After a strong July put 2014 sales figures in the black (see "Strong July Sales Turn Year Positive") year-over-year dollar sales of comics and graphic novels were up again in August with comics up 7.3% and graphic novels growing by 8.31%, a performance that yielded a year-to-date growth of 2.41% for comics and a 3.81% gain for graphic novels according to figures released today by Diamond Comic Distributors. Interpretations of the monthly year-over-year comparisons are tempered, however, by the fact that August 2014 was a five ship week month, compared to a four ship week month in August 2013, a mis-match which will be reversed in September.
Scott Snyder’s Batman #34 was the number one comic title, while Jim Starlin’s original graphic novel Thanos: The Infinity Revelation topped the GN chart. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, a breakout hit fueled by the excitement created by James Gunn’s film, and Image Comics’ Saga, a steadily growing sales behemoth, continued their strong summer of 2014 performances.
Marvel Comics had another strong month with a dollar market share of 34.27% and five of the top ten comic titles, while DC had a 28.71% and four titles in the top 10. Image Comics, which had one title in the top ten, The Walking Dead #30 at #6, was third in marketshare with 8.83%, followed by IDW with 5.43%, Dark Horse with 4.73%, and Dynamite with 2.59%.
August Comic Store Market Share
34.27% Marvel Comics
28.71% DC Comics
8.83% Image Comics
5.43% IDW
4.73% Dark Horse
2.59% Dynamite
2.32% Boom! Studios
1.65% Eaglemoss Productions
1.14% Random House
1.04% Viz Media
Marvel placed three Spider-Man titles in the Top Ten in August, while DC’s Batman Eternal #18 made it back to the Top Ten for the first time since May, and the publisher’s Harley Quinn’s continuing popularity gave DC three Batman-related books among the Top Ten.
Top 10 Comics--August, 2014
- Batman #34 DC Comics
- Amazing Spider-Man #5 Marvel
- Original Sin #7 Marvel
- Multiversity #1 DC Comics
- Superior Spider-Man #32 Marvel
- The Walking Dead #130 Image
- Harley Quinn #9 DC
- Amazing Spider-Man #1.4 Marvel
- Guardians of the Galaxy #18 Marvel
- Batman Eternal #18 DC
Both Marvel and DC had original graphic novels (material never previously published in pamphlet form) on the Top Ten list for August, and the first collection of the new Bendis-penned Guardians of the Galaxy did well on both Diamond direct market list and on BookScan’s Top 20 Graphic Novels list for August--and all three volumes of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga made both the Diamond and the BookScan lists.
Top 10 Graphic Novels--August, 2014
- Thanos: The Infinity Revelation Marvel
- Fables, Vol. 20: Camelot DC
- Deadpool vs. Carnage TP Marvel
- Trillium DC
- Batman Earth-One TP DC
- Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 1 TP Marvel
- Saga, Vol. 3 Image
- Watchmen HC DC
- Saga, Vol. 1 Image
- Saga, Vol. 2 Image
For an overview and analysis of comic sales in August, see "Only Two Comics Over 100K in August."
For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during August, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--August 2014."
For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during August, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels--August 2014."
For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during July, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--July 2014."
For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during July, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels--July 2014."
For an overview and analysis of the best-selling comics and graphic novels in July, see "Only Two Titles Over 100,000." For an analysis of the dollar trends in July, see "Strong July Comic Sales Turn Year Positive."
For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through August 2014, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 300 GNs Index."
