A technical glitch in Diamond Comic Distributors' computer system resulted in incorrect information that inflated the circulations of some titles more than others and resulted in ICv2 incorrectly designating Amazing Spider-Man #546 as the best-selling comic book release in January.  In fact, Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuiness' Hulk #1 was the number one title in January with total sales of around 134,000.  The strong debut demonstrates both the drawing power of the new creative team and the popularity of the Green Goliath in the wake of the World War Hulk event. 

 

Amazing Spider-Man #546, the first installment in the 'Brand New Day' story arc, was the #2 best-selling comic in comic stores in January with a total of around 128,000 copies sold through Diamond.  Starting with the 'Brand New Day' arc, Marvel implemented its bold new Spider-Man plan by making Amazing Spider-Man the only Spidey title and upping its frequency to three times a month, and complementing these format revisions with equally radical editorial changes which now find Peter Parker living in a world where in effect, he and Mary Jane have never married.  With a nearly 3% sales gain from ASM #545 it appears that the 'Brand New Day' gambit is working, at least so far.

 

In third place, with sales of around 127,600 was Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's Captain America #34 (two covers; 50/50 ratio), which unveiled Bucky as the new Captain America and sold out quickly, posting a huge 38% gain over issue #33.

 

The lone non-Marvel comic in the top ten was Dynamite Entertainment's Project Superpowers #0 (two covers; 50/50 ratio), a dynamic retro superhero saga written by Jim Krueger and Alex Ross and featuring stunning painted covers by Ross.  Project Superpowers #0 also clearly benefited from its decidedly retro $1 cover price.

 

With all three issues of Amazing Spider-Man released in January ending up in the top ten, it's no surprise that Marvel dominated the top of the list with 12 of the top 15 titles 

 

Eight titles of the top 25 posted gains over sales of previous issues, while fifteen declined.

 

Marvel also dominated the top of the graphic novel list with seven of the top 15 titles, led by Ultimate X-Men Vol. 17 at #2.  Dark Horse had five titles in the top 15 with Savage Sword of Conan Vol. 1, which reprinted a phone book-size portion of the old Marvel B&W Savage Sword of Conan magazine, at #1 and the equally expansive Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus Vol. 3 at #3.  DC had the paperback edition of Brian K. Vaughan's Pride of Baghdad SC at #6 and Batman: Man Who Laughs Hardcover at #10.  Dark Horse's Berserk Vol. 21, which finished at #12, was the highest ranking manga.

 

Here are ICv2's estimates of the sales by Diamond Comic Distributors to comic stores on the top 25 comic titles in January:

 

134,002           Hulk #1

127,958           Amazing Spider-Man #546    

127,626           Captain America #34

113,191           Project Superpowers #0

107,631           Astonishing X-Men #24

105,520           Uncanny X-Men #494

105,070           Ultimates 3 #2

104,793           X-Men 207

101,213           Amazing Spider-Man #547

  97,959           Amazing Spider-Man #548    

  94,712           JLA #17

  92,739           Mighty Avengers #7

  89,644           New Avengers Annual #2

  88,474           Buffy the Vampire Slayer #10

  84,459           Mighty Avengers #8

  82,658           New X-Men #46

  81,350           X-Factor #27

  73,533           Incredible Hercules #113

  69,629           Countdown #16

  69.587           Countdown #17

  69,504           Countdown #15

  69,234           Batman #673

  68,770           Countdown #14

  68,099           Countdown #13

  67,600           Green Lantern #27      

 

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 January, see "Comics, GN Sales Up Modestly in January."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during January, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--January 2008."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during January, see "Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--January 2008."

 

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during December, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--December 2007."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during December, see "Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--December 2007."

For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through January 2008, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 100 GNs Index."