Purchasing Decisions

This page presents basic findings around respondents' purchasing decisions and means of acquiring comic books.

Factors Influencing Respondents' Comic Book Purchases

When asked to identify all of the factors which influenced their comics purchases, the most common responses were the creative team (e.g. the writer, artist, colorist attached to a book), the premise of the story, and recommendations from their friends.

The collectability (e.g. limited edition, variant covers, etc.) of a particular item was the least popular response, with the previews catalogue being a similarly unpopular influence on comics purchases.

Among the "other" factors identified, a concern for diversity & representation was commonly identified. "Buzz" around a particular work was also cited as an important purchasing factor.

Format Preferences

All Formats Purchased

When asked to identify all of the types of comics respondents purchase, the most popular format (~30%) was the trade paperback. Single issues were also very popular (~28%) among respondents, with hardcover volumes (~21%) and digital comics (~20%) receiving somewhat middling results.

Preferred Format

When asked to identify their preferred way to read comics, trade paperbacks were the favored format (~45%) among respondents. While single issues were still somewhat popular (~30%), hardcover volumes (~13%) and digital comics (~12%) held much smaller proportions of the population when considering preference.

Access and Acquisition

Acquiring Comics

When considering all of the ways that participants could acquire comics, the majority of respondents (~35%) preferred to get their comics from an LCS as they came out. A fair portion (~25%) utilized digital services or apps to access their comics, with a similar proportion of respondents (~18%) attending free comic book day for their books. Only about 10% of respondents utilized a monthly subscription service (through their LCS) to acquire books. While BitTorrent was generally the least popular means of acquiring books, it is possible that under-reporting of similar activities (e.g. engaging with scan sites, downloading pdfs, etc.) is occurring.

Respondents who selected "other" commonly indicated that they preferred to wait for a trade paperback edition before purchasing a book.

Preferred way to Acquire Comics

When asked what their preferred way to acquire comics was, the most popular response (~ 60%) was still purchasing from a retailer. Digital services maintained a fair share of the preferences, with roughly 22% of respondents indicating a preference for digital comics. Free comic book day dropped to roughly 0.2%, indicating that while this event may be popular among respondents, it is not a preferred avenue for acquiring books by any stretch.

Preferred Way to Acquire Print Comics

Among respondents who read print comics, the majority (~78%) preferred to acquire print comics from a local shop. A small share (~17%) of respondents preferred to order their print comics through the mail. While an even smaller share (~3%) of participants identified "other" ways to acquire print comics as their favorite, approximately 2% of respondents do not purchase print comics at all.

Digital Services Used

Among respondents who read digital comics, the majority (~66%) utilized Comixology.

While approximately 20% of participants utilized the Marvel Comics app, only approximately 3% of participants utilized DC's app to read comics. Other avenues for reading comics accounted for roughly 10% of responses, with the most popular option being a Kindle e-reader.

Publishers Read

When considering which publishers were popular among respondents, Image Comics (~24%) and Marvel Comics (~22%) were indicated as the top two choices. This is not particularly surprising due to the nature of data collection: MCM was primarily publishing works through Image Comics while data collection was ongoing, and both Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick (co-owners of MCM) held strong contingents of readers from their previous work on books for Marvel (the most commonly identified being DeConnick's run of Captain Marvel and Fraction's run of Hawkeye).

While DC Comics is somewhat popular (~12%) among respondents, it is possible that the proportion of DC Comics readers would be higher if this data reflected more recent publications from MCM (particularly DeConnick's 2019 work on DC's Aquaman).

Since this data was produced under partnership with MCM and the survey was primarily distributed by MCM, this particular finding is heavily skewed towards publishers who worked with MCM during (or before) the time of data collection.

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