Comic Sales Figures Prove To Marvel: Diversity Isn’t The Problem

The topic of diversity in comic books is a contentious one – whether it’s female-fronted comic titles, gender-bending established characters, ethnicity changes in big-screen adaptations, or some other approach to creating a more inclusive comic world. Controversies continue to dog the comic book giants – from the white savior-ness of Iron Fist, the shocking lack of a female-fronted Marvel movie after ten years of films, the upskirting of Wonder Woman in Justice League, the gender-bending of legacy heroes like Thor and Wolverine… there have been so many controversies in the past decade that it becomes impossible to list them all.

One thing is clear, however: there is some serious debate over whether these controversies even ‘matter’, or if they represent only a tiny fragment of the comic book fandom. Take a deep breath and a dive into the comments sections on any of these topics, and you’ll find a huge number of fans who consider efforts to make comics more diverse to be useless pandering, not legitimate changes. Unfortunately, it seems that the executives at publishers and studios often agree with them; the resistance to female-fronted super-movies is well documented, and several newer and more diverse comic titles have been canceled recently, as execs claim that the sales just don’t support them.

Does the data actually support the claim that fans don’t want diverse comic titles, though? On the surface, it does often seem that the more ‘diverse’ titles in particular aren’t selling, and that’s what really matters to the publishers… but a little more time looking at the numbers and how they relate to the reading habits of the fandoms paints a very different picture.

COMIC EXECUTIVES CLAIM THAT FANS JUST DON’T WANT DIVERSITY

The March 2018 solicitations revealed the cancellation of several titles that fit the ‘diverse’ label, including Gwenpool, Luke Cage, Iceman, Generation X, and America. In short, almost every title on the chopping block featured female, POC, or LGBT+ leads and/or creative teams – not a great move for Marvel. These straight-up cancellations aren’t the only casualties, either. Jane Foster as Thor is unlikely to live past the spring, as Marvel is teasing the death of the character in ‘The Death Of The Mighty Thor’, with fans assuming that Thor Odinson will re-take the title once Jane is no more. X-23 as Wolverine may also be on the way out, or at least, may be losing the Wolverine title as the original Wolverine is coming back to the Marvel universe.

Executives at Marvel have given some conflicting reasons for these cancellations and changes, which has raised eyebrows as fans wonder if there is really something so rotten at the publisher that they would intentionally ditch diverse comics. Responding to the backlash over the March 2018 solicitations, Marvel chief creative officer Joe Quesada took to Twitter to try and reassure fans that the cancellations were based purely on sales figures.

Marvel VP of Sales, David Gabriel, has also previously claimed that fans just don’t want to buy these titles, saying ‘What we heard was that people didn’t want any more diversity. They didn’t want female characters out there. I don’t know that that’s really true, but that’s what we saw in sales’. His statement was seemingly backed up in a retailer-only panel at NYCC, too, where several comic sellers allegedly complained that the newer titles including ‘men kissing men’ or gender-swapped heroes weren’t selling as well as their other titles. It’s increasingly clear that comic publishers and sellers are starting to believe that diversity doesn’t sell – but which figures are they looking at, and are those figures reliable indicators of what fans really want?

THE SALES FIGURES PAINT A DIFFERENT PICTURE

On the surface, it may seem that the top comic sales back up the idea that ‘diverse’ titles aren’t selling. Diamond Comic Distributors‘ data is most commonly used to see which titles are selling, and their single-issue figures show a trend toward less diverse titles doing well. Overall in 2017, the top sellers included Marvel Legacy #1, Peter Parker: Spectacular Spider-Man #1, Secret Empire and Doomsday, with only one female-fronted title making it into the top ten (Phoenix Resurrection: The Return Of Jean Grey #1). Month to month throughout the year, a similar trend emerges. Over the past twelve months, Diamond’s data shows only and handful of ‘diverse’ titles in the top ten sellers; The Mighty Thor #700, Harley Quinn 25th Anniversary Special, and The Return of Jean Grey.

However, there are two major issues with considering only the top single-issue sellers when making decisions on what fans want to see. First of all, the majority of top-selling comics are always the true heavy hitters: Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, Justice League, Avengers, etc. Expecting any newer title with a lesser-known hero at the helm to do as well as these goliaths is simply unrealistic – and were that the expectation for all titles, a much wider range would be getting the chop. In addition, these sales figures only take into account one thing: single issue sales. Trades and digital subscribers are not included in this data, and the sales of trade paperbacks paint a very different story.

For the year as a whole, the top sellers in trade paperback format are overwhelmingly more diverse titles; three of the top sellers are volumes of Saga, with Paper Girls and Monstress also making an appearance. Of the titles that traditionally sell well in single issue format, only Batman is found on the top ten list for the year, and only one trade makes it into that list. Throughout the year, trade sales continue to support the idea that diverse comics do well, appearing in the top ten every month; Wonder Woman, Captain Phasma, Rat Queens, Harley Quinn, DC SuperHero Girls, Paper Girls, Thor… compared to the single issue sales, trade paperbacks are killing it when it comes to diversity. This isn’t a secret, either – it has long been accepted that titles like The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and Ms Marvel (which has even made it to the coveted top-seller spot and onto the New York Times bestseller lists) find the majority of their success in the form of trade sales. The deeper that we delve into the figures, the clearer it becomes: diversity sells, but in trade format, not single issue.

THE ISSUE WITH SINGLE ISSUES

Publishers and retailers traditionally ignore the sales of trade paperbacks when it comes to deciding whether or not a specific title is doing well. For decades, the single issue has been king, even though those sales figures are far from helpful. For one thing, these sales are based on what a store orders, rather than what actually leaves the shelves; and while comic book retailers have to be capable of predicting what is going to sell, some of the retailer comments at that disastrous NYCC panel suggest that seller bias and prejudice definitely has an impact on orders. In addition, these figures ignore all the ways that fans read comics if they aren’t interested in collecting individual issues. Trade paperbacks are a big part of the comic market, and with digital comic subscriptions like Marvel Unlimited and Comixology gaining in popularity, digital readership is increasingly important – and overlooked.

Single issue comic sales are also falling overall. Although Marvel was the top comic book publisher of 2017, with a dollar share of 36.36% (ahead of DC’s 30.07%), sales for the publisher have been plummeting. Sales figures for August 2017 revealed a 25% drop from August 2016, prompting lots of concerned think-pieces, but ignoring the fact that this drop is balanced in part by the increased number of readers purchasing digital copies and trades – especially trades from sources like bookstores, libraries and online retailers.

NEW WAYS OF READING COMICS

These alternative ways of accessing comics shouldn’t be underestimated, especially when it comes to the minority/diversity audience. Despite the fact that there are just as many female comic book fans as male ones (based on comic con attendance figures and theater audiences), comics are still often seen as a male pursuit, and bricks-and-mortar comic book shops are often intimidating places for minority geeks. Larger and more progressive stores are welcoming minorities with open arms, but geekdom is filled with stories of minorities being made to feel uncomfortable or unwelcome in a traditional comic book retailer. Comic book stores can also be confusing for newer fans – unlike bookstores and libraries, single issues aren’t simply lined up on a shelf in alphabetical order, and finding what they want can be a daunting prospect for newbies. Even if someone is aware of the concept of a pull-list, finding the confidence to ask a surly store owner about setting one up can simply be too intimidating.

Compare that to trades or digital subscriptions, and it’s easy to see why many new or minority fans would rather pick up a trade at a bookstore or subscribe to a digital service; it’s just easier, and entertainment shouldn’t involve running a gauntlet. For new fans, or fans who aren’t comfortable in comic book stores, the more social aspects of single issue comics (like new comic book day, or events like Free Comic Book Day) are actually off-putting, rather than encouraging, and carry none of the nostalgia that long-time collectors will associate with picking up a single issue.

HOW THE LATEST DATA CHANGES COMICS

Despite comic book sales traditionally being more concerned with single issue than trades, it’s time for that to change. Trade paperbacks are increasingly important as a marker of what sells, with 2016 seeing a 12% jump in trade sales over 2015 – a period when single issue sales fell. Even 2017, which saw both trades and single issue sales fall compared to 2016, trades were down 9.38%, compared to single issues dropping 10.4%. With trades seemingly doing better than single issues, comic publishers need to start taking these (and digital readers) into account when considering whether or not diversity sells – especially when minority readers are potentially more likely to prefer trades over single issues to begin with.

The same data that lends credence to Marvel execs’ statements that readers don’t want diversity… shows clearly that those readers who prefer trades do want diversity. This may not be enough to save all the characters and titles that Marvel has been scrapping lately, but it should be enough to give them pause – and at the very least, stop them canceling titles before the first trade is even released (which happened with Iceman). There’s no doubt that the comic industry is changing rapidly – and if Marvel wants to keep up, they’re going to have to balance out the introduction of diverse characters with a new way of looking at comic sales. One that reflects their more diverse readers, and not just the old guard buying through bricks and mortar stores each week.