ICv2.com: September ‘07 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 September 2007.

* Overview
* Analysis
* Top 300 Comic Books
* Top 100 Graphic Novels

The thing that strikes me about this group of sales estimates is that Marvel had a significant title in the top ten helped into that position by a sales gimmick or overt sales mechanism in addition to its content. This is the kind of thing that happens all the time, but really indicates the shape of the market and what these numbers mean to these companies when you stop and think about it. These companies feel a need to boost top-selling comics with at least as much aggression (if not more) than more standard selling comics or even poor-selling ones in their lines. I'm guessing that means securing your comics' place at the top of the charts is more important in some ways than selling more of a lower-selling title, and that these moves are more successful at that tier of sales.

You have to remember that more than any other comics market, the Direct Market for comics shops and hobby shops is shaped by the way that its sales leaders push material through that system. Historical events and structural realities have conspired to put that power into those players' hands. The market conforms around those moves. This means that any deviation or suggestion of a deviation away from general health across the board as the sole market goal suggests motives other than long-term growth in play -- say market share as a way of presenting oneself to corporate or stockholders, or the PR benefits of hit books as a reflection across the entire line -- motives that could potentially shape the market in a way that works against the most beneficial market outcome. It would be the greatest and saddest irony in comics industry history if the big companies were to shift their investment into the book market because they didn't have the discipline to make the best choices on their own behalf in a market where they have so much more control.
 
posted 10:24 pm PST | Permalink
 

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