Looking at some of 2024’s best-selling comic books
Word Balloons #1248: In our shop, DC’s moves made waves
Though there are a few days left before we count out 2024, this is the last Word Balloons column for the year. So I’m going to take a look at some of our best-sellers at Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman, OK, and try to provide some context.
We’ve always been a store that does well when DC does well, and the success of the Absolute line definitely spilled over into our sales here, as mentioned in Thursday’s update.
We moved over to the Comic Shop Assistant Point of Sale program in March. (For stores considering updating their point-of-sale system, I highly recommend it.) Since that time, our top 6 comics have been all Absolute issues or tie-ins, counting the “All In” Special from DC, which was the first appearance of the Absolute Universe, in which Darkseid has made a world of greater difficulty for the heroes. The first two issues of “Absolute Batman” took the top 2 spots.
Also having success for us this year were the “Energon” line from Skybound, with the G.I. Joe and Transformers titles, and the “Ultimate” titles from Marvel, particularly “Ultimate Spider-Man,” which features a world in which the Maker has altered the universe to eliminate many of the heroes. (Thematically, this at DC’s Absolute line sound similar – I imagine it’s a coincidence, but an interesting one.) “Transformers,” “Cobra Commander,” and “Ultimate Spider-Man” all landed titles in the top 30. The other Energon titles weren’t too far behind.
Another Image line with comics in our top 30 is Geoff Johns and company's “Ghost Machine” line of titles. The top-seller there is “Rook: Exodus” #1, with “Redcoat” #1 just behind, both cracking the top 30 titles for the year.
From DC’s main line, “Batman,” “Batman and Robin: Year One,” and the “Absolute Power” miniseries, which set up the “All In” Special, rounded out the top 30 titles.
Overall, our new comics sales look to be up more than 10 percent in 2024 versus 2023.
Next week, I’ll take a deeper look at our book and trade paperback sales for the year and reflect on the moves that spurred sales in that category.
Matthew Price, matthew@matthewlprice.com, has written about the comics industry for more than two decades. He is the co-owner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman, Oklahoma.