Market report and year summary by comics historian Terry Hoknes of www.HoknesComics.com
Image Comics had an incredible year during 2013.
In total they had 54 new #1 issues released including ongoing series, mini-series, one-shots and re-numberings.
This chart only covers Jan-Nov as the Dec sales figures are not yet released until the new year.
Here we list and rank all of them and show the diverse and successful year that Image had.
This chart shows the sales figures for every issue released during 2013 of any new series started in 2013.
Sex was the most prolific new title with 8 issues released during the year.
Jupiters Legacy #1 comes out easily as the #1 best selling new Image comic of the year and the only new title with sales over 60,000 with a whopping 105,000 copies ordered due to 4 covers and a high profile writer and artist.
This chart not only shows what sold well and what didn’t but it also is very useful to see which books have kept their sales figures up and are likely to be the books that in the next year stay hot and could potentially rise in value. The main ingredient is constant and steady sales OR better yet increasing sales month to month. (The later is very rare in the comic business)
It is very common for #1 issues to be ordered higher than subsequent issues but after a few issues if the title is truly popular sales should level out. In the past this has happened to successful titles such as The Walking Dead and Saga.
But in 2013 there are no clear winners in that category. The strongest titles overall seem to include:
East Of West = sales of #4 were actually higher than #2 – very strong. Finally started dropping but still at about 65% of #1.
Sex continues to drop every single issue but the sales drop is fairly low and readership at #8 is still more than 50% of #1.
Five Ghosts = originally a mini-series but sales stayed very impressive and #3 sold as well as #1 which is almost unheard of. Once it was named as an ongoing series the sales have started to slowly drop but still higher than 60% of #1.
Todd The Ugliest Kid On Earth = originally a mini-series but sales stayed very impressive and #3 sold a 1,000 higher than #2. #1 was an instant sellout and shot up in value the same week of release. Once it was named as an ongoing series the sales have started to slowly drop but still higher than 60% of #1. However back issue sales have stayed strong also due to the fact that it was confirmed to be a future TV series.
A Voice In The Dark had the lowest sales of any new ongoing #1 this year. Either this means nobody liked it and sales are just going to keep dropping OR if it proves to be popular it has the greatest potential for price hikes as its literally the scarcest new series of the year.
Some big droppers in sales and not likely to show increases in the future include:
Ten Grand which has lost 40,000 in sales since #1.
Some of the ongoing series have dropped to as little as 25% print runs comparing to the #1 issue.
Some of these so far weaker dropping titles include: Sidekick and The Bounce.
Image Best Selling New Comics Of 2013
Thanks to John Jackson Miller at www.comichron.com for the initial Diamond sales figures data
You can see complete monthly Diamond sales chart data and more stats at his site !
I am always happy to hear your comments and thoughts/criticisms on any of my posts.
Terry Hoknes (author) of Hoknes Comics loves analyzing statistics and watching the growth and fall of comic titles over a period of time. He sells all of the latest hot back issue secondary market new comics and all new Diamond products at www.HoknesComics.com and also self-publishes a series of books called “Investing In Comic Books” that focus on the Golden, Silver and Bronze ages of comics. hoknes@hotmail.com Read more about these hot sold out comics at www.comicsheatingup.net
Sidekick I think is still good, I haven’t dropped it myself from my current pull list but Bounce got cut from my list. It was entertaining, now it’s just getting weird and seems to be drawn out, I lost interest quickly after #7, didn’t even pick up #8.
Ten Grand is another one I dropped myself. It started out strong, then just got weird along with the artwork in the latest issue. I don’t even think the title Ten Grand is relevant to the story line any longer.
I really like Jupiters Legacy but the time between issues is killing me. I almost have to go reread the previous ones just to get an idea of what’s going on again.
I picked up side kick and still haven’t read it. Bounce I still read but you are right, it is drug out and seems to cover a lot of the same ground in each issue. I dropped Ten Grand after the artist change last issue. I was in for Templesmith and that was about it. I got burned out on JMS when he was doing his other Joe’s comics, and then gave up when he was doing the Twelve.
Jupiter’s Legacy should not be taking this long to get an issue out. Ten months or so in and we have what, two issues, or is it three now.
Well, I recall Jupiters Legacy was suppose to be bi-monthly but yeah, #1 was in April and we are just now on issue #3. #4 was slated for January 2014 but we’ll see how that pans out. I do like a lot of Millar’s stuff but I don’t like his bi-monthly thing he’s got going on, I’m sure he loses a lot of readers with his titles being spanned out as much as they are.
Also to note, I like how even Image’s website is promoting the Giant Sized edition (Jupiters Legacy) to be released in December of 2013 yet we don’t even have issue 4 yet. 😉
Maybe Image is hiring, they really should get someone to keep their website updated more accurately. Instead of posted release dates for upcoming titles/issues (since they’re almost never right — except The Walking Dead), they should just put TBD until they know the exact date.