Comix Experience Best Sellers 2013: Comics
/There are those people who find this kind of thing interesting, and those who have no interest -- I put it behind the jump for the benefit of the latter!
Oh, comics! The agile arbiter of zeitgeist; the enabler of cash flow; the avatar of tastemaking! How how much I treasure you!
What follow is a list of the best-selling comics, for the singular Comix Experience, as of 12/31/13, at 5:54 PM. The store is still technically open for another hour and six minutes, but I don't think we'll significantly change this chart in that time.
This does NOT contain the charts for Comic Outpost because a) I've only owned it a fortnight, and b) we had silly computer problems in week #1, so much of the sales are registered to a generic "miscellaneous comic" code, and not the specific book that specifically sold. Ah, but 2014 will allow me to present combined charts and differences, and ah! I can not wait!
I've also pulled out "Quarter Comics", "Generic Back Issue", "Dollar Comics" and "Starter Set", which were otherwise our #1 to #4 items in the "comics" category. We sold 22x times the number of "quarter comics" as we did of Actual Comic #1, and I still think to myself, "We're not liquidating the cheapest crap fast enough". Go figure! (That's because it accumulates quickly -- "death of a thousand papercuts" is the rule for most stores, I believe)
Clearly, as you can see from what follows, 2013 is Image's year. 9 of the top 10, 13 of the top 20, 32 of the Top 50 -- that's a performance to be proud of. The second half of the year, especially, has had hot launch after hot launch, and Image right now feels like me to be like Vertigo circa 1993.
I have at least one note -- because Comix Experience (prime) is pretty much against the multiple cover as a moral stance, we treat them as distinct SKUs -- except that SANDMAN OVERTURE performed very very well with BOTH covers. So the net impact is that the COMBINED value of the Dave McKean and JH Williams' covers would actually make it our #1 book for the year, by about a 20% margin. Too bad we're stuck until February for issue #2 with no (as far as I know) co-op or returnability cushion to help us promote that it finally came out. In some ways, this is the absolute worst case scenario for a civilian/lapsed-driven book like OVERTURE -- a lot of dollars are going to be lost because of the lack of follow-through.
| 1 | SAGA #13 |
| 2 | SAGA #14 |
| 3 | SAGA #15 |
| 4 | SANDMAN OVERTURE #1 (OF 6) McKean Cover |
| 5 | SAGA #11 |
| 6 | SAGA #12 |
| 7 | SAGA #16 |
| 8 | SAGA #10 |
| 9 | SAGA #9 |
| 10 | JUPITERS LEGACY #1 |
| 11 | SEX CRIMINALS #1 |
| 12 | SAGA #17 |
| 13 | EAST OF WEST #1 |
| 14 | BATMAN #21 |
| 15 | BATMAN #17 |
| 16 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #8 |
| SAGA #8 | |
| 18 | BATMAN #16 |
| 19 | BATMAN #22 |
| 20 | SANDMAN OVERTURE #1 (OF 6) JHW cover |
| 21 | EAST OF WEST #2 |
| 22 | BATMAN #23 |
| 23 | SEX CRIMINALS #2 |
| SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #1 | |
| 25 | UNCANNY X-MEN #1 NOW |
| BATMAN #20 | |
| INFINITY #1 (OF 6) | |
| WALKING DEAD #106 | |
| 29 | WALKING DEAD #109 |
| JUPITERS LEGACY #2 | |
| VELVET #1 | |
| 32 | WALKING DEAD #110 |
| WALKING DEAD #111 | |
| BLACK SCIENCE #1 | |
| WALKING DEAD #108 | |
| WALKING DEAD #112 | |
| 37 | BATMAN #19 |
| GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #1 NOW | |
| HELLBOY IN HELL #2 | |
| PRETTY DEADLY #1 | |
| 41 | BATMAN #25 |
| BATMAN SUPERMAN #1 | |
| HELLBOY IN HELL #3 | |
| WALKING DEAD #107 | |
| WALKING DEAD #113 | |
| WALKING DEAD #115 | |
| 47 | BATMAN #24 |
| EAST OF WEST #3 | |
| WALKING DEAD #116 | |
| 50 | AGE OF ULTRON #1 (OF 10) |
| EAST OF WEST #4 | |
| JUPITERS LEGACY #3 | |
| SEX CRIMINALS #3 | |
| THE STAR WARS (LUCAS DRAFT) #1 (OF 8) | |
| WALKING DEAD #114 | |
| 56 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #9 |
| INFINITY #3 (OF 6) | |
| OPTIC NERVE #13 | |
| 59 | HAWKEYE #8 |
| EAST OF WEST #6 | |
| SAGA #7 | |
| 62 | HAWKEYE #10 |
| HELLBOY IN HELL #4 | |
| 64 | BATMAN ANNUAL #2 |
| GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #0.1 NOW | |
| STAR WARS ONGOING #2 | |
| WALKING DEAD #117 | |
| X-MEN #1 NOW | |
| 69 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #10 |
| STAR WARS ONGOING #1 | |
| 71 | LAZARUS #1 |
| JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1 | |
| BATMAN INCORPORATED #6 | |
| EAST OF WEST #5 | |
| HAWKEYE #7 | |
| HAWKEYE #9 | |
| PRETTY DEADLY #2 | |
| UNCANNY X-MEN #3 NOW | |
| 79 | JUSTICE LEAGUE #22 |
| AGE OF ULTRON #2 (OF 10) | |
| AGE OF ULTRON #3 (OF 10) | |
| EAST OF WEST #7 | |
| FOREVER EVIL #1 (OF 7) | |
| 84 | AVENGERS #3 NOW |
| BATMAN INCORPORATED #7 | |
| GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #2 NOW | |
| SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #2 | |
| TRILLIUM #1 (OF 8) | |
| VELVET #2 | |
| 90 | BATMAN SUPERMAN #2 |
| BLACK SCIENCE #2 | |
| INFINITY #2 (OF 6) | |
| SHAOLIN COWBOY #1 | |
| TRUE LIVES O/T FABULOUS KILLJOYS #1 (OF 6) | |
| WALKING DEAD #118 | |
| 96 | ACTION COMICS #16 |
| JUSTICE LEAGUE #16 | |
| HAWKEYE #11 | |
| INFINITY #4 (OF 6) | |
| WAKE #1 (OF 10) |
However, I am in the business of making money, so in many ways, what is more important is not how many copies were sold, but how many dollars were generated. If I sort the chart that way, then you can see that DC (and especially Marvel) do much much better -- SANDMAN OVERTURE, in particular, exceeds SAGA #13 by more than 200%
Still, you can see the value of the $3.99+ cover price here?
| 1 | SANDMAN OVERTURE #1 (OF 6) McKean Cover |
| 2 | SAGA #13 |
| 3 | SAGA #14 |
| 4 | BATMAN #24 |
| 5 | SAGA #15 |
| 6 | SANDMAN OVERTURE #1 (OF 6) JHW cover |
| 7 | SAGA #11 |
| SAGA #12 | |
| 9 | SAGA #16 |
| 10 | SAGA #10 |
| 11 | SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #1 |
| 12 | SAGA #9 |
| 13 | INFINITY #1 (OF 6) |
| 14 | BATMAN #21 |
| 15 | OPTIC NERVE #13 |
| 16 | SEX CRIMINALS #1 |
| 17 | BATMAN #17 |
| 18 | DETECTIVE COMICS #19 |
| 19 | BATMAN #16 |
| 20 | BATMAN #22 |
| 21 | BATMAN #25 |
| 22 | EAST OF WEST #1 |
| 23 | JUPITERS LEGACY #1 |
| 24 | AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #700 |
| 25 | BATMAN #23 |
| 26 | UNCANNY X-MEN #1 NOW |
| 27 | BATMAN #20 |
| 28 | BATMAN ANNUAL #2 |
| 29 | SAGA #17 |
| 30 | INFINITY #6 (OF 6) |
| 31 | EAST OF WEST #2 |
| 32 | BATMAN #18 |
| 33 | GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #1 NOW |
| BATMAN SUPERMAN #1 | |
| 35 | SEX CRIMINALS #2 |
| 36 | BATMAN #19 |
| 37 | SAGA #8 |
| 38 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #8 |
| 39 | AGE OF ULTRON #1 FOIL CVR (OF 10) |
| STAR WARS #1 (OF 8) | |
| 40 | VELVET #1 |
| 41 | BLACK SCIENCE #1 |
| 42 | HAWKEYE ANNUAL #1 |
| 43 | INFINITY #3 (OF 6) |
| 44 | PRETTY DEADLY #1 |
| 45 | GREEN LANTERN #20 |
| 46 | ACTION COMICS #18 |
| 47 | EAST OF WEST #3 |
| 48 | X-MEN #1 NOW |
| 49 | GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #0.1 NOW |
| 50 | EAST OF WEST #4 |
| 51 | SEX CRIMINALS #3 |
| 52 | JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1 |
| 53 | WALKING DEAD #109 |
| WALKING DEAD #106 | |
| 55 | JUPITERS LEGACY #2 |
| 56 | JUSTICE LEAGUE #22 |
| 57 | WALKING DEAD #110 |
| WALKING DEAD #111 | |
| 59 | FOREVER EVIL #1 (OF 7) |
| 60 | SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #2 |
| 61 | WALKING DEAD #108 |
| WALKING DEAD #112 | |
| 63 | GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #2 NOW |
| 64 | EAST OF WEST #6 |
| 65 | BATMAN SUPERMAN #2 |
| SHAOLIN COWBOY #1 | |
| 68 | AGE OF ULTRON #2 (OF 10) |
| 69 | HELLBOY IN HELL #2 |
| 70 | INFINITY #2 (OF 6) |
| TRUE LIVES O/T FABULOUS KILLJOYS #1 (OF 6) | |
| 72 | HELLBOY IN HELL #3 |
| 73 | ACTION COMICS #16 |
| JUSTICE LEAGUE #16 | |
| AGE OF ULTRON #3 (OF 10) | |
| 76 | AVENGERS #3 NOW |
| 77 | UNCANNY X-MEN #3 NOW |
| 78 | WALKING DEAD #107 |
| WALKING DEAD #113 | |
| WALKING DEAD #115 | |
| 81 | INFINITY #4 (OF 6) |
| 82 | WALKING DEAD #116 |
| 83 | ALL NEW X-MEN #6 NOW2 |
| 84 | ALL NEW X-MEN #5 |
| 85 | GOD IS DEAD #1 (OF 6) |
| 86 | JUPITERS LEGACY #3 |
| 87 | EAST OF WEST #5 |
| 88 | DETECTIVE COMICS #18 |
| 89 | PRETTY DEADLY #2 |
| 90 | WALKING DEAD #114 |
| 91 | EAST OF WEST #7 |
| 92 | ALL NEW X-MEN #9 NOW |
| JUSTICE LEAGUE #23 | |
| ALL NEW X-MEN #7 NOW2 | |
| ALL NEW X-MEN #10 NOW | |
| DETECTIVE COMICS #16 | |
| 97 | X-MEN BATTLE OF ATOM #1 (OF 2) |
| 98 | INFINITY #5 (OF 6) |
| 99 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #9 |
| 100 | BATMAN #26 |
Right, so give me some comments, kids -- spot a pattern I didn't or something?
-B
