Welcome back to TBU By The Numbers. Here we take a look at the sales numbers for DC comics, in particular, the TBU books, as outlined by the TBU Roundups for March 2019. All numbers presented in this article are from the March 2019 Comichron page. These numbers only represent comics distributed by Diamond to the United States comic book stores. They do not include outside the US, digital, newsstand, or any other distribution method.
Overall March 2019 Numbers
* Includes ALL DC comic sales, including reorders
** TBU titles are defined by that month’s releases as featured on TBU Weekly Roundup articles and does NOT include reorders
Though March was a great month for DC, snagging the top six of the top ten book sales for the month, it looks like the number of total books sales is down 1% from March of 2018. However, the higher book prices and the large 500K+ sales of Detective Comics brought the sales to $43.5 million, up 13% from last year.
Main TBU Books
Unsurprisingly, Detective Comics topped the charts at #1 and almost 527K units sold, outselling Action Comics #1000 by over 77K. According to Comichron, this places it at the #4 highest selling book of the decade, and that’s before reorders are tallied up. In honor of this milestone, this month’s Numbers Spotlight will be dedicated to the times that Detective Comics outsold Batman. Harley Quinn and Catwoman are doing very well, increasing in sales quite significantly from their previous issue and on average. Batgirl continues to struggle, which is a shame because it has been very good. Red Hood: Outlaw is still in the danger zone, staying below 20K for the second month in the row.
Secondary TBU Books
Batman Beyond continues to be the only book in the Secondary TBU book list, staying in the below 20K for the fifth month. It is up just a little, but not enough to be statistically significant.
Main DCU Books
Doomsday Clock and Heroes in Crisis continue to stay in the top ten, though sales continue to drop. Justice League and Teen Titans are seeing great improvements in sales, and Deathstroke seems to be doing well in the current Teen Titans crossover. Adventures of the Super Sons continues its steady decline in sales, much to this writer’s heartache.
Overall, sales are decent with about half the books seeing improvements. Though the number of books right now is pretty low, we will be seeing an increase in TBU books this summer and hopefully a revitalization of the numbers. Since the March numbers were delayed due to Diamond not releasing them as early as they normally do, I’ll see you next week as we dive into the next TBU by the Numbers Spotlight, Detective Comics: A History of Topping Batman Sales.
