X-men Legends might not be long for this world, despite critical acclaim by the fans of the old stories.
X-factor's number is interesting.
I suspect X-factor got a triple boost from the collectors market. First being the series end, second because it was an event tie in and third because of the murder which was hyped up for a while. So even those who didn't care about it might have wanted to buy it so they can have their respective collection completed or because they speculate the death at the end would be major thing.
However another factor which might have weirdly boosted sales could have been the social media controversy, which could have convinced some to buy or order it because they thought the comic might be altered in reprints. Hence the chance of getting a rare "oddity" like the original print of the X-men Gold first issue a while ago.
Though on the later i'm not sure if the situation could have allready affected sales numbers for june.
Also there is the possibility that the cancelation might have convinced some of the series passive fans (those who expressed how much they loved it but weren't willing to buy it) to finaly go out and support it even if a little to late.
Anyway. It's interesting to see X-factor suddently outselling Excalibur if only on the last issue and consider which of the above mentioned points might have been the key.
The majority of buyers of the super hero comics the big two produce seem to be firmly collectors or older fans who prefer to have physical copies. Which the publishers or at least their marketing seem highly aware of. Hence the steep price tag of 4-5 dollar, the various number 1 relaunches and variant covers, which are clearly aimed at them and also often mentioned as the reason why these comics tend not to really find a new buying audience and remain a niche product, despite the success of the movies and toys.
Digital is price wise basicly the same as physical but without the collectors value. So why should anyone of the "core" audience go digital over physical in large numbers?
It indicates a sort of vicious cycle where their product is on life support thanks to an audience who buy more out of habbit than actual interest or wanting the same old instead of anything new and to whom they adjust their sales gimicks and prices, but which in turn repulses any actual new audience.
These collectors and older fans also tend to be highly loyal to their local comicbook shops, which are still the majority of those ordering from the publisher and their distributers in first place. So it's unlikely the pandemic drove them away from the LCS and towards buying issues digital.
If anything the collectors might have allready made up a good chunk of the digital sales before, because of buying issues twice, once to collect them and once to actualy read them as often as they want.
And then there are the news that new readers seem to actualy go for old issues or trades, buying them cheap from LCS or Amazon than actualy trying anything of the (likely from their perspective overpriced) new books.
Last edited by Grunty; 07-19-2021 at 06:35 AM.
I'm not even sure it's super important that the comics business is profitable at the moment. A cynical way of looking at it is that the books are an R&D petri dish for Marvel Studios and Disney theme parks. The X-Office for instance seem to have quite a deal of latitude with running quite a lot of books with a range of creators, even though occasionally some of the lines are culled.
I'd suspect that, because of the strangeness of the market with collectors and pull-list compulsive buyers, they're always trying to get something going with expanding the comics market beyond its traditional teenage audience. Collections and graphic novels must factor pretty big in these growing markets, though I don't see them ever getting the same sort of profit margins as from the die-hard idiots (like me) who are buying at up to 4 quid per 25 pages.
Ooof, X-corp isn't long for the world. And SWORD is in danger. Everything else is doing pretty well, though it probably got an event bump.
I was more distracted by Reptil and Silk being so low. Makes me sad.
I wouldn't count Demon Days as an X-men thing. Its kind of its own thing.
I would love to know what the reorder numbers are. Which books are sitting on shelves and which are selling out?
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Digital is too fluid. That number changes hourly or daily or weekly.
If you want to see some number-Amazon Kindle does list a ranking of sale to Kindle.
I mean I have seen Ms Marvel, Riri, Shuri and Moon Girl beat Batman in digital numbers on Amazon more than once. Then the following week it's Cap Marvel, an X-title or some indy book doing it.
So the numbers are never concrete.
Sales numbers for the month have been updated to include units soldhttps://www.comichron.com/monthlycom...1/2021-06.html
Sales.jpg