The strong emergence of Convergence helped DC close its looming marketshare gap with Marvel Comics (see "Comic Sales Soar in April"), and resulted (for the first time in memory) in the extremely rare circumstance in which not one title featuring a Marvel Universe character made the Top 10 (though Marvel did place 4 books in the Top 10, they were all Star Wars titles).
April was one of those rare months in which the number of titles in the Top 25 that gained circulation (11) was more than double the number of titles with declining numbers (4), with a near record 10 new titles making the Top 25 (eight of which were Convergence books). Also DC’s Batman #40, which was a month late, got a boost from the finale of the "Endgame" story line.
Aside from DC’s Convergence launch, the big news this month is once again the continuing strength of Marvel’s Star Wars comics. Last month ICv2 predicted that, after issue #3 sold 161,000 copies, Marvel’s flagship Star Wars title would settle in over 150K (see "'Howard the Duck' Outsells Top DC"), but issue #4 leapt all the way up to 203K, and all of Marvel’s other Star Wars titles posted gains except for Princess Leia, which just launched last month. The only relatively down note for the Star Wars comic universe was the relatively modest debut of Kanan, The Last Padawan #1, which is based on a character from the Star Wars Rebels TV series, and which generated orders for just 108,167 copies, the weakest bow by far for any of Marvel’s Star Wars books yet.
Marvel Universe titles that dropped outside the Top 10 didn’t necessarily lose circulation, in fact Amazing Spider-Man, Thor, and Deadpool (it was the 250th--and supposedly the "final" issue) all gained numbers, they were just pushed out of the Top 10 by the success of the Convergence titles.
Sales of the top two graphic novel titles in April were driven by exposure in other media. The latest volume of Robert Kirkman’s AMC TV series-spawning The Walking Dead sold almost exactly twice as many copies as the #2 book, Marvel’s original graphic novel Avengers: Rage of Ultron hardcover, which undoubtedly benefited from its titular similarity to Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron blockbuster.
DC and Image Comics each put four titles in the GN Top 10. All four volumes of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga made the Top 16, along with two volumes of DC’s Harley Quinn, and the trade paperback of Noelle Stevenson’s Lumberjanes from BOOM! Studios, which landed at #10. Four out of the ten superhero books that made the Top 25 GN list feature female heroes--more evidence of the current trend towards more gender parity in comics.
For an analysis of the dollar trends in April, see "Eleven Titles Over 100K in April."
For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during April, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--April 2015."
For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during April, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--April 2015."
For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during March, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--March 2015."
For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during March, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--March 2015."
For an overview and analysis of the best-selling comics and graphic novels in March, see "'Howard the Duck' Outsells Top DC." For an analysis of the dollar trends in March, see "Comic Market Up Nearly 10% in Q1."
For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through April 2015, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 300 GNs Index."
