DC comics ceases to be a credible competitor to Marvel

[Captain Nostalgia]

There will most likely be some DC company apologists on here, but the fact remains that ICv2's top comics would not be published if it wasn't backed by some credible factual data, and....

https://icv2.com/articles/markets/vi...-february-2022

The bottom line: It's official, DC has ceased to be a credible competitor for Marvel. It only has 1 superhero who sells

Marvel has, 9 of the top 10 titles, 90% and
Marvel has, 18 of the top 20 titles. 90%

Superman, the JLA, Green Lantern, The Flash, Green Arrow, and even the JSA (Go back further Titans/Legion) at one point in time made DC competitive....not...any...more.

[MRP]

From the source cited...

These are unit and dollar sales rankings based on sales tracked at point-of-sale by the ComicHub system at stores selling American comics around the world. During the period for which these reports were generated, there were over 100 stores using the ComicHub system. As this is a small, non-random sample of over 3,000 stores selling American comics worldwide, these rankings may not be typical for all stores, but do represent a variety of locations and store emphases.

So measuring 100 stores out of some approximately 5K shops is what is called is statistical analysis as a statically irrelevant sample, i.e. too small to draw any valid conclusions from. I'm not a DC apologist, but I have worked with statistical analysis throughout my career, enough to know there is not enough actual data in these charts to represent the industry as a whole. It may turn out that the other 98% of places that sell comics (based on the last known # of Diamond accounts that serviced shops before DC left Diamond and before Comics Hub existed) may reflect the pattern shown in the 2% of the total shops this data reflects, but that sample is far too small to be predictive.

-M

[Aahz]

The problem with these top 100 rankings is that these ranks can highly fluctuate even without sales changing much, if there lots of #1 or event issues published in a month.

[Lal]

From the source cited...



So measuring 100 stores out of some approximately 5K shops is what is called is statistical analysis as a statically irrelevant sample, i.e. too small to draw any valid conclusions from. I'm not a DC apologist, but I have worked with statistical analysis throughout my career, enough to know there is not enough actual data in these charts to represent the industry as a whole. It may turn out that the other 98% of places that sell comics (based on the last known # of Diamond accounts that serviced shops before DC left Diamond and before Comics Hub existed) may reflect the pattern shown in the 2% of the total shops this data reflects, but that sample is far too small to be predictive.

-M

I have to disagree with you here. A sample size of 100 is actually considered sufficient for statistical analysis.
Even if we take your example and assume a population of 5k shops, if we want a confidence level of 95% that the results would have a 10% margin of error, the sample size required for analysis is around 95.
So the sample reported here is sufficient.
The problem with this sample may be that it's not random, but a sample of 100 of 3000 or 5000 is sufficient for analysis.

[Jabare]

what's the point of this thread?

[Felipe Silveira]

That doesn't surprise me.
Marvel is in a much better place than DC in terms of quality and variety of comics.

[Rac7d*]

There will most likely be some DC company apologists on here, but the fact remains that ICv2's top comics would not be published if it wasn't backed by some credible factual data, and....

https://icv2.com/articles/markets/vi...-february-2022

The bottom line: It's official, DC has ceased to be a credible competitor for Marvel. It only has 1 superhero who sells

Marvel has, 9 of the top 10 titles, 90% and
Marvel has, 18 of the top 20 titles. 90%

Superman, the JLA, Green Lantern, The Flash, Green Arrow, and even the JSA (Go back further Titans/Legion) at one point in time made DC competitive....not...any...more.

Are you a YouTuber????

[Rac7d*]

Anime exist to further push magna and merchandise sales

Marvel has been pushing a variety characters in large scale big budget movies for the last two decades. It stands to reason that’s the true driving force. This year two movie will be released for characters who do not have ongoing and thus will have no effect on their books.

Animated shows are not comparable to the films because they no longer hold the kind of audience they use too.

[LAWtoyoto 432]

that doesn't surprise me.
Marvel is in a much better place than dc in terms of quality and variety of comics.

see! I have warn this thread about this but of course nothing change at all.

[Somecrazyaussie]

what's the point of this thread?

To kick the virtual equivalent of a hornets nest.

[thwhtGuardian]

I have to disagree with you here. A sample size of 100 is actually considered sufficient for statistical analysis.
Even if we take your example and assume a population of 5k shops, if we want a confidence level of 95% that the results would have a 10% margin of error, the sample size required for analysis is around 95.
So the sample reported here is sufficient.
The problem with this sample may be that it's not random, but a sample of 100 of 3000 or 5000 is sufficient for analysis.

Eh, it's iffy at best. When your total population is only 5000 there's no real reason for you to be sampling so low unless you're looking to cook the books for a particular reason.

[Lal]

Eh, it's iffy at best. When your total population is only 5000 there's no real reason for you to be sampling so low unless you're looking to cook the books for a particular reason.

I don't think there's any malicious intent here. They probably sample only 100 stores because it's much easier than sampling 350, and while the differences in the margin error would drop to 5% if they do that, a margin error of 10% is more than okay for a table that they publish for free.

BTW - where did the 5k number of stores come from? ICV2 only mentioned there are more than 3k.

[HsssH]

I think that DC stopped being credible competitor few months after Rebirth.

[MRP]

I don't think there's any malicious intent here. They probably sample only 100 stores because it's much easier than sampling 350, and while the differences in the margin error would drop to 5% if they do that, a margin error of 10% is more than okay for a table that they publish for free.

BTW - where did the 5k number of stores come from? ICV2 only mentioned there are more than 3k.

5K was the estimated number of active Diamond accounts in play just before DC left Diamond. Since at the time Diamond was the only distributor, it was a good estimate of how many comic selling outlets there were. That number is now out of date, but since Comic Hub is fairly new players and still does not service a significant number of retailers, the applicability of data from their POS service is still limited in its predictive nature.

I also do not thing there was anything malicious in the retailer report, they were just reporting the data they had. However, I do think there is a lot of ill intent in how people interpret and use that data, trying to use date with doubtful statistical relevance to paint broad pictures of the health of the industry or particular segments within that industry to push particular agendas when the data doesn't actually say what they want it to say and the way they use it misrepresents what the data actually does say. There are some who will take any scrap of news they can find and spin it to try to push a particular agenda trying to paint it as evidence to back their opinion and make it seem to be Truth (capital T intentional) when it is nothing of the sort.

Foe a counterpoint of how to use and interpret statistical sales evidence to suss out what the industry actually looks like, tale a look at Brian Hibbs and his yearly analysis of the Bookscan numbers he does, examining both short and long term data trails over a number of years to see trends, anomalies, and other factors across a wide spectrum of the industry outside the direct market with a data pool that is much more statistically significant.


-M

[Noodle]

Oh, look! Someone claiming DC is dying. Haven't seen that in about 20 minutes!