Diamond shipped over 230,000 copies of Superman #204 to North American comic stores in April, the best single-copy piece sale since Batman #619 last September. Superman/Batman #9 came in second, with over 145,000 copies sold.
Marvel owned the rest of the top 15, and 18 of the top 25. The top title by a publisher other than Marvel and DC was Dark Horse's Conan #3, which at #34 sold over 48,000 copies.
Piece sales on top comics dipped somewhat vs. March, with 17 of the top 25 titles down, and only five up. The bottom of the list was also weaker than March -- the bottom book in March sold 1901 copies; in April, only 950.
Ultimates Volume 2, at around 8,500 copies, and Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, at around 7,800, both sold more pieces than the top books last month, despite their higher price points.
The top 25 comics, with our estimates of the number sold by Diamond to North American comic stores are as follow:
231,411 Superman #204
145,072 Superman/Batman #9
137,314 Marvel Knights Spider-Man #1
103,213 Marvel 1602 #8
102,648 Ultimate Fantastic Four #5
100,088 New X-Men #155
98,785 New X-Men #156
96,264 Ultimate X-Men #44
93,131 Wolverine: The End #3
91,663 Ultimate Six #7
91,585 Ultimate Spider-Man #56
90,784 Ultimate Spider-Man #57
86,975 Uncanny X-Men #442
86,002 Uncanny X-Men #443
83,152 Amazing Spider-Man #506
78,519 Batman #626
71,060 Wolverine #13
70,377 JLA #96
69,874 Wolverine #14
68,359 Teen Titans #10
68,170 JLA #97
66,050 Daredevil: Father #1
65,791 Punisher: The End #1
64,284 Supreme Power #9
For an analysis of the dollar trends in April, see 'Comic Dollars Up Again in April.'
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during April, see 'Top 300 Comics Actual--April 2004.'
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during April, see 'Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--April 2004.'
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 index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through April 2004, see 'ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 50 GNs Index.'