Tuesday, August 17, 2004

July, by the (not-so-good) numbers: ICv2.com reports that dollar sales on comics were flat in July, increasing just .2 percent overall -- and that's thanks to a 1 percent increase in graphic-novel sales. The retailer website contends, "The market improved by even that amount only because of an increase in the average cover price of comics from $2.80 to $2.91 per comic." July also saw a drop in piece sales, with just two titles in the Top 25 -- Avengers #500 and Spectacular Spider-Man #17 -- seeing an increase. Sales of the No. 1 book, 143,712 for Superman/Batman #11, were the lowest for a No. 1 title since February.

Another telling sign of a weak month is that the bottom title on the Top 300 list sold an estimated 1,187 copies, down from 1,332 in June. A breakdown of the Top 100 graphic novels can be found here.