For Black Friday, I thought I’d reprint this piece about comics sales from back in 2009 — it first ran on Comixology.
________
Comics are a relatively small part of the media landscape. But how small? Or how large? How does the sale of a popular comic book compare to the sales of, say, a popular book or DVD? I wasn’t sure…so I thought I’d use this column to try and see if I could figure it out.
Caveat and a half: Pretty much all of this stuff starts as guestimates made with inadequate data. By the time a non-expert like me starts talking about it…well, it’s not pretty. I think the following is useful to give some sense of the scale of the comics business compared to other entertainment industries, but any individual number should be taken with a grain of salt roughly the size of New Jersey.
Comics Sales
Marc-Oliver Frisch’s occasional column at the Beat seems like the easiest place to go for information about mainstream comics sales., at least through the direct market According to Frisch, in July of this year, the biggest seller was Marvel’s Reborn #1, which sold about 193,000 units. DC’s Blackest Night was second with sales of around 177,000 units. According to Frisch, these are fairly huge numbers, partially pumped up with variant edition covers and first issue excitement. A less hyped comic in the middle of its run – Action Comics #879 – had sales in July of 38, 324 units. Vertigo and Wildstorm titles are also in the area of 11,000 to 8000 units a month, apparently. Tiny Titans, a book for kids that’s near and dear to my heart, only sold 8, 576 units – but, again, this is through the direct market only, and I assume most of Tiny Titans sales are actually through bookstores (that’s where I get my copies., anyway.)
As far as smaller press numbers, Kim Thompson, co-owner of Fantagraphics wrote me that sales are “really all over the map. A Peanuts will sell 15,000-20,000, other classics and well-known cartoonists in the 4,000-7,000 range, then all the way down to 2,000 and less for more obscure, or unsuccessful, stuff… And of course some long-time continuing books have sold a lot more than that, Ghost World at 150,000+, Palestine at 60,000+, etc.”
Brian Hibbs does his best to figure out the Bookscan numbers at the end of each year, and says for comics sales through bookstores there’s about 8.3 million units sold per year, for somewhere around $100 million in sales for the top 350 books. Watchmen was the highest seller, with over 300,000 copies sold. (Though I saw a NYT article that put Watchmen graphic novel sales at 1 million…perhaps counting Direct Market and online sales as well?) Naruto v. 28 was next with over 100,000 sold. All volumes of Naruto together sold around 971,000 copies, for a total of $7.7 million.
For some other numbers to throw into the mix: Brigid Alverson, who blogs over at mangablog wrote me in an email that “first printings [for manga] seem to be in the 10,000 range for smaller publishers; Yen does 25,000 for titles like Haruhi.” The folks at the Anime News Network say total sales of graphic novels in 2008 were $395 million. Manga sales accounted for $175 million of that, which is the largest single chunk (the rest being divided among super-heroes, humor, adult, etc.) They also point out the huge success of Naruto, which is so overwhelming that it’s comparable to other media products that are not comics. Like for example:
DVD Sales
Sales figures for DVDs seem a whole lot easier to obtain…as in, I googled for about 5 seconds and got actual complete information organized in a handy chart. It’s almost as if our culture cares more about DVDs. Or as if the companies aren’t embarrassed to release the information. Or something.
Anyway…the biggest seller the week ending September 6 was State of Play, which sold 344,745 units. And again I say, that’s in a week. So that means that a successful DVD sells, very unscientifically, more than 6 times as much as a successful floppy comic in a given month.
Watchmen the movie, a bit further down the list, is an obvious point of comparison for comics. It sold 56, 814 units in the week; still higher than any comic has done in a long time, probably, but not necessarily by many orders of magnitude. Of course, this is 7 weeks into the DVD release, and overall it’s sold more than 2 million units in that time. (Again, as best I can figure Watchmen the graphic novel seems to have sold between 300,000 to 1 million units in all of 2008.)
Total DVD sales for 2008 were $14.5 billion. That’s about 36 times greater than graphic novel sales for the year, if my numbers are right.
Music
CD sales are in free fall due to the recession and that wonderful, magical whatsit we call the Internet. People still buy an awful lot of albums, though. According to the ever-erudite Ben Sisario at the NYT, the biggest seller in 2008 was Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter, which sold 2.87 million copies. Again, Watchmen, the biggest comic hit, seems to have sold less than half that, and possibly less than a quarter of that. Total music album sales (including CD, download, and LP) were 428 million. Meanwhile, over a billion songs were downloaded. The same article says that concert ticket sales clocked in at $4.2 billion in 2008.
Books
Sales of books in June were $942.6 million according to the Association of American Publishers. 2008 book sales for the year were 24 billion. I presume graphic novels are included as a part of that; if that’s correct, they’re about 1.6% of the total sales for the year…which is quite a bit smaller than I would have guessed.
Also to my surprise, big-event books appear to actually outsell big-event CDs and DVDs. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold more than 8 million copies on its first day on sale in the U.S., which makes Lil’ Wayne’s 2.8 million albums over a year look pretty puny. And, of course, 8 million copies is just about the total bookstore sales for all graphic novels in all of 2008, according to Brian Hibbs’ figures. Obviously, Harry Potter is exceptional…but Dan Brown’s most recent book was also selling in the hundreds of thousands on its first couple of days. Breaking Dawn, the last Twilight book, sold 1.3 million copies on the first day.
Nothing You Didn’t Know
There’s no really startling revelations here of course. Despite big comic book derived movies and the growth of graphic novels and manga, most people in the U.S. would rather watch a movie or listen to a CD or even read a book than pick up a comic. Perhaps with the recent shake-ups at Marvel and DC that will change, and comics will start selling on a scale with other entertainment options. But, if the figures here are even close to correct, there’s a long way to go before that happens.
I remember reading this article way back when. What makes comics sales even more pathetic is when you consider not just units sold, but the price per unit.
The typical floppy comic costs only about $3-$4. An average movie ticket in the States is about $12-$15, A new DVD is between $25 – $30, a new hardcover book will be over $20. Despite their relatively low cost comics are the weakest seller.
A couple weeks ago the video game Halo 4 was released, and it sold 3 million units on its first day, at a price of $60 per unit.
There’s a clear difference in cost vs. time enjoyed, though. A $3 or $4 floppy comic will give you what – 10 to 15 minutes of enjoyment if you read it slowly, doesn’t have a lot of re-read value, and is full of horrible and distracting ads. And it’s not even a complete story! A movie ticket will get you only a couple ads (none during the movie itself) and a complete, hopefully satisfying story. A dvd will give you 1.5 to 2 hours of movie, plus special features plus only a few ads, right at the beginning (and a lot of re-watch value). A game might give you 40+ hours of play, plus replay value, plus no (disruptive) ads. The floppy comic is clearly the loser, and it’s only got itself to blame.
Hadn’t considered the pricing issue; that’s a good point. As is Jacob’s point about value for money. Is that solely the fault of the floppy though? It seems like it’s in part an issue of the medium just not giving as much value for money in terms of hours spent…?
YES! Thank you Noah for compiling this, and thank you Jacob– I feel like ‘time enjoyed’ is a really crucial part of people’s calculations in purchasing entertainment, and one that’s neglected in discussion about comics. Also, I’m not sure if the brevity of comics, which is a central part of their workings as a medium, is much explored, except where it is taken for granted (comics as easy instructional material,) or subverted (Chris Ware writes tiny letters)
Also, I think that comics are often a very private entertainment experience, when most of American culture is pursuing increasingly social form of entertainment. Even books, where the binding encases one reader at a time in a private world, can be counted on to give a communal experience if the book is widely enough read. I think this affects re-read value (personally, I partly buy DVDS to have on hand for company or family.) I think it also affects money willing to spend, as there’s little social facilitation of watching peers also spend the money in the same way (buying theater tickets as a group.) And while books can be traded, no one will wait to borrow a copy if it means they’ll lose out on participating on a giant communal experience (like the Harry Potter releases.)
It’s worth noting that there *is* re-read value for comics…or at least there can be. My son is currently rereading several Calvin and Hobbes books — and right now at this very moment he’s sitting beside me copying drawings from it. I’ve certainly read and reread and re-reread my share of comics too…so maybe it isn’t the medium so much as what’s done with it….
Surely every comic buyer has heard parents complain in surprised disgust at how much comics cost. One of my friends was telling me how little value for money he’d got from a lot of the big chunky alternative graphic novels; and me, a comics convert since childhood could only agree about how shitty comics are.
I think a lot of people in comics are too insular to realise how fundamentally offputting comics are. Stop creating them like fast food and charging stupid prices for a couple of fries. Create an amazing experience and do it with the time and effort necessary.
It’s sad that music has been suffering so bad because I think music has always been the most satisfying thing money can buy. I dont think I’ve ever once felt really ripped off by music or regretted buying many discs at all. Sure, things could be much better but compared to most things music is a total bargain.
Cinema is the biggest ripoff in the world, I wouldnt be sad if it died, film will survive as an art just fine without it.
Actually I would feel totally ripped-off if I bought most (all?) of the current Billboard top 10 albums. Overproduced, over-engineered, cookie cutter music which I inflict on myself on a almost daily basis (because it’s on almost every morning channel). You know when Christians say that Hell is the absence of God. Well, Hell is surely the presence of Taylor Swift.
I don’t think quality and value correlate that easily with audience numbers or profits.
Soundgarden’s new album, which is in the billboard top ten, is selling for $5 on download; just heard samples, but it sounds pretty good, and is quite cheap. FWIW.
A lot of people feel ripped off by albums. I think that’s why its hard to make people feel morally compelled to buy them.
The hit single sounds indistinguishably retro. But I guess $5 for a whole album is pretty harmless.
Also, Robert: Cinemas aren’t disappearing any time soon but I would be unhappy if aliens warped them off the face of the planet. Apart from the big cinematographic spectacles, even “smaller” features benefit from the experience. Ever seen Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc with a live version of Einhorn’s Voices of Light.
Actually I’ve never seen any silent films played with live music but there are lots of musicians I love who have done that sort of thing and I’d love to see that. Even if cinemas had died, I think you would still get stuff like that at arts festivals.
I’d feel very bad for lots of people if cinema did die, especially my fave directors but I sometimes think that kind of radical shift might be for the better; maybe it is just wishful thinking to imagine blockbuster directors would go away in that situation. Same with how I’d feel bad for comic shop people if all the comic shops died but cant help but feel things would be better without them. Sorry comic shop people.
I’d probably feel ripped off if I bought music paying attention to Billboard, but I dont even know what Billboard is! There is such an enormous variety in music that films and comics cant even begin to compare with. I’ve paid 90 pounds for some albums and thankfully they were always great ones. I generally dont like the radio but if you know where to look and research and got an open mind, you are on your way to music bliss. I know my way around comics and films but am regularly bitterly let down, there is very little of films and comics I totally adore but piles upon piles of albums that have vastly enriched my life.
Suat, how do you feel about your own music purchases?
I’ve never heard Taylor Swift and I generally avoid television but when I do watch it, ALWAYS mute the adverts. I’d love it if there was no more television channels broadcasting.
I know where Robert’s coming from; there is just an amazing, seemingly unlimited amount of great music. Still…I’ve definitely bought albums I wished I hadn’t. There’s lots of dross in music, as in everything.
Billboard’s the list of top selling albums, fwiw. I wish I could say I liked Taylor Swift — I like lots of country and lots of current pop, and even some country pop (Miranda Lambert is okay, at least in small doses; I like Patty Loveless a lot — though I guess she’s a little old now.) I couldn’t hack Swift though the one time I tried it.
Of course I agree with you, Robert. And it’s true that I feel happy with more of my music purchases than my comic purchases but that’s only because I actually try to keep up with significant releases in comics. Not so with music. Also, Noah was talking about sales at the top end of the market. If you look at DVD sales at the lower end – like for companies like Secondrun – I’m sure they’re pretty pitiful as well. Can’t imagine how few copies a masterpiece like Marketa Lazarova sells in English translation.
And comic shops are in fact dying. Unlike cinemas.
As with music, there are also an “unlimited” amount of great books around. But, man, do I come across some stinkers on a regular basis. Latest one was Harm de Blij’s Why Geography Matters. How does a book like that get good reviews?
I of course agree that there’s re-read value for comics, my point is more that there isn’t re-read value for individual floppies, really. You can read a complete graphic novel and then re-read it. And Calvin and Hobbes is quite self-contained, story arc to story arc and strip to strip. Single floppies, though, tend to be tiny parts of a much bigger story, and are, individually, much less re-readable. That’s what I meant when I said there’s not as much re-read value.
I actually was planning on buying Marketa Lazarova soon, I’m sure its Artificial Eye who do it in UK. It seems to me that a lot of the specialist film labels are doing not bad and increasing their lines and getting more diverse, Artificial Eye, Eureka, Third Window, Arrow etc; Tartan got in deep water a while ago but they seem to be surviving. But these healthy sales might be quite attached to the UK shop FOPP which really promotes this sort of stuff, sadly we dont have Criterion, but I have imported a few of them, Fat Girl and Clean Shaven and Haxan I think.
I’m sure there is an unlimited amount of good books but sadly I’ve been finding a lot of the critically acclaimed stuff I’m reading really underwhelming, but I really cant say anything at length because I’ve only been able to read about 3 pages an hour, so I might not even finish my measly second book this year.
I once heard a science podcast that said music is just generally more effective than most things and that music that we might consider awful makes the fans far happier than the empty comics, movies and books they might read.
I heard Lana Del Rey recently for the first time and it sounded a lot better than I imagined, it had quite an impressive depth of sound, I didnt hear it clearly enough (I was vacuum cleaning classrooms) to form any opinions but is a pretty clear step up from most radio stuff, some of which is bafflingly bad to the extent that I cant imagine how even a total dumbass could like it. I looked up some forums I like and people are saying her music is too calculated and that she is the poor persons Julee Cruise. I am a bit intrigued but I’ve got literally thousands of albums I’d rather buy.
I had a friend like Noah who liked all the heavy, avant garde and sad stuff I liked but he also liked Kylie Minogue, Girls Aloud, Take That, Sugababes and Spice Girls a lot. I dont understand it, not because I’m embarrassed to like pop music, but because it just feels far too insubstantial to me. I might enjoy a divapop song Noah likes to some extent, but not enough to take note or be able to stand it more than 3 times. It just feels far too slight to me. I heard something a bit like Cocteau Twins on pop radio recently and I’d like to know who it is.
Having said how much I love music, I think I’m getting quite jaded now (I could see myself cutting down my shopping list quite a bit) and for some reason, unlike most music fans I’m not a massive concert-goer, I’ve only been to a few into the last 4 years and I even didnt bother going to a gig last week because I wasnt in the mood and the weeks are seeming to go so fast that I want all the time at home I can get. The gig was Swans, one of my top5 bands of all time but unlike most fans, I havent totally clicked with their new stuff, I feel jealous and left out.
I dont like to be doom and gloom about culture because I think there are enough good surprises and evidence to say that lots more people could eventually get into really good stuff. Surely there are countries where people have significantly better taste in general? Could anyone name any countries?
I always like to believe that if you expose people long enough to better things, they wont want to go back to the old shit they used to put up with. My dad would watch just about any normal crap, but I was really pleased (maybe even a little touched) that when he started watching Breaking Bad with his children, he was genuinely enjoying it and started to say how he was sick of other shitty tv and wanted to keep watching this. I dont know if his standards have really been raised at all, but now I’m sure it is possible.
But even if this type of tv drama has got better, the internet chat about some of the better programs is so dumb that I cant imagine how they perceive them same things I watch. Think about all that talk about the misogynist audiences for popular shows. I’m not naive enough to think that good entertainment is going to expand everyones brains rapidly but some of the dumb commentary on these shows is bewildering and really sad.
Suat- I’m not sure why you are pleased with more music because you are more involved with comics. Is it because there is more expectations with comics?
Noah- I’ve asked you this before but I dont think you answered: Is this blog supposed to have an emphasis on the most popular culture for a defined reason? Because I enjoy your writing but I wish you would reach into more interesting places more often, not only for my reading pleasure but for your own pleasure too. I recall the talk about you being a gatekeeper, I think that gives you some responsibility and I generally think everyone on the internet who has an opinion about entertainment has a responsibility to sing the praises and share the things that made their lives better. Promote the good stuff and make it more popular. Of course value can come from criticism of the bad and mediocre but as I feel myself speeding towards oblivion: Priorities! I feel silly writing reviews of things I knew I wouldnt like, I try to review only things that I loved or things that looked promising that I want to caution other people about. I think the only reason to communicate on the web is to ask for help or to help others and opinions for the sake of being opinionated is a waste.
When I see long well written essays by smart girls about the lack of good female characters in Marvel and DC comics I just wonder why they dont just leave this stuff behind and let it die. I might write some reviews complaining about the quality of their reprints of old artists I like, but really, forget about DC and Marvel, explore! I used to want to convince fans of mega franchises to stop guzzling that crap but I’d rather hand them lots of stuff I think they might really enjoy.
I’d love to see an HU roundtable of long lists of things you guys would like to be more popular. That is what I respect about Domingos, because that is generally what he does. I sometimes wanted to make a site for people to show neglected and obscure comics but I couldnt pull it off. If you did a roundtable, I’d like it to be about all of culture though, maybe lists of 20 to 30 things you wish were more popular. I always love to hear stuff like that.
I only have one Spice Girls album, but I like it a lot. FWIW. I should get more, maybe.
In terms of the blog emphasis…not sure what you mean by a focus on the most popular culture? HU almost completely ignores the zeitgeist, as far as I can tell. We don’t do timely reviews of anything, and people pretty much write about whatever they want. I mean, if you look at the home page at the moment, there’s stuff about Junji Ito, Bollywood film, Chris Ware, Matt Mariott, a Tim Burton film from a bit back…and most of that’s positive reviews, or mixed at most.
I have been sort of toying with the idea of doing a high-brow roundtable, where folks could write about non pulp/pop only. Probably be death for our stats, but fun. I need to think about it a little more….
The first Spice Girls album was my first ever album, I wanted it because I fancied one of them but just wasnt into it when I listened, but before the days I knew what enjoying music really was, that sensation was so rare in those days that I really didnt take music seriously at all.
I always thought the blog was fairly zeitgeisty, especially with articles on that korean pop hit, Twilight, The Wire and however the big two are currently screwing up. You have done roundtables on several big graphic novels roughly when they came out.
Nana and old Wonder Woman is some of the stuff you seem to be writing about because you really love it but a lot of the blog entries seem to be about things everyone knows about, not that the popularity is the problem, but that I think it sometimes seems you are chiming in on things everyone talks about perhaps at the expense of the things you are more interested in?
Is this a desire to be part of wider debates? Junji Ito (who I love) and Chris Ware may not be mega famous but they are widely known and referenced by our type. In music, it seems to me you’d rather join in the debate on Beyonce and black metal (which I love, but there is so much writing and documentaries on it) than detail the virtue’s of Ed Ball’s Teenage Filmstars (I wasnt into the 4th album, but great stuff). Am I wrong that you swerve towards the more popular sides of your interests for blog stats?
Even though Rush are massive and I feel they have been neglected by many people, I hate it when certain magazines never stop talking about them because there are so many other things to talk about.
http://magazine-covers.lucywho.com/uncut-magazine-covers-t2026471.html
http://magazine-covers.lucywho.com/mojo-magazine-united-kingdom-magazine-covers-t2747939.html
…I’ve always been infuriated by these magazines because there are basically the same ten bands who appear on the covers every year with the occasional break of some other slightly less famous superstar like Bob Marley, Joni Mitchell or Kate Bush. I sometimes have problems with Wire magazine (they have some clear biases/prejudices but it gets balanced out by a few writers who feel differently) but at least they never feature the same bands all the time…
http://www.thewire.co.uk/archive/issues/o=0
…a few superstars (and some have complained they talk too much about the likes of Sonic Youth and Throbbing Gristle a bit too much) but I dont recognize quite a number of the cover stars. I think Mojo and Uncut avoid showing back issue galleries to stop people catching on that Beatles, Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan are on the cover every year.
I like beyonce and the black metal bands I write about a lot more than Teenage Filmstars, I have to say. They’re just not a group I’m that into. I talked about them way back when.
We did the Wire roundtable I think at least a year (I think two actually?) after the show ended. We’ve done some roundtables on graphic novels somewhat keyed to when they came out…but roundtables on Ghost World and Jaime weren’t especially linked to any news event. And the last one (about things people hated) didn’t have a news peg at all.
The secret truth is…I don’t really exercise a ton of control over what people write about here. People (including me) sometimes write about newsy things because that’s what’s on their mind; people sometimes write about popular things because everybody’s interested in popular things (that’s why they’re popular.) And folks sometimes write about more obscure things because that’s what they’re thinking about.
I really don’t see the purpose of the site as being to provide exposure to obscurities (though that’s cool when it happens) any more than I see the goal as being to chime in on popular conversations (though again, nothing wrong with that either.) Mostly it’s a place for me and like-minded (or not so like-minded) folks to talk about what happens to interest them at the moment, be it obscure or less so.
Okay, I thought it was more conscious than that.
Thanks for that Teenage Filmstars article. Star is much better than those 3 and it includes some of the best shoegazing tracks I’ve ever heard.
My opinion of their albums…
-Star-
Best, full of amazing stuff, some of it every bit as good as Slowdive and Chapterhouse.
-Rocket Charms-
First half is amazing, second half is okay with some interesting meandering.
-Support Our Sickness-
Some great tracks but most of it just okay. Sadly the reissue left out the desperate answering machine messages at the end of the original
-Bring Back The Cartel-
Not into it but not bad.
Neglected shoegazing? Sianspheric first two albums, first Autumns album, Polar/Con Dolore, Alison’s Halo, The Veldt. All of it stunning.
Polar are a case of a band possibly getting lost because there are so many bands with that name and people keep confusing their discography with other bands and their discog listings on LastFM, Rateyourmusic and Allmusic are false. Con Dolore was a name change for the better.
I havent really kept up on shoegazing like I used to. I only have one Lush album, the shame of it!
I recently got into Bathory and Negura Bunget. Have you heard Aghast? Not metal, but 2 girls from the early 90s norway scene making glorious gothic ambient. A comeback might be happening.
I may have to check some of that out; shoegaze is great.
Haven’t heard Aghast, though might try them too.
You might try Angelic Process if you haven’t heard them. Quite good shoegazy metal.
I havent got to Angelic Process yet.
Oh yeah, I paid 90 pounds for the Alison’s Halo album, totally worth it! But you get it on iTunes for cheap.
“Cinema is the biggest ripoff in the world, I wouldnt be sad if it died, film will survive as an art just fine without it.”
Unless you have the money for a proper A/V system, theatres are still the best way to view a movie. I’ll take thirty feet high over twenty-seven inches any day of the week. No contest. The first ‘Alien’ movie made the rounds of IMAX theatres some years back. Needless to say, that was really something.
“Hell is surely the presence of Taylor Swift.”
Agree!
I’ve always found it curious how both illegal and legal downloads are never mentioned in mainstream music sales listings. Especially the former. It’s hard to think of something more inconsequential these days than the listing of pitiful CD sales. A true measure of ‘zeitgeist’ would need accounting of both the legal and illicit scenes.
First of all, I kind of like Taylor Swift. Or at least the earlier stuff. Haven’t heard the new album. Only heard the hits, I guess, but that’s probably about half of her stuff. (No, I’ve never spent money on a Taylor Swift album, or song).
While being contrarian here, I remember arguing when this article came out that it’s a bit unfair to comics sales. If a comic sells 30,000 copies at $4, that’s pretty damn paltry…but since typically those sales are pretty static for, say, a year… what you really have is 30,000 copies at 48$ (or, conversely 360,000 copies at 4$) for a year. (And the bestsellers sell way more than that). It’s still way less money than your making from typical DVD sales, obviously…but comics are also way cheaper to produce.
It’s a smaller market, for sure, but you’re clearing a couple mil for a crappy low-list comic…and whatever the cost is, I’m guessing that’s a profit. Plus there are lots of these comics produced every month (52 from DC alone, from what I hear). Do the big studios make this many movies in a year? Are their costs as controlled? Can they take a bath on movies, jeopardizing the whole studio? Comics make less money, but there’s virtually no danger of losing a huge sum on them either…It’s a pretty stable niche market that probably turns a profit…while providing R & D for other platforms (movies, video games, etc.) It’s not the movie industry, obviously…but when did it claim to be?
Likewise, the notion that you’re getting 20 mins of entertainment for $4 (ripoff!) seems not that crazy. You can download 4 songs for the same money, and you’re probably not getting any “longer” for your bucks. Maybe better…but maybe worse…plenty of shitty music out there.
Obviously, this whole thing is an exercise in comparing apples to oranges…but it’s possible to make everything look like some kind of similar type of kiwi (talk about a year’s worth of comics—or a whole storyline–and suddenly it’s making more money or has more sales—and a yearlong storyline is more comparable to a movie). A monthly comic is more like a short film…but nobody watches them either.
I’m not defending the mainstream comics industry aesthetically (which is pretty terrible, by all accounts)…but the article’s comparisons strike me as somewhat illogical.
Do all the people who buy an issue buy every issue though? And are comics costs really lower than book costs? Or DVD costs, where you’re often just repackaging a film which has already been made (and often already made money?)
No comparison is going to be perfect…but I don’t think it’s apples to oranges. Or, at least, you could compare how many people buy apples to how many people buy oranges, and that would not be a crazy thing to do, it doesn’t seem to me.
Sales tend to be pretty static.
And if you want to look at DVD’s as repackaging old material, then it makes more sense to compare them to graphic novel sales, which are more often collected floppies.
GN’s then have to be cheaper…
And book sales are trickier, I think…since there are tons of books which sell worse than the comics you’re talking about (I wrote a couple)….and, obviously, some which obliterate even the most bestselling.
Well, the huge book market means it’s a healthier market, surely. And there are comics that sell nothing too. The fact remains that the biggest comics sell at most 100,000, and the biggest books sell more than a million. And those biggest books are serialized too…
GN’s aren’t necessarily cheaper than DVDs, I don’t think? Depends on the GN and the DVD. I guess you could argue it takes longer to read a GN than to watch a DVD (though again…that isn’t always the case.)
I mean, GN’s are cheaper to make….if they’re simply repackaged floppies.
Really not sure that’s true. I bet the physical DVD is cheaper to produce…printing costs > digital transfer costs.
I mean, I could be wrong, but it doesn’t seem like it’s an open and shut case, anyway….
I’m with Noah. DVDs are really cheap to produce as are Blu Rays. The cost is mostly upfront (the movie making) and with the advertising.
Also, you only need to listen to one Taylor Swift song to hear all the rest of them. She’s the Stock, Aitken + Waterman of 21st century teen angst. The comparison is probably an insult to S,A+W though.
“Sales tend to be pretty static.”
Is that right? I thought the CW was that almost all floppies in the current market inexorably decline in sales from issue to issue, which is why DC/Marvel keep renumbering, changing the names etc. But, as Noah says, it’s mind-numbingly difficult to get reliable numbers for overall comics sales.