More than six out of ten comic bookstores in Italy (66%) were born after 2011. Only 18%, on the other hand, opened before 2000. Certainly those who bet on it did not look wrong judging by the data of the survey of the AIE, the Italian Publishers Association, carried out on the comics sector, conducted in collaboration with Lucca Crea and presented during the Lucca Comics & Games. In 2021, sales of comics (55 million) increased by 95% compared to the previous year in trade channels and by 44% in comic bookstores.
The leap in sales and copies
The trend also continues in 2022: the first numbers referring only to traditional trade channels (47.1 million euros in sales compared to 13.7 million in 2019) indicate a percentage growth on the previous year of 23.7% (and 245.4% between 2022 and 2019). The market share, which was 2.5% in 2019 and in 2022, jumped to 7.4%. The market share in copies is even higher (12.4%) with numbers of copies sold in the first six months of the year to 5.35 million compared to 1.28 million in 2019 (+ 318.3%). .
Phenomenon beyond the niche
Perhaps it is better – indeed it is certainly better, especially for publishers who have to smell the progress of the business – to leave behind the overly abused scheme of comics as a product that is too niche or in any case for kids, without the cultural value that can have a any book. The numbers produced by the Italian Publishers Association (AIE) and presented yesterday are eloquent in this sense. The phenomenon is growing and is attracting the attention of analysts and observers who agree, however, in starting from the consideration that in recent years it has impacted – and there are few doubts that it will continue to impact – the increase in the cultural proposal derived directly or indirectly from comics : Japanese anime, Hollywood movies or TV series. Just to give an example, just think of the success of Zerocalcare’s “Rip along the edges” on Netflix and how this could generate a virtuous circle, even if the road, seeing that that happens in other countries such as France for example, still appears long.
Aie: “Comics increasingly important for the sector”
The survey is part of a broader research that Aie is carrying out on comics, its readers, production and distribution channels. Emanuele Di Giorgi, coordinator of Aie’s Comics & Graphic Novels Commission, commented: «The survey we are presenting defines even more precisely the increasingly important role that comics play in Italian publishing. Aie has for years embarked on a path to enhance the sector and we are happy to be able to present today this new survey at an event of such great importance as Lucca Comics & Games, with which we have undertaken an important collaboration since last year, which has in this investigation one of the results achieved “.
The web joins the libraries
Nearly one in two comic bookstores (46%) sells both new and used books. Overall, the average assortment is 5,500 titles and 18,600 copies. In addition to the physical store, which on average is spread over an area of 99 square meters, 67% of comic bookstores also have a website: of these, 81% make online sales, directly from their website (42% ) or by relying on other platforms (39%). As for the presence on social networks, the most widespread is Facebook (all the libraries consulted use it), ahead of Instagram (94%). Very far behind TikTok (18%), Twitter (12%), Twitch (6%) and Telegram (3%).