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February 2019 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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After a rebound in the number of new comic-book releases in January, February 2019 returned to the trend, with the smallest number of new comics releases since Diamond Comic Distributors began reporting overall figures in July 2013. There were no first issues in the Top nine at all, indicating few publishers were interested in launching big projects into the month. Sixty fewer new comics were released versus the same month in 2018, a drop of 13%; new comics unit sales were consequently off 8.47% to 5.77 million copies, the lowest figure since May 2011. Dollars were down just 6.06%. Retailers ordered $34.73 million in comics and graphic novels overall, down 5% and the lowest figure since March 2012.



DC, which had announced plans to reduce its periodical offerings, was responsible for nearly half of the drop in the number of new comics released: its slate was chopped a full third, from 88 comics in February 2018 to 59. DC's stated goal was to improve the performances of individual titles; it was at least partially successful in this, with the publisher's overall dollar sales of comics and graphic novels down 15% in a month when the number of new offerings had been cut by twice as much. (The market-leading Batman Who Laughs #3 helped that cause.) Image likewise offered many fewer new comics, dropping from 70 last February to 47 last month; its year-to-year drop was similar to DC's.



Marvel, meanwhile, grew its slate, with five more comic books and nine more graphic novels released than in the previous February — and it appears to have benefited from it, selling 9% more dollars worth of material versus its performance then. Diamond also liquidated many leftover Marvel variants from 2016 and 2017, although Marvel would have beaten its year-prior performance without them. All months include significant numbers of remaindered older copies; with fewer new issues in the pipeline, it allowed the older ones to appear.



Captain Marvel saw many new releases in advance of the movie, including True Believers editions; Captain Marvel #1's reorders in February were more than 10% of its January total, moving it into position as the year's top seller to-date.



Average cover prices dropped for the second month in a row.



Read more in our preliminary post for the month. You can also click to skip to the Top Graphic Novels for the month. You can see the reorders that were placed during the month on our pages for reorders and advance reorders for the year.



—John Jackson Miller

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 500 charts, plus any post-#500 items from its Top Independent 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.

February 2019 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 Independent and Manga 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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Mister Miracle led graphic novel sales after performing well in reorders during the month.



