The penultimate issue of DC’s Blackest Night, at over 130,000 copies sold in February, was up 30% from the previous issue’s first month sales. Blackest Night was also unusually strong for February, the month that is traditionally the weakest comics sales month of the year, with the highest sales for the top comic seller since November.
Marvel’s Siege #2 had a remarkably strong performance as well, holding virtually unchanged from its sales on #1.
There were still only two titles with sales above 100,000, not an auspicious month over-all.
Marvel won the top 25 by an unusually small margin, beating DC by only 13 titles to 12. A fairly typical 16 out of the top 25 titles were down in sales vs. the previous issue, eight were up.
Dark Horse had the top title not from the Big Two, with Buffy the Vampire Slayer #32 coming in at #28 (around 48,000 copies sold). That was the only title from a non-Big Two company in the top 80 comics in February.
Fables Vol. 13: The Great Fables Crossover topped the graphic novel chart, with nearly 12,000 first-month sales. Marvel's Kick-Ass Premium HC came in at #2 in the run-up to the movie, with around 9000 copies sold.
Viz had the top manga title, with Naruto Vol. 47 coming in at #4 with around 5100 copies sold.
Here are ICv2's estimates of the sales by Diamond Comic Distributors to comic stores on the top 25 comic titles in February:
130,613 Blackest Night #7 (of 8)
108,429 Siege #2 (of 4)
95,509 Green Lantern #51
87,302 Batman and Robin #8
84,562 Batman and Robin #9
76,639 Dark Avengers #14
76,405 New Avengers #62
75,404 Green Lantern Corps #45
70,824 Flash Rebirth #6 (of 6)
67,049 Uncanny X-Men #521
66,973 Thor #607
65,348 Blackest Night: The Flash #3 (of 3)
63,568 Captain America #603
61,290 Batman #696
59,860 Amazing Spider-Man #620
59,159 Ultimate Comics X #1
58,700 Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #3 (of 3)
57,522 Justice League of America #42
55,350 Amazing Spider-Man #621
54,906 Blackest Night: JSA #3 (of 3)
53,958 Dark Wolverine #83
53,929 Amazing Spider-Man #622
53,721 Adventure Comics w/ Black Lantern Superboy #7
51,962 Hulk #20
51,344 X-Men Legacy #233 XN
For an analysis of the dollar trends in February, see "Comic Sales Edge Lower in February."
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 February 2010, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 300 GNs Index."