THREAD: The new ICV2/Comichron sales report generated a lot of questions, so here's a catchall thread for some answers. Most of what's been asked is answered directly in the report somewhere (read it!), but some other answers are easy enough, or have been addressed in past years.
Q: Who are you guys?
A: @ICV2 is a pop-culture business site run by Milton Griepp, who ran the first true sales charts in the 1980s. @comichron is an archive of historical circulation data curated by me. I ran the trade magazine for the industry for a decade and still keep track.
Q: How do the different categories compare, pre-pandemic?
A: There are cross-time tracks on both channel and format to be found in the article: bit.ly/2021ComicsGNs
There are also links to the previous years' articles and a summary of past data at comichron.com/yearlycomicssa…
Q: Why don't you report units as well as dollars?
A: One goal of the report is examining much money exists in the publishing part of the medium — as opposed to licensing or the aftermarket, which adds more. But another reason is the underlying units vary widely in price. (cont'd)
The report includes everything from $1 sampler edition comics to $175 hardcovers. So unit-level analyses are better done within specific categories, such as our Direct Market reports, which separate comics from graphic novels: comichron.com/monthlycomicss…
Q: Are there breakdowns by genre within the categories of comics and graphic novels sold?
A: @ICV2 does some breakdown articles, usually appearing later after the main one. Last year's manga feature was here:
icv2.com/articles/marke…
Q: When did you start including manga?
A: From the start, when North American publishers began publishing translated and reformatted versions for the domestic market. @VIZMedia's very first issue made Milton's Capital City sales charts in May 1987.
Q: Have manga had a big impact on the North American market before?
A: The #1 comic book in 1999 was the first issue of the first Pokémon series. It sold a million copies, but most of those sold in toy stores in bagged reprints, so they didn't make the comic shop charts. (cont'd)
Manga had a major boom in the decade of the 2000s, but took a hit at the turn of the decade when most mall music and video stores closed, along with Borders.
Rebounding in the 2010s, manga's 2021 growth was unprecedented. (But comics that weren't manga also grew dramatically.)
Q: Where do manga get counted in the report?
A: With graphic novels. After the late 2000s shakeout, manga in magazine format mostly went away in favor of bound editions.
That's why the "comic books" category's sales growth in 2021 can be said to be wholly unrelated to manga.
Q: Are kids' books like Dog Man just in the book channel?
A: Not at all. Comic shops do big business in Scholastic's titles, but they buy them direct from the publisher to get a better discount, so Diamond's charts never reflect it.
And this speaks to another dynamic... (cont'd)
…an increasing amount of channel migration is underway for graphic novels. Random House distributes Marvel comics to comics shops, but also sells lots of manga — and those sales wouldn't be visible if you're just looking at Diamond charts. Our reports account for this crossover.
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