Estimated sales of the top comic titles to comic stores by Diamond Comic Distributors were up in March, with 14 of the top 25 titles showing increases in sales over the previous issues. DC had a stronger month than usual, with 10 out of the top 25 titles, led by Superman/Batman #8 (which has now gone through two sold-out printings) at #1, and the Superman family of books, which is riding the red-hot Godfall story arc. Both Superman/Batman and the entire Superman family were up over sales on previous issues.
The final Avengers/JLA, #4, came in at over 143,000 copies, a little down from sales on #3, but still a very strong finish for this popular cross-over.
For Marvel, New X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate Spider-Man were up over sales in February, and Marvel was strong at the top with seven out of the top ten titles.
In graphic novels, Dark Horse's Hellboy, pumped by the strong box office performance of the film, had six of the top 25 slots. The property is also selling well in other channels, see 'Hellboy Top American Graphic Novel in Bookstores.'
The top 25 comics, with our estimates of the quantities sold during March, are:
146,908 Superman/Batman #8
143,565 Avengers/JLA #4
117,253 New X-Men #154
108,791 Superman/Batman #7
106,873 Ultimate Fantastic Four #4
101,329 Ultimates #13
97,002 Ultimate X-Men #43
93,025 Ultimate Spider-Man #54
91,525 Ultimate Spider-Man #55
86,431 Uncanny X-Men #441
83,613 Amazing Spiderman #505
83,371 Batman #625
83,096 Superman #203
76,134 JLA #94
69,898 JLA #95
69,815 Wolverine #12
69,056 Teen Titans #9
66,438 Adventures of Superman #626
66,038 Action Comics #813
64,429 Supreme Power #8
59,685 Wolverine/Punisher #1
55,533 Avengers #80
54,400 Daredevil #58
54,066 Spectacular Spider-Man #11
For an analysis of the dollar trends in March, see 'Comic Dollars Up 15% in March.'
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during March, see 'Top 300 Comics Actual--March 2004.'
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during March, see 'Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--March 2004.'
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during February, see 'Top 300 Comics Actual--February 2004.'
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during February, see 'Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--February 2004.'
For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through March 2004, see 'ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 50 GNs Index.'