DC’s Blackest Night crossover continued its strong showing in September, with the top book and five out of the top ten September comic releases. More impressive were the month-over-month changes on the Blackest Night titles, with #3 of the flagship dropping only 6,000 copies from #2, Green Lantern #46 actually going up around 1,000 copies from the previous issue, and the second issues of two titles (Blackest Night Batman and Blackest Night: Superman) actually selling more copies than the first issues, a very rare occurrence. The other Blackest Night titles that declined (Green Lantern Corps #40, Blackest Night: Titans #2) were down only slightly from the previous issue.
Marvel’s bestsellers were the second best-selling title, Captain America: Reborn #3 (down about 17,000 copies from the previous issue), the #5 title, Wolverine Giant-Size Old Man Logan #1 (around 94,000 copies, wrapping up the delayed storyline), a few titles wrapping up the Dark Avengers / X-Men crossover and the new issues after the crossover (all generally down), plus the mainstays.
We hear a lot of kvetching from retailers about the number of titles that Marvel has raised to $3.99 and the impact on sales, with the Ultimate #2s (Avengers and Spider-Man) dropping a around 25,000 copies each from the first issues as possible examples of this effect. Another title recently converted to $3.99, Hulk, is also down substantially, with #15 down about 18,700 copies from the previous issue.
There were eighteen titles down in the top 25 comics, and four up, a fairly heavy downward skew, with three new titles.
Only two titles from non-Big Two companies made the top 100 copies: Buffy the vampire Slayer #28 from Dark Horse at #31 (52,303 copies), and Archie #601 at #56 (37,871 copies).
In graphic novels, it was a fairly unexciting month, with the top title, the latest Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 collection from Dark Horse, selling in only around 7,200 copies. Dark Horse had the top two titles and three of the top five.
Marvel’s The Wonderful World of Oz HC came in at #4 with around 4,500 copies sold in, and was the #2 dollar book of the month, lagging behind only the Absolute V for Vendetta hardcover from DC. Both should be solid holiday items.
Dark Horse’s direct-friendly Berserk was the top manga volume, with Viz’s Bleach right behind (at #11 and #12, respectively).
Robert Crumb’s Book of Genesis debuted at #28, after a fairly strong launch in bookstores (see “Genesis Debuts at #9”).
Here are ICv2's estimates of the sales by Diamond Comic Distributors to comic stores on the top 25 comic titles in September:
140,786 Blackest Night #3 (of 8)
108,331 Captain American: Reborn #3 (of 5)
106,925 Batman and Robin #4
103,666 Green Lantern #46 (Blackest Night)
93,823 Wolverine Giant-Size Old Man Logan #1
87,638 Blackest Night: Batman #2 (of 3)
85,598 New Avengers #57
83,112 Green Lantern Corps #40 (Blackest Night)
79,729 Dark Avengers #9
78,766 Blackest Night: Superman #2 (of 3)
77,001 Batman #690
75,662 Dark Avengers / Uncanny X-Men: Exodus DAX
73,585 Uncanny X-Men #515
70,177 Amazing Spider-Man #606
68,597 Ultimate Comics Avengers #2
65,265 Thor #603
64,086 Blackest Night: Titans #2 (of 3)
63,435 Amazing Spider-Man #604
62,831 Amazing Spider-Man #605
62,570 Amazing Spider-Man #607
60,702 Dark Wolverine #78
60,337 Dark Reign The List: Avengers One Shot
58,667 Hulk #15
57,477 Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #2
57,063 Detective Comics #857
For an analysis of the dollar trends in September, see "Comics Up 12% in September."
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond
For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through September 2009, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 300 GNs Index."
