North American Comics Market Hits $1.085 Billion in 2016

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From Publishers Weekly:

Combined graphic novel and comics sales in North America grew 5% to $1.085 billion in 2016, a $55 million increase over the $1.03 billion reported last year.

. . . .

Led by the continuing sales growth of book-format graphic novels (which rose to $590 million, from $350 million in 2015), the $1.085 billion figure represents the combined sales of book-format graphic novels, traditional comics periodicals ($405 million), and digital download-to-own comics ($90 million).

. . . .

Milton Griepp, CEO of pop culture new site ICv2.com, cited the ongoing growth of graphic novels as key to the increase: “This represents growth in the broadest part of the market, where increased variety of content is being found by new audiences for comics, including kids and women.”

Link to the rest at Publishers Weekly

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4 thoughts on “North American Comics Market Hits $1.085 Billion in 2016”

  2. Yeah, the real reason revenues are so high is because graphic novels are so expensive that I think the major sales are to libraries.

    Sarcasm aside, there is a fairly large selection of graphic novels in my county. I’ve read a fair few graphic novels that I would otherwise never have purchased.

  3. I couldn’t find a hint in the OP, but I’m curious if any attempt was made to measure the internet based comic market — the artists who work online and sell collections directly from their sites. There are quite a few of them, and some sell a lot of books. This side of the industry got a big boost in the 90s when distributors (notably Diamond) decided they weren’t going to carry anything that wasn’t a big seller. The little guys decided to look into this new internet thing people were talking about.

    I was unsuccessful trying to trace the reports mentioned in the OP — strange how often that happens — but I did come across this:

    DIRECT MARKET COMIC SALES DOWN 21% IN JUNE
    YTD Down 6.77%
    Posted by ICv2 on July 14, 2017 @ 1:43 pm CT

    Direct market (comic store channel) sales of comics and graphic novels dropped 21.34% in June compared to the same month in 2016, according to numbers released by Diamond Comic Distributors today.

    • I think those are the brick and mortar numbers, right? Which would be different than overall market?

      Graphic novels are all I get anymore. I don’t go for the singles. I wait to see if something is decent, then get the trade collection (which counts as a graphic novel).

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