June 2018 Comic Sales Plummet, As Second Issues Dip

June 2018 had 6,459,807 units in the top 300 comics list, an decrease of 507,969 units from last month. Marvel accounted for most of the units and most of the month-to-month loss. The total of the top 300 comics was 179,019 units below the average of the final order period which began in February 2003

Marvel Comics placed 2,841,888 units in the top 300 comics and was down 503,849 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 43.99% of the total units for the top 300 comics. The six titles which sold over 100,00 units during the month accounts for over a quarter of those units for Marvel.

DC Comics placed 2,313,548 units in the top 300 comics and was up 44,019 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 35.81% of the total units for the top 300 comics. The five titles which sold over 100,00 units during the month accounts for almost 43% of those units for DC.

Image Comics placed 744,803 units in the top 300 comics and was up 27,272 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 11.53% of the total units for the top 300 comics. Magic Order #1 alone accounted for over 21% of those units.

The premiere publishers accounted for 96.91% of the units in the top 300 comics this month while all of the other publishers with items in the top 300 accounted for 3.09% of the units.

The up-swing of 2,129,695 units from new and increased sales was enough to compensate for the down-swing of -2,637,664 units from lost sales. The upswing is nearly 33% or the total for the top 300 comics and the downswing is almost 41%. This is a significant amount of volatility in the market from month to month.

The continuing titles which gained sales category added 117,414 units compared to last month.

Most of the gains in this area were from X-Men Gold and Batman both of which were leading into weddings for major characters.

DC seems to be doing well with some of the open-to-order cover such as the Joshua Middleton alternate cover on Batgirl #24 which boosted sales by over 34%.

The continuing titles which shipped more issues category added 147,088 units compared to last month.

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Man of Steel did well in June with a total of 261,757 units from the four new issues plus another 4,682 units of reorders of the first issue. If these sales carryover to Action Comics and Superman it will put those titles about 20,000 units above how they had been doing.

Venom had a second issue drop of 68.36% and a third issue drop of 21.41% putting the sales for the title around a quarter of what the title launched at last month. This is one of numerous examples pointing out how poor an indicator first issues sales are for the strength of a new title. In this case, there was numerous incentive covers on the first issue which inflated the sales. Incentive covers will continue as long as they are profitable. The question is how dependent are publishers on the income from those incentive covers. If they can be profitable without them then there isn't a problem. If a publisher needs the income from the incentive covers to stay afloat then the publisher is banking on the industry not being a in speculator bubble that could burst.

The continuing titles with reasonably stable sales category removed 3,287 units compared to last month.

The noteworthy title this month in this area is Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. Sales of 8,840 units aren't amazing. Not that long ago a Marvel title would have been canceled prior to selling that low but to stay even from month to month doesn't happen often. There is an audience for this title. The question is if it is large enough to keep the title around or not.

The continuing titles which shipped fewer issues category removed 350,652 units compared to last month. Most of the units in the area were Marvel titles.

Avengers #3 was down 15.75% from the second issue. Both of the first two issues shipped last month which is why the total of the month-to-month total for title dropped around 70%.

The continuing titles which lost sales category removed 649,983 units compared to last month. Most of the losses for the month were on Marvel titles. Amazing Spider-Man and Black Panther combined accounted for nearly 58% of the units in the category. Amazing Spider-Man #801 ended Dan Slott's lengthy run on the title with 122,256 units. Amazing Spider-Man #800 sold 434,370 units last month resulting in the drop on the title even thought it was the fourth best selling comic in June.

Black Panther, on the other hand, had a massive second issue drop of 72.97% taking the title from the first issue sales of 129,098 units to the second issue sales of 34,891 units. This is yet another example of how misleading first issue sales can be about the strength of a title.

The new titles category added 1,521,868 units compared to last month.

Both Justice League and Thor launched and shipped a second issue in June. Justice League had a second issue drop of 57.05% and _Thor had a second issue drop of 38.3%.

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Magic Order is another situation entirely. It is worth noting these sales were marked by Diamond as being reported at a reduced rate to account for possible returns since the issue was fully returnable with no qualifiers. This is the first of Mark Millar's comics released after he sold to Netflix. As such, this is a corporate owned title and not a creator owned title. Of course, that doesn't really matter when is comes to sales. What mattered in this case was the large bulk purchase reportedly made by ReedPop of around 100,000 units which is about 63.4% of the units listed for the item.

This isn't the first time Mark Millar has done a stunt like this in order to get free publicity for one of his titles. It almost certainly won't be the last time either. The idea is you get press with the initial announcement and then another round of press when the stunt is discovered. Of course, I'll probably be proving that point next month when I report on the massive second issue drop the title is almost certainly going to have. A second issue drop of at least 63% seems obvious since those sales to retailers didn't really exist this month. What makes this stunt a lot more acceptable is all of the issues solicited for far have all been fully returnable. This should eliminate any potential harm to retailers.

There were a number of other first issue relaunches which sold well, many because of numerous incentive covers such as Tony Stark: Iron Man and Deadpool. Expect these titles to be in the continuing titles which lost sales category next month.

The returning titles category added 282,614 units compared to last month.

Astro City returned to the list for the final issue of the title. It will be switching to a series of original graphic novels starting next year. Hopefully the title will do as weel or beter in the format.

The suspended titles category removed 374,945 units compared to last month.

Doomsday Clock is the major factor in this category this month.

The defunct titles category removed 1,211,417 units compared to last month. Marvel accounted for 498,124 of the units in this category.

Justice League: No Justice, Barrier and You are Deadpool were weekly miniseries which concluded last month.

The annuals/specials category removed 47,380 units compared to last month. Last month had a high average sales for the annuals/specials and had one more item then this month.

The non-series category added 21,133 units compared to last month. There was a lot of activity in this category with the DC/Hanna-Barbera crossovers last month, the Batman: Prelude to the Wedding one-shots and the True Believers one-shots among a few other things.

The Batman: Prelude to the Wedding one-shots led into the wedding in Batman #50. We'll see how Batman #50 sold in the numbers next month. Generally speaking, these one-shots sold well. I'm not so sure the collected edition of these will sell particularly well but we'll find out down the line when that sales data is available. Spoiling the events of Batman #50 prior to the publication of it was a questionable move. Personally, I don't like spoilers as they never enhance my enjoyment of a story and can often cause me to avoid a story in the first place.

The True Believers one-shots were down about 2,853 units from last month. Wolverine is more popular than Ant-Man and Wasp and there were only seven of the True Believers issues this month and ten last month.

The reorders category added 39,578 units compared to last month. Both Secret Empire and Civil War II had strong reorder activity this month. The retailer rankings for these items indicate heavy discounting on these issues.

We've seen numerous example this month around how misleading first issue sales can be about the sales strength of a title. This is nothing new but given how many first issues are released and the short lifespan of many titles these days, it is important to understand how misleading first issues sales are as a indicator for a title. The sales of the fifth and sixth issues, if the title even makes it that far, are a much better indication of how the title is really doing.

I'll be at Comic-Con International: San Diego this year. If you'd are going to the convention and would like talk, email me at John.Mayo@ComicBookResources.com and we can find a time and place to meet during the convention.

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 co06ents, please feel free to email me at John.Mayo@ComicBookResources.com.