December 2017 had 5,726,608 units in the top 300 comics list, an decrease of 811,854 units from last month. This is the lowest the total units for top 300 comics sales has been since the May 2011.

RELATED: Despite Strong DC Sales, Direct Market Plummets in December

The top 300 comics averaged 5,525,358 units from July 2010 to June 2011 with a record low in January 2011 of 4,402,738 units. Things changes drastically over the course of 2011 with DC rebooting their super-hero line of comics with DC Rebirth which were offered with day-and-date release of digital versions of those comics. Before long, day-and-date release of digital versions of comic became the norm. The top 300 comics has averaged 6,644,448 units over 2017 which closely matches the average of 6,645,570 units for the top 300 comics since February 2003 when Diamond first started releasing data based on invoices instead of preorders. Both averages are far below the record sales of 9,355,046 units in August 2016.

DC Comics placed 2,409,408 units in the top 300 comics and was down 515,069 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 42.07% of the total units for the top 300 comics. Marvel Comics placed 2,306,370 units in the top 300 comics and was down 141,613 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 40.27% of the total units for the top 300 comics. Image Comics placed 334,588 units in the top 300 comics and was down 138,926 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 5.84% of the total units for the top 300 comics. The premiere publishers accounted for 92.71% of the units in the top 300 comics this month while all of the other publishers with items in the top 300 accounted for 7.29% of the units.

The up-swing of 1,332,857 units from new and increased sales wasn't enough to compensate for the down-swing of 2,144,711 units from lost sales.

The continuing titles which gained sales category added 156,664 units compared to last month. The total for this category is a little misleading because of how different price versions of the same comic get reported. Last month Doomsday Clock #1 had issues at two different price points because of the lenticular cover variant. Since the lenticular gimmick was only used on the first issue, I put those sales into the annuals/specials category since the sales of the lenticuilar cover couldn't continue from month to month. As a result, this month Doomsday Clock has what looks like an increase in sales in this category of 39,191 units and a decrease of 119,231 units in the annuals/specials category. The net change in sales for the title is a drop of 80,040 units which does not include the 22,603 units of reorder activity this month.

The same thing is happening with Action Comics with the title selling slightly better than it was prior to "The Oz Effect" storyline. This chart shows the aggregation of sales including the lenticular covers and clearly illustrates how the total sales for the "The Oz Effect" storyline were well above average for the title:

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The Kamandi Challenge completed in December with a slight uptick in sales. This conclusion bump happens with title with a potential audience curious enough about how things resolve but not curious enough to go long for the full journey of the story. Typically a major event series will see this sort of conclusion bump when the resolution of the event impacts the ongoing status quo of the narrative universe. In the case of Kamandi Challenge which has no impact on any ongoing continuity, the conclusion bump is the result of people being curious if the final creative team could pull all of the plot threads together into a coherent story. The shared universe nature of comic book storytelling is one of the factors which causes this sales phenomenon.

The continuing titles which shipped more issues category added 96,133 units compared to last month. December had four shipping weeks compared to the five of November. A few titles had two issues releases instead of a single issue and most of them were Marvel titles. Unfortunately, releasing that additional issue didn't help Ben Reilly, Scarlet Spider or Doctor Strange which both had minor month to month drops in sales.

The recent sales on Ben Reilly, Scarlet Spider are following the standard attrition slope. As with most Marvel titles these days, the heavy promotional push in the form of variant covers on the initial issue results in a massive second issue drop giving the impression readers are sampling a title only roughly half of them continue with it. If we had sell-through information we'd be able to tell if the regular copies are sitting idle on store shelves while the variant covers sell or if readers really are sampling these titles and not adding them to their reading list.

Doctor Strange relaunched with Legacy numbering and the associated promotional push last month. Doctor Strange #381 which launched the Legacy volume of the title had a regular cover, a 1-in-10 cover, a 1-in-25 cover, a 1-in-50 cover and two meet or exceed 175% of Doctor Strange #24 covers. The following two issues released in December only had regular covers. The first of the two issues released in December lost half of the sales of the initial Legacy issue and following issue lost another 5.21% of sales taking the title from initial sales of 48,804 units down to 23,021 units in about six weeks.

The continuing titles with reasonably stable sales category removed 3,199 units compared to last month.

The continuing titles which shipped fewer issues category removed 372,903 units compared to last month. One fewer shipping weeks in the month results in some titles releasing fewer issue during the month. Since DC tends to publisher comics either once or twice a month and uses fifth weeks for annuals and things like the DC/Hanna-Barbera one-shots, the number of weeks doesn't impact DC too heavily. Marvel titles tend to show up in the category more often. Marvel titles accounted for 315,874 of the 372,903 units in this category this month which is nearly 85% of the units.

The continuing titles which lost sales category removed 659,554 units compared to last month. A little over 52% of the units lost were from Marvel titles. DC accounted for another 30% of the lost units and Image around another 9.5% of the units lost. This isn't shouldn't surprise anybody since it is a rough reflection of the typical breakdown of the sales for the top 300. Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps and Justice League were both Dark Nights: Metal tie-ins last month but were not this month. seem to be losing steam. Most of the losses at Marvel reflect drops on the new Legacy volumes of various titles.

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Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows switched creative teams and jumped the story ahead eight years which effectively relaunched the title as far as the sales trends go. The 66.17% drop on Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #14 is the equivalent of a second issue drop. Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #13 had a regular cover, a 1-in-10 cover, a 1-in-25 cover and two meet or exceed 175% of Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #9 covers. All of the issues after that solicited in October through January only have a regular cover and no variant or incentive covers.

The new titles category added 724,118 units compared to last month. A couple of new titles launched strong in December: Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II, Amazing Spider-Man Venom Inc Alpha, Marvel Two-In-One and Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey. Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey #1 had a regular cover, an open-to-order cover, a 1-in-25 cover, a 1-in-25 cover, two 1-in-100 covers, a 1-in-1000 cover, a 1-in-2000 cover and two meet or exceed 225% of Astonishing X-Men #2 covers. Marvel Two-In-One had two 1-in-10 covers, a 1-in-25 cover, two 1-in-50 covers, a 1-in-1000 cover and two meet-or-exceed 200% of Peter Parker Spectacular Spider-Man #2 covers. Expect significant drops on both of those titles. While both titles have promotional covers on some of subsequent issues they are much more limited in scope.

The returning titles category added 324,145 units compared to last month. Dark Nights: Metal returns after a ten week gap and accounts for 47% of the units in this category.

The suspended titles category removed 342,792 units compared to last month. Image titles account for a little over half of the units in this category. Many of these are planned breaks in publication. Mystic U is a bimonthly title so it will alternate between this category and the returning titles category.

The defunct titles category removed 237,770 units compared to last month. Batman: The Dark Prince Charming fell into the defunct category because the second part hasn't been solicited yet.

The annuals/specials category removed 351,107 units compared to last month. DC accounted for the majority of this category with most of that activity being annuals or oddities like the lenticular covers. DC's strategy of releasing annuals in five week months means there is additional product flowing through stores on those months without impacting the cadence of the ongoing titles.

The non-series category removed 177,386 units compared to last month. Marvel had a net increase of 50,021 units in this category this month with the True Believers reprints more than compensating for the Legacy one-shots from last month. DC had a net loss of around 225,712 units in the category this month because of the various Dark Nights: Metal one-shots from last month. The nature of this category is a positive one month becomes as corresponding negative the next since these are items and sales which aren't expected to repeat from month to month.

The reorders category added 31,797 units compared to last month. DC accounts for the net increase reorder activity in this month with both Batman: White Knight and Doomsday Clock having over 15,000 units each in reorders.

DC is in the unusual state of having two event titles (Dark Nights: Metal and Doomsday Clock) and a strong out of continuity miniseries of Batman: White Knight all running in parallel. Those three titles added 424,424 units to DC's total units for December. Meanwhile, Marvel is in the honeymoon period with the Legacy volumes of numerous titles and the resulting loss in sales during that part of the typical sales trend.

X-Men: Grand Design is the first of three miniseries which attempts to put the entire X-Men continuity together in chronological order. While I'd like to think this is a sign of Marvel recognizing the advantages of having a clear continuity and telling stories which gracefully fit inside it, Marvel has a long love/hate relationship with the very concept of continuity. On the one hand, Marvel has a decades long unbroken continuity even if there are some major quirks in it. On the other hand, editors and creators at Marvel have from time to time been very dismissive of continuity both in what they have said and in some of the stories themselves. One of the things which makes comic book story telling unique is the use shared universes and continuity. When done well, the stories fell all the more real because there are consequences to the actions the characters take. Long term readers often get a layer of a story which provides a payoff for the investment in the story over a prolonged period. These factors are what create things like the conclusion bump at the end of stories the readers deem important.

For a more in-depth discussion of the sales data, check out the Mayo Report episodes of the Comic Book Page podcast at www.ComicBookPage.com. The episode archived cover the past decade of comic book sales on a monthly basis with yearly recap episodes. In addition to those episodes on the sales data, every Monday is a Weekly Comics Spotlight episode featuring a comic by DC, a comic by Marvel and a comic by some other publisher. I read around 200 new comics a month so the podcast covers a wide variety of the comics currently published. If you are looking for more or different comics to read, check out the latest Previews Spotlight episode featuring clips from various comic book fans talking about the comics they love. With thousands of comics in Previews every month, Previews Spotlight episodes are a great way to find out about new comic book titles that may have flown under your comic book radar.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at John.Mayo@ComicBookResources.com.