Welcome back to TBU By The Numbers. Here we take a look at the sales numbers for DC Comics, in particular, the books TBU considers Bat-Books from December 2019. All numbers presented in this article are from the December 2019 Comichron page. These numbers only represent comics distributed by Diamond to the United States comic book stores. They do not include sales 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 and does NOT include reorders
Main TBU Books
All market positions adjusted to include the issues featuring a higher price for card stock covers
Things aren’t looking super great for our TBU in December, but let’s look at the positives first. Three of the Top 10 selling issues (adjusted for card stock sales) were main TBU Bat-Books: Batman #85, Batman #84, and Harley Quinn: Villain of the Year #1 coming in at #5, #6, and #8, respectively.
Batman #85 went up a little bit from the previous week, but overall readership is going down. Detective Comics #1017 also isn’t doing too bad, staying steady from the previous month.
Now for the bad news. The largest drops are Batman/Superman, Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy, and Catwoman, which all fell in and around 11K. Batman Universe and Gotham City Monsters are technically in the cancellation zone, but both are limited series with the former having its final issue this month and the latter only having two more issues to go.
Secondary TBU Books
All market positions adjusted to include the issues featuring a higher price for cardstock covers
The Good news first. Three of the Top 10 selling issues (adjusted for card stock sales) were secondary TBU books. Doomsday Clock #12, Batman: Last Knight On Earth #3, and Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child #1, coming in at #1, #3, and #4 respectively.
Doomsday Clock wrapped up! And it finished strong, too. Sales went up for the last issue, and overall total monthly sales only went down 1%, starting at 119K and finishing at 118K. That is a feat in and of itself for a book series. Of course, one could argue the series did not do what it set out to do, but this is neither the time nor the place to rant.
None of the books that came out in December are in the cancellation zone, though the Batwoman giant didn’t even break 10K.
Starting this month we won’t be reporting the numbers for DCU books anymore, as we are not currently covering them on the site. Beginning next month, we are going to divide things up a little differently, so be on the lookout for that in next month’s report.
