All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #1, DC's new comic by superstar creators Frank Miller and Jim Lee, with inks by Scott Williams and trade dress and logo by uber-designer Chip Kidd, is the best-selling full-priced comic since we started tracking comic sales in early 2001, and may be the best-selling comic since sometime in the mid-90s.  With over 261,000 copies sold (and shipping with two covers), it easily bested Marvel's House of M #1, which sold a very strong 233,000 copies last month.  We've excluded the 10 cent Batman, 9 cent Fantastic Four, and other promotionally priced issues from this comparison. 

 

Brian Michael Bendis' New Avengers #7, House of M #3, and House of M #4 followed All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, with sales of 159,000, 152,000, and 147,000, respectively. 

 

As seems to be the case most months, almost every title other than the big hits dropped, with only three titles in the top 25 increasing in sales vs. the previous issue:  Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ultimate X-Men, and Superman. 

 

The publisher distribution among the top titles was perhaps slightly more DC-favorable, with DC holding three of the top ten and eight of the top 25 titles. 

 

Dynamite Publishing had the top title not from the Big Two in July; Red Sonja #1 (featuring five covers) sold over 80,000 copies, putting it in the #14 slot.  The next title from a non-Big Two publisher was Serenity #1 (with three different covers), from Dark Horse, at around 38,500 copies in the #49 slot.

 

It's worth noting that the multiple cover phenomenon, at least in part, was responsible for the high sales on All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, Red Sonja, and Serenity (and others).  So it's hard to know how much of the record sales on All Star Batman and Robin, for example, were due to increased numbers of consumers, and how much due to duplicate buying by collectors purchasing multiple copies.

 

Graphic novel piece sales were unspectacular, with the latest volume of Y the Last Man the top graphic novel title at around 8,500 copies.  Fruits Basket Vol. 11 was the top graphic novel title from a non-Big Two company and the top manga title, with around 4,200 sold.

 

The top 25 comic titles in July, along with our estimates of the number sold to North American comic shops by Diamond Comic Distributors are:

 

261,046            All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder #1

158,693            New Avengers #7

151,744            House of M #3

146,529            House of M #4

127,768            Astonishing X-Men #11

108,341            Superman / Batman #21

  99,134            Ultimates 2 #7

  93,598            The Omac Project #4

  91,321            Ultimate Fantastic Four #21

  88,475            Villains United #3

  87,644            JLA #116

  87,094            Ultimate X-Men #61

  80,603            Red Sonja #1

  79,026            The Rann / Thanagar War #3

  78,404            Ultimate Spider-Man #79

  77,154            X-Men #173  

  76,906            Ultimate Spider-Man #80

  76,651            Wolverine #30

  75,505            Day of Vengeance #4

  73,130            Amazing Spider-Man #522

  71,586            Spider-Man: House of M #2

  71,259            Iron Man: House of M #1

  71,036            Superman #219

  70,827            Fantastic Four: House of M #1
 
We are estimating actual sales by Diamond U.S. (primarily to North American comic stores), using Diamond's published sales indexes and publisher sales data to estimate a sales number for Batman (the anchor title Diamond uses in its calculations), and using that number and the indexes to estimate Diamond's sales on the remaining titles.  We can check the accuracy of our numbers by comparing the Batman number that we calculate using multiple data points; our numbers for Batman are within 1/10 of 1% of each other, ensuring a high degree of accuracy.
 
For an analysis of the dollar trends in July, see 'July Comics Sales Up 10%.'
 

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during July, see 'Top 300 Comics Actual--July 2005.'

 

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during July, see 'Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--July 2005.'

 

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during June, see 'Top 300 Comics Actual--June 2005.'

 

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during June, see 'Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--June 2005.'

 

For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through July 2005, see 'ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 100 GNs Index.'