Comments | noscans_daily: DC, number four publisher?

fiddlingfrog in noscans_daily

DC, number four publisher?

May 12, 2014 15:34

I stopped by my new local comic store on Saturday and was browsing while the owner talked with another customer (I ended up getting the Thrilling Adventure Hour graphic novel). Anyways, it turns out at that at this shop, DC is the number four selling publisher. Marvel's on top, mostly on Spider-Man and X-Men titles, Image comes in second, and IDW ( Read more... )

image comics, marvel, dc

Comments 6

strannik01 May 13 2014, 04:41:05 UTC

I don't know. In my local shops, while Dark Horse, Image, IDW and other indies are gaining ground, I don't think they dislodged DC from one of the top two positions. This is based purely on the shelf space each publisher takes

dragonbat2006 May 13 2014, 04:53:30 UTC

I've gone digital, but my own purchases have shifted mainly to Marvel and indies. I'm only reading about 4 DC titles now.

icon_uk May 17 2014, 14:59:36 UTC

Interesting, do you know if that's be the case long term or is a recent development, and might it in any way reflect the tastes of the owners?

fiddlingfrog May 17 2014, 18:40:28 UTC

Hard to tell on both counts; it was only my second time in that store (the first being on Free Comic Book Day) and it wasn't my conversation so I missed some of it as I browsed.

My impression was that DC's fall had been going on for at least a few months. One thing the owner mentioned was that Nightwing had been one of his more popular DC titles, but with it changing to Grayson soon about half of his customers who bought it told him to stop.

As for the shop it seems pretty well balanced. It doesn't scream "Indie bookstore" to me, but it's not a big-publishers-only type of place either. Marvel and DC each have a long shelf with all the recent issues and trades on them and all the other publishers share a single (slightly longer) shelf. There's a giant Spider-Man hanging from the ceiling in the back and most of the back issue bins seemed to be Marvel or DC. While I was there a middle-aged lady came in for her weekly pull-list and a frat-looking college kid came in looking for Lumberjanes.

q99 May 19 2014, 05:40:39 UTC

I'd think it'd have to be a reflection of either the local market (which can vary a lot) or the owners. DC, overall, is sliding but still maintains a 17% gap over Image.

q99 May 19 2014, 05:38:32 UTC

In mine, it's definitely still Marvel DC 1 and 2. Some of the local shops are subscribers-only with transformers, though MLP is popular everywhere.

I think in one of the shops I visit, it's around even between DC and Marvel maybe even DC ahead (just going by comments from the staff- I'll ask next time I'm there), but in general Marvel has the lead.