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DC Comics Selling Almost Half as Many Comics a Month As It Used To

We've noted how DC Comics has cancelled Titans, Damage and Scooby Apocalypse. This comes after cancelling almost all of the DC Age Of Heroes line, the disappearance of the solicited Batman & The Outsiders and The Other History Of The DC Universe, the non-solicitation of promised Black Label comics and the dropping of many of the twice-monthly schedules. And the effects are notable.

In 2018, DC Comics published fewer titles every month in comic stores than Marvel. But in December they dropped to the lowest level, 52 single issues and 37 collections, compared to Marvel's 90 single issues and 38 collections. When it comes to single issues, Marvel published almost twice as many as DC in December. At the beginning of the year, January 2017, DC Comics published 89 single issues, more than Marvel's 86.

Now the beginning of the Wonder Comics line at DC may have helped those numbers, as have Bendis' creator-owned books. But looking at the April solicits, there are 54 single issues listed. And 3 of those are final issues.

Of course, DC Comics have 6 titles through Walmart and another title through Target. But comic stores can't sell them unless they actually go into Walmart and Target and pick them off the shelves. For many stores, that's impossible.

The odds are though, through 2019, the traffic of sales looks like it will be away from comic book stores and to other venues. Marvel has started discounting bundles of comics in Walmart – will they join the rush to sell original content there as well? Marvel and DC remain the engine of most comic book stores, and much of that is the bulk of product they make available for sale…

PUBLISHER COMICS
SHIPPED
GRAPHIC NOVELS
SHIPPED
MAGAZINES
SHIPPED
TOTAL
SHIPPED

December 2018

MARVEL COMICS 90 38 0 128
DC COMICS 52 37 1 90

November 2018

MARVEL COMICS 79 39 0 118
DC COMICS 67 40 0 107

October 2018

MARVEL COMICS 95 41 0 136
DC ENTERTAINMENT 78 38 1 117

September 2018

MARVEL COMICS 99 44 0 143
DC ENTERTAINMENT 66 35 0 101

August 2018

MARVEL COMICS 86 45 0 131
DC ENTERTAINMENT 72 30 1 103

July 2018

MARVEL COMICS 89 37 0 126
DC ENTERTAINMENT 63 34 0 97

June 2018

MARVEL COMICS 87 33 0 120
DC ENTERTAINMENT 73 31 1 105

May 2018

MARVEL COMICS 92 42 0 134
DC ENTERTAINMENT 74 30 0 104

April 2018

MARVEL COMICS 86 37 0 123
DC ENTERTAINMENT 81 30 1 112

March 2018

DC ENTERTAINMENT 84 35 0 119
MARVEL COMICS 81 33 0 114

February 2018

DC ENTERTAINMENT 88 33 1 122
MARVEL COMICS 81 31 0 112

January 2018

MARVEL COMICS 86 41 0 127
DC ENTERTAINMENT 89 28 0 117

DC Comics Selling Almost Half as Many Comics a Month As It Used To


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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