Marvel & DC Keep Losing Readers
10 of the 20 best-selling manga in America last year were Volume 1s. Manga grew 11% while graphic novels overall grew 5%. And when Marvel and DC do build a front door, like Absolute Batman, DC Compact, and Ultimate Spider-Man, it works. So why do they still treat it as the exception? Here's what US publishers refuse to learn from manga, and what it costs comic shops.
Sources: Circana BookScan 2025 (via ICv2), Comichron.
Chapters
0:00 Half of manga's Top 20 are Volume 1s
0:50 The manga wall vs. the Big Two shelf
2:06 The problem, in numbers
3:19 Point 1: The front door is the product
4:54 Point 2: Bookstores reward it
6:20 Point 3: When the Big Two build a front door, it works
7:51 The counterargument: where do you start with Batman?
9:18 What to watch for
10:15 Bottom line + 3 questions for you
12:02 Outro
Music: "Wallpaper" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comicalopinions.substack.com
More episodes from "Comical Opinions: Comics Reviews for Image, Dynamite, Zenescope, And More"
Don't miss an episode of “Comical Opinions: Comics Reviews for Image, Dynamite, Zenescope, And More” and subscribe to it in the GetPodcast app.
