Remember that whole hoopla that followed when Buffy did it with fellow slayer Satsu? Well, the assertion of some people that it was just a marketing gimmick made me extra curious about the comics’ sales, especially the effect of Issue #12. The Diamond Comic Distibutors Top #300 list for March 2008 has just come out, and they are the biggest in North America. In the absence of more complete data, I used this as a benchmark for my graphs. OK, here I go on geek mode.

Each month here corresponds to the release of an issue, and the monthly data you see here are for that issue only (not cumulative sales). Now, still remember the story arcs?

• #1 - #4 : The Long Road Home (Mar-Jun 2007)
• #5 : The Chain (July 2007)
• #6 - #9 : No Future for You (Sep-Dec 2007)
• #10 : Anywhere But Here (Jan 2008)
• #11 : A Beautiful Sunset (Feb 2008)
• #12 - #15 : Wolves at the Gate (Mar-Jun 2008)

Looking at Buffy’s rankings as a whole, it’s actually pretty impressive, hovering from Top 6 to Top 14. The first 50 titles on the charts are usually dominated by Marvel and DC comics, and so having a Dark Horse (pun intended) sneak that high sticks out like a sore thumb. Scott Allie must give Joss the nicest birthday presents.

However, great as it is to rank high, it’s all relative. A better indicator of a comic’s success is its sales volume (most of the titles sell for $2.99, BTW). Here we can see that Season 8 sales have been on a downward trend (the numbers near the points indicate the issue), but that’s to be expected. Usually, the excitement around the release of a series generates a lot of buzz, and first issues are usually collector’s items. The test is how well Buffy can retain its readership.

Issue #12 worked in that it stopped the comics from sliding further onto the slippery slope. In fact, in a month of industry-wide weak comics sales, Buffy is one of only two titles which increased its number of copies sold, albeit by only a small margin. I guess we can add that to the slayer’s power: resistance to gravity. How long will it hold?

To further put things in perspective, here’s a graph of the sales volume of the #1 ranked comics per month. Remember what I said about ranking being all relative? Buffy jumped to #6 in the chart for March 2008, but the leading title (Dark Tower: Long Road Home) didn’t do that well to begin with. Curiously, all of the #1 titles for god-knows-how-long come from Marvel. They range from Captain America, to Thor, to World War Hulk, and a lot of them are first issue releases.

It’s easy to see that even the top sellers aren’t selling that much anymore. I think it’s fair to say that Buffy’s downward slope is partially affected by the overall comic book trend. There’s no cause for alarm, though, as for the rest of the year, several movies will come out based on comic book characters: Iron Man and Watchmen, for example. It should make for brisk sales, especially if they become successful in the box office.

As much as I’d love to see a new Buffy movie, I’m not pinning my hopes of it happening anytime soon. At least I have the Buffy comics to keep me entertained ’til 2010.