Comix Experience Best-Sellers: 2023
/This is an overview of the best-sellers for Comix Experience in 2023. It’s very long, sorry!
Also? Don’t forget to look at the new issue of COMIX EXPERIENCE ONOMATOPOEIA, where we show you what’s shipping in March of ‘24. Also scope on our Jan 2024 Graphic Novel Club events, on the events page. This is a GREAT time to join the adult Graphic Novel Club, because I am super happy to be able to give you the early announcement that in February our selection will be the world-famous artist Ai Weiwei's memoir, and I am kind of stunned that not only has he agreed to let me interview him, but he will be signing our bookplates for the book as well! So, yeah, go join now!
(I apologize upfront for any weird formatting errors – my outbound screen is really nice looking in format, but it usually comes out weird on the internet because there are so many formats you might be reading it in!)
Just in case this is your first time reading a sales report from us, let me give you a little background and a longer look at my CV. My name is Brian Hibbs and I own Comix Experience at 305 Divisadero St in the City of San Francisco. I first opened, in this same location, almost 35 years ago on April 1st, 1989, when I was merely twenty-one years old. If you don’t live locally, but you’d like to support our efforts, we have a webstore you can buy from.
San Francisco is currently home to nine comic book stores. The stores are, well us… as well as Amazing Fantasy, Cards & Comics Central, Isotope, Jeffrey’s Toys, Mission: Comics, Silver Sprocket and Sour Cherry Comics. In late 2023 we were joined by San Francisco's newest store: Invisible Jet Comics, Yay! However, at least one of those still isn’t open to walk-in customers post-Covid, and most are still on reduced hours compared to their operations in 2019. (I know we are) This number of stores is significantly down from twenty-four stores when I opened in 1989, so comics in San Francisco are not precisely what they once were...
There are also something around two dozen independent book stores (note that San Francisco has no national chain bookstores! I think this is unique among “major cities”?) that also carry a solid selection of “graphic novels” (which is usually really just a highfaluting name for “bound collection of comics”, and isn’t really any different in any substantial way from “comic book”, except that it makes people feel better about themselves) – But as far as I can tell by viewing and conversation, it still is the comics specialty stores that are selling the most comics material, and it is my belief that Comix Experience is likely the single strongest comics specialty store in SF.
San Francisco's economy has not fully recovered yet post-pandemic. There appears to be an increasing number of retail storefronts empty everywhere I look, and some blocks (Powell st, where the cable car runs!) the vacant beats the occupied, which is just shocking. Retail has always been a hard game, but it is getting harder as people live through their phones and delivery services even more. I was going to write a multi-paragraph thing here, but then I reread last year's report, and, yeah those three paragraphs are all still true now, so I will leave it there.
As I noted, I have been selling comics since 1989, and we’re the oldest comic store with the same ownership in the same location in San Francisco. For a third of a century I’ve written “Tilting At Windmills”, a regular column about comics retailing, also published in two volumes from IDW Publishing; I’ve been a judge of the Eisner Awards (Comics’ equivalent of the Oscars); I’ve sat on the Board of Directors of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (an organization that protects the First Amendment rights of comics creators), I was one of the original founders of ComicsPRO (the comics retailer trade organization); and I even led a successful Class Action lawsuit against Marvel Comics that won more than a million dollars for comic book retailers internationally because Marvel mis-solicited years’ worth of comics. But I just run a neighborhood shop.
Comix Experience has got what I believe is one of the single best staffs of all comic book stores! Zoe is Manager and does so much heavy lifting in helping steer our diverse inventory. Katie has just been murdering it with art design for our racks and window displays. And Katt is so damn good at keeping our Instagram feed as lively and on point. And that’s on top of just how damn good they all are at matching readers to books. And they’re backed up by Max. It’s just a fucking good crew.
Nine years ago, in response to rising costs in San Francisco, we launched an international Graphic-Novel-Of-The-Month Club where we hold streaming interviews with the authors (and signed bookplates, too!) for literally hundreds of folks around the country (and globe!), and we also have a sibling club for kids age 8-13 (“middle readers”). We’re now well past 300 hour-plus long, serious interviews with a diverse lot of comics creators, and I think I’ve really gotten good at interviewing creators, so absolutely check out the channel! We started a smaller number of audio-only “Podcast” versions of those same shows last year, which you can get here, or wherever you get your podcasts.
So, how did the store do in 2023? Sadly not so great – we ended the year 4.4% down. The first three quarters were all down (q1 by nearly 10%, yikes!), but q4 “saved” us (up 2.3%). I am seriously hoping that this represents a proper change in trajectory as we come into our 35th year in business, but we’ll see – certainly at least two of San Francisco’s other stores have publicly announced they are in we-might-close trouble, and two more have told me privately that business is way off, so it’s not just me. I’ve lived through many up-and-down cycles of business since 1989, and I’ve yet to pull several of the ripcords I could, but what local small businesses in your area really need is your support! Me? I’ve got a pair of Graphic Novel-of-the-month clubs that make a real difference for us.
When it comes down to what we’re selling, in 2023 66% of our sales were from new and used graphic novels. 31% are from periodical-format comics. 1% are from supplies (bags, boards, boxes, etc), while the last 2%-ish is from everything else. For our sales, 91% continues to come from credit cards, which means we’re only making ~98% of our stated sales, with the other ~2% going to CC fees. That super sucks.
*****
Since it is our largest category, let’s talk about BOOKS sales at Comix Experience.
One important consideration here is that these numbers DO NOT include the Graphic-Novel-Of-The-Month Club numbers, each and every one of which would top the #1 in-store book! We’re selling somewhere between two hundred and four hundred copies of each selection each month, depending on whether it is kids club, or adult. In fact, we’ve been told that, for at least some of the titles we selected, the book club order is an actual meaningful percentage of sales, impacting sell outs or triggering further printings. However, when I report on the charts below, I am only reporting retail sales, not club sales. There is a real and meaningful difference between a subscription box, and a walk-in customer pulling a Jefferson out of their pocket at the counter!
Our 2023 GNC selections were, in order of release – the hotlinks below will take you both to the book as well as to the video interview!:
ADULT CLUB selections for 2023
Jan 2023 ITS LONELY AT THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH TP Zoe Thorogood
Feb 2023 TOO DEAD TO DIE TP Howard Chaykin & M. Guggenheim
Mar 2023 WHY DONT YOU LOVE ME GN Paul Rainey
Apr 2023 BELLE OF THE BALL GN Mari Costa
May 2023 DANGER AND OTHER UNKNOWN RISKS GN Ryan North & Erica Henderson
Jun 2023 ADHERENT GN Chris Kim
Jul 2023 FAMILY STYLE: MEMORIES OF AMERICAN FROM VIETNAM GN Thien Pham
Aug 2023 ARCA TP Van Jensen & Jess Lonergan
Sep 2023 CARTOONSHOW HC Derek Ballard
Oct 2023 MONICA HC Daniel Clowes
Nov 2023 THIS COUNTRY: SEARCHING FOR HOME…. GN Navied Mahdavian
Dec 2023 STREET ANGEL PRINCESS OF POVERTY TP Jim Rugg & Brian Maruca
KIDS CLUB selections for 2023
Jan 2023 SUPER TRASH CLASH GN Edgar Camacho
Feb 2023 UNFAMILIAR GN Haley Newsome
Apr 2023 FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING GN Dan Santat
May 2023 PARACHUTE KIDS GN Betty Tang
Jun 2023 SQUIRE & KNIGHT GN VOL 01 Scott Chantler
Jul 2023 CRYPTID KIDS GN VOL 01 BAWK NESS MONSTER Sara Goetter & Natlie Riess
Aug 2023 ULTRALAZER TP Pauline Giraud & Maxence Henry
Sep 2023 BUZZING GN Samuel Sattin & Rye Hickman
Oct 2023 THINGS IN THE BASEMENT GN Ben Hatke
Nov 2023 SHELLEY FRANKENSTEIN TP BOOK 01 COWPIGGY Colleen Madden
Dec 2023 ATANA GN VOL 01 ATANA & FIREBIRD Vivian Zhou
(If I am allowed to say, I think it is a SUPERB program, and I really invite you to JOIN TODAY! Each of these books ALSO have a LIVESTREAMED interview that goes with them, which you can find here)
(I also can sell you pretty much all of these excellent books, and the adult ones all have author-signed bookplates, too! Go buy a few, wouldja?)
Again: NONE of the club copies are counted in here as “sales-to-walk-in-customers” - if we did, our Top 24 books would ONLY be these titles -- when any of the preceding books appear on the list, it is because we sold additional copies to walk-in customers!
So anyway, at Comix Experience (which I say again: book-forward comics shop), here are the Top 100 best-selling BOOKS – this is by NUMBER OF COPIES SOLD
Comix Experience BOOK Best Sellers 2023, By Quantity Sold
1 ITS LONELY AT THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH TP
2 MONICA HC
3 SAGA TP VOL 10
4 FAMILY STYLE MEMORIES OF AMERICAN FROM VIETNAM GN
5 NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE TP VOL 01
6 THIEVES GN
7 NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE TP VOL 02
8 MANY DEATHS OF LAILA STARR TP
9 TMNT THE LAST RONIN HC
10 DANGER AND OTHER UNKNOWN RISKS GN
(tie) MAMO TP
(tie) SAGA TP VOL 11
13 DUNGEON CRITTERS SC GN
14 BELLE OF THE BALL GN
15 GOOD ASIAN TP VOL 01
16 ARCA TP
(tie) UNFAMILIAR GN
18 SCURRY TP
19 NIGHT FEVER HC
20 CRYPTID KIDS GN VOL 01 BAWK NESS MONSTER
(tie) OTHER EVER AFTERS GN
(tie) SAGA TP VOL 01
23 TOO DEAD TO DIE TP
(tie) EVERYDAY HERO MACHINE BOY GN
(tie) HOOKY GN VOL 01
26 SUPER TRASH CLASH GN
27 EVE TP
(tie) SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING TP BOOK 01
29 FAR SECTOR TP
(tie) SQUIRE GN
(tie) WHY DONT YOU LOVE ME GN
32 FANGS GN
33 BUG BOYS YA HC GN VOL 01
(tie) FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING GN
(tie) NIMONA GN NEW PTG
36 ADHERENT GN
(tie) MAN IN MCINTOSH SUIT TP
(tie) SOMETHING IS KILLING CHILDREN TP VOL 01
(tie) THINGS IN THE BASEMENT GN
(tie) WATCHMEN TP
41 FOREST HILLS BOOTLEG SOCIETY GN
(tie) DOG MAN GN VOL 11 TWENTY THOUSAND FLEAS UNDER SEA
(tie) GENDER QUEER HC
(tie) GENDER QUEER MEMOIR GN
(tie) SPARKS GN
46 HEARTSTOPPER GN
(tie) THIS COUNTRY SEARCHING FOR HOME IN VERY RURAL AMERICA GN
48 AMERICAN BORN CHINESE SC WITH FLAPS
(tie) BONE COLOR ED SC VOL 01 OUT FROM BONEVILLE
(tie) DESCENDER TP VOL 01 TIN STARS
(tie) DUCKS HC
(tie) EAST OF WEST TP VOL 01 THE PROMISE
(tie) FABULOUS FURRY FREAK BROTHERS IDIOTS ABROAD & OTHER FOLLIES
(tie) HOOKY GN VOL 02
(tie) MONSTRESS TP VOL 01
(tie) MONSTRESS TP VOL 08
(tie) SQUIRE & KNIGHT GN VOL 01
(tie) WHATS THE FURTHEST PLACE FROM HERE TP VOL 01
(tie) WHERE THE BODY WAS HC
60 MAUS SURVIVORS TALE COMPLETE HC
(tie) SANDMAN BOOK 01 TP
62 CARMILLA FIRST VAMPIRE TP
(tie) LETS MAKE RAMEN COMIC BOOK COOKBOOK
(tie) LITTLE BIRD FIGHT FOR ELDERS HOPE TP
(tie) PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 01
(tie) SOMETHING IS KILLING CHILDREN TP VOL 02
(tie) THIS WAS OUR PACT GN
(tie) ULTRALAZER TP
69 ALCATOE AND THE TURNIP CHILD GN
(tie) COMPLETE PERSEPOLIS TP
(tie) COOK KOREAN COMIC BOOK WITH RECIPES SC
(tie) HAYAO MIYAZAKI SHUNAS JOURNEY GN
(tie) MONSTRESS TP VOL 07
(tie) PARACHUTE KIDS GN
(tie) PUPPY KNIGHT DEN OF DECEPTION
(tie) SECRET TO SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH GN
(tie) SUPERMAN SMASHES THE KLAN TP
78 DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH TP VOL 01
(tie) DIRE DAYS OF WILLOWWEEP MANOR GN
(tie) DISPLACEMENT SC GN
(tie) DO A POWERBOMB TP
(tie) LIGHTFALL GN VOL 01 GIRL & GALDURIAN
(tie) MANU GN
(tie) POKEMON ABC LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK
(tie) SPIDER MAN LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK FAVORITES
(tie) STREET ANGEL PRINCESS OF POVERTY TP
87 BATMAN YEAR ONE DELUXE SC
(tie) CALVIN AND HOBBES PORTABLE COMPENDIUM DC
(tie) GOOD ASIAN TP VOL 02
(tie) NIGHT EATERS GN VOL 01 SHE EATS AT NIGHT
(tie) NO ONE ELSE TP
(tie) OGLAF BOOK 1
(tie) SPIDER-PUNK BANNED IN DC TP
(tie) STRANGE ACADEMY GN TP FIRST CLASS
(tie) THE INCAL TP
96 GRAFITYS WALL HC
(tie) GRATEFUL DEAD ORIGINS GN VOL 01
(tie) INCAL HC NEW PTG
(tie) MOTH KEEPER GN
(tie) SAGA TP VOL 02
Every single one of these books sold more than one copy a month each month of the year (on average) – some sold much much better than that
It shouldn’t be any massive surprise, but I am absolutely thrilled by the range and variety of our sales – not just from genre, but also creator’s voice as well as intended audience. This list makes me super proud to sell the comics, yo!
Some notes!
Our #1 book was the January released IT’S LONELY AT THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH, which we sold approximately 10 copies every month; or basically a copy every three days. And unlike some of the books on this list, it really sold pretty much like that, steadily steadily each week, all year long. I wish I had twenty books like this. This was an exceptional performance all year long, and should really encourage you to check it out if you haven’t already!
Our #2 book, MONICA, conversely, was released only in October, so every copy sold was in q4. And yet it moved almost 85% of IT’S LONELY. Day-yum!
Despite taking three years (!!) off the market, new volumes of SAGA came in at #3, and #13, while the first volume of this great book tied in for #20. I started to make a list of “all time best sellers” (at least as old as our point-of-sales system in 2007), and six of our top ten are volumes of SAGA, yow!
At #4 is Thien Pham’s FAMILY STYLE, which was originally released on Instagram. In addition to all of these retail copies, we sold some four hundred additional copies to the San Francisco Unified School District to give away as Thein went out talking to schools. If we counted these educational copies, along with our GNC copies and the retail ones, FAMILY STYLE would be, by far, the Biggest book of the year going through our doors in 2023.
#5 is NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE, which was last year’s #1 book – and the second volume also did incredibly, coming in at #7. This was one of the few books that DC opted to do paperback first, rather than hardcovers, and it really really shows in our sales (We have a hard time selling hardcovers because most people are content most of the time to wait for a cheaper softcover) Its very rare for subsequent volumes of a series to place so close like that, which means folks really loved it.
#6 is THIEVES by Lucie Bryon, which is a (spectacular) lesbian romance comic, [as is #14, BELLE OF THE BALL], which I only point out because I am so so sick of fools saying that “woke” comics are a problem.
#8 is MANY DEATHS OF LAILA STARR which is notable for being the highest placing book which wasn’t also a GNC pick, and is a fantastic example of a book which sold significantly from staff recommendations – mostly Katt, in this case. DUNGEON CRITTERS at #13 is another good example of this (Zoe, in that case) – this is also the highest placing kids book.
And I think it’s worth pointing out #9’s TMNT THE LAST RONIN, because otherwise the Turtles are a very low level property for us (we made the periodical serialization of the monthly regular TMNT comic “subscribers-only” due to lack of rack sales)
As long as we are making observations like that, our first “superhero” graphic novel on this list is FAR SECTOR at #29 (And that’s far more about N.K. Jemisin than anything else!) – which is also our first DC comic that isn’t in the “Vertigo” vein. Our first published-by-Marvel title comes way down at #87 with a tie between SPIDER-PUNK (which I would say is our first proper example of a superhero movie selling a comic for us this year – that movie was SPIDER-VERSE) and STRANGE ACADEMY (which sold from being on our kid’s racks, and far away from the Marvel superhero material)
While it takes a bit of judgment calls, I’d say that 33 of our (exactly, for once) top 100 books are explicitly intended for “kids” or “Young Adults”.
I am really really proud of the breadth of this list, and seeing it presented this way always makes me think, “Damn, I own a really good comics shop, don’t I?”
Now, that list was sorted by number of copies sold, or really, number of humans that bought one, but as a small retail business, I actually run on dollars sold! It doesn’t inherently change most of the books you already saw (can you spot the exception?), but it absolutely changes just how important they were to the bottom line. I’ll just give you twenty titles this time
Comix Experience BOOK Best Sellers 2023, By Dollars
1 MONICA HC
2 TMNT THE LAST RONIN HC
3 ITS LONELY AT THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH TP
4 SAGA TP VOL 10
5 FAMILY STYLE MEMORIES OF AMERICAN FROM VIETNAM GN
6 NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE TP VOL 01
7 THIEVES GN
8 NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE TP VOL 02
9 MANY DEATHS OF LAILA STARR TP
10 TOO DEAD TO DIE TP
11 SAGA TP VOL 11
12 NIGHT FEVER HC
13 FAR SECTOR TP
14 DUCKS HC
15 DANGER AND OTHER UNKNOWN RISKS GN
16 MAMO TP
17 INVINCIBLE COMPENDIUM TP VOL 01
18 BELLE OF THE BALL GN
19 MAUS SURVIVORS TALE COMPLETE HC
20 GOOD ASIAN TP VOL 01
There were 4682 graphic novels that we sold at least a single copy, at full cover price in 2022.
But what about the periodicals at Comix Experience? Well, it’s a different picture for sure!. Here’s the Top 100 by number of copies sold, this should be properly and accurately adjusted to account for variant covers (smallish thing for us compared to some stores, but, damn, it was at least 60 min of work to sort that through!)
Comix Experience COMICS Best Sellers 2023, By Quantity Sold
1 SAGA #61
2 SAGA #62
3 SAGA #63
4 SAGA #65
5 SAGA #64
6 SAGA #66
7 HUNGER AND DUSK #1
8 X-MEN HELLFIRE GALA 2023 #1
9 MIRACLEMAN SILVER AGE #4
(tie) MIRACLEMAN SILVER AGE #5
11 HUNGER AND DUSK #2
(tie) X-MEN #23
14 DC PRIDE 2023 #1 ONE SHOT
15 RARE FLAVOURS #1 (OF 6)
(tie) ULTIMATE INVASION #1 (OF 4)
(tie) WORLDTREE #1
(tie) X-MEN #20
18 BATMAN GARGOYLE OF GOTHAM #1 (OF 4)
(tie) IMMORTAL X-MEN #12
20 DOCTOR STRANGE #1
(tie) MIRACLEMAN SILVER AGE #6
(tie) X-MEN #19
23 HUNGER AND DUSK #3
(tie) X-MEN #21
(tie) X-MEN #22
26 IMMORTAL X-MEN #11
(tie) WONDER WOMAN #1
(tie) X-MEN #18
29 GODS #1
(tie) VOID RIVALS #1
(tie) X-MEN #25
32 IMMORTAL X-MEN #14
(tie) LAZARUS PLANET ALPHA #1 ONE SHOT
(tie) SCARLET WITCH #1
(tie) TITANS #1
(tie) ULTIMATE INVASION #2 (OF 4)
37 AVENGERS #1
(tie) BATMAN ONE BAD DAY CATWOMAN #1 ONE SHOT
(tie) FLASH #1
(tie) IMMORTAL X-MEN #10
(tie) MARVELS VOICES PRIDE 2023 #1
(tie) UNCANNY AVENGERS #1 (OF 5)
43 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #35
(tie) BATMAN #135 #900
(tie) BATMAN #181 FACSIMILE EDITION
(tie) BATMAN THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #1
(tie) FANTASTIC FOUR #7
(tie) HUNGER AND DUSK #4
(tie) IMMORTAL X-MEN #16
(tie) SUPERMAN #1
(tie) ULTIMATE INVASION #3 (OF 4)
(tie) X-MEN #26
(tie) X-MEN #27
54 BATMAN ONE BAD DAY BANE #1 ONE SHOT
(tie) FANTASTIC FOUR #8
(tie) FORGED #1
(tie) NEW MUTANTS LETHAL LEGION #1 (OF 5)
(tie) ULTIMATE INVASION #4 (OF 4)
(tie) ULTIMATE UNIVERSE #1
(tie) X-MEN #24
(tie) X-MEN #28
62 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #25
(tie) AMBASSADORS #1 (OF 6)
(tie) BATMAN #131
(tie) BATMAN #132
(tie) BATMAN #136
(tie) DARKWING DUCK #1
(tie) DEVILS CUT ONE SHOT
(tie) FANTASTIC FOUR #5
(tie) IMMORTAL X-MEN #13
(tie) IMMORTAL X-MEN #15
(tie) MIRACLEMAN SILVER AGE #3
(tie) RARE FLAVOURS #2 (OF 6)
74 BATMAN #134
(tie) BATMAN #137 BATMAN CATWOMAN THE GOTHAM WAR
(tie) BATMAN WHITE KNIGHT PRESENTS GENERATION JOKER #1
(tie) DOCTOR STRANGE FALL SUNRISE #4 (OF 4)
(tie) FANTASTIC FOUR #10
(tie) FANTASTIC FOUR #52 FACSIMILE EDITION
(tie) FANTASTIC FOUR #9
(tie) IMAGE FIRSTS SPAWN #1
(tie) INCREDIBLE HULK #1
(tie) JUSTICE LEAGUE VS GODZILLA VS KONG #1 (OF 6)
(tie) SINS OF SINISTER #1
(tie) UNCANNY SPIDER-MAN #1
(tie) X-MEN ANNUAL #1
87 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #33
(tie) BATMAN AND ROBIN #1
(tie) BLANK COMIC BOOK 5-PACK
(tie) DOCTOR STRANGE #2
(tie) DOCTOR STRANGE FALL SUNRISE #3 (OF 4)
(tie) FANTASTIC FOUR #3
(tie) FLASH #2
(tie) IMMORTAL X-MEN #17
(tie) MONSTRESS #43
(tie) MONSTRESS #44
(tie) SCARLET WITCH #3
(tie) SUPERMAN #2
(tie) UNSTOPPABLE DOOM PATROL #1 (OF 6)
(tie) WONDER WOMAN #2
(tie) WONDER WOMAN #800
(tie) WONDER WOMAN HISTORIA THE AMAZONS #3 (OF 3)
Some things that grab me here. While our #1 best-seller was a triple digit number, there’s a real falloff on SAGA’s 11th arc through the year – by the time we get to the last chapter in #66, sales have fallen to about 60% of #61, Yow, that’s not encouraging. It also leaves me super anxious about just how to order #67
The first issue of regular Batman to chart (#135, and 43rd position) is tied by the facsimile of issue #181 (first Poison Ivy) – but we haven’t racked it that way or drawn attention to it, it’s just steadily trickled out to those sales. But the notion that a reprint can sell better than almost every issue of the regular monthly is kind of crazy.
The bottom of the sales chart is only about a fifth of the sales as book #1. We are seeing a real weakening of the midlist, and I can also see a very clear decline in the sales of various X-Men comics as the year has gone on.
After this, I will just repeat what I said last year: Other than that, just a general note that I am unexcited about the general performance of periodical comics. For almost all of the chart, these numbers are probably half of what they would have been a decade ago. Wednesday is usually not our biggest sale day any longer, and that says to me that we as an industry really have traded away much of our greatest strengths by corporations that just don’t care about the long-term prospects of comics at all. Chasing short term dollars sent so many dollars away, in my opinion.
I show that we sold at least one copy of 4473 different SKUs of comic books in 2023 – 98% of those were the only cover we stocked, by the way
Let’s also do a quick look at comics sorted into dollars…
Comix Experience COMICS Best Sellers 2023, By Dollars
1 SAGA #61
2 SAGA #62
3 SAGA #63
4 SAGA #65
5 SAGA #64
6 X-MEN HELLFIRE GALA 2023 #1
7 BLANK COMIC BOOK 5-PACK
8 ULTIMATE INVASION #1 (OF 4)
9 SAGA #66
10 GODS #1
11 DC PRIDE 2023 #1 ONE SHOT
12 HUNGER AND DUSK #1
13 BATMAN GARGOYLE OF GOTHAM #1 (OF 4)
14 DEVILS CUT ONE SHOT
15 ULTIMATE INVASION #4 (OF 4)
16 MARVELS VOICES PRIDE 2023 #1
17 BATMAN THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #1
18 MIRACLEMAN SILVER AGE #5
19 MIRACLEMAN SILVER AGE #4
20 BATMAN #135 #900
I chuckled when I saw the Blank Comic 5-pack placed so high in this sort, and over all you see the impact of higher prices ($10 in some cases!)
For a last thing, here is “market share” for us. This is books AND comics combined together (along with everything else), but still not including any GN Club pulls – these are ONLY retail sales! I cut off listing anyone not making at least a half-percent in sales, so this is our Top 25 publishers, as a result. Where you see “imprints”… that’s putting together all imprints from those bookmarket publishers – outfits like Penguin Random House have literally scores of different imprints that they own!
Publishers by Percentage of Comix Experience Sales
1 MARVEL COMICS 16.7%
2 IMAGE COMICS 14.4%
3 DC COMICS 14.3%
4 DARK HORSE COMICS 6.2%
5 FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS 4.2%
6 BOOM! STUDIOS 4.0%
7 IDW PUBLISHING 3.7%
8 MACMILLAN imprints 3.7%
9 PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE imprints 3.2%
10 VIZ LLC 3.1%
11 DRAWN & QUARTERLY 2.5%
12 GRAPHIX / SCHOLASTIC imprints 1.8%
13 HARPER COLLINS imprints 1.8%
14 ONI PRESS 1.6%
15 KODANSHA COMICS 1.4%
16 ABRAM COMICARTS imprints 1.3%
17 TITAN COMICS 0.9%
18 HACHETTE imprints 0.8%
19 ANDREWS MCMEEL 0.8%
20 NOBROW 0.8%
21 DYNAMITE 0.7%
22 SEVEN SEAS ENTERTAINMENT 0.6%
23 SILVER SPROCKET 0.5%
24 SIMON & SCHUSTER imprints 0.5%
25 VAULT COMICS 0.5%
Everyone Else Combined 10.1%
We sold at least one item from 262 publishers in 2022, sourced from about twelve distributors that we ordered at least twice from in the year — there are four distros we place an order with 52 weeks a year. Material selling out at wholesale continues to be the biggest break on my ability to sell things – if publishers (who have the best ROI of any of the publisher-distributor-retailer legs of the stool!) printed more copies of things that I could reorder, I would be selling more product.
That’s Comix Experience 2023, feel free to leave any comments in the comments section below. I will probably be impolite to anyone who wants to start Culture War fights, be warned.
Happy New Year to you all!
