One of the problems in generating comic book numbers under Diamond's new reporting system, which is based on comics shipped rather than on preorders, is the fact that some months (like October) have an extra shipping week. Add in the distortion caused by the fact that a title appearing in the first week of a month has three weeks of reorder activity to add to its total, while a book shipping in the last week of the month has none, and you can understand that there are certain intractable problems with these 'snapshots' of comic book sales numbers. Still it is clear that while comic book sagged in October, they slipped even more in November.
Only one new title (Wolverine: The End #1) debuted in the Top 25 for November. The other 24 titles in the Top 25 all suffered declines. While there were ten books over the 100,000 mark in October (and 12 in September), only six topped that number in November.
Marvel's dominance of the Top 25 increased, with 21 titles versus 18 of the Top 25 last month. DC Comics had three books in the top 25 while Dreamwave had one. November's lone Top 25 debut, Wolverine: The End #1, debuted at #3, a testament to the strength of the property. Although DC's Teen Titans was down versus its October total, it came in above its September total as did JLA.
Marvel's dominance did not extend to the Top 25 graphic novels, where DC led the pack with 12 books, including Alex Ross's oversized JLA Liberty & Justice, which sold an amazing 41,201 -- four times as many copies as its nearest competitor, Image's Vampires Christmas. Dark Horse had four graphic novels in the Top 25 as did Marvel. Image had two while Tokyopop and Viz each had one.
The Top 25 comics, with our estimates of the quantities sold during November, are:
148,196 JLA/Avengers #3 (of 4)
122,683 Marvel 1602 #4
116,209 Wolverine: The End #1 (of 6)
105,978 Ultimate Six #4 (of 6)
105,737 Ultimate X-Men #39
102,591 New X-Men #149
96,784 Batman #621
96,707 Ultimate Spider-Man #49
94,558 Amazing Spider-Man #501
90,764 Uncanny X-Men #433
78,734 Wolverine #7
77,040 Wolverine #8
71,620 Supreme Power #4
68,078 Teen Titans #5
67,633 Spectacular Spider-Man #6
66,065 Spectacular Spider-Man #7
61,574 X-Treme X-Men #34
60,093 JLA #90
58,177 Avengers #73
57,557 Daredevil #54
57,557 Avengers #74
56,135 Hulk: Gray #3
54,935 Transformers/GI Joe #3 (of6)
53,357 Incredible Hulk #63
51,721 Fantastic Four #506
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during November, see 'Top 300 Comics Actual--November 2003.'
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during November, see 'Top 50 Graphic Novels Actual--November 2003.'
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during October, see 'Top 300 Comics Actual--October 2003.'
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during October, see Top 50 Graphic Novels Actual--October 2003.'
For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through November 2003, see 'ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 50 GNs Index.'