Star Wars #1 delivered as promised, with copies sold by Diamond Comic Distributors totaling 985,976 (for stores serviced by Diamond North America), according to information provided by Diamond and calculations by ICv2.  Sales through Diamond UK typically account for around 10% of the print runs on U.S. comics, which would put first month sales of Star Wars #1 well over 1 million copies.  Marvel had revealed that orders were topping a million copies in December (see "Marvel Confirms 'Star Wars' #1 Orders"), attributed to strong orders from comic shops and a large number of exclusive covers.

Retailers we’ve heard from (not a scientific sample) are reporting strong sell-through on the title; the number reported is for sell-in.

But with all the strength at the top of the Top 300 Comics chart, with the biggest sales on a single issue in 15 years, the rest of the chart remains weak.  There were still only four titles over 100,000, but even more troubling, those same four books were the only titles with sales over 75,000.  And there were only sixteen titles with sales over 50,000 in January 2015.

Both were recent lows.  December 2014 also had only four titles with sales over 75,000, but January and December were the only two months with so few titles over 75,000 for at least a year (we went back to January 2014).  Then we took a look at orders just for January and had to go back to January 2011 to find an even weaker January, with only one title over 75,000, and only 16 titles over 50,000.

Elsewhere in the Top 10, there was little enthusiasm for Marvel’s latest #1s; the first issues of Uncanny Avengers, Wolverines, and Ant-Man all sold between 70,000 and 75,000 copies.

But without any DC launches in the run-up to its Convergence event and re-launch, sales on its books were weaker still.  Batman was over 110,000, but the next DC title was Justice League, which sold only around 69,000 copies.

Graphic novels had a solid month, with the Death of Wolverine HC selling 8,450 the first month, a respectable number for a $25 hardcover, Kirkman and Azaceta’s new Image Comics horror title Outcast around the same, and the various Saga volumes selling over 20,000 copies in the month.

For an analysis of the dollar trends in January, see "Marvel Kills It in Big January."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during January, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--January 2015."
 
For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during January, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--January 2015."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during December, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--December 2014."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during December, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--December 2014."

For an overview and analysis of the best-selling comics and graphic novels in December, see "Only Two December Comics Above 100,000."  For an analysis of the dollar trends in December, see "Solid Finish to 2014 for Comic Sales."

For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through January 2015, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 300 GNs Index."