(I apologize upfront for any weird formatting errors — my outbound screen is really nice looking in format, but who knows how it will translate to you?)

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 two comic book stores in San Francisco: Comix Experience at 305 Divisadero St, and Comix Experience Outpost at 2381 Ocean Ave. I opened the original store more than 30 years ago on April 1st, 1989, when I was just twenty-one years old, and I purchased Outpost in 2014, in order to stop it from closing overnight.

San Francisco is currently home to (maybe?) eight comic book stores; I now own 25% of the comic book stores in SF, which kind of freaks me out, if you want me to be honest. The remaining stores are, well us and our two locations, Amazing Fantasy, Cards & Comics Central, Hella Novella, Isotope, Jeffrey’s Toys, Mission: Comics. I am genuinely not sure if Hella Novella is actually a going business any longer. I see no evidence they’re actually still open… but I also can’t find anything definitive that they are not. So, maybe it’s down to seven?

This, however, is down from twenty-four stores when I opened in 1989, so you see why it shakes me a bit.

There are also something around a dozen general independent book stores (note that San Francisco has no national chain bookstores! Is ts 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 it is the comics specialty stores that are selling the most comics material, and it is my rough belief that my two Comix Experience stores sell roughly a quarter of all comics material in The City…. maybe more.

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 quarter 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.

More recently, in response to rising costs in San Francisco, we launched an international Graphic-Novel-Of-The-Month Club where we hold streaming meetings with the authors for literally hundreds of folks around the country (and globe!), and we also have a sibling club for kids age 8-13 (lets call it — I most like “middle readers”). And last year we expanded the Club offerings with a new “Comics Masterpieces” club looking at comics throughout their long history.

Also in 2020, I suffered a pretty huge heart attack, and they had to shock me a couple of times to keep me alive. In the intervening months, I have radically changed my diet and exercise and general “lifestyle”, and today I softly declare (KNOCKING WOOD THE WHOLE TIME) that I am probably now in better shape than when my son Ben was born seventeen years ago (Parenthetically, if I ever think MY 2020 sucked, I spare a kind thought to my Son, and all of his peers who have essentially lost out on their Senior year of High School, and who are making college decisions for 2021 is one of the craziest vacuums of information one can possibly have)

(*whew*)

So, no real surprise to anyone reading this, 2020 was kind of a bunk year! San Francisco was one of the first places in the United States to shut down commerce due to COVID — March 16th! — so we took it seriously, locally (during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 we screwed it up massively, and I think that lingers, civically!), but man did it make for a pretty ugly year that we still have not recovered from. We launched a webstore very quickly (thank you Django Bohren and the users of the MOBY point of Sale on Facebook, for make it “easy”!) in early April, so that we could work twice as hard for half as much money — but it kept some cash flowing in. And we’ve made several changes in the time following (We’re open for walk-ins, at a maximum of 20% capacity) to try and stem them bleeding — tighter store hours, much much tighter inventory, no longer playing along with publishers who want to abandon the market, etc. We’ve gotten grants, we’ve received PPP money, and, overall, we’ve kept it going through nearly sheer grit and determination and a TON of hard work from the amazing, amazing, AMAZING staff. We haven’t cut staff hours, and we’ve actually managed to put in some raises for everyone (!!) thanks to the Graphic Novel Clubs, so I count this as a “success”, even though the bottom line numbers are kind of terrifyingly bad and we’re essentially hanging on by our fingertips.

The Mothership, on Divisadero, ended the year down a staggering 32.59% in income. Ugh. I mean, sure, that’s way better than, say, May’s 70%+ revenue drop, but it yielded the WORST year of sales since 1999! Wow! Ocean was down slightly more (-33.92%), but it’s really pretty similar — people just are not into shopping and browsing in a time of plague, go figure, and that’s not even considering all of the people who are out of work, or who have moved away from San Francisco in light of BigTech’s “we don’t actually need most of you inside offices, do we?” San Francisco is going to change DRAMATICALLY in 2021 and 2022, I think — this article says SF rents are down by a massive 35%, and the number of volume of empty and boarded-up retail storefronts in every neighborhood is truly heartbreaking — but we’re working tirelessly to position ourselves so we can still be here on the other side, probably stronger and smarter than ever before.

I also think the Comics Market is going to change a lot, post-COVID (well, too early still to type that phrase, I guess — but at least I can SEE the possibility of the other side now) — as noted in my most recent “Tilting at Windmills”, I truly don’t think that DC Comics will be physically and personally publishing comics in the close future if only because they’ve stupidly broken the majority of their infrastructure and literally chased away the support of many many working retailers. But we’re actively and thoughtfully trying to figure out how this new market is going to look and be shaped, and we’re really hoping hard that we can continue to be a market leader to a new bold future.

As noted, we have two stores, both of which are very different in character and tone. The main, original store on Divisadero St. is fully a book-oriented store: some 64% of sales are from Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks; this percentage didn’t change at all during the shut-down — it is exactly what it was in 2019. We also own a second location on the far south of The City, Comix Experience Outpost. The Outpost is a periodical-forward store, and is basic the reverse of the main one: 59% of its sales come from New periodicals (and another 14% from Old Comics). We’ve tried many things to try to broaden it’s market, all to no avail. It did just 55% of the main store in sales, but it also has a lower overhead, so we make it work, mostly. However, it isn’t really what one would call “profitable” on its own — honestly, it’s a pretty break-even affair that we keep open largely because it would break my damn heart to close a comic shop in this environment. This is a TERRIBLE business decision, by the way, but I for sure am trying to make it so we don’t have to lay off the hard working staff over there, or sadden all of the periodical readers on the South side of The City.

Let’s take a look, store-by-store, at sales this year, and see what the best-sellers are in each category. Let’s look at BOOKS, first, since that’s the biggest category at the bigger store!

One important consideration here is that these numbers DO NOT include the Graphic-Novel-Of-The-Month Club numbers, every one of which would top the #1 in-store book! We’ve got some 265 members of the Adult GNC when we include the school accounts, about 400 now for the Kid’s club, while the Comics Masterpieces Club has started slower at around 65 members — that sell multiple times the best-selling book sold to a walk-in customer. In fact, we’ve been told that, for at least some of the titles we selected the book club order is a meaningful percentage of sales, impacted sell outs or triggering further printings. Our releases were, in order of release:

Adult Graphic Novel Club selections (You can click these links to purchase copies that have SIGNED bookplates!)

January 2020: Wonder Twins Vol 1: Activate! by Mark Russell and Stephen Byrne [DC Entertainment]
February 2020: Spring Rain by Andy Warner [St. Martin's Griffin]
March 2020: Embarrassment of Witches by Sophie Goldstein and Jenn Jordan [Top Shelf Productions]
April 2020: Grafity's Wall by Ram V and Anand Radhakrishnan [ Dark Horse Comics]
May 2020: Dancing After Ten by Vivian Chong and Georgia Webber [Fantagraphics Books, Inc]
June 2020: Langosh & Peppi by Veronica Post [Conundrum Press]
July 2020: Grateful Dead Origins by Noah Van Sciver and Chris Miskiewicz [Z2 Comics]
August 2020: Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist by Adrian Tomine [Drawn & Quarterly]
September 2020: Unrig by Daniel G. Newman and George O’Connor [:01 FirstSecond]
October 2020: Displacement by Kiku Hughes [:01 FirstSecond]
November 2020: Sacrifice of Darkness by Roxane Gay, Tracy Lynne Oliver and Rebecca Kirby [Boom!]
December 2020: Odessa by Jonathan Hill [Lion Forge / Oni Press]

KIDS Graphic Novel Club selections
January 2020: The Courageous Princess by Rod Espinosa [Dark Horse Comics]
February 2020: Deep & Dark Blue by Niki Smith [Little, Brown Books for Young Readers]
March 2020: Bug Boys by Laura Knetzger [Random House Graphic]
April 2020: The Sunken Tower by Tait Howard [Lion Forge / Oni Press]
May 2020: When Stars Are Scattered by Omar Mohamed and Victoria Jamieson [Dial Books]
June 2020: Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru [DC Entertainment]
July 2020: Primer by Thomas Krajewski, Jennifer Muro and Gretel Lusky [DC Entertainment]
August 2020: Nixie of the Mill-Pond by Kel McDonald, Kate Ashwin, et. al [Iron Circus]
September 2020: Shirley & Jamila Save Their Summer by Gillian Goerz [Dial Books]
October 2020: Lightfall by Tim Probert [HarperAlley]
November 2020: Timo the Adventurer by Jonathan Garnier and Yohan Sacre [Etch/Clarion Books]
December 2020: Mega Dogs of New Kansas by Dan Jolley and Jacques Khouri [Graphic Universe]

COMICS MASTERPIECES Graphic Novel Club Selections

July 2020: Preacher v1 by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon [DC Entertainment]
August 2020: Hellboy Omnibus v1 by Mike Mignola [Dark Horse Comics]
September 2020: Ultimate Spider-Man v1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley [Marvel]
October 2020: Saga of the Swamp Thing v1 by Alan Moore & Stephen Bissette [DC Entertainment]
November 2020: Kingdom Come by Alex Ross and Mark Waid [DC Entertainment]
December 2020: Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud [William Morrow]

(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 30 books would ONLY be these titles.

So, at the Mothership on Divisadero (which I say again: book-forward comics shop), here are the Top 100 best-selling BOOKS — this is by NUMBER OF COPIES SOLD

1 SUPERMAN SMASHES THE KLAN TP
2 LONELINESS OF LONG-DISTANCE CARTOONIST HC TOMINE
3 MONSTRESS TP VOL 04
PILU OF THE WOODS GN
5 LITTLE BIRD FIGHT FOR ELDERS HOPE TP HC
6 DISPLACEMENT SC GN
7 MONSTRESS TP VOL 05
8 BOWIE STARDUST RAYGUNS & MOONAGE DAYDREAMS HC GN
9 PULP HC
10 DEEP & DARK BLUE GN
11 5 WORLDS GN VOL 01 SAND WARRIOR
COURAGEOUS PRINCESS TP VOL 01 BEYOND THE HUNDRED KINGDOMS
13 GENDER QUEER MEMOIR GN
SAGA TP VOL 01
15 THIS WAS OUR PACT GN
16 BUG BOYS YA HC GN
RECKLESS HC
18 ON A SUNBEAM GN
19 5 WORLDS GN VOL 04 AMBER ANTHEM
DIE TP VOL 02 SPLIT THE PARTY
GRATEFUL DEAD ORIGINS GN VOL 01
LILY THE THIEF GN
23 AMULET SC VOL 01 STONEKEEPER NEW PTG
BOYS OMNIBUS TP VOL 01
MISTER MIRACLE TP
PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 01
WATCHMEN TP NEW EDITION
Y THE LAST MAN TP BOOK 01
29 GRAFITYS WALL HC
SPRING RAIN GN
UNRIG HC GN
32 PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 06
UMBRELLA ACADEMY TP VOL 01 APOCALYPSE SUITE
WITCH BOY GN VOL 01
35 MONSTRESS TP VOL 01
MONSTRESS TP VOL 03
SAGA TP VOL 09
38 5 WORLDS GN VOL 02 COBALT PRINCE
CHESHIRE CROSSING GN
DIANA PRINCESS OF THE AMAZONS TP
DIE TP VOL 01 FANTASY HEARTBREAKER
MONSTRESS TP VOL 02
PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 02
RAINA TELGEMEIER GHOSTS GN
SAGA TP VOL 08
SMILE GN NEW PTG
WHEN STARS ARE SCATTERED GN
48 5 WORLDS GN VOL 03 RED MAZE
BATMAN WHITE KNIGHT TP
COMPLETE PERSEPOLIS TP
DEBIAN PERL DIGITAL DETECTIVE GN MEMORY THIEF BOOK 01
GUTS GN
HEX VET WITCHES IN TRAINING ORIGINAL GN VOL 01
HILO GN VOL 06 ALL PIECES FIT
LIGHTFALL GN VOL 01 GIRL & GALDURIAN
ODESSA GN
PRIMER TP
SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING TP BOOK 01
SAGA TP VOL 07
SANDMAN TP VOL 01 PRELUDES & NOCTURNES 30TH ANNIV ED
UMBRELLA ACADEMY TP VOL 03 HOTEL OBLIVION
WATCHMEN TP
63 BABY SITTERS CLUB COLOR ED GN VOL 08 LOGAN LIKES
CANNONBALL GN
DRAGON HOOPS HC GN
DRAMA GN
LUMBERJANES TP VOL 01
NIGHTLIGHTS GN VOL 01
PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 03
PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 04
PRINCE & DRESSMAKER GN
SAGA DLX ED HC VOL 03
SISTERS GN
SUNNY ROLLS THE DICE GN
THEY CALLED US ENEMY TP
76 ALMOST AMERICAN GIRL GN
BREAKAWAYS GN
HOUSE LA CASA HC PACO ROCA ENGLISH LANGUAGE ED
HOUSE OF X POWERS OF X HC
OLD GUARD TP BOOK 01 OPENING FIRE
ONCE & FUTURE TP VOL 01
STARGAZING GN
UZUMAKI 3IN1 DLX ED HC JUNJI ITO
84 DC SUPER HERO GIRLS TP VOL 02 HITS AND MYTHS
EL DEAFO GN
EMBARRASSMENT OF WITCHES GN VOL 01
INCAL HC NEW PTG
LANGOSH & PEPPI GN VOL 01 FUGITIVE DAYS
LAURA DEAN KEEPS BREAKING UP WITH ME GN
MOONCAKES GN
PAPER GIRLS TP VOL 05
THE SUNKEN TOWER HC GN
WONDER TWINS TP VOL 01 ACTIVATE
94 5 MINUTE MARVEL STORIES HC
BLACK PANTHER LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK
DAYTRIPPER TP
DC SUPER HERO GIRLS POWERLESS TP
DC SUPER HERO GIRLS SPACED OUT TP
DEADLY CLASS TP VOL 09 BONE MACHINE
DOG MAN GN VOL 09 GRIME & PUNISHMENT

This seems like a pretty eclectic list to me!

The first observation I made is that of our Top 10 comics, SIX of them are by Asian creators, all doing American-style comics (so: not Manga). I do not believe that this has ever happened before?

My second observation is that, of the Top 100, at least FORTY of them are aimed explicitly at Younger Readers (and at least three more are “on the cusp”) — this may be more of a function of COVID-era shopping than anything else, though.

My third observation is that while there are indeed several comics with Marvel/DC superheroes in them, I only immediately spot six of the Top 100 that are 1) “aimed at adults” and 2) “set in the current M/D universes”

All in all, this list seems like a pretty radical shift compared to what we’re used to in a “normal” year. It will be interesting to see if this continues to play out once “full opening” happens (in the Fall?)

Our #1 book is SUPERMAN SMASHES THE KLAN, which is a somewhat happy surprise given it was also the kid’s club selection (and, again, THIS list does NOT include Club selections) — the total number sold is significantly lower than our best-seller from 2019 (a bit under half), but my observation is that most of these copies appeared to be sold to children. It’s a timely (if retro) book, but also a cracking good story on it’s own.

#2 is Adrian Tomine’s LONELINESS OF THE LONG-DISTANCE CARTOONIST, which is not a shock to me at all — I knew this would do well with more casual GN readers.

#3 & #7 is MONSTRESS (with the earlier volumes down at 35 and 38) — it’s a little unusual for a v4 to outsell a v1 (look at SAGA v1 coming in at #13, right?), but it is an unusual year

#4 is PILU OF THE WOODS, which also surprises me because this is about a year old — I’m thinking Zoe and Kat handsold that one a lot. Such a sweet book with a surprisingly deep and meaningful message, aimed sweetly at kids.

#5 is LITTLE BIRD in hardcover — the softcover is wildly down at #867, so I think people like the larger, more upscale presentation.

#6 is DISPLACEMENT by Kiku Hughes which only surprises me because this was released so late in the year — again, a lot of hand-selling on that one from Staff, as far as I can see.

#8 is the BOWIE book by Michael Allred. No surprise in San Francisco.

#9 is Brubaker and Phillips’ PULP — I am quite sure that RECKLESS is going to top those sales this year. I interview them in a couple of weeks, and am looking forward to discussing why OGNs in a periodical world!

And finally, the Top ten is brought up at the end with Niki Smith’s DEEP & DARK BLUE, and very Trans-friendly kids story in a city where that kind of book can hit big. Niki was one of the last signings we had in 2020 before the shutdown, though looking at it, it doesn’t appear that that in particular is driving this number — these copies sold steadily over course of year.

Everything in our Top 20 sold at least the equivalent of 2 copies a month — but last year that was the entire Top 100 — down towards the bottom of the list it becomes more like “every six weeks”

There were nearly 4500 different graphic novels that we sold at least one copy of in 2020 at full retail price. Of course, we carry a bit closer to 6000, so that could do better… but without being able to BROWSE, selling many books is hard.

Since I have to pay staff and rent and electricity and all of the other myriad of costs to run stores, I usually actually think of stuff in terms of dollars sold, rather than units. Not going to do the entire top 100, but here’s what the Top 20 looks like at Divis if you look at Dollars sold:

1 BOWIE STARDUST RAYGUNS & MOONAGE DAYDREAMS HC GN
2 LONELINESS OF LONG-DISTANCE CARTOONIST HC TOMINE
3 LITTLE BIRD FIGHT FOR ELDERS HOPE TP HC
4 SUPERMAN SMASHES THE KLAN TP
5 HOUSE OF X POWERS OF X HC
6 SAGA DLX ED HC VOL 03
7 MONSTRESS TP VOL 04
8 BOYS OMNIBUS TP VOL 01
9 DISPLACEMENT SC GN
10 FANTAGRAPHICS STUDIO ED HC DANIEL CLOWES
11 RECKLESS HC
12 COMPLETE ZAP COMIX HC BOX SET
13 UNRIG HC GN
14 MONSTRESS TP VOL 05
15 GRATEFUL DEAD ORIGINS GN VOL 01
16 MISTER MIRACLE TP
17 WATCHMEN TP NEW EDITION
18 INCAL HC NEW PTG
19 ON A SUNBEAM GN
20 PULP HC

Yeah, then the Bowie book rockets into #1, and pricey hardcovers like HOUSE OF X POWERS OF X, SAGA, that Daniel Clowes “Artist Edition”, the ZAP COMICS Box set and the INCAL zoom way way up the list. Even RECKLESS shows up, despite only being out for two weeks (and that $25 vs $17-for-PULP cover price tells you a story, as well)

If I sort out just the books, and look at publishers instead, here’s what publishers-over-1%-of-dollars break out at, on the mothership… though again, none of this considers the GNC, just retail-trade-sales.

12.17% IMAGE COMICS

11.96% DC ENTERTAINMENT

10.19% MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT

6.94% DARK HORSE COMICS

5.93% FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS INC

5.92% :01 FIRST SECOND

3.60% IDW PUBLISHING

3.15% BOOM! STUDIOS

3.15% VIZ MEDIA LLC

2.87% DRAWN & QUARTERLY

2.61% LION FORGE / ONI PRESS INC

2.57% GRAPHIX

1.32% KODANSHA COMICS

1.08% HUMANOIDS

”Everyone else” is just a bit over a quarter of sales — we’re stocking what appears to be 313 different suppliers at the moment.

———————————

But what about the periodical on Divisadero? 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 (small thing at Divis, bigger at Ocean)

1 X-MEN #4 DX
2 X-MEN #5 DX
3 X-MEN #6 DX
X-MEN #9 DX
5 X-MEN #8 DX
6 GIANT SIZE X-MEN NIGHTCRAWLER
7 X-MEN #7 DX
8 X OF SWORDS CREATION #1 XOS 1
9 GIANT SIZE X-MEN JEAN GREY & EMMA FROST #1 DX
10 STRANGE ADVENTURES #1
X-MEN #10 EMP
12 X-MEN #11 EMP
13 GIANT-SIZE X-MEN MAGNETO #1 DX
X-MEN #12 EMP XOSP
15 GIANT SIZE X-MEN STORM #1
16 DECORUM #1
GIANT SIZE X-MEN FANTOMEX #1
NEGAN LIVES #1 (MR)
19 RORSCHACH #1 (OF 12)
20 X-MEN #13 XOS 10
21 THOR #1
22 MARAUDERS #13 XOS 5
X-MEN #14 XOS 12
24 BATMAN THREE JOKERS #1 (OF 3)
MARAUDERS #6 DX
SEX CRIMINALS #26
X-FORCE #6 DX
28 BATMAN #92
X OF SWORDS STASIS #1 XOS 11
30 EXCALIBUR #5 DX
MARAUDERS #11
MARAUDERS #7 DX
X OF SWORDS DESTRUCTION #1
X-MEN #15 XOS 21
35 MARAUDERS #5
MARAUDERS #8 DX
MARAUDERS #9 DX
NEW MUTANTS #5 DX
X-FORCE #9 DX
40 DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL #1 (OF 6)
MARAUDERS #12
STAR WARS #1
X-FORCE #5 DX
X-FORCE #7 DX
45 NEW MUTANTS #9 DX
THOR #4
47 BATMAN #94
EXCALIBUR #9 DX
MARAUDERS #10
MARAUDERS #14 XOS 13
NEW MUTANTS #6 DX
NEW MUTANTS #7 DX
THOR #2
X-FORCE #13 XOS 4
X-FORCE #8 DX
56 BATMAN #100
BATMAN #93
BATMAN CURSE OF THE WHITE KNIGHT #7 (OF 8)
DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH #1
DUNE HOUSE ATREIDES #1
FAR SECTOR #3 (OF 12)
MARAUDERS #15 XOS 14
NEW MUTANTS #8 DX
SEX CRIMINALS #27
65 BATMAN #86
BATMAN #97 JOKER WAR
BATMAN #98
BATMAN CURSE OF THE WHITE KNIGHT #6 (OF 8)
BATMAN THREE JOKERS #2 (OF 3)
EXCALIBUR #6 DX
EXCALIBUR #8 DX
MONSTRESS #25
STRANGE ADVENTURES #2 (OF 12)
74 BATMAN #99
BATMAN CATWOMAN #1 (OF 12)
GREEN LANTERN SEASON 2 #1 (OF 12)
LOVE & ROCKETS MAGAZINE #8
STRANGE ACADEMY #1
X-FORCE #11
X-FORCE #12
81 BATMAN #91
BATMAN #95 JOKER WAR
CRIMINAL #12
DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL #2 (OF 6)
DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL #3 (OF 6)
EXCALIBUR #7 DX
HELLIONS #1 DX
MONSTRESS #26
X-FORCE #10
90 BATMAN #87
BATMAN SECRET FILES #3
BATMAN THREE JOKERS #3 (OF 3)
FALLEN ANGELS #5
FAR SECTOR #4 (OF 12)
MONSTRESS #27
MONSTRESS #28
MONSTRESS #29
MONSTRESS #30
NEW MUTANTS #11
WOLVERINE #2
WOLVERINE #6 XOS 3
X-FACTOR #4 XOS 2
X-FORCE #14 XOS 17

I don’t know that I have a ton of periodical notes this year — pretty much X-MEN and its satelites ruled the roost, while the main BATMAN title did similar. For non-DC/Marvel titles, I see DECORUM #1 and NEGAN LIVES at #16, SEX CRIMINALS at #24 and 56, DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH and DUNE HOUSE ATREIDES at #56, MONSTRESS at #65, 81 and 90, LOVE AND ROCKETS at #74, and CRIMINAL at #81. Yikes, not a lot of penetration at the top this year, even while my perception is that the mid-list of non-superhero material has gotten significantly stronger this year.

Here is how the publishers break down by market share for us for periodicals (this is one is by dollars, with a cut off of 0.5%) . Mostly DC and Marvel sales are a whole lot of “subs +1” or “+2” for the rack. Because they’re publishing so much rack filler the ironic thing is that they work against themselves — we’d sell so many more DC and Marvel comics, if they’d just stop publishing so many damn comics. It’s a rare book (25% of their output?) where I’m ordering what I’d consider a meaningful, or almost worth-the-effort to stock number of rack copies, because the individual numbers are so low, the risk on unsold copies skyrockets. Its a goddamn conundrum for the working retailer. Anyway.

36.12% MARVEL COMICS
28.82% DC COMICS
14.33% IMAGE COMICS
5.71% BOOM! STUDIOS
3.45% DARK HORSE COMICS
2.77% IDW PUBLISHING
1.27% VAULT COMICS
0.84% TITAN COMICS
0.73% AFTERSHOCK COMICS
0.72% FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
0.66% DYNAMITE
0.54% AHOY

———————————————————————-

And if we take EVERY product sold in 2020, mix it together in a giant pile, and sort it out by publisher, here’s what it looks like for pubs over 1% at the Mothership:

MARVEL COMICS 18.33%
DC COMICS 17.21%
IMAGE COMICS 12.75%
DARK HORSE COMICS 5.78%
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS 4.21%
BOOM! STUDIOS 3.93%
IDW PUBLISHING 3.29%
:01 FIRST SECOND 3.12%
VIZ MEDIA LLC 2.11%
DRAWN & QUARTERLY 1.94%
GRAPHIX 1.72%
ONI PRESS INC. 1.47%

Every other publisher combined is just a hair over 24%

—————————————————————————————-

OK, lets switch over to Outpost, shall we?

This one is a bit easier, and the focus over here is periodical comics. Here’s the Top 100 comics for them:

1 BATMAN #92
2 THOR #1
3 DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL #2 (OF 6)
4 DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL #1 (OF 6)
DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL #3 (OF 6)
6 STRANGE ADVENTURES #1
7 THOR #4
8 BATMAN #86
BATMAN THREE JOKERS #1 (OF 3)
10 BATMAN #88
DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL #4
12 BATMAN #91
BATMAN #94
14 DETECTIVE COMICS #1027
15 BATMAN #100
BATMAN #95 JOKER WAR
BATMAN #98
18 BATMAN #93
BATMAN #99
WOLVERINE #1 DX
X-MEN #6 DX
22 BATMAN THREE JOKERS #2
X-MEN #5 DX
24 BATMAN #87
BATMAN #89
BATMAN #97 JOKER WAR
27 BATMAN #90
DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL #5
X-MEN #8 DX
30 STAR WARS #1
THOR #2
X-MEN #4 DX
33 BATMAN #96 JOKER WAR
GIANT SIZE X-MEN JEAN GREY & EMMA FROST #1 DX
X-MEN #7 DX
36 BATMAN THREE JOKERS #3
GIANT SIZE X-MEN STORM #1
THOR #9
39 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #39 2099
THOR #5
41 BATMAN SECRET FILES #3
DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL MULTIVERSES END #1 ONE SHOT CV
THOR #8
X-MEN #9 DX
45 DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL LEGENDS OT DARK KNIGHTS #1
DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL ROBIN KING #1 ONE SHOT
DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL SPEED METAL #1 ONE SHOT
DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL TRINITY CRISIS #1 ONE SHOT
THOR #6
THOR #7
X-MEN #10 EMP
X-MEN #11 EMP
53 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #37
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #50 LAST
BATMAN #101
BATMAN #102
DCEASED UNKILLABLES #1 (OF 3)
THOR #3
X OF SWORDS CREATION #1 XOS 1
60 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #41
DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL RISE OF THE NEW GOD #1 ONE SHO
GIANT-SIZE X-MEN MAGNETO #1 DX
WOLVERINE #6 XOS 3
X-MEN #12 EMP XOSP
X-MEN #13 XOS 10
66 BATMAN CATWOMAN #1 (OF 12)
DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL INFINITE HOURS EXXXTREME #1 ON
GIANT SIZE X-MEN NIGHTCRAWLER
NEGAN LIVES #1 (MR)
RORSCHACH #1 (OF 12)
71 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #40 2099
BATMAN #103
X-MEN #14 XOS 12
74 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #38
GIANT SIZE X-MEN FANTOMEX #1
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #1
STRANGE ADVENTURES #2 (OF 12)
STRANGE ADVENTURES #4 (OF 12)
79 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #54 LR
DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL MULTIVERSE WHO LAUGHS #1 ONE S
DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH #1
KING IN BLACK #1 (OF 5)
NEW MUTANTS #7 DX
X OF SWORDS STASIS #1 XOS 11
85 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #42
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #46
GREEN LANTERN SEASON 2 #1 (OF 12)
STRANGE ADVENTURES #5 (OF 12)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN SINS RISING PRELUDE #1
DETECTIVE COMICS #1023 JOKER WAR
NEW MUTANTS #5 DX
NEW MUTANTS #6 DX
NEW MUTANTS #8 DX
THOR #10
X OF SWORDS DESTRUCTION #1 XOS 22
X-MEN #15 XOS 21
97 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #43
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #44
NEW MUTANTS #13 XOS 7
SPIDER-MAN #4 (OF 5)
STAR WARS DARTH VADER #1
X-FORCE #7 DX
X-FORCE #8 DX

That’s fairly different from Divis — more of spread over more superhero-style kind of books…. but exceedingly little outside of that.

How do the publisher break downs go at Outpost for periodicals? Like this:

39.84% MARVEL COMICS
35.80% DC COMICS
9.35% IMAGE COMICS
3.70% BOOM! STUDIOS
2.70% IDW PUBLISHING
1.83% DARK HORSE COMICS
0.95% AFTERSHOCK COMICS
0.85% VAULT COMICS
0.70% DYNAMITE
0.52% ONI PRESS INC.

It kills me just little bit, that Marvel/DC stranglehold. Everything about balance of stock that happens at Divis sure as hell doesn’t happen here. They want what they want, and they will get it. You can’t change what a customer base wants, you can only try to attractively provide many options of comics to buy; the problem that I see is that this store simply wouldn’t be viable with a staff if it didn’t have the mothership (and the GN Clubs!) holding it up. We will continue to try in 2021, though!

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Then there are books at Outpost, which… well, here’s the top , uh, 31, I’ll discuss at the end

1 LEGEND OF KORRA TP PART 03 RUINS OF EMPIRE
SUPERMAN SMASHES THE KLAN TP
3 BATMAN WHO LAUGHS HC
DIE TP VOL 02 SPLIT THE PARTY
FIRE POWER BY KIRKMAN & SAMNEE TP VOL 01 PRELUDE
LUMBERJANES TP VOL 01
PULP HC
8 BE A STAR WONDER WOMAN YR BOARD BOOK
BONE COLOR ED SC VOL 01 OUT FROM BONEVILLE
COMPLETE CHI SWEET HOME TP VOL 01
DARK NIGHTS METAL TP
HILO GN VOL 01 BOY WHO CRASHED TO EARTH
MY HERO ACADEMIA GN VOL 01
OLD GUARD TP BOOK 01 OPENING FIRE
RECKLESS HC
SPIDER-MAN LIFE STORY TP
17 COMPLETE CHI SWEET HOME TP VOL 02
DC SUPER HEROES BIG BOOK OF SUPERPOWERS HC
DOOM PATROL TP VOL 01 BRICK BY BRICK
DOOMSDAY CLOCK HC PART 02 WITH SLIPCASE
HILO GN VOL 06 ALL PIECES FIT
ICE CREAM MAN TP VOL 01 RAINBOW SPRINKLES
IMMORTAL HULK TP VOL 01 OR IS HE BOTH
MARCH GN TRILOGY SLIPCASE SET
MONSTRESS TP VOL 05
MS MARVEL TP VOL 01 NO NORMAL
ONE PUNCH MAN GN VOL 02
SAGA TP VOL 01
SANDMAN TP VOL 01 PRELUDES & NOCTURNES 30TH ANNIV ED
SNOTGIRL TP VOL 03 IS THIS REAL LIFE
WATCHMEN TP NEW EDITION

Yeah, cutting it there, because below that point, books aren’t even turning “four times a year”, yikes. There were almost 1300 graphic novels that sold at least one copy in 2020 at Outpost, but like 900 of them only sold a single copy. Double yikes. On the other hand… more diverse! Seven of the thirty-one are kids comics, which is a sweet and welcome change!

Here’s how the Books at Outpost break by publisher

21.18% MARVEL COMICS
17.20% DC COMICS
15.10% IMAGE COMICS
8.70% DARK HORSE COMICS
5.02% IDW PUBLISHING

3.81% VIZ MEDIA LLC
3.61% BOOM! STUDIOS
2.16% GRAPHIX
1.76% :01 FIRST SECOND
1.60% ONI PRESS INC.
1.54% KODANSHA COMICS
1.35% FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
1.17% VERTICAL COMICS
0.73% DRAWN & QUARTERLY
0.69% SEVEN SEAS ENTERTAINMENT LLC
0.62% PANTHEON BOOKS
0.57% ABRAMS COMICARTS
0.57% HUMANOIDS INC
0.55% RANDOM HOUSE BOOKS FOR YOUNG R

And if we were to combine all categories, here’s what the top publishers look like at the Outpost:

34.51% MARVEL COMICS
30.81% DC COMICS
10.44% IMAGE COMICS
3.51% BOOM! STUDIOS
3.50% DARK HORSE COMICS
2.65% IDW PUBLISHING
0.94% VIZ MEDIA LLC
0.78% ONI PRESS INC.
0.72% VAULT COMICS
0.72% AFTERSHOCK COMICS
0.69% FUNKO
0.58% DYNAMITE
0.53% GRAPHIX

What do those numbers tell you? I dunno, really, but that’s pretty much “Direct Market Store 101” right there for Outpost I think.

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So, that’s what 2020 looked like to me — a terribad yucky year, but one we’ve managed to keep ticking along because we just love comics too much to be logical and stop. Our staff is engaged, and, I want to believe, taken well care of despite the challenges that face the industry and our Beloved City. I do think that the Mothership will do fantastic after the lockdowns all end — and I think Outpost can keep muddling through. The two stores are about 3 miles apart, as the crow flies, but couldn’t be more different in temperance or tone. Financially, the picture is struggling, but adequate — sales are uniformly down, and probably significantly more so than many parts of the country, and yet we’ve made living on the knife’s edge work alright. The clubs, especially the Kids Club, are thriving, so I see a lot of reason to be optimistic for the next decade.

(*knock wood*)

Please feel free to comment below in the comments section!

May all of our 2021’s be considerably better!

-B

Brian Hibbs

Head Cheese, Comix Experience

And on behalf of:

Zoe Hu, General Manager

Tony Guzman

Katt Kelly

Julien Letham

Nathan McMaster