Comics Retailing

that sentiment: “More people are buying comics than ever before.”
And Susanne König, co-owner of Powerhouse Books, trumpeted sales increases for
comics and graphic novels, particularly for younger readers, in all three of her
Brooklyn stores.

Hot titles and holiday sellers

Manga continued its remarkable performance last year. Reissues of independent
manga and “any horror manga” thrived at Skylight, per Hemming. Space Cadets
capitalized on the release of a new My Hero Academia series box set timed for the
holidays. Other stores report similarly strong performance.
“In the graphic novel space, manga continued to dominate,” Haines says. “Manga
accounted for 30% of our graphic novels sales last year, which was an increase of 5%
over 2021. In fact, with sales increasing across the board over last year, our manga
sales actually doubled from 2021 to 2022.”
However, retailers once again reported that supply chain troubles made it hard to
consistently stock the booming category, though the conditions are improving. And
with exploding options, it was also a challenge to simply determine the right series
to carry. Brower says he found that “variety is not the answer.” Despite the deluge in
first volumes launching each month, Brower believes the store could do just as well

Top 20 Adult Comics Bestsellers, 2022

Manga continues to dominate, and fan-favorite series like Chainsaw Man lead the way.

RANK TITLE AUTHOR IMPRINT TOTAL UNITS

1 The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse Charlie Mackesy HarperOne 450,116
2 Chainsaw Man #1 Tatsuki Fujimoto Viz 276,841
3 Spy x Family #1 Tatsuya Endo Viz 271,397
4 Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba #1 Koyoharu Gotouge Viz 264,852
5 Chainsaw Man #2 Tatsuki Fujimoto Viz 223,779
6 Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba— Hirano/Gotouge Viz 214,670
Stories of Water and Flame
7 Jujutsu Kaisen 0 Gege Akutami Viz 181,874
8 My Hero Academia Kohei Horikoshi Viz 179,977
9 Chainsaw Man #3 Tatsuki Fujimoto Viz 178,537
10 Chainsaw Man #4 Tatsuki Fujimoto Viz 174,050
11 Spy x Family #2 Tatsuya Endo Viz 173,890
12 Chainsaw Man #10 Tatsuki Fujimoto Viz 173,059
13 Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba #2 Koyoharu Gotouge Viz 170,197
14 Jujutsu Kaisen #1 Gege Akutami Viz 160,792
15 Chainsaw Man #9 Tatsuki Fujimoto Viz 159,823
16 Chainsaw Man #11 Tatsuki Fujimoto Viz 157,003
17 Berserk Deluxe #1 Kentaro Miura Dark Horse Manga 145,848
18 Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba #3 Koyoharu Gotouge Viz 143,236
19 Chainsaw Man #5 Tatsuki Fujimoto Viz 134,429
20 Spy x Family #7 Tatsuya Endo Viz 125,274

INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY NPD BOOKSCAN. COPYRIGHT © 2023 THE NPD GROUP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
 Comics Retailing Comics Retailing

Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man leading the way with debuts of new volumes. The Susanne König, co-owner of
Powerhouse Books in Brooklyn.
return of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’s Saga series was also warmly received.
But Brower, in contrast, saw the single-issue comics format lag. He listed key genres König reports that while “paperbacks
and categories and how they performed at his long-standing fan-base home base in are flying off the shelves,” hardcovers
the Midwest, and only three declined: superheroes, single-issue comics, and merchan- have become “a harder sell.” And
dise like posters and enamel pins. Handselling single-issue titles used to be easy for Hemming says that Skylight has had to
Brower and his team, he says, but has grown increasingly difficult. stop carrying an increasing number of
titles simply due to increased ship-
A changing industry and economy ping costs. Haines notes that increased
Despite strong sales, retailers faced headwinds and feared fallout from industry and carrying costs have left The Dragon’s
world economic shifts. The instability in the larger economic environment was often profit margins “slashed,” limiting the
cited by booksellers as a cause of concern. An increase in costs, both for consumers and traction and gains from increased
the retailers themselves, forced stores to shift priorities. revenue numbers.
Brower brought up the fact that
comics retail packaging supplies—like bags and boards used to protect single-issue
comics—have seen three price increases in the past two years (after zero in the previous
decade). While customers understand products being out of stock, frequent price
increases lead to contentious conversations with loyal collectors.
Comics supplies aren’t the only products increasing in price. Some shops bristled
at the unpredictable costs of single-issue comics themselves. Customers continue to
be willing to pay as much as $10.99 for one (albeit oversize) single-issue Superman
comic, but the concern is that these prices can have a ripple effect. Paying that much
for a single release could come at the expense of comics the consumer may have other-
Top 20 Children’s and Young Adult wise added to their order. With comics often being nonreturnable in the direct market,

Comics Bestsellers, 2022

that situation leaves shops with inventory that’s unlikely to sell.
The good news, though, is that the supply chain “definitely improved” in 2022,
Scholastic series Dog Man and Cat Kid own the top of chart. according to König—and most retailers agree. But delayed shipments still occurred,
sometimes resulting in mammoth bills when stacked on top of regular weekly
RANK TITLE AUTHOR IMPRINT TOTAL UNITS
deliveries.
1 On Purpose (Cat Kid Comic Club #3) Dav Pilkey Graphix 623,397 Hemming found that full-color products, including comics and art books, “are still
2 Perspectives (Cat Kid Comic Club #2) Dav Pilkey Graphix 400,376 seeing significant delays.” King notes that this can impact planning, especially con-
3 Collaborations (Cat Kid Comic Club #4) Dav Pilkey Graphix 325,842 sidering some products were so delayed they were assumed canceled.
The three largest North American distributors of comics—Penguin Random House,
4 Mothering Heights (Dog Man #10) Dav Pilkey Graphix 285,345
Diamond Comic Distributors, and Lunar Distribution—seem to have steadied their
5 The Fourth Closet (Five Nights at Freddy’s #3) Scott Cawthon Graphix 283,455
operations compared to 2021, according to the retailers surveyed. But there’s still
6 Good-bye Stacey, Good-bye (The Baby-Sitters Club #11) Martin/Epstein Graphix 255,269 progress to be made. Haines—who doubles as the president of ComicsPRO, a trade
7 Heartstopper #1 Alice Oseman Graphix 252,884 association for comics retailers—describes each distributor as “emotionally and finan-
8 Grime and Punishment (Dog Man #9) Dav Pilkey Graphix 252,776 cially invested in helping retailers,” while also admitting that “not one of them is
9 The Brightest Night (Wings of Fire #5) Sutherland/Holmes Graphix 247,524 perfect.” Minor gripes about each distributor compound when retailers toggle between
systems; the shift to a multi-distributor model in recent years has resulted in more
10 Cat Kid Comic Club (Cat Kid Comic Club #1) Dav Pilkey Graphix 239,092
work for stores.
11 For Whom the Ball Rolls (Dog Man #7) Dav Pilkey Graphix 227,652
As Brower notes, “Regardless of the best intentions, there are too many different
12 The Twisted Ones (Five Nights at Freddy’s #2) Scott Cawthon Graphix 211,868 ways of doing the same thing, on every level, and it makes retail so much more
13 The Silver Eyes (Five Nights at Freddy’s #1) Scott Cawthon Graphix 207,085 laborious than ever before.”
14 Fetch-22 (Dog Man #8) Dav Pilkey Graphix 187,527
15 Heartstopper #2 Alice Oseman Graphix 186,650 More books, not enough time
One industry trend all survey respondents noted is the increased output of comics and
16 Dog Man #1 Dav Pilkey Graphix 181,901
graphic novels, as publishers followed sales growth with investment in new imprints
17 Heartstopper #4 Alice Oseman Graphix 180,793
and titles. For some, the change has been beneficial—a rising tide of variety that lifts
18 The Dragonet Prophecy (Wings of Fire #1) Sutherland/Holmes Graphix 161,043 all boats. King is thrilled to serve a more diverse selection of readers, and Haines says
19 Unleashed (Dog Man #2) Dav Pilkey Graphix 156,243 that diversity “means there are books on my shelf to satisfy any customer.”
20 Lord of the Fleas (Dog Man #5) Dav Pilkey Graphix 152,935 Others noted that ordering takes longer, as store buyers navigate and educate them-
selves about the expanded offerings and variant covers. Differentiating between two
INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY NPD BOOKSCAN. COPYRIGHT © 2023 THE NPD GROUP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.