ICv2 White Paper - Navigating the New World of Comics

The ICv2 White Paper
Navigating the New World of Comics
February 2026

Our Agenda Today
• Introductions
• The evolution of comic sales reporting
• The new world of comics - a new high
• The new world of comics – comic stores leading
• The new world of comics – new life for periodicals
• The new world of comics – a new cohort of readers
• Navigating the new world
By Milton Griepp: MGriepp@ICv2.com
©2026 GCO, LLC. Do not reprint without permission.

ICv2 covers the categories that drive geek culture
• Hobby games—TCGs, Miniatures, Board and Card Games, RPGs
• Comics, graphic novels, and manga
• Showbiz and merch tied to geek culture properties

On the web: ICv2.com

Via email: ICv2 Daily Insider

In print: Internal Correspondence

ICv2 Pro: For Serious Users and Supporters

The Evolution of Comic Sales Reporting
• 80s and early 90s – The Capital City Distribution era
– Distributor best-seller lists, sales indexes
• 1996-2020 – the Pax Diamond era – indexes
• 00s - ICv2 innovates actual Diamond sell-in numbers
• 00s - BookScan reporting via ICv2
• 00s – ICv2 begins overall market size estimates
• 2020 - Diamond reporting collapses, the POS era begins
• The next step – multi-POS sales reporting

How We Build Our Model
• Comic store channel estimates built from trend analysis
based on ComicHub POS data and past market size
estimates from Diamond Comic Distributors analysis
• Circana BookScan Book Channel POS Data
– Subtract ComicHub data to avoid double-counting
– Adjust for titles miscategorized as graphic novels
– Account for book channel retailers not tracked by Circana,
Canada
• Estimates for book fairs, crowdfunding and newsstand

2025 – A New High!
• ICv2 estimates $2.2
billion in 2025 comics and
graphic novel sales in the
U.S. and Canada
• Exceeding Covid highs
• Three long-term trends
broken

Channel Breakdown
• Book channel = chains, online, independent bookstores,
Scholastic book fairs
• Comic stores = stores buying through direct market
• Other = crowdfunding, “newsstand”

Total Sales
$2,195

The New World – Comic Stores
• Book channel lead
narrowing
• Comic stores up
nearly 30%
• Breaks a 15-year trend
of faster growth in
book channel
• Can comic stores lead?

The New World –
Inside the Channel Numbers
• Comic stores up nearly identical percentages in comics
and graphic novels
• Book channel up low single digits, pulled down by book
fair decline
• Kids flat, manga up
• Crowdfunding up

Top 10 Graphic Novels in Bookstores -
Full Year 2025 (Circana BookScan)
• All East Asian
• Solo Leveling the only
non-manga
• Mostly media-driven
Rank Title Publisher
1 JUJUTSU KAISEN, VOL. 26 VIZ MEDIA
4 DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA, VOL. 1 VIZ MEDIA
5 ONE PIECE (OMNIBUS EDITION), VOL. 1 VIZ MEDIA
6 BERSERK DELUXE VOL. 1 DARK HORSE
7 SOLO LEVELING, VOL. 1 IZEPRESS
8 CHAINSAW MAN, VOL. 17 VIZ MEDIA
9 CHAINSAW MAN, VOL. 18 VIZ MEDIA
10 BLUELOCK VOL. 1 KODANSHA COMICS

Top 10 Graphic Novels in Comic Stores -
Full Year 2025 (ComicHub, via ICv2)
• DC crushing
graphic novel sales
in comic stores
• Digest editions
capturing new
generation
1 Absolute BatmanVol. 1 The Zoo DCEntertainment
2 DC Compact Edition Vol. 2 Batman: The Court of Owls DCEntertainment
3 DC Compact Edition Vol. 5 Batman: Hush DCEntertainment
4 DC Compact Edition Vol. 4 All-Star Superman DCEntertainment
5 Absolute Wonder Woman Vol. 1 The Last Amazon DCEntertainment
6 Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1 Married With Children Marvel Comics
7 Absolute SupermanVol. 1 Last Dust ofKrypton DCEntertainment
8 Supergirl WomanofTomorrow DCEntertainment
9 Invincible Digest Edition Vol. 1 (2023 Edition) Image Comics
10 DCCompact EditionVol. 1 Watchmen DCEntertainment

Top 10 American Adult Graphic Novels -
Full Year 2025 (Circana BookScan)
• Big dollar books rank
higher in book channel
• Media-driven rank
higher in book channel
1 TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: THE LAST RONIN HC IDW PUBLISHING
2 INVINCIBLE COMPENDIUM VOLUME 2 IMAGECOMICS
3 ABSOLUTE BATMAN VOL. 1: THE ZOO DCCOMICS
6 ALL-STAR SUPERMAN: DC COMPACT COMICS EDITION DCCOMICS
7 DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN [MARVEL PREMIER COLLECTION] MARVEL
8 BATMAN: HUSH: DCCOMPACT COMICS EDITION DCCOMICS
9
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN BY JONATHAN HICKMAN VOL. 1:
MARRIED WITH CHILDREN
MARVEL
10
BATMAN: THECOURT OF OWLS SAGA: DCCOMPACT COMICS
EDITION
DCCOMICS

Format Breakdown
• Comics = “periodicals”
• Graphic novels = anything sold in book format

The New World - Comics
• Comics growing
faster than
graphic novels
• Spread still over
2.5x

Top 10 Comics – Full Year 2025
(ComicHub, via ICv2)
• Absolute Batman the best-
selling new ongoing in
years
• Other Batman titles
drafting
• DC topped Q4 market
share
1 Marvel /DC- Deadpool /Batman(2025) #1 Marvel Comics
2 Batman #1 DCEntertainment
3 DC / Marvel - Batman / Deadpool (2025) #1 DCEntertainment
4 Invincible Universe Battle Beast #1 Image Comics
5 DC K.O. #1 (Of 4) DCEntertainment
6 Batman #158 (Batman Hush 2 #1) DCEntertainment
7 Absolute Batman#15 DCEntertainment
9 Absolute Flash #1 DCEntertainment

The New World – New Readers
• Absolute Batman bringing a new cohort of teen and young
adult, (majority) male readers, plus old readers re-
activated
• Marvel Ultimate, Invincible, Energon, manga
• Reversing long-term trend toward collectability as
primary purchase motivator
• New readers slowly diversifying purchases
• Milton’s Maxim: It’s Always What’s Between the Covers!

The New World – New Readers
• The new reader influx:
– A generation that read Graphix
– Manga a constant source of new readers, especially via anime
– A generation in which comic movies and TV shows were
ubiquitous

Back Issue Sales Robust
• Sales up dramatically
• DCs up more than Marvels, Marvels still dominant
• Still hard to keep keys in stock
• Tough to find the right price to have decent inventory

Navigating the Road Ahead
• Uniform expectations of another good year for comic
stores
• The keys –
– Feeding the Absolute frenzy (keeping books in print)
– Maximizing new reader engagement (what else do they buy)
– Lots of new people - what non-Absolute trends can be exploited

Navigating the Road Ahead – Nurturing
the Next Hit
• Small publisher adaptation to Diamond collapse
– Can the next Bone survive?
• The digital pipeline – digital first titles, webtoons, litRPG
• Crowdfunding

Top Crowdfunded Comics
• Comic crowdfunding great
for big titles – new records
• The path for smaller titles
Transformers Compendium 4,650,000
$
DungeonCrawler Carl (BackerKit) 2,625,000
$
Murder Drones 1,801,428
$
Heavy Metal 1,028,996
$
Top Crowdfunded Comics - 2025
G.I. Joe Compendium 3,790,000
$
Soul Reaver 1,496,557
$
Gargoyles 925,001
$
Top Crowdfunded Comics - 2024

Retailer Expectations – ICv2 Survey
• Categories retailers expect to grow the most in 2026
– Manga
– Adult graphic novels
– Superhero comics
– Non-superhero Comics
• Category retailers expect to shrink the most in 2026
– Superhero comics
– Licensed merch
• ICv2 survey January 2026, allowed multiple categories

Over-arching Trends
• We live in a gambling society: meme stocks, crypto,
online sports betting, blind bags, TCGs
• Loss of confidence in distribution – shorter supply chains
• Independent retail is flourishing – comic stores, game
stores, bookstores
• Licensing is exploding
• Loss of confidence in consistent trade policies

Navigating 2026
• Maxing growth
– Expanding the community
– The right inventory
– An industry that elevates new talent
– Riding media trends
• Managing risks
– Caution on blind bags
– Shorter supply chains
– Varied distribution

ICv2 White Paper - Navigating the New World of Comics

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