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Anime News

Comics and Graphic Novel Sales Down in 2009 Comics Slip 3%, GN's Drop By 6%
Date: 4/16/2010
At the C2E2 convention in Chicago ICv2 publisher Milton Griepp delivered his White Paper on the current state of the comic publishing industry. Among the key findings: sales of comics and graphic novels in the U.S. and Canada fell in 2009 with periodical comics slipping 3% and graphic novels declining by 6% for an overall drop of 5% as the total market receded from an estimated $715 million in 2008 to $680 million in 2009.

The industry?s performance in 2009 reflected the tough overall economic environment created by the ?Great Recession.? The comics category fared better than some other entertainment categories such as ?Licensed Character Goods,? which were down 18% according to the Licensing Letter, while DVD sales fell 13% for the year according to Adams Media Research. Comics and graphic novels which had been a publishing growth area, declined just a bit more than overall book sales, which were off 3% according to Nielsen?s BookScan.

While periodical comics still dominate sales in the direct market, when all channels are included sales of graphic novels represented 54% of the $680 million combined total. An increase in cover price helped to hold the decline in the sales of periodical comics to just 3%. ICv2 found that ?Average Comic Cover Price? (weighted for sales) rose from $3.35 in Q4 of 2008 to $3.51 in Q4 2009.

Part of the reason for the decline in graphic novel sales, particularly in Q4 2009 versus Q4 2008, was the drop in sales of Watchmen. Starting when the trailer for the Watchmen film debuted in July of 2008 with The Dark Knight, sales of the Watchmen graphic novel became a unprecedented graphic novel publishing phenomenon that built up to the release of Watchmen movie in February of 2009 and involved print runs that totaled 1 million copies.

Sales of Watchmen continued to be strong for months after the movie?s release in the book channel, but died off quickly in the direct market after the film?s debut, a fact that helps explain why graphic novel sales in the bookstores was down just 4% versus a 12% drop in comic shops.

In the book channel sales of Kids and YA-related graphic novels was up of 50%, while manga sales fell by more than 20%, and American genre titles held their own.

Looking ahead to 2010 ICv2 sees some positive early sales indicators. Sales of periodical comics in the direct market were up 6% for the first quarter (see ?Comics Bounce Back in March?). Yen Press printed over 400,000 copies of the manga adaptation of Stephenie Meyer?s Twilight, and Scholastic is printing over 1 million copies of the first Captain Underpants graphic novel that is due out this summer and is sure to bolster the burgeoning YA graphic novel category.

Hollywood also appears to be poised to help out again this year. The Kick-Ass movie, which opens this weekend has already resulted in Marvel shipping over 100,000 copies of the Kick-Ass Premiere Hardcover, while other movies debuting in the next month including The Losers, based on Andy Diggle?s Vertigo series, and Iron Man 2, which is tracking in ways that suggest it will become a box office behemoth, also represent major graphic novel sales opportunities.

Finally 2010 should also see exponential growth in the fledgling digital comics category as the effect of iPad?s impact on publishing begins to materialize.
Source: ICv2