AvX Powers Marvel To Number One Spot In April

[Cavemold]

Ew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dupont2005]

Literature is the art of written work, period. Any attempt to further define it as a descriptor of inherent quality in said work is semantic bullshit. Believe me, I'm the last person to get on Cavetroll's side in an argument, but come on dude.

If the written work is a strict deadline periodical and not the "art of written work" does it still count? Are newspapers literature? How about The National Enquirer? The Weekly World News?

[Donald M.]

I see where you're going with this. Since most superhero comics are written on a strict deadline, if other strict deadline periodicals do not count as "literature" it stands to reason that neither do most superhero comics. The problem there is, the answer to all of your questions is yes.

Written work is literature. Superhero comics are literature.

The fact that superhero comics are literature does not diminish the importance of literature or of great literary works any more than the existence of Freddy Got Fingered diminishes the importance of Citizen Kane.

[Paradox]

Slam_Bradley talks about evil empires!:

So where do you come down in the big Random House vs. Bantam Books debate? Because who wins that battle is crucial to life.

Doubleday, muthafucka! And anyone who thinks differently is WRONG!!!!!!

[Nova2814.1]

Anyways.....

In the hopes of facilitating a more... balanced... discussion, I've prepared some line charts. Sorry, they were all out of bar charts and pie charts.

Using the comparative statistics that Diamond has published since October 2010, I've graphed the comparative monthly and quarterly sales of comics & graphic novels combined since October 2009. The Monthly Sales Graph is for sales up to April 2012, and the Quarterly Sales Graph is for sales up to Quarter One 2012 (i.e. January to March).

This doesn't show the actual or estimated sales, but it shows how sales have been performing in comparison to sales in September 2010. So, for every 100 units (comics & graphic novels) sold in September 2010, there were 93.11 sold in October 2010, 82 sold in May 2011, 282.96 in Quarter 3 2010, and so on.

I've also included Marvel's and DC's sales results for the same time frame, again using overall market sales in October 2010 as a basis. I determined these using the market share percentages that Diamond publishes. Because the publisher market shares includes sales of magazines, but the comparative statistics don't, there is a small margin for error (around 2%) in the results. Diamond publish a range of comparative statistics so I was able to cross check the overall market changes, and nearly all came within 0.1% accuracy. One came to within 0.5%, which is close enough for me. . If anyone spots any errors, let me know.

And please remember, these are only sales results in comic shops served by Diamond US. There are a ton of other markets out there, so please don't think that this proves any points one way or the other. Just consider it an interesting presentation of the sales results and as a good indication of how the market and the two main publishers are doing.

Monthly


Quarterly

[thehod]

Well I like Asterix, and thats sold 325 million copies. So I win.


Whilst we're all engaged in illogical, tenious and irrelevant arguements, that is.

[Steward Ace]

Well I like Asterix, and thats sold 325 million copies. So I win.


Whilst we're all engaged in illogical, tenious and irrelevant arguements, that is.

I'm an Archie man, myself. A hugely successful comics publisher that gets no love because there's no spandex in it's books. I'm fairly certain that if I advocate for them, others will see the logic in my argument and name them the number one publisher.

More to the point, I'm pretty sure Marvel, DC, and Archie all made their payroll this month. Hooray for them.

[Jeff Brady]

i hope that helps.

Unfortunately, quite the opposite.

[the4thpip]

I think it's fun to cheer one team over the other.
But then, I go to football stadiums on the weekends sometimes and yell till my throat is sore.