The launch of a new X-Men title, supported by numerous variant incentive covers and strong promotion, topped 140,000 copies in comic stores in July, but it was the only title over 100,000 copies in an otherwise underwhelming month for comic sales.  A high 17 titles of the Top 25 sold fewer copies than the previous issues, vs. only four titles that were up (the rest were #1s). 

 

With its $3.99 cover price, X-Men #1 accounted for nearly twice the dollars of the #2 book, DC’s Brightest Day #6, which sold around 95,000 copies at $2.99.  Five other Brightest Day titles (Brightest Day #5, Green Lantern #56, Green Lantern Corps #50, Flash #4, and JLA #47) hit the Top 25, with sales from 60,000 to 84,000.

 

The Avengers relaunch titles continued strong with three in the Top Ten, with sales from 62,000 to 87,000.

 

Shadowland #1, although it sold only about 55,000 copies in July, sold much better than expectations and is on its 3rd printing. 

 

Neal Adams’ Batman Odyssey launched with around 62,000 copies sold; J. Michael Straczynski’s Superman run launched at around 55,000 copies.

 

Marvel’s Ultimate Comics re-launch continues its soft performance, with no titles making it into the Top 25.

 

DC took six of the Top 10; Marvel took 14 of the Top 25. 

 

The news on the graphic novel front was better, where Scott Pilgrim was blowing the doors off in the run-up to the movie.  The new volume, Vol. 6, sold more copies (over 21,000 copies) than any other graphic novel since May of 2009 (when the very inexpensive League of Extraordinary Gentlemen sold a ton), and the other five volumes also all made the Top 10. 

 

The new volume of The Walking Dead came in at almost the same number as the previous volume did in January, around 17,000. 

 

Here are ICv2's estimates of the sales by Diamond Comic Distributors to comic stores on the top 25 comic titles in July:

 

140,332           X-Men #1

  94,684           Brightest Day #6

  88,020           Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne #4

  87,410           Avengers #3

  85,804           Batman and Robin #13

  84,164           Green Lantern #56

  83,397           New Avengers #2

  77,796           Brightest Day #5

  76,398           Batman #701

  72,293           Secret Avengers #3

  68,271           Amazing Spider-Man #238

  67,035           Green Lantern Corps #50

  66,723           Uncanny X-Men #526

  65,863           X-Men Second Coming #2

  64,832           Flash #4

  61,827           Batman Odyssey #1

  61,680           X-Force #28

  60,368           Justice League of America #47

  56,031           Amazing Spider-Man #637

  56,011           Amazing Spider-Man #636

  54,911           Shadowland #1

  54,506           Superman #701

  53,373           Thor #612

  53,313           X-Men Legacy #238

  52,727           Steve Rogers Super-Soldier #1


For an analysis of the dollar trends in July, see "Comics Slip, Graphic Novels Surge."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during July, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--July 2010."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during July, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--July 2010."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during June, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--June 2010."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during June, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--June 2010."

For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through July 2010, see "
ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 300 GNs Index."