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Comicbook Resources has sales numbers for book stores.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=30752

Very interesting, no DC or Marvel in the top 10, only 2 in the top 20. All 6 Scott Pilgrim books are in the top 10 and Twilight is #2. The number 1 comic in bookstores... Dork Diaries (similar to Diary of a Wimpy Kid).

It shows that people do read comics, just not Marvel and DC.

It also shows sales dropping 8% a year for the last 2 years which makes no sense since my buying alone should have propped up the whole industry

The 40+ Naruto books sold over 400k together.

Really interesting stuff if you're into comics.

This is because you can buy manga books (tankobon) in ordinary bookshops, and traditional comic books can only be bought in comic shops.

Aye, I used to buy about 11 titles a month from marvel, I stopped a year ago because they just generally seemed to be sucking.

Spiderman really went downhill.. more childish i thought.

Have you ever read "Preacher" Mr. Mattyrm ? I think it might be well up your street. So to speak.

Kilkrazy wrote:This is because you can buy manga books (tankobon) in ordinary bookshops, and traditional comic books can only be bought in comic shops.

Sorry I should point out he's not looking at monthlies, he's only looking at TPBs which you can get at bookshops these days.

The only Marvel Comics to have really struck my fancy have been those (relatively) recent Civil War ones. I found the whole thing interesting.

Haven't heard of most of these.

The only Marvel comics I have read in recent years are...

Hell, I just read the wiki pages as its too confusing to actually read comics anymore.

Twilight?
2nd best seller?

I have lost hope in humanity.

Wolfun wrote:Twilight?
2nd best seller?

I have lost hope in humanity.

We are at the "twilight" of our civilization.

It is interesting how old some of the graphic novels are. I have copies of the Watchmen, V for Vendetta and Dark Knight Returns I bought in the late 80s or early 90s. These titles are still selling 20 years later.

Kilkrazy wrote:It is interesting how old some of the graphic novels are. I have copies of the Watchmen, V for Vendetta and Dark Knight Returns I bought in the late 80s or early 90s. These titles are still selling 20 years later.

Actually, it should scare you that you bought some graphic novels 20 years ago and they still sell them today.

I think the decline in sales in traditional comics can be linked to the fact that they are being written by fans for fans and are practically impenetrable to a casual reader at this stage. The point about Marvel having 82 or whatever iron man titles at the time of the release of Iron Man 2 is an excellent one. Similarly, post Dark Knight, Morrisons run on Batman would have been extremely confusing to someone who saw the movie and thought "that was awesome, I want more". Very little of the realisitc feel of the films (or coherency and simple storytelling) is present in Batman recently.
I am glad to see Kirkman doing well, because I love his work and I think the stories he writes are very accessible and enjoyable. Sad not to see Invincible mentioned though, since it's my favourite of his titles.
Also, slightly suprised by the volume of Manga being sold! I had no idea it was that large.

And now for something truly humbling...

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2010/11/comics-a-m-another-one-piece-sales-record-another-cartoonist-layoff/

Publishing | The 60th volume of Eiichiro Oda’s popular pirate manga One Piece sold more than 2 million copies in its first four days of release. It’s the first book to move more than 2 million copies in its first week of sales since the Japanese market survey company Oricon began reporting its charts in 2008. As we reported last week, this volume’s 3.4 million-copy first printing set a record, and propelled the series past the 200 million-copy mark

Now granted Japan has the greatest comic industry on Earth and this is a record but still...

3.4 million copies. In a country with a population 1/3 that of the US. We're celebrating if a US comic sells 100k.

Dang.

It also doesn't work that there is no real sense of peril in traditional super hero comics. I mean come on. We all know that no matter how bad things get, they usually just end up getting reduced to nothing in a time loop or some other nonsense. The only times serious changes happen and stay is when they're stupid changes (One More Day, Ultimatum, Decimation, though sometimes I feel I'm alone on hating that one...)

Kid_Kyoto wrote:And now for something truly humbling...

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2010/11/comics-a-m-another-one-piece-sales-record-another-cartoonist-layoff/

Publishing | The 60th volume of Eiichiro Oda’s popular pirate manga One Piece sold more than 2 million copies in its first four days of release. It’s the first book to move more than 2 million copies in its first week of sales since the Japanese market survey company Oricon began reporting its charts in 2008. As we reported last week, this volume’s 3.4 million-copy first printing set a record, and propelled the series past the 200 million-copy mark

Now granted Japan has the greatest comic industry on Earth and this is a record but still...

3.4 million copies. In a country with a population 1/3 that of the US. We're celebrating if a US comic sells 100k.

Dang.

To be fair, the Japanese have produced far more popular comic book characters in recent memory than us Americas.

What are America's greatest comic book characters of the last ten years that we can point to with pride that can compete with Japanese manga of the last ten years?

WarOne wrote:

To be fair, the Japanese have produced far more popular comic book characters in recent memory than us Americas.

What are America's greatest comic book characters of the last ten years that we can point to with pride that can compete with Japanese manga of the last ten years?

I was going to say Spawn but then I remember that's 20 years

I'm old...

Scott Pilgrim seems to be the closest we've got. Adam Warren's Empowered is really good but not really popular.

Bone is that the last 10 years?

Checking...

Nope 1991

Invincible is jolly, jolly good but again not that popular, not 3 million copies or top 10 movie popular. Plus it's Superman with the serial numbers filed off.

But Walking Dead is new good and popular!

So there you go Walking Dead and Scott Pilgrim.

And Scott Pilgrim is a manga styled comic based on video games.

I've always hated superhero comics (except for Marshal Law).

To be fair, I dislike most manga too.

I've just started reading Hetalia Axis Powers. I'm half way through book 1 and I'm wondering WTF it is all supposed to be about.

What about that comic which is pretty popular and it's manga style but done by an American?

Kilkrazy wrote:And Scott Pilgrim is a manga styled comic based on video games.

I've always hated superhero comics (except for Marshal Law).

To be fair, I dislike most manga too.

I've just started reading Hetalia Axis Powers. I'm half way through book 1 and I'm wondering WTF it is all supposed to be about.

What about that comic which is pretty popular and it's manga style but done by an American?

There's no such thing as 'manga style' Japan has the largest most diverse comic industry on Earth. It's like saying there's an American style.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:There's no such thing as 'manga style' Japan has the largest most diverse comic industry on Earth. It's like saying there's an American style.

There kinda sorta is in a very loose sense. Manga broadly speaking, has certain characteristics that are common too it. So do the mainstream American comics (I'm mostly thinking of DC and Marvel).

However, both Manga and American comics are extremely diverse. So, classifications of 'manga style' aren't really non-existent. We just need to keep in mind that there will be many comics that don't fit it or deviate from it.

We couldn't easily come up with a large list of traits mainstream manga have in common, and the same with mainstream American comics.

Guys this is just trades. Monthlies are the engine that drives North American comics. Year to year analysis of monthly sales might be interesting, these are not.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Guys this is just trades. Monthlies are the engine that drives North American comics. Year to year analysis of monthly sales might be interesting, these are not.

There's plenty of analysis for monthlies as well.

Here's the latest for DC

http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/02/10/dc-comics-month-to-month-sales-december-2010/

The trade bookstore sales (which do not include most comic shops) are interesting because they show what 'civilians' are reading. People who don't even know who Gambit and Rogue are. Which is why it's interesting that Marvel is #6 among bookstores while #1 in comic shops.

The same site just put up one that combines the data, but I've not read it yet.

http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/02/11/what-were-the-top-selling-graphic-novels-of-2010/

Kid_Kyoto wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:And Scott Pilgrim is a manga styled comic based on video games.

I've always hated superhero comics (except for Marshal Law).

To be fair, I dislike most manga too.

I've just started reading Hetalia Axis Powers. I'm half way through book 1 and I'm wondering WTF it is all supposed to be about.

What about that comic which is pretty popular and it's manga style but done by an American?

There's no such thing as 'manga style' Japan has the largest most diverse comic industry on Earth. It's like saying there's an American style.

Of course there's a manga style. People are very familiar with it. It doesn't mean there is only one style in manga.

There's also an American style, and a British style, and a French style and a Spanish style. There are clear similarities of design, line and form in many national comic production.

Well, short of Maus and the occasional Batman book, the majority of my collection comes from Vertigo (and the majority of that by Neil Gaiman). Not a Marvel fan, and not exactly a superhero fan.

Scott Pilgrim looks interesting, but there are plenty of other comics that I'd want to read before that.

Namely, Pride of Baghdad, Lucifer, DMZ, and finishing from where I left off with 100 Bullets.

...funny enough, all Vertigo imprint.

I've got 'Maus'. Absolutely fething brilliant - I must read that again soon.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:

WarOne wrote:

To be fair, the Japanese have produced far more popular comic book characters in recent memory than us Americas.

What are America's greatest comic book characters of the last ten years that we can point to with pride that can compete with Japanese manga of the last ten years?

I was going to say Spawn but then I remember that's 20 years

I'm old...

Scott Pilgrim seems to be the closest we've got. Adam Warren's Empowered is really good but not really popular.

Bone is that the last 10 years?

Checking...

Nope 1991

Invincible is jolly, jolly good but again not that popular, not 3 million copies or top 10 movie popular. Plus it's Superman with the serial numbers filed off.

But Walking Dead is new good and popular!

So there you go Walking Dead and Scott Pilgrim.

Scott Pilgrim's Canadian so the "American" only really applies if you are meaning North American.

I know that I would buy a few DC TPB's, but I already own the monthly issues, so why bother?