Fake news comic journo Heidi MacDonald for ComicsBeat did damage control for the mainstream comic industry this week, declaring victory for her friends in the industry against the hordes of comic shop owners coming out of the woodwork to talk to Mark Millar about how badly comics are performing. In the article “Comics Aren’t Dying, But They Are Changing – And That’s Got People Scared,” MacDonald gushes about a report claiming comic sales doubled from 2020 to 2021 and grew even more in 2022, but her commentary is extremely misleading.
In the period between 2020 and 2021, something changed, and it wasn’t just people who were buying nearly a billion dollars more of comics from Marvel and DC like the industry wants you to believe. In 2021, ICv2 stated that “analysts’ methodology for estimating sales” changed. While they used to report actual sales numbers through Diamond Distribution, new distributors don’t report their numbers and use estimates to create their reports.
On top of merely estimating comic shop sales, they’ve changed by adding in far more manga, YA Books like Dogman from Scholastic, and crowdfunds into the mix to make the numbers look bigger, even though all of these categories existed before—just not in the sales report.
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Looking into the ICv2 2021 and 2022 reports, one finds that periodicals from companies like Marvel and DC Comics fell in 2021 sales and that in 2022, the growth peaked around the middle of the year, and sales began a decline industry-wide.
That didn’t stop mainstream industry professionals from echoing MacDonald’s write-up to try to dunk on Millar and the comic retailers who issued strong warnings about the content being produced by mainstream American comics.
Former Nightwing writer Tim Seeley shared the article, stating, “There’s some great stuff in here, but what sticks with me is the idea that we need more ongoing series, not more mini-series. Stores! I do NOT want to do these short series. I would LOVE for H/S or The Alternates or Local Man to go on for a very long time.”
He continues in a long thread about his ideas for ongoing series, but the reality of the industry is that series aren’t lasting very long. Back in June, Steve Orlando admitted “sales are struggling,” stating it was difficult for a series to reach 15 issues, even with a property coming off of a Disney+ TV Series like Scarlet Witch. Long series don’t pencil, echoed by Marvel in a recent Avengers, Inc. series being solicited as ongoing and canceled after five issues.
Embattled IDW editor Heather Antos gave the most tone-deaf take of all, dishonestly posting the ICv2 chart without context to a commenter who said, “American comic sales are declining.” She said, “You’re welcome,” acting like somehow she is contributing to growth when IDW Publishing has cut their entire creator-owned line and engaged in massive layoffs this year to stay afloat.
Mainstream industry professionals don’t want to admit that they’re on the Titanic and they’ve already hit the iceberg. That iceberg is manga and YA Books that don’t act as current event American politics lectures to their fans, thinly disguised with a superhero skin. Unless things change like the retailers who complained to Mark Millar want, we’ll only see comic sales get to a point where comic shops go out of business.
What do you think of Heidi MacDonald’s comic sales report for the mainstream comic industry? Leave a comment and let us know.
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People are so fed up with this crap that they’re willing to entertain themselves with media from a completely different country .. think about that. Same’s happening with movies now, too. Godzilla roflstomped all over Disney. lol
The change of methodology must be pointed out whenever these special individuals try to claim everything is fine, because Manga was never counted in comic sales before, they’d usually be counted with book sales, seeing as most bookstore and chain book stores do carry manga. Worth noting that another thing that muddies the water is that Children’s books with more than 5 pictures and Light Novels are now being counted as comic sales (I have never seen English LNs placed next to their respective genre placements in bookstores. They’re always with Manga.)
On the plus side, kudos to the Iron Age. That 100 million dollar increase in 2022 (or more), I feel, is entirely thanks to the rise of crowdfunding and neopatronage.