February 2018 had 5,751,648 units in the top 300 comics list, an decrease of 256,178 units from last month. Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt #1 sold 101,373 units and was the only item to sell over 100,000 units. Neither Dark Nights: Metal nor Doomsday Clock shipped in February.

Dark Nights: Metal #6 and Doomsday Clock #4 are both currently scheduled to ship on March 28th. Either title would have compensated for the 104,806 unit loss DC had in February. In March, DC should see at least 250,000 units in sales from the event titles but how much Marvel will see with Infinity Countdown #1 isn't as clear. The Infinity Countdown event started in February with Infinity Countdown Prime #1 which only sold 55,260 units.

Marvel Comics placed 2,311,439 units in the top 300 comics and was down 48,571 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 40.19% of the total units for the top 300 comics. A mere 7,237 units behind was DC Comics with 40.06% of the total units for the top 300 comics placed. DC was down 377,308 units in the top 300 compared to last month and had 2,304,202 units in the top 300 comics. This is the narrowest gap between Marvel and DC since the invoiced sales were first reported in early 2003. In February 2017, DC outsold Marvel in the top 300 by 17,088 units which was the last time the gap between the two companies was the narrowest.

RELATED: Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt Was the Only Comic to Top 100K in February 2018

Image Comics had 572,184 units in the top 300 comics, IDW Publishing had 114,235 units and Dark Horse had 61,456 units. The premiere publishers (Dark Horse, DC, IDW, Image and Marvel) accounted for 93.25% of the units in the top 300 comics this month while all of the other publishers with items in the top 300 accounted for 6.75% of the units.

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='Did%20BOOM%21%20and%20Dynamite%27s%20New%20Premiere%20Publisher%20Status%20Help%20Them%3F']



Starting with the April Previews, BOOM! Studios and Dynamite Entertainment join the ranks of the premiere publishers. I thought it might be a good time to look at the premiere publishers of Dark Horse, IDW Publishing and Image Comics and see how BOOM! Studios and Dynamite Entertainment compare to them.

There is a lot going on in that chart so I'll break it down by publisher starting with the current premiere publishers.

Dark Horse has not yet found something to replace the Star Wars license they lost in 2014. Dark Horse publishes a number of long term properties such as Hellboy, BPRD, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Usagi Yojimbo. Dark Horse averaged 117,167 units a month in the top 300 comics during 2017.

IDW became the first publisher to be promoted to a premiere publisher in April 2010. IDW has a number of licensed proeprties such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, My Little Pony, Star Trek, the classic Disney titles such as DuckTales and Uncle Scrooge and the Hasbro line of titles which includes GI Joe, Transformers, Micronauts and ROM. IDW averaged 191,033 units a month in the top 300 comics during 2017.

Image is a unique publisher that owns nothing other than the Image "I". Creator owned titles come and go through in the Image Central line while a few of original studios continue to publish a few of the original Image titles like Spawn and Savage Dragon. While Robert Kirkman's manifesto in August 2008 didn't have an immediate impact, it was probably a major factor in the growth of Image between 2012 and 2015. Image averaged 526,944 units a month in the top 300 comics during 2017.

Hero Squared which shipped on July 27, 2007 was the first BOOM! Studios title released. Mark Waid was the Editor-in-Chief from July 2007 to December 2010 which helped BOOM! Studios grow from a small press publisher to around the sales level it is at currently. BOOM! Studios has a number of licenses such as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and the Jim Henson line of titles as well as producing a number of original titles. The major spike in sales on the BOOM! Studios chart are Bravest Warriors: Tales of Holo John in May 2015 which was included in a LootCrate box and Big Trouble in Little China/Escape from New York in October 2016 which had a number of incentive covers. BOOM! Studios averaged 78,732 units a month in the top 300 comics during 2017. The average sales aren't as strong as any of the other premiere publishers.

Dynamite Entertainment is probably best known for licensed properties. The current licensed properties include Dejah Thoris, Red Sonja, Xena, Vampirella, James Bond and Battlestar Galactica. Past titles include Project Superpowers, Kirby: Genesis and the Gold Key titles which included Magnus Robot Fighter and Solar. The highest profile title Dynamite Entertainment published was The Boys from May 2007 until November 2011. Dynamite Entertainment picked up The Boys after DC ended the title. Dynamite Entertainment averaged 94,336 units a month in the top 300 comics during 2017.

Around 2003 there was talk of CrossGen possibly becoming a premiere publisher. It never happened but I decided to chart the sales of CrossGen to see how it stacked up against the other publishers. Neither BOOM! Studios nor Dynamite Entertainment existed back then so we can't compare those publishers. CrossGen was outselling Dark Horse and IDW in 2003. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse for CrossGen in late 2003 and 2004 and the company filed for bankruptcy in June 2004. In 2003, CrossGen averaged sales of 263,449 units a month. In 2003, IDW averaged 32,269 units a month, Dark Horse averaged 207.956 units a month and Image averaged 521,038 units a month. The rapid decline of CrossGen is a clear cautionary tale of how quickly things can turn for a publisher.

The up-swing of 1,590,154 units from new and increased sales wasn't enough to compensate for the down-swing of 1,846,332 units from lost sales. The lack of any event title from either Marvel or DC was a factor in this as only a single title selling over 100,000 units this month.

The continuing titles which gained sales category added 102,493 units compared to last month.

Peter Parker: Spectacular Spider-Man #300 increased in sales by 170.39% going from 28,512 units to 77,094 units with the "anniversary" issue.

The continuing titles which shipped more issues category added 217,765 units compared to last month. Most of this was from Marvel titles which only got a single issue out during the five weeks of January but got two issues out in the four weeks on February.

The continuing titles with reasonably stable sales category removed 2,720 units compared to last month.

The continuing titles which shipped fewer issues category removed 162,425 units compared to last month.

Most of these titles only got a single issue out in February versus the two issues in January. The exception is Harley Quinn which released three issues in January and two in February.

The continuing titles which lost sales category removed 305,073 units compared to last month.

Page 3: [valnet-url-page page=3 paginated=0 text='Avengers%27%20Weekly%20Schedule%20Helped%20-%20Sort%20Of']



Avengers released four issues in February with an average loss of 1,598 units per issue but that is a little misleading as almost all of it was incurred on the first issue released in the month. The average sales for the weekly issues of Avengers is 39,079 units. The monthly loss for the title reflects the larger than average sales of the first of the weekly issues in January.

Damage #2 sold 27,004 units, down 34.26%. Silencer #2 sold 21,003 units, down 36.55%. These two New Ago of Heroes titles don't seem to be doing very well for DC.

The new titles category added 722,942 units compared to last month.

X-Men Red #1 sold 98,468 units. In addition to the regular cover, X-Men Red #1 had the following incentive covers: a 1-in-10, a 1-in-25, a 1-in-50, a 1-in-500, a 1-in-1,000 and three meet-or-exceed 100% of orders for Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey #2. X-Men Red #2 had a regular cover and two incentive covers: a 1-in-10 cover and a meet-or-exceed 100% of orders for X-Men Red #1. Given the incentives on X-Men Red #1, it is unlikely most retailers will match their orders on it on the second issue potentially making the meet-or-exceed cover almost completely ineffective. That leaves the promotional push on the second issue as the 1-in-10 cover which the first issue also had. Factor in people sampling the new X-Men title and the absence of the 1-in-25, 1-in-50, 1-in-500 and 1-in-1,000 covers and the result is most likely going to be a second issue drop around 40% to 60% on X-Men Red in March. My gut feeling is the ranking of the X-Men titles will end up being X-Men Gold followed by X-Men Blue with X-Men Red selling the lowest of the three. Given the lack of a clear flagship title, with all three titles will probably sell within a five to ten thousand unit range of each other.

The Terrifics #1 sold 45,493 units and Sideways #1 sold 35,086 units. This is around how the first issues of Damage and Silencer sold last month.

The returning titles category added 238,192 units compared to last month. Saga returned from a scheduled hiatus while the final issue Invincible shipped a few weeks late.

The suspended titles category removed 703,196 units compared to last month. The majority of the activity in this category was because Doomsday Clock and Dark Nights: Metal both didn't ship in February.

The defunct titles category removed 444,370 units compared to last month. The end of the weekly Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey is what kicked off the new X-Men Red title. The mini-series averaged 51,515 units, including the reorder activity this month. If X-Men Red can maintain that level of sales, and I have my doubts, then the title could become the second best selling ongoing title at Marvel behind Amazing Spider-Man.

The annuals/specials category removed 153,199 units compared to last month. Only two annuals shipped in February versus the five that shipped in January.

The non-series category added 308,762 units compared to last month. About a third of that was Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt #1. The Young Animals crossover with the mainstream DC titles accounted for a number of items but each of them only had modest sales with the combined sales totaling to 91,876 units.

The reorders category removed 75,349 units compared to last month. Marvel had some reorder activity in the top 300 comics list this month but not as much as DC had last month.

Page 4: [valnet-url-page page=4 paginated=0 text='Sales%20Drops%20in%20February%20Are%20Actually%20Not%20Unusual%2C%20But...']



February 2018 was a below average month which isn't unusual for a February. This is the lowest February since 2011. Event titles should boost sales for DC and Marvel in March. Only 16 comics selling over 50,000 units in February. Rank 100 sales were around 22,200 units. It wasn't all that long ago that a title from Marvel or DC would be at risk of cancellation due to low sales if they fell much below that level. Now, there are mainstream Marvel Universe titles selling as low as 5,725 units (Monsters Unleashed #11) and mainstream DC titles as low as 8,277 units (Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands #4). The median sales for Marvel title (excluding reorder activity) in February was 24,864 units and for DC it was 23,379 units. The median for the top 300 (including reorders) was 12,038 units.

A faster release pace isn't helping sales. New characters, such as the New Age of Heroes at DC, does seem to be topping the charts. Reverting to Legacy numbering and then reverting back to new volumes with first issues doesn't seem to be working for Marvel. Variant covers works as a sales boost on individual issues but not as a method of sustained sales.

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.