The Doctor Has Left the Citadel

Comichron released the July 2017 estimated sales today and the news for Star Wars titles is both good and bad.  The good is the main Star Wars title is still Marvel's top selling ongoing series and the Star Wars titles compare very well to other comics with all seven Star Wars comics ranking in the top 100.  The bad news is, overall, sales are down with Marvel sales being down the most compared to a year ago.

Title	Issue	Monthly Rank	Estimated Sales	Last Estimated Sales	Percent Change
Star Wars	33	7	74,969	70,184	+6.82%
Darth Vader	3	12	59,522	66,416	-10.38%
Darth Maul	5	13	57,805	58,240	-0.75%
Doctor Aphra	9	42	38,209	50,216	-23.91%
Doctor Aphra	10	45	37,481	38,209	-1.91%
Poe Dameron	17	59	34,250	34,826	-1.65%
Rogue One	4	93	23,826	28,256	-15.68%

Interestingly, the main Star Wars title saw a modest sales increase post-Screaming Citadel and is the only title in July to do so.  Star Wars #33 has a rare standalone story, but there was not a lot of promotion for the story, so it is unclear why there was a bump in sales.  It is astonishing that for nearly three years Star Wars has remained Marvel's top selling ongoing title, even with the decline in its sales over that time.  It does feel like that reign is about to come to an end; Marvel is relaunching many of their superhero titles with Marvel Legacy in September which promises renewed focus on their core superheroes.  It will be interesting to see if Star Wars is still on top at the end of the year.

Darth Vader sales fell over 10% and the title is selling about where it would be selling if the first series had continued.  I understand with the change in creator, focus, and timeline why Marvel decided to end the title and start over again with a new #1, but Marvel would have actually sold more books during that 6 month hiatus if they had changed directions with the title in-flight.  Every issue of this second series has gone back to print and it looks like retailers are still under ordering this title.  I know I said this last month and it did not happen for issue #3, but I suspect we will see higher number for the fourth issue.

Doctor Aphra had a double ship month, shedding all the gains it made during the Screaming Citadel plus some more and it is back to within 3000+ units of Poe Dameron's sales which has seven more issues under it's belt.  Issue #10 sold 3,000 less issues than issue #6 just before the event.  Darth Vader is featured prominently on the covers for issue #12 and 13, so hopefully the potential reunion of these two characters gives this title another sales boost.  I know my interest in the title is low due to disliking the whole Ordu Aspectu and Rur story line, so I'm hoping they wrap it up soon and give Aphra more promising adventures.

Poe Dameron #17 saw a slight loss in unit sales but it is still selling better than the lowest selling issue #15.

Darth Maul #5 also saw a slight loss in unit sales and this series has held its numbers better than any of the other mini-series so far.  Since these character-focused mini-series are doing so well for Marvel, expect to see more of them.  I'd like to see Cad Bane, Aurra Sing, Boba Fett, BB-8, and R2-D2 receive the mini-series treatment.

Rogue One #4 tumbled another 15.68% and one has to wonder if Marvel will even bother with a mini-series adaptation for the next movie.  I suspect they make up for these low sales when the collection(s) are released.  You'll notice that Marvel does not published variant covers for their lower selling issues, including Rogue One #4, presumably to save money on the production costs.

In August IDW's all-age Star Wars title, Star Wars Adventures, begins.  We should also have numbers for Mace Windu #1 and Doctor Aphra Annual #1.

The following table shows the total number of Star Wars units sold per month since January 2015 along with the average number of sales per issue.

Month/Year	Total Estimated Sales	# Issues	Average Sale per Issue
January 2015	985,976	1	985,976
February 2015	526,451	3	175,484
March 2015	596,299	4	149,075
April 2015	537,812	4	134,453
May 2015	324,835	3	108,278
June 2015	396,931	4	99,232
July 2015	597,023	5	119,404
August 2015	430,241	5	86,048
September 2015	551,880	5	110,376
October 2015	953,289	10	95,329
November 2015	1,003,954	8	125,494
December 2015	507,545	6	84,591
January 2016	465,698	5	93,139
February 2016	288,355	4	72,088
March 2016	355,554	5	71,110
April 2016	533,976	5	106,795
May 2016	299,189	4	74,797
June 2016	545,833	6	90,972
July 2016	359,166	5	71,833
August 2016	322,499	5	64,500
September 2016	174,420	3	58,140
October 2016	339,778	5	67,956
November 2016	269,975	5	53,995
December 2016	303,886	4	75,972
January 2017	161,014	3	53,671
February 2017	262,889	4	65,722
March 2017	214,603	4	53,650
April 2017	274,262	5	54,852
May 2017	285,363	6	47,560
June 2017	495,588	9	55,065
July 2017	326,062	7	46,580

The average sale per issue of 46,580, the lowest so far, would rank 29th on the top 300 chart for the month of July.  Star Wars trade paperbacks, reprint titles, and reorders are not accounted for with these numbers.  The Star Wars trade paperbacks are strong sellers.

Take a look at the Star Wars Sales Estimate Chart and please read the blog posting July 2017 comics order estimates online: Dark Days: The Casting moves 128k, Monstress Vol. 2 tops 10k.