Super No More? Comic Book Sales Drop Among Retailers

According to an article by CosmicBookNews.com, first quarter sales among DC and Marvel titles have retailers worried about the future of comic book stores.

One of the retailers mentioned, Brian Hibbs, who is a regular contributor to ComicBookResources.com says in his recent article regarding his sales “weakest first quarters of product that I’ve seen in 26 years of selling comics”.

Another retailer Big Bang Comics from Ireland recently tweeted “We have never seen so many people coming in and cancelling “all Marvel” or “all DC” books in their pull lists. It happens LOADS”.

A few reasons that both retailers agree on as to why the decrease in sales is 1) The continuous re-launching of titles and 2) the pressure to keep up with the movies and to match story-lines accordingly.

As a comic book purchaser myself, I agree the material within the comic books do not come close to the story-lines and characters from 20 years ago. “Deadpool” was first introduced 25 years ago in New Mutants 98 and his popularity has been steadily on the rise; will it be another 25 years before Marvel and DC introduce the next big thing in comics?