Comics Still Selling Well in Booktrade Despite Coronavirus Pandemic
/With the Direct Market effectively shuttered due to Diamond Comic Distributors' shutdown and several state mandates, the booktrade has become the defacto primary distribution channel for comic book publishers including Marvel, DC, BOOM! Studios, and VIZ Media.
ICv2's Milton Griepp has organized a report of booktrade sales in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. According to figures from Bookscan, March 2020's sales for the top 20 kids graphic novel titles "were actually up substantially over" March 2019 and that the top 20 adult graphic novels were "similar" to those from this point last year.
But how?
While Diamond has been shutdown for the past two weeks, several publishers use other distributors for bookstores. BOOM! Studios, for example, uses Simon & Schuster.