Comic shops are having a very good year. At New York Comic Con’s Retailer Day on Wednesday, October 7, Atom Freeman of Prana Direct Market Solutions told retailers that same-store revenue at the comic shops it tracks rose 25.9% in the third quarter of 2026 compared with the same quarter last year, as Bleeding Cool reports.
Prana runs point-of-sale software for comic shops, so its numbers come straight from store registers. The comparison only uses shops that have a full prior-year quarter in the system. That group has grown through the year, from 40 stores for the first-quarter comparison to 68 for the second quarter and 82 for the third. Those 82 shops rang up $17.8 million in sales in Q3.
The growth has been building all year. Same-store sales rose 16.5% in Q1 and 19.9% in Q2 before Q3’s jump. In the third quarter, transactions were up 18.6%, and the average purchase rose 5.2%, the first increase in basket size this year. Freeman said a handful of large stores drove the early gains, but by the second quarter the median shop was ahead too.
Trading cards and collectible card games were the biggest driver, accounting for 36% of the new dollars. Books and graphic novels were next at 22%, and periodical comics added 13%. Single issues are still the largest product category in shops, but their share of sales slipped from 30.3% to 26.7% because other categories grew faster. Games, back issues, collectibles and toys, and supplies also contributed.
Freeman’s data showed larger stores pulling ahead in categories where buying power and allocations matter, like cards and toys, while mid-sized shops kept pace in comics, back issues, and graphic novels. Wednesday remained the busiest sales day, but Friday grew the fastest. Prana now tracks more than 100 stores, so future reports will cover a bigger slice of the market.
Big releases have helped fill registers this fall. Amazing Spider-Man #1000 topped Bleeding Cool’s shop index at about five times the next book.
