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 April 2019. All numbers presented in this article are from the April 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.
DC and TBU Overall 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
According to Comichron April 2019 tied with December 2018 as the lowest number of issues (52) put out by DC since 1991. As opposed to Marvel which put out more than double that. Avengers: Endgame coming out in theaters also potentially gave Marvel quite the sales boost this month.
Main TBU Books
The Batman Who Laughs is increasing in sales. The average is down quite a bit, but that is due to the #1 selling incredibly high. Next month will paint a better picture of improvement over average sales. Batman sales are up as well. Detective Comics sales are going back down after the massive high that we saw for issue #1000. The reorders of said #1000 did very well, at almost 46K. Catwoman is getting better on average. Batgirl has improved quite a bit from the previous month, though it is staying steady on average. The best news for our Bat-Kids is Red Hood: Outlaw, which has seen significant improvement overall. Nightwing sales have brought Nightwing to the bottom of the sales.
Secondary TBU Books
Batman Beyond continues to be the only book in the Secondary TBU book list but saw minor improvements to sales.
Main DCU Books
The only books of serious note are Young Justice and Deathstroke. Young Justice numbers have plummeted substantially, looking fifteen percent of sales from the previous month and thirty-five percent from the last three issue average. Deathstroke, on the other hand, is seeing a significant increase due to the Teen Titans crossover as evidenced by the very similar sales numbers. Teen Titans is also doing better than the last few issues. Adventures of the Super Sons continues to live in the Danger Zone, but with only three more issues to go, it will just ride the wave until it ends. And, it’s still doing better than Batman Beyond.
Overall, sales are kind of all over the place with some books seeing slight increases while other titles are plummeting. The largest comparison is that DC’s market share took a huge hit after being inflated by Detective Comics #1000 last month and thus the TBU Books dropped about six percent in market share as well. The numbers were released on schedule this month, so I will see you in two weeks as we dive into the next TBU Numbers Spotlight, Batman: Who is the Best Selling Villain?.
