No single comic book sold over 100,000 copies in the direct sales market in March, according to ICv2.com. Sales for periodical comics was down by 7% for the month of March and by 5% for the first quarter of 2009, both figures compared to last year. Because many books have gone up in price, the drop in units sold is even greater. Still, these numbers are not bad considering the serious financial crisis and the fact that the sales of most other consumer goods have dropped much more.
In light of this, it’s nice to see Daredevil sales holding steady or even gaining slightly. Since Dardevil #116 was delayed one week, both #116 and #117 shipped in March, selling 41,261 and 41,046 copies respectively, gaining slightly from 40,214 for Daredevil #115 in January. Compared to the first quarter of last year, that’s a drop by just over 3%, which is a modest dip in numbers considering overall sales and the current economic climate. The relatively smaller drop for Daredevil also translates into a climb in the rankings from around 50th to 34th for both #115 and #116.
Over the last year, sales via Diamond have hovered between 39,258 and 46,305 (for Daredevil #111, the debut of Lady Bullseye). Bendis’s last issue, Daredevil #81, sold 44,252 copies which was down considerably from the height of his run. These sales numbers are always estimates and reflect direct sales to comic book stores.
If you’re like me, and like crunching numbers, have a look at the sales charts for March (ICv2) and January (ICv2 via The Beat). Kuljit Mithra also has Daredevil sales numbers posted on ManWithoutFear going back all the way to 1996.
Another happy number I’d like to report is that this blog passed the 10,000 visitor mark today. I’d also like to take the opportunity to mention that the Hell’s Kitchen strips can now be found in a more easily accessible format in their own post. Just click the thumbnails to see the full-size strip. Later, my friends!
It’s not too surprising that comic book sales are down, considering the state of the global economy – I know I’m cutting back (not ditching Daredevil, naturally). What I do find strange is that Marvel are really pumping out new stuff left right and centre, particularly relating to Dark Reign storylines. I can’t imagine this trend continuing – I’m sure we’ll see a bunch of underperforming titles fold in the next six months. Whilst DD’s sales aren’t tremendous, the book’s reputation (and return to original numbering) should help it survive.
Okay, I think I may have done something weird to the code to make the comment link only show on post pages. Gotta fix that…
Anyway, I think DD stands a good chance of gaining or at least keeping ground with the renumbering and new creative team. However, I also thing that the sales numbers would have to drop substantially for anyone to start talking about cancelling the title. While not a major seller, DD is one of few major characters to have had an uninterrupted run for that many years, not to mention that he’s one of Quesada’s favorites. I also think comic book publishers have to live with seeing smaller profit margins in bad times in the knowledge that having these books in place when business picks up again is a much better idea than killing them left and right.
One interesting thing about the entertainment business in bad times is that it doesn’t always suffer as much as other businesses during economic hardship. I’ve heard that during the great depression, people still kept going to the movies, possibly because they needed that vent as a way to escape the realities of daily life.