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May 2018 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Comics Shipped to North American Comics Shops

Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

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Improvement continued in the comic shop market in May, with retailers ordering $49.05 million in comic books, graphic novels, and magazines from Diamond Comic Distributors. The month had some major events, including the top-selling Amazing Spider-Man #800, Man of Steel #1, and a hit Avengers movie in theaters all month (not to mention Deadpool 2 and a Star Wars film). Seven titles shipped more than 100,000 copies to North American shops, led by the $9.99 Spider-Man's 411,480 copies; the year-to-date shortfall was reduced to beneath 3%. Reorders of Action Comics #1000 pushed the issue's North American total above 501,000 copies; as of the end of May, both it and Amazing #800 each represented $4 million in comics at full retail shipped to the North American market.



Marvel had several "Fresh Start" relaunches, and its dollar sales saw significant year-over-year improvement, as did those of Image; total Marvel titles shipped to market exceeded $20 million, the best figure for the company since June 2016. Marvel's unit sales in the top 300 also increased year-over-year, so it wasn't entirely the result of the higher-priced items. On the other hand, the influence of the top-sellers resulted in the average weighted price of comics ordered by shops to vault to $4.40, blowing away the previous record of $4.18 set in November 2015. (See other modern-era sales records, and also take a look at comics prices across time.) The average cost of comics offered (rather than ordered) was $3.93, about normal for this year.



We have a video walkthrough of the month's preliminary sales report here:











May's unit sales for comics were down versus the previous May as reported by Diamond — but that month included the 25-cent Saga #43, which sold in the hundreds of thousands of copies; May 2018 included DC Nation #0, likewise priced at a quarter and selling a reported million copies. While both comics were included in calculations for Image and DC's market shares respectively — in accordance with past practice — unlike Saga #43, DC Nation #0 sales were not included in the computation of Diamond's year-over-year industry-wide comics unit sales. (Diamond appears to have done so to protect the more important all-industry measures from distortion by such a large sale of a promotionally-priced item.)



May 2018 saw 10% fewer new comics offered to market — 472 versus 527 the previous May. That more than accounted for the difference in unit sales, quarter-book complications aside.



The graphic novel sector continued to lag, though it was only off by single digits. While 8% percent more new graphic novels were offered, 8% fewer dollars were made from them — a consequence, possibly, of retailers splitting up graphic novel dollars to stock Infinity War-related titles.



Read more in our preliminary and final analysis posts for the month. You can see the archived reorder charts for the weeks ending May 7, 13, 20, and 28. You can also click to skip to the Top Graphic Novels for the month.



—John Jackson Miller

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 500 charts, plus any post-#500 items from its Top 50 Indy and Small Publisher charts. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.

Items marked with asterisks [*] had their reported orders reduced by 10% due to returnability.

Distributor charts are regional commodity reports, not measures of a work's total reach. Read our FAQ.

The links lead to current listings for each item on eBay. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

May 2018 Graphic Novel Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks Shipped to North American Comics Shops Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 500 charts, plus any post-#500 items from its Top 50 Indy, Manga, and Small Publisher charts. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.

The links lead to details about each title on Amazon. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

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The 2011 printing of Infinity Gauntlet led reorders for most of the month, and those combined to beat any new graphic novel out there in dollars. It just missed being the top graphic novel by units, because the $7.99 Star Wars: Tag & Bink Were Here #1 from Marvel was counted in the category.



