The direct market is growing, ICv2 CEO Milton Griepp revealed during the ICv2 Insider Talks: Direct Market Summit at New York Comic Con on October 12, but the gains have not been distributed equally.
Overall, dollar sales in the comics store channel nearly doubled between 2010 and 2022, with a gradual increase until 2016, then a slow decline until 2020, when sales dropped sharply due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After that, though, sales climbed steeply from 2020 to 2021 and somewhat less so from 2021 to 2022.
The picture is a mixed one, however. Inflation rose by 41% between 2010 and 2022, while comic book sales were up about 40%, so periodical comic sales barely kept pace with inflation. On the other hand, graphic novel sales were 4.6 times as large in 2022 as in 2010. “All of the growth in comic stores, at least relative to inflation, was in graphic novels,” Griepp concluded.
Publishers such as DSTLRY and Oni Press have been experimenting with new formats and packaging for periodical comics, with larger trim sizes, and page counts and shorter series. “People seem to be wanting more pages and a nicer presentation,” Griepp noted.
Graphic novels have the potential to fuel growth in the direct market, and retailers can nurture that by building a community of readers with shared tastes, he said. Unlike big-box stores, comic shops can offer curation and build a sense of authenticity, and they can expand by learning more about manga, webtoons, and kids’ graphic novels and building those collections as well.
And in a market that was built on nonreturnability, Griepp said it may be time to consider whether moving to bookstore terms, with longer credit and returnability, would allow comic shops to compete in a changing market.