Fantastic Four issue #587, which saw the death of a major character in the series, was the only comic to break the 100,000 copies sales mark in the Diamond January sales chart, according to ICv2. Sales of comic books were down 22% year-on-year, while graphic novels suffered too at 16.5%. At 115,448, it was around 43,000 copies ahead of the number two comic, Brightest Day #17.
So, not great news for the comic book industry. Could it be further closures of comic book stores across the States that hurt sales in this way, or possibly more readers migrating to digital downloads? Perhaps it’ll take some big names and events to bring readers back – something on the scale of the Batman ‘Hush’ arc, or Marvel’s Civil War.
ICv2 notes that The Dark Knight, Batman, Inc. and Green Lantern’s absence hurt sales, somewhat. Still, the big publishers probably could’ve used a better start to the year.
