ICv2 released Diamond’s sales figures for April yesterday, as well as an analysis of sales for the first quarter of 2008. The news is mixed: sales of pamphlet comics were down 7% from the first quarter of 2007, sales of graphic novels were up 5%, and the overall market was down 5%. (Keep in mind that Diamond distributes to comics stores.) If this seems mathematically odd, remember that floppies make up the lion’s share of that market.
It was a particularly lean month for manga, however, with only 7 titles making the the top 100 selling graphic novels list. Take a look; as always, the number in parentheses before the title is the book’s rank on the overall graphic novels chart; the number in parens after the title is the number of volumes sold in April.
1. (19) Path of the Assassin, vol. 10 (3,009)
2. (59) Vampire Knight, vol. 4 (1,786)
3. (60) InuYasha, vol. 33 (1,764)
4. (70) Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Adventure, vol. 1 (1,572)
4. (71) Oh My Goddess, vol. 8 (1,529)
5. (72) Witchblade Takeru Manga, vol. 1 (1,522)
6. (90) Street Fighter III, vol. 2 (1,252)
7. (100) Hellgate: London, vol. 1 (1,195)
Not an impressive list, is it? There were no new volumes of Naruto, Bleach, or Fruits Basket to break into the top ten, but what strikes me is what an uninteresting group of titles this is: Some long-running series, a couple of fighting game tie-ins, a franchise kids’ book (that is also a game tie-in). Vampire Knight is OK, but don’t get me started on that Witchblade thing.
April was a relatively lean month for manga, but there were still plenty of worthwhile titles: the last volume of Dragon Head; the debut of Hee Jung Park’s lovely Hotel Africa; new volumes of After School Nightmare, School Rumble, Monster, and The Drifting Classroom; the charmingly titled Selfish Mr. Mermaid; and the gorgeous Speed Racer: Mach Go Go Go box set. Apparently none of those broke 1,200 copies in comics stores nationwide. Is that because the comics stores aren’t carrying them or because people are buying them elsewhere? Perhaps it’s a combination of both, but it looks like there was a missed opportunity here.