British Comic Web Sites: Trawling the Statistics

By John Freeman on June 5, 2015 • ( 2 )

Intrigued by things statistical this morning, I thought I’d have a look at the documented audiences for various British comics-related web sites – both publishers and news sites – on Alexa.com, which details their world rankings. As you can see, VIZ is one of the most popular British comics-related sites on the Internet, with the ComicsUK forum also a very popular location.

Please note that for some reason you may get errors when trying to access the site reports below, probably down to the sheer weight of traffic alexa itself gets.

If you follow the report links, there’s encouraging reading, too, for some comics, because although 2000AD‘s world rank may be 287,113 (for comparison, Marvel Comics’ rank is 3,558 and IDW Publishing’s is 140,331), it’s ranked at 15,283 in terms of most popular UK-only sites.

Please note this is only a small sampling of the sites that feature British comics out there but some (for example the terrific Oink! blog) aren’t documented on alexa.

VIZ: Ranked 54,156 UK Ranked: 2,747
Web site: viz.co.uk
Report: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Fviz.co.uk

Forbidden Planet International: Ranked 91,760 UK Rank: 4,701
Web site: www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog
Report: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbiddenplanet.co.uk%2Fblog

The FPI site runs a terrific general comics news blog whose contributros include Joe Gordon, Richard Bruton and Matt Badham

2000AD Online: Ranked 287,113 UK Ranked: 15,328
Site: http://2000adonline.com
Report: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2F2000adonline.com

ComicsUK: Ranked 818,808 UK Rank N/A
Site: www.comicsuk.co.uk
Report: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comicsuk.co.uk

Titan Comics: Ranked 907,419 US Rank: 201,441 UK Rank N/A
Site: http://titan-comics.com
Report: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Ftitan-comics.com

DownTheTubes: Ranked 1,038,873 UK Rank: 110,825
Site: You’re looking at it
Report: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Fdownthetubes.net

The Phoenix: World Ranked: 1,555,942 UK Rank: 154,057
Site: www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk
Report: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thephoenixcomic.co.uk

Lew Stringer’s Blimey! It’s Another Blog About Comics: Ranked 1,638,877 UK Rank: 89,702
Site: http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk
Report: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Flewstringer.blogspot.co.uk

Lew has been regularly blogging about British comics old and new for many years, entertaining his readers with his insights and unique knowledge of our industry

The Beano: Ranked 1,934,385 UK Rank N/A
Site: www.beano.com
Report: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.beano.com

TOXIC: Ranked 2,858,754 UK Rank N/A
Site: www.toxicmag.co.uk
Report: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.toxicmag.co.uk

Bear Alley: Ranked 3,013,284 UK Rank N/A
Site: bearalley.blogspot.co.uk
Report: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Fbearalley.blogspot.co.uk

Steve Holland delivers a fine archival blog of British comics and is a goldmine of information about classic British comics as well as new titles and projects

Commando Comics: Ranked 3,316,577 UK Rank N/A
Site: www.commandocomics.com
Report: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.commandocomics.com

The web site for the only remaining ‘pocket library’ comic on the news stand, packed with background information about the title and its many creators.

Peter Gray Cartoons and Comics: Ranked 6,028,751 UK Rank N/A
Site: http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogspot.co.uk
Report: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Fpetergraycartoonsandcomics.blogspot.co.uk

Peter takes a visual approach to his documentation of British comics, focusing his posts on artists and characters

Terry Hooper’s Comic Bits Online: Ranked 10,690,925 UK Rank N/A
Site: http://hoopercomicart.blogspot.co.uk
Report: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Fhoopercomicart.blogspot.co.uk

Terry Hooper is also the publisher of Black Tower comics

Alexa’s traffic estimates are based on data from their global traffic panel, which is a sample of millions of Internet users using one of over 25,000 different browser extensions. In addition, they gather much of their traffic data from direct sources in the form of sites that have chosen to install the Alexa script on their site and certify their metrics. However, site owners can always choose to keep their certified metrics private.

Their global traffic rank is a measure of how a website is doing relative to all other sites on the web over the past three months. The rank is calculated using a proprietary methodology that combines a site’s estimated average of daily unique visitors and its estimated number of pageviews over the past 3 months. They provide a similar country-specific ranking, which is a measurement of how a website ranks in a particular country relative to other sites over the past month.

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.