Horror comics are a growing presence in the direct market, as indy hits such as Something Is Killing the Children and W0rldTr33 are joined by Oni Press’s new EC comics and Skybound’s (Image Comics) Universal Monsters miniseries.
To look at trends in single-issue horror comics, ICv2 compared the sales of horror comics by retailers using the ComicHub POS system during the period May 1 – August 15, 2024 to the same period in 2023, limiting the search to comics with substantial sales.
Within that sample, unit sales of horror comics increased year over year by 13% and dollar sales by 17%, better than comics as a whole during that period. This is true despite the fact that the number of horror titles actually dropped during the same period and the top-selling comic of 2024 had lower sales than the top seller of 2023. The category still grew because sales were spread out among a number of titles rather than a handful of best-sellers.
One factor that remained constant year over year: the popularity of James Tynion IV, whose W0rldTr33 (published by Image Comics) and Something Is Killing the Children (published by BOOM! Studios) are chart-toppers: The top five titles in summer 2023 were four issues of W0rldTr33 and one of SIKTC, while three issues of SIKTC were in the top five of summer 2024. Tynion is also the writer of House of Slaughter (a SIKTC spinoff), The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos (Dark Horse Comics), Deviant (Image Comics), and Nice House by the Sea as well as Sandman Universe titles for DC Comics.
Indy comics such as SIKTC and W0rldTr33 still dominate the horror category, but 2024 saw the entry of two legacy horror franchises: Skybound’s Universal Monsters series (see “Skybound Kicks Off ‘Universal Monsters’ License“) and Oni’s EC comics (see “Oni to Launch New EC Comics Line“). These are both selling well so far. Marvel’s Alien and Predator series, on the other hand, appear to have declined in popularity.
Image Comics had the most horror titles and many of the best sellers, including not only W0rldTr33 and Universal Monsters but also The Walking Dead. In terms of dollar sales, Image had the highest share of horror comics publishers in both 2024 and 2023, with BOOM! Studios the runner-up.
This comes as the face of horror comics is changing. Only two of Oni Press’s new EC comics, EC Epitaphs from the Abyss #1, released on July 24, 2024, and EC Cruel Universe #1, which streeted on August 7, have launched to date, with more to come (see “Oni Press Expands EC Line“). Also new to the category is DSTLRY, which began publishing in July 2023 and has two horror titles, Blasfamous and White Boat, on the summer 2024 chart. And it’s unclear how Tynion’s founding of Tiny Onion, with production company seed funding (see “James Tynion IV Launches Tiny Onion“), will change the landscape for horror comics going forward.
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Source: ICv2
