As was the case last month, three cross-over promotions with dark-hued titles landed near the top of the Top 300 Comics chart in August, with DC’s Blackest Night and Marvel’s Dark Reign and Dark Avengers/X-Men crossovers accounting for the top book and 11 of the top 25 comics in August.

Blackest Night and Captain America: Reborn traded the #1 and #2 slots, with Blackest Night #2 coming in at around 146,000 copies, down only 18% from #1 in July.  Captain America: Reborn #2, after a less well received first issue, dropped 35% with its second issue in July. 

Marvel’s Ultimate-line relaunch scored well, with Ultimate Comics Avengers #1 (written by Mark Millar) coming in at #5 with around 95,000 copies sold in, and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 (written by Brian Michael Bendis) launching at #11, with around 86,000 copies sold in. 

The first issue of The Marvels Project, the centerpiece of Marvel’s 70th anniversary celebration, came in at #9, with around 89,000 sold. 

A fairly typical six of the top 25 titles were up and 13 down, with six new titles. 

Wednesday Comics appears to be settling in the top 100 titles, with the four issues in August falling between #53 and #62, selling in the 30s.

DC had nine of the top 25 vs. Marvel’s 15, with an atypical three of the top four titles.    

The top title from a publisher other than the Big Two was Archie’s heavily publicized Archie #600, at #35.  followed closely by Dark Horse’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer #27, at #37.

Robert Kirkman’s tenth The Walking Dead trade paperback was the top graphic novel, with a very respectable 15,000+ sold in.  Bill Willingham’s twelfth Fables collection was second, with over 12,000 copies.

The #3 title, BOOM!'s Irredeemable Vol. 1, sold less than half the copies of the #2 title, but it was still a strong showing for August’s #7 publisher.