The Four Color Media Monitor

Denver's 7-ABC reported local comic retailers suffered slumps in sales over the past year or so, though they're trying to keep on going:

In April 2024, ComicsPRO released a comics retailer survey, which found a drop in retail comic book sales for 2023.

Below is a portion of the survey provided to Denver7 from ComicsPRO's Executive Director Marco Davanzo.

Sales:

• 54% of retailers reported gross sales of $300,000 or less in 2023, while 18% of retailers reported gross sales over $1 million.
• Overall, sales were down in 2023. The majority of comic book stores (69%) reported lower gross sales in 2023 than in 2022. A bright spot, however, is that 22% of stores reported higher sales in 2023 than in 2022.
• When comparing 2023 sales to 2019 (pre-pandemic), fewer stores experienced a sales decline. 54% of comic book stores reported lower gross sales in 2023 than in 2019.
• Sales of new comics were down in 73% of comic shops in 2023 vs 2022, while graphic novel sales were down in 65% of comic shops, with a decline of between 1% and 50% reported.

Mile High Comics here in Denver is one of the largest comic book retail stores in the country. Owner Chuck Rozanski says he did have a drop in gross sales in 2023. However, it was not as high as ComicPRO's survey.

"Our gross sales today are less than our gross sales were when we bought this building (2011). But that's because we voluntarily abandoned the new comic book model, got out of that business as much as possible, and we focused on collector's items, where we're not buying them through distributors. We're not buying them from the publishers. We're just buying them from people," Rozanski said.

Rozanski has worked in the comics retail for about 54 years. He believes that there are a few factors to why comic book sales have been on a decline — one reason being the core comic book readers are aging out. Also younger comic book readers prefer to consume comics on devices rather than purchasing a physical copy.

Yawn. Rozanski, a leftist who took some woke directions in past years, is only avoiding the more challenging questions and answers, like whether the quality of the stories is horrible. And when we're talking about mainstream, it most definitely is. Another damaging factor is the continued use of company wide crossovers, which bring all stand-alone storytelling to a screeching halt, all for the sake of some absurd tale that doesn't even provide anything healthy to think about. Yet guys like Rozanski refuse to address such topics, if at all.

And without clear sales figures, what if Rozanski is trying to downplay the slumps at his end of the industry? These declines in sales are obviously sad, but when mainstream storytelling quality is as poor as it's become today, you can't be surprised if some effect is to be had on sales receipts. When will any retailers avoiding these issues be willing to acknowlege that?

Labels: msm propaganda, sales