Posted in: Comics | Tagged: marvel, nick spencer, sales

Nick Spencer On Comics Sales Slump: Industry Has Survived Much Much Worse

Published Sun, 10 Sep 2017 08:00:55 -0500

Last updated Sun, 10 Sep 2017 10:22:53 -0500

Superstar writer Nick Spencer has heard the reports of the comics industry's demise, and he thinks they're a bit premature.

Nick Spencer On Comics Sales Slump: Industry Has Survived Much Much Worse — With apologies to KC Green

2017 has been a down year for comics, and Bleeding Cool reported last week that comics sales had "fallen off a cliff" with August's Diamond Sales Charts. But according to Spencer, everything is basically fine.

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/906329559477264384

It's been a while since we've had a good Nick Spencer Twitter rampage. Maybe Spencer was too busy with Secret Empire. Maybe he was taking a break to recharge. Maybe he's been reinvigorated by the release of Hillary Clinton's book. Whatever the case, we're glad to have Nick Spencer back arguing endlessly on the internet. It's like a stimulus package for the clickbait article industry.

Spencer spent a good portion of his weekend arguing with fans on Twitter about comic book sales. Since he's is a former politician, journalistic duty dictates that we add some fact-checking and context below.

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/906622126647427072

Spencer is correct. The sales for August 2017 were down 25% from August 2016, but the year overall is down just 7%.

The year is down about 10 percent, with plenty of time to go.

— Nick Spencer (@nickspencer) September 9, 2017

And Marvel is loading the rest of the year up with lenticular variant covers pushed by insanely high ordering requirements. That could indeed result in an influx of cash from retailers to publishers, though what effect that will have for the industry longterm is unknown.

Spencer continued to make his argument:

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/906661158760751104

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/906661296052957184

According to Bleeding Cool's August analysis, the unit share numbers seemed to indicate heavy discounting by Marvel to spike unit sales.

shorter version: stop listening to youtube idiots. Industry has weathered far, far worse than this.

— Nick Spencer (@nickspencer) September 9, 2017

Spencer also scoffed at the claim that more comic book shops are closing than normal:

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/906664661369552896

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/906679452670631936

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/906680850896392192

To recap, sales are off about 10 percent and there's no evidence of abnormal number of store closures. But sure, the industry is dying

— Nick Spencer (@nickspencer) September 10, 2017

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/906681799757127680

Btw none of this is to say it's not a down year or that there aren't problems in need of fixing. But industry has survived much much worse

— Nick Spencer (@nickspencer) September 10, 2017

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/906682590995742720

In the 90s most everything was single issue dm sales. Now there's collections, digital, bookstores, libraries, etc.

— Nick Spencer (@nickspencer) September 10, 2017

Of course, some might say that if sales were great in these areas, logic dictates Marvel would probably be bragging about them all the time.

So somebody linked Spencer to Bleeding Cool:

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/906691225993994241