Analysts: October 2010 DM Estimates

The comics business news and analysis site ICv2.com offers their usual array of lists, estimates and analysis regarding the performance of comic books and graphic novels in the Direct Market of comic and hobby shops, this time for October 2010.

* Overview
* Analysis
* Top 300 Comic Books
* Top 300 Graphic Novels

John Jackson Miller at The Comics Chronicles has begun his analysis of the month here.

Fascinating month. I would in fact defer much of my analysis to the second ICv2.com link and the second Comics Chronicles link, which if you have any interest in the shape and thrust of that particular comics business are must-reads. What's happened as far as I can parse it is that 1) it was a pretty good month, 2) Diamond has for whatever reason released numbers indicative of the entire range of items they offer, which means a better picture of the entirety of sales rather than estimates based on a top 300. John Jackson Miller indicates in his report certain areas where the new numbers give us more and better information, including a line of analysis that support his contention that increased sales on the lower end of the charts somewhat ameliorate the loss of sales in the top 300. ICv2.com in their analysis seem to be arguing this isn't significant over time.

I know that the Internet rewards certainty, and throws in a bonus if you State It With Capital Letters, but I'll be honest: I don't know what I think yet. The main thing I can't figure out is what effect this perceived shift might have out on the ground in the various retail establishments, whether or not there's an advantage being enjoyed by shops that are big enough to carry a huge range of product or whether there's a level of dissonance between the major players' perceived strategy -- an emphasis on hit books -- and the market they've actually created, and how that might potentially play itself out in terms of missed opportunities. One thing I did notice is that they sold 7500 of the new Parker book into the DM, which is about 3000 more copies than they took of the heavily-promoted first volume. Also, DC had half of the top 10 and nine of the top 20, which even at the reduced numbers for top books has to be worthy of note as badly as they've been slaughtered up there at times over the last five years.
 
posted 12:00 pm PST | Permalink
 

---

 
Daily Blog Archives
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
 
Full Archives