by David Carter

Since I started doing month-to-month sales columns for Image comics a few months ago, there has been one constant refrain in the comments: “Tell us about collection sales!” So here you go.

Methodology

I gathered up the year-end collection sales numbers, as estimated over at Comichron based on the data provided by Diamond North America. 2009 is the earliest year for which estimates are available. (Remember that Diamond sales represent sales to stores, not end sales to consumers.) For 2009 only the Top 500 are available; for 2008-2015 it is the Top 1000. Estimates for 2009 – 2013 are rounded off to the nearest hundred. The cutoff points for each year are:

2009: 2700

2010: 1,600

2011: 1,500

2012: 1,600

2013: 1,600

2014: 1,749

2015: 1,778

I did not gather up numbers for every single trade and hardcover that Image put out during those years. I was mostly interested in only the collections for series that are currently running or recently ended, so ignored a lot of older collections and OGNs. I did this to keep this column from getting too long (and also to keep my sanity.)

Then I did the same thing with the Bookscan numbers for their yearly Top 750. The Bookscan numbers came from Brian Hibbs’ annual compilations, the most recent of which is here, where he gives a good explanation of what the Bookstore numbers are and how they are gathered. The TLDR is that they come from major bookstores and other chain sales—including B&N, Amazon, Costco, Hastings, Target, Books-A-Million, Powells, Walmart, and more—and they represent sales to end consumers. The cutoff points for each year are:

2009: 3,934

2010: 3,380

2011: 3,173

2012: 2,641

2013: 2,660

2014: 2,875

2015: 3,475

I then put all of the numbers into a series of spreadsheets (replicated in the tables below). An empty cell does *not* mean that book sold zero for the year; rather that whatever it sold was under the cutoff point. So for example it is entirely possible (and perhaps reasonable) to think that Invincible vol. 20 may have sold 1,500 units to retailers in 2015, but because that number is below the Top 1000 cutoff for 2015 they don’t show up on the year-end chart and thus are not included in the data below.

Series with asterisks* are those for which both Diamond-NA and Bookscan numbers are included; for all other series there were no volumes that had any sales in the Bookscan Top 750, and thus represent only Diamond-NA sales. That doesn’t mean those other series didn’t sell anything via bookstores, just that they didn’t sell enough to make the threshold in any year.

Also remember that these figures represent only sales to retailers by Diamond NA & sales to end consumers in major book and chain stores. They do not include sales to libraries, school book clubs (e.g. Scholastic), most small independent bookstores, or foreign sales. And they only represent sales for the years 2009 to 2015; some series such as Walking Dead and Invincible and Spawn began earlier. Thus they should only be viewed as a bare minimum number of trades sold.

So if you take these numbers and say something like “Invincible Vol. 2 sold only 9,200 copies,” that is categorically incorrect. The correct language is: “Invincible Vol. 2 sold a minimum of 9,200 copies to retailers serviced by Diamond NA & major book and chain stores for the period of 2009-2015.” Yes, it’s a mouthful, but accurate.

It is also important to remember that collection sales are a long-tail game. As opposed to sales of single issues, which for the most part will occur within the first month or two of release, sales for collection are expected to go on for months and even years. So when you see that Vol. 4 of a series has sold 3,000 less than Vol. 5 of that series, realize that these are sales only through the end of 2015, and that Vol. 5 could easily pick up another 3,000 from 2016 – 2018; and if those sales are just 1,000 each year they likely wouldn’t even make it above the cut-off and be invisible to us, but they still would be significant sales.

Also (golly there are a lot of caveats here!), if a series releases two collections in a year, one was likely released earlier in the year while the other is later in the year, and thus the first has more months in which to accumulate additional sales for that year.

I really hesitated putting these numbers out there, as there’s a greater chance than even for the month-to-month charts of these numbers being taken out-of-context. But I do think they have some value, at least for comparing to each other and getting a general sense of what is popular. So please do everyone a solid and talk about these figures correctly and wisely.

Commentary

Disclaimer: after lecturing above about the proper language to use when discussing those numbers, I’m not going to say that mouthful every time below. Just substitute in whenever you see “Sold X copies” with “sold a minimum of X copies to retailers serviced by Diamond NA & major book and chain stores for the period of 2009-2015,” unless specified otherwise. Else this section is going to be just awful to try to read!

Good golly, The Walking Dead! I mean, I knew it was huge, but this huge? Over half a million copies of the first trade paperback sold since 2009! And nearly that many of the first Compendium! The most unusual thing about The Walking Dead sales, besides their sheer size, is just how lopsided the sales are for the hardcovers and compendia; while almost every other series sold more via Diamond that show up in the Bookscan sales (typically 2/3 Diamond, 1/3 Bookscan, though some series come closer to 50/50), the vast majority of Walking Dead hardcovers and compendia came through the Bookscan-recorded sales. For instance, the third Compendium, which was released in October 2015, sold 9,103 copies through Diamond-NA and a whopping 76,110 copies through Bookscan-measured outlets. Sales for hardcovers were around twice as many through Bookscan-measured outlets as through Diamond-NA. (Sales of the regular trade collections were closer to parity, with typically a few thousand more coming through Diamond as recorded by Bookscan.)

The next largest seller of collections from Image is Saga. 290K copies of the first trade sold, and that’s just since 2012. It’s on its way to being the Next Big Thing, and that’s even without a television series behind it. As with The Walking Dead, the hardcovers of Saga sold way better in the Bookscan-measured channels than via Diamond-NA.

Chew once sold real well, but sales have cooled off recently. And by ‘cooled off’ I mean they’re fairly typical for a standard Image collection now.

Bitch Planet did really well, racking up 21K in sales in just the last three months of 2015.

Both The Wicked + The Divine and Wytches also are selling strong so far, as are Descender, Rat Queens, East of West, Pretty Deadly, Sex Criminals, Southern Bastards, and Black Science.

Okay, enough of my prattling; go look at the numbers!

Alex + Ada

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 8,113 3,631 4,482 Vol. 2 4,408 4,408 Vol. 3 3,297 3,297

—

Autumnlands *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 11,490 11,490

—

Birthright

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 8,149 8,149 Vol. 2 3,733 3,733

—

Bitch Planet *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 21,509 21,509

—

Black Science *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 41,493 19,059 22,434 Vol. 2 18,352 18,352 Vol. 3 7,360 7,360

—

Casanova: Acedia

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 1,915 1,915

—

Chew *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 Vol. 1 77,228 6,506 8,082 8,600 11,144 15,427 19,669 7,800 Vol. 2 43,614 3,675 4,400 4,900 5,100 10,354 15,185 Vol. 3 32,673 2,822 3,309 4,000 4,500 11,642 6,400 Vol. 4 22,467 2,411 2,856 3,500 5,300 8,400 Vol. 5 21,946 2,147 2,565 3,800 13,434 Vol. 6 18,848 2,026 2,524 8,698 5,600 Vol. 7 12,682 2,135 3,347 7,200 Vol. 8 10,779 2,480 8,299 Vol. 9 7,986 7,986 Vol. 10 5,925 5,925

Omnivore Hardcovers

Total 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 Vol. 1 2,400 2,400 Vol. 2 0 Vol. 3 2,000 2,000

—

Chrononauts

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 8,083 8,083

—

Copperhead

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 6,855 6,855 Vol. 2 2,785 2,785

—

Deadly Class *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 23,767 13,146 10,621 Vol. 2 9,205 9,205 Vol. 3 5,519 5,519

—

Death Vigil

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 2,525 2,525

—

Descender *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 20,043 20,043

—

Drifter

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 2,932 2,932

—

East of West *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 2013 Vol. 1 60,226 18,451 24,625 17,150 Vol. 2 28,326 7,691 20,635 Vol. 3 16,466 7,545 8,921 Vol. 4 15,172 15,172

Hardcovers

Total 2015 Vol. 1 2,739 2,739

—

The Fade Out *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 14,552 14,552 Vol. 2 5,188 5,188

—

Fatale

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 2013 2012 Vol. 1 23,446 2,887 4,659 6,800 9,100 Vol. 2 11,319 2,519 4,500 4,300 Vol. 3 8,676 2,276 6,400 Vol. 4 6,477 6,477 Vol. 5 4,720 4,720

Hardcovers

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 2,156 2,156

—

The Fuse

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 2,216 2,216

—

God Hates Astronauts

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 2 1,904 1,904

—

Goners

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 1,915 1,915

—

Humans

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 3,989 3,989

—

Injection

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 6,050 6,050

—

Invincible

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 Vol. 1 24,831 2,790 2,541 3,200 3,600 3,900 4,800 4,000 Vol. 2 9,200 1,700 2,000 2,500 3,000 Vol. 3 4,500 1,900 2,600 Vol. 4 3,900 1,700 2,200 Vol. 5 3,600 1,600 2,000 Vol. 6 1,900 1,900 Vol. 7 1,800 1,800 Vol. 8 1,800 1,800 Vol. 9 5,000 2,100 2,900 Vol. 10 11,800 1,600 2,500 7,700 Vol. 11 9,700 2,700 7,000 Vol. 12 9,700 1,900 7,800 Vol. 13 8,900 2,200 6,700 Vol. 14 9,300 1,700 7,600 Vol. 15 7,500 7,500 Vol. 16 6,000 6,000 Vol. 17 6,200 6,200 Vol. 18 5,200 5,200 Vol. 19 5,304 5,304 Vol. 20 3,959 3,959 Vol. 21 4,508 4,508

Deluxe Hardcovers

Total 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 Vol. 4 3,000 3,000 Vol. 5 2,900 2,900 Vol. 6 2,500 2,500 Vol. 7 2,100 2,100 Vol. 8 1,900 1,900

—

Invisible Republic

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 3,473 3,473

—

Jupiter’s Circle

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 4,956 4,956

—

Jupiter’s Legacy

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 9,815 9,815

—

Kaptara

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 2,071 2,071

—

Lazarus *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 2013 Vol. 1 23,607 5,618 10,989 7,000 Vol. 2 9,765 3,475 6,290 Vol. 3 6,967 6,967

—

Low *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 28,499 28,499 Vol. 2 5,587 5,587

—

Luther Strode

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 2013 2012 Vol. 1 7,000 2,200 4,800 Vol. 2 2,600 2,600

—

The Manhattan Projects *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 2013 2012 Vol. 1 35,804 4,606 7,073 16,625 7,500 Vol. 2 20,982 2,515 4,071 14,396 Vol. 3 12,393 2,128 4,365 5,900 Vol. 4 9,470 2,128 7,342 Vol. 5 6,958 2,672 4,286

—

Material

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 1,848 1,848

—

Morning Glories

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 Vol. 1 26,224 1,825 2,599 4,300 3,400 14,100 Vol. 2 11,700 2,500 2,700 6,500 Vol. 3 7,800 2,600 5,200 Vol. 4 5,500 5,500 Vol. 5 3,800 3,800 Vol. 6 2,700 2,700 Vol. 7 3,209 3,209 Vol. 8 2,868 2,868 Vol. 9 1,799 1,799

—

MPH

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 3,245 3,245

—

Nailbiter

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 12,109 6,791 5,318 Vol. 2 5,851 5,851 Vol. 3 3,677 3,677

—

No Mercy

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 1,807 1,807

—

Nowhere Men *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 2013 Vol. 1 15,766 3,453 7,113 5,200

—

Oddly Normal

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 2,146 2,146

—

ODY-C

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 6,365 6,365

—

Outcast *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 24,358 24,358 Vol. 2 7,005 7,005

—

Phonogram

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 Vol. 1 2,191 2,191 Vol. 2 1,900 1,900

—

Postal

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 2,263 2,263

—

Pretty Deadly *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 27,923 9,092 18,831

—

Prophet

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 2013 2012 Vol. 1 14,767 2,201 2,866 4,900 4,800 Vol. 2 6,238 1,938 4,300 Vol. 3 4,058 4,058 Vol. 4 3,488 3,488

—

Rasputin

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 2,793 2,793

—

Rat Queens *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 56,732 29,161 27,571 Vol. 2 28,713 28,713

Deluxe Hardcovers

Total 2015 Vol. 1 2,185 2,185

—

Revival *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 2013 2012 Vol. 1 23,204 3,750 4,951 11,103 3,400 Vol. 2 10,458 2,064 3,194 5,200 Vol. 3 5,356 5,356 Vol. 4 3,288 3,288 Vol. 5 3,358 3,358 Vol. 6 2,007 2,007

—

Roche Limit

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 3,476 3,476

—

Rocket Girl

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 4,835 4,835

—

Rumble

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 4,323 4,323

—

RunLoveKill

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 2,656 2,656

—

Saga *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 2013 2012 Vol. 1 290,144 79,686 87,747 91,036 31,675 Vol. 2 199,600 55,930 64,908 78,762 Vol. 3 153,342 52,744 100,598 Vol. 4 125,718 87,700 38,018 Vol. 5 80,883 80,883

Deluxe Hardcovers

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 32,342 14,696 17,646

—

Satellite Sam

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 4,281 4,281 Vol. 2 2,082 2,082

—

Sex

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 2013 Vol. 1 5,924 2,624 3,300 Vol. 2 2,887 2,887 Vol. 3 2,153 2,153

—

Sex Criminals *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 74,744 31,346 43,398 Vol. 2 31,317 31,317

Hardcovers

Total 2015 Vol. 1 3,668 3,668

—

Shutter

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 7,461 4,308 3,153 Vol. 2 2,339 2,339

—

Southern Bastards *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 21,637 13,855 7,782 Vol. 2 12,876 12,876

Deluxe Hardcovers

Total 2015 Vol. 1 2,865 2,865

—

Spawn Origins

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 Vol. 1 18,113 3,135 2,878 2,600 2,100 1,800 2,200 3,400 Vol. 2 Vol. 3 Vol. 4 2,100 2,100 Vol. 5 1,800 1,800

—

Spawn: Resurrection

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 1,798 1,798

—

Spread

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 3,474 3,474

—

Starlight

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 5,616 5,616

—

Supreme Blue Rose

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 2,762 2,762

—

Stray Bullets

Uber Alles Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 5,172 5,172

—

Sunstone *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 15,495 11,287 4,208 Vol. 2 10,624 10,624 Vol. 3 8,103 8,103

—

Thief of Thieves

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 2013 2012 Vol. 1 9,000 3,600 5,400 Vol. 2 4,800 4,800 Vol. 3 3,201 3,201 Vol. 4 1,791 1,791

—

Trees *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 15,346 15,346

—

Velvet

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 10,443 2,735 7,708 Vol. 2 4,914 4,914

—

The Walking Dead *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 Vol. 1 516,950 58,009 68,327 100,588 120,356 61,781 77,192 30,697 Vol. 2 313,799 33,157 40,116 57,536 76,901 38,440 48,559 19,090 Vol. 3 238,345 24,775 29,121 41,238 61,032 28,745 36,741 16,693 Vol. 4 187,954 19,283 22,066 32,193 47,530 24,212 30,684 11,986 Vol. 5 162,097 16,536 18,358 26,817 40,986 22,713 23,929 12,758 Vol. 6 142,209 14,119 15,638 22,900 35,452 20,392 21,501 12,207 Vol. 7 129,377 12,400 13,596 20,530 32,023 18,713 19,744 12,371 Vol. 8 126,707 11,593 13,018 19,621 30,397 18,044 19,559 14,475 Vol. 9 167,566 10,315 12,246 17,771 34,453 24,319 25,609 42,853 Vol. 10 155,446 9,753 11,675 16,522 32,038 23,955 27,659 33,844 Vol. 11 147,014 9,131 11,119 15,290 30,158 24,591 56,725 Vol. 12 138,061 9,165 10,332 14,488 29,045 25,771 49,260 Vol. 13 136,397 8,882 9,777 13,945 28,776 36,032 38,985 Vol. 14 125,329 9,467 9,793 14,147 32,911 59,011 Vol. 15 121,207 8,985 9,740 15,138 56,219 31,125 Vol. 16 112,541 9,199 10,271 18,818 74,253 Vol. 17 143,838 14,266 23,221 54,096 52,255 Vol. 18 120,420 14,421 27,428 78,571 Vol. 19 114,442 15,351 41,247 57,844 Vol. 20 103,981 18,110 85,871 Vol. 21 90,710 22,467 68,243 Vol. 22 93,969 34,662 59,307 Vol. 23 67,564 67,564 Vol. 24 53,223 53,223

Deluxe Hardcovers

Total 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 Vol. 1 183,460 17,786 24,666 32,413 47,716 28,687 22,792 9,400 Vol. 2 104,909 9,565 14,418 20,969 28,629 18,503 12,825 Vol. 3 76,496 6,048 11,134 14,467 24,343 10,206 10,298 Vol. 4 59,844 4,713 7,119 11,621 19,537 8,279 8,575 Vol. 5 68,807 4,067 6,154 9,868 21,251 10,774 16,693 Vol. 6 62,801 3,714 5,382 8,660 18,695 13,661 12,689 Vol. 7 47,115 3,697 4,951 8,440 20,633 9,394 Vol. 8 42,110 3,833 5,212 11,226 21,839 Vol. 9 37,426 5,285 12,931 19,210 Vol. 10 28,232 9,495 18,737 Vol. 11 20,640 20,640 Vol. 12 13,832 13,832

Compendia (paperbacks)

Total 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 Vol. 1 450,151 69,016 78,582 109,693 112,024 39,565 36,471 4,800 Vol. 2 267,868 50,511 60,361 84,832 72,164 Vol. 3 85,213 85,213

—

Wayward

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 7,045 7,045 Vol. 2 3,311 3,311

—

The Wicked + The Divine *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 48,779 39,503 9,276 Vol. 2 24,015 24,015

—

Wolf

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 3,038 3,038

—

Wytches *

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 Vol. 1 34,717 34,717

—

Zero

Trade Paperbacks

Total 2015 2014 Vol. 1 4,665 4,665 Vol. 2 2,024 2,024 Vol. 3 2,020 2,020

The Fine Print

The figures above are for entertainment purposes only. They represent sales as estimated from Diamond-NA year-end Top 1000 and Bookscan yearly Top 750. Sales through other channels are not included. Creators: consult your publisher’s statements for actual sales figures.

I cannot stress this strongly enough: These are at best minimum sales figures. They work good (well, good enough) for comparison purposes, but really not for anything else.

Please keep in mind that raw sales numbers do not tell us about how profitable a book is for a publisher or for the creators.

Above all, do not allow sales numbers to dictate your purchasing and enjoyment of a particular comic. If you enjoy reading a comic series then go right on buying and reading that comic, no matter what the sales figures say.

Opinions expressed in this column are mine alone, and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer, Heidi MacDonald or anyone at The Comics Beat, the Pro Golfers’ Association, or my former neighbor’s dog Miles.

The author of this column does weekly snapshots of Amazon comic sales charts at http://yetanothercomicsblog.blogspot.com/ and tweets about comics and related subjects on Twitter at @davereadscomics (PM me there is you need to contact me).

As always, we welcome your comments and corrections below. Please try to keep things civilized.