We are missing numbers. I presume we only have the direct market figures for the US, nothing overseas or in places other than comic shops. I used to work in pre-press at a local printing plant, but I don't know what a full-color comic would cost to print. I think they have them printed in Canada, correct? Presumably there's some price break, enough to offset customs. I could be wrong about that, but I think I've read that the books are printed outside the US.
Even if not, it's not just the $60,000 per month from the main title. IDW never has less than two Transformers titles in a given month, and usually three when the movie books are factored in. So they're actually making closer to the range of $100,000 to $120,000 a month off the franchise.
For April 2010, the following are listed at
http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicss ... 10-04.html
136 Transformers Ongoing 6 $3.99 IDW 12,171
169 Transformers Spotlight Prowl 1 $3.99 IDW 8,839
176 Transformers Last Stand of the Wreckers 4 $3.99 IDW 8,133
180 Transformers Nefarious 2 $3.99 IDW 8,002
That's 37,145 books sold in April, at $3.99 each. That's $148,208.55. Now there's an extra book with Spotlight Prowl present, but subtract that and it's still a decent month at $112,940.94. Over a year that comes out to $1,355,291.20, so over a million and a quarter in sales. I suspect there's enough there to support a small profit margin while paying the license fee, artists, writers, printers and distributors. How much goes in each category we have no idea, but it's enough to keep things going. I'm sure they'd love to do better, of course, and they do, given that we don't have all the numbers.