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[Herald]

But you do realize that there are no hard numbers here, right? It is just a ranking showing Marvel sold more.

Which is still a decent indication that DC lost, as they usually do, to the Marvelous Competition.

But compared to last year, the industry as a whole soles MORE comics, so in terms of actual book sales, DC is selling as many if not more books than last December.

Considering that last December concerned issue 3 of the DCnU books, and thus was during the huge initial crest of the "New 52!" sales wave, in which many more people were trying out ALL the books?? I'm pretty sure you're wrong. Just because the whole industry is selling more doesn't mean DC is still selling more. As mentioned, Marvel is currently running "Marvel Now!", which skews the "whole industry" results.

But that just illustrated another problem with you DCnU flag-wavers: You keep parroting the same "Look how much better sales are versus a year ago!" phrases so often, you're not thinking before you repeat 'em. "Last December" ain't pre-Flashpoint anymore.

[Herald]

As the resident sales expert on the site, I can indeed confirm that, based on a top ten filled with marvel comics employing the same tactic that DC used a year ago, DC is no longer riding high and is now on the verge of financial ruin. My inside source at DC (Rich Johnston in a wig and fake mustache) has told me that based on this top ten chart, WB execs showed up at Dan Didio's office an hour ago with a tanto and encouraged him to commit seppuku as there's no way that DC can recover from this staggering, not at all inflated, blow to their market share.

Bah! Dan has no honor to save!

This seems to coincide with the death poem just published on Didio's facebook page. It reads:

Softly falls the New 52's sales.
Like a freshly fallen mountain snow.
Shame covers my bald head,
Much like Marvel's books covers the Top Ten chart.
Because of Marvel NOW!, I am Didio no more.

Good to know that Dan's poetry is as piss-poor as his prose writing.

[S.F. Jude Terror]

Let's do this with actual numbers. We don't know how many comics were sold overall, only the percentage of overall comics sold that were from Marvel or DC.

In November 2011, DC sold 40% of the total comics, while Marvel sold 38%.

In November 2012, DC sold 33% while Marvel sold 40%.


If there were 1,000,000 comics sold in November, 2011, that means that DC sold 400,000 comics and Marvel sold 380,000 comics.

Overall, there were 3% more comics sold in November 2012 than November 2011, meaning, if there were 1,000,000 sold in 2011, there were 1,030,000 comics sold, meaning DC sold 339,000 comics and Marvel sold 412,000. This means that DC sold 339,000/400,000 or 85% of the comics in November 2012 that they did in November 2011.

The entire industry is stronger this November than last November, largely due to increased attention and sales from DC's reboot all year.

Overall for the year (not just november), the industry is up by 12%.


In August 2011, the month before the reboot, DC reported 2,350,104 units sold.

In November 2011, DC reported 3,029,209 units sold.

Using our formula from above, and applying DC's stat of 85% to that 3,029,209, we find that DC sold 2,574,827 comics in November 2012, which is still 225,000 more comics than they sold before the reboot.

So, in short, you are a dummy, and DC is doing fine.

[BlueStreak]

As an FYI, DC's sales are down 15% from November 2011.

DC's sales are down by 23.6% from September 2011.

Sales are still up 17.6% compared to November 2010.

[MoneyMelon]

I'm not surprised Marvel is taking more market share. The newness of the New 52 has worn off and DC hasn't had any big events or crossovers in a while. Plus they're not really offering anything new in terms of big name writers launching new books.

Meanwhile, Marvel is coming off a big successful event that starred the X-Men and Avengers and immediately followed that by launching a ton of new books by popular writers.

I suspect we'll see more gimmicks and crossovers from DC now in an effort to keep things fresh.

[BlueStreak]

Comparatively speaking, Marvel's sales are up 9.1% from November 2011.

[Herald]

Let's do this with actual numbers. We don't know how many comics were sold overall, only the percentage of overall comics sold that were from Marvel or DC.

In November 2011, DC sold 40% of the total comics, while Marvel sold 38%.

In November 2012, DC sold 33% while Marvel sold 40%.


If there were 1,000,000 comics sold in November, 2011, that means that DC sold 400,000 comics and Marvel sold 380,000 comics.

Overall, there were 3% more comics sold in November 2012 than November 2011, meaning, if there were 1,000,000 sold in 2011, there were 1,030,000 comics sold, meaning DC sold 339,000 comics and Marvel sold 412,000. This means that DC sold 339,000/400,000 or 85% of the comics in November 2012 that they did in November 2011.

The entire industry is stronger this November than last November, largely due to increased attention and sales from DC's reboot all year.

Overall for the year (not just november), the industry is up by 12%.


In August 2011, the month before the reboot, DC reported 2,350,104 units sold.

In November 2011, DC reported 3,029,209 units sold.

Using our formula from above, and applying DC's stat of 85% to that 3,029,209, we find that DC sold 2,574,827 comics in November 2012, which is still 225,000 more comics than they sold before the reboot.

So, in short, you are a dummy, and DC is doing fine.

As usual, YOU are the dummy.

1. As YOU YOURSELF admit, you don't know the actual number of books sold. In a VALID analysis, you don't just plug in a formula; you go by SOLID NUMBERS.

2. The industry's increase in sales is NOT going to be proportional across ALL the comic companies. The industry's much higher December numbers versus last year could be coming from Marvel -- as their much higher numbers would suggest -- and Image (I hear they've got this zombie book that became a TV show...), and not really from DC at all.

Bottom line: All your "If..." blah-blah-blah means NOTHING.

The problem with relying on percentages is that they can be highly misleading... especially to the easily misled, like YOU.

[Herald]

As an FYI, DC's sales are down 15% from November 2011.

DC's sales are down by 23.6% from September 2011.

[Zechs]

I'm not surprised Marvel is taking more market share. The newness of the New 52 has worn off and DC hasn't had any big events or crossovers in a while. Plus they're not really offering anything new in terms of big name writers launching new books.

Meanwhile, Marvel is coming off a big successful event that starred the X-Men and Avengers and immediately followed that by launching a ton of new books by popular writers.

I suspect we'll see more gimmicks and crossovers from DC now in an effort to keep things fresh.

HOLO-COVERS RETURN!!!!!!

[MoneyMelon]

HOLO-COVERS RETURN!!!!!!

Who doesn't get excited by the prospect of a chromium holo cover issue of Vibe?

[BlueStreak]

On a related note, DC has sold 12.9% (3.05 million) more comics than it did last year.

Marvel has only sold 3.6%(968k) more than it did in 2011. I'd have to recalculate the numbers, but that's probably less than the increase of comics that Image has sold this year. As of August, Image had sold 966k more than it had in 2011.

So far, Diamond has sold about 7.43MM more comics than it did in 2011. 41% of that growth has been from DC, 13% has been from Marvel and 46% has been from independent comics.

BTW, Marvel has outsold DC by 928k with a month to go. They're seperated in market share by 1.2% Marvel was outselling DC by over 3 million comics last November. Marvel also had a 4.5% market share lead.

[chap22]

Who doesn't get excited by the prospect of a chromium holo cover issue of Vibe?

if DC really cared about bringing in female readers, they'd make a gimmick cover that actually acts as the book's title.

[MoneyMelon]

if DC really cared about bringing in female readers, they'd make a gimmick cover that actually acts as the book's title.

Female comic readers

[Arion]

I had so much fun reading this post.

[sdsichero]

Who doesn't get excited by the prospect of a chromium holo cover issue of Vibe?

Should be a vibrating cover.