Following the trend established in October, comic store orders on most top comics slipped again in November, with only five of the top twenty-five posting increases (all below #15). They were Wolverine (two issues), JLA and Peter Parker (both even-numbered issues), and Daredevil.

Masters of the Universe #1 from Image, based on the 80s cartoon/comic/toy property that is currently being revived by owner Mattel, was the #1 book, with solid orders north of 100,000.  Daredevil showed strength in the run-up to the release of the movie in February, with Daredevil Target #1 the #2 piece book and #1 dollar book for the month, Ultimate Daredevil and Elektra debuting at #13, and the monthly Daredevil title increasing about 5% vs. October.  Marvel's Truth #1, which received an unprecedented early PR blitz to boost orders (see 'Top U.S. Newspaper Covers Marvel's Cap Series'), was the #15 piece order title at just under 70,000, which probably means that Marvel's decision to do a Must-Have edition (see 'Marvel Prints on Spec!') to cover anticipated demand for the story caused by additional PR makes sense (if the news coverage materializes as expected).

Once again, graphic novels performed better, with Lone Wolf and Cub, the bellweather series title, adding copies to orders for the November release compared to October.  Two DC titles, JLA Secret Origins and JLA JSA Virtue and Vice topped the piece and dollar orders for the month.

Here are the initial raw orders from pop culture stores on the top 25 comic titles for November:

104,971 Masters of the Universe #1

99,105 Daredevil Target #1

98,164 Ultimates #10

97,023 New X-Men #134

95,883 Amazing Spider-Man #47

95,065 Batman #609

91,405 Ultimate Spider-Man #30

91,082 Ultimate Spider-Man #31

89,390 Ultimate X-Men #25

89,038 Ultimate X-Men #24

83,581 Uncanny X-Men #415

82,174 Transformers War Within #2

77,050 Ultimate Daredevil and Elektra #1

73,761 Transformers Armada #5

69,445 Truth #1

66,346 Wolverine #183

63,560 JLA #75

63,532 Thundercats #3

63,218 Thundercats #4

60,689 Captain America #7

58,113 Spider-Man Peter Parker #50

57,942 GI Joe #12

55,832 Daredevil #39

55,043 X-Treme X-Men X-Pose #1

54,767 Green Arrow #19

Notes on this chart:

Some titles have been truncated or abbreviated for space reasons.

Publisher abbreviations have also been used.

Mar = Marvel

Dar = Dark Horse

Dre = Dreamwave

Ima = Image

Bla = Black Bull

Car = Cartoon Books

Har = Harris

Cro = Crossgen

Bon = Bongo

Tok = Tokyo Pop

Cha = Chaos

The quantities in this chart are ICv2 estimates of initial raw orders to Diamond North America on titles scheduled for shipment in November 2002.  They do not include orders placed with Diamond UK, late orders, advance reorders, distributor over-orders, or reorders. 

Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and Image distribute 100% of their comic store orders through Diamond.  Some other publishers distribute directly to stores or through other distributors and as a result this analysis may underestimate their sales. 

Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and Image distribute some of their titles through channels other than comic specialty stores, e.g., newsstands and bookstores.  These quantity estimates do not reflect distribution through those channels. 

The quantities above do not include advance reorders, late orders, or reorders.

Most of the titles on this chart are also distributed to Europe by Diamond UK, which can account for significant sales for the publisher, ranging from 3-20% of the US numbers.   Sales by Diamond UK are not included in the numbers above.

Even given the above, however, it is probably safe to say that these quantities reflect 80% or more of the total North American sales by the publisher on most periodical comics.   

One other factor to consider is that sales through Diamond and other comic distributors are non-returnable to retailers.  That means that there is a considerable unknown percentage of books unsold at the retailer level.  If that percentage is 10-20% of sales (a reasonable assumption), the estimates above may be quite close to actual sales to consumers.

For an analysis of the dollar trends in November, see 'Comic Dollars Down Again in November.'

For the top 300 comics in November, see 'Top 300 Comics--November 2002.'

For the top 50 graphics novels in November, see 'Top 50 Graphic Novels--November 2002.'

For the top 300 comics in October, see 'Top 300 Comics--October 2002.'

For the top 50 graphic novels in October, see 'Top 50 Graphic Novels--October 2002.'

For an overview and analysis of the dollar orders for October, see 'Comics Slide in October.'

For an analysis of the dollar trends in October, see 'Comic Orders Down for October.'