October IDW comics sales figures: more end-of-month shenanigans?

Boards? What are boards? I read my comics!

It's time for us to have another glance at Comichron's sales figures for the My Little Pony comics published by IDW. There were three new releases last month: issue #12 of the main series, the Equestria Girls annual (numbered #1, but who knows whether there'll ever be another?) and the My Little Pony Tales anthology of the first six micro-series comics. The first two at least came out very late in the month (the 30th, to be precise) and I think that's affected the numbers, as happened with August's figures. Main series #12 comes in at no. 109 (down 30 places) and and shifted:

23,686

This is a headline fall of 27.8%, as well as being the comic's lowest ever ranking, but I don't think it's a fair comparison because of that late-month release date. I'm almost certain that several thousand more copies will end up being attributed to the start of September. So a better comparison would be with August, where the same thing happened, and set against that the fall is a mere 3.2%. And even on the headline numbers, issue #12 was still the best-selling IDW comic, albeit only by 25 copies from Samurai Jack #1. Looking at the EqG annual now, that one shifted:

18,614

Both that number and its chart position (no. 141) are very respectable for such a controversial sub-franchise, especially given that the book's $7.99 cover price in the US was higher (in most cases much higher) than every single comic placed above it. The aforementioned Samurai Jack debut was the only IDW publication that beat it; for reference, Powerpuff Girls #2 managed 14,749 — still very respectable for this publisher, but also something of an indication that MLP remains exceptional. So all in all, I'm still pretty satisfied with things where the comics are concerned.

Moving on to graphic novels, we start with a slight surprise: top Pony book, at no. 11 with 4,501 sales, was The Magic Begins, the book based on the S1 premiere with captioned screenshots from the show. My Little Pony Tales debuted at no. 18 selling 3,644, giving MLP books the top two spots as far as IDW graphic novels are concerned. On top of that, the main series anthologies just keep on giving: vol. 1 added another 1,249 at no. 86 and may well break the 10,000 barrier before the year is out. Meanwhile, vol. 2's no. 180 spot and 754 copies sold has that book knocking on the door of 5,000-seller status.

Oh, and the Mini Pony Collector's Guide had a good month, hitting no. 8 in the books chart (no figures available). November's big releases (main-series issue #13 and the Spike micro) happen in mid-month, so we should be back to conventional number-crunching this time next month. I expect the underlying gentle slide to continue, since after all that's what happens to most comics. Looking ahead, it will be fascinating to see how well next year's Friends Forever team-up series sells. The idea has had a very positive reception in most places, so I'm optimistic that they'll do well in the comic shops. I hope so.