Sales to comic stores on the top titles in October, the first month since the global economic crisis has been front page news for the full month, appear to have slipped, with only two titles in the top 25 eking out an increase over the previous month's issues.  Amazing Spider-Man #573 (2 covers, 50/50; plus a "Cobert" incentive cover) displayed the “Colbert Bump,” picking up sales over the previous issue; and Batman #680, the penultimate issue in the RIP storyline, also gained.  But other than that, declines of a few percentage points vs. the previous issue were the norm.

 

Event books remained the bestsellers at the top of the chart, with Secret Invasion #7 (154,675 copies) and Final Crisis #4 (115,666 copies) taking the top two spots.  

 

There seemed to be an unusually high percentage of late books among the top sellers, with no September issues for nine of the top 25 titles (six DC and three Marvel).

 

Marvel had a fairly typical seven out of the top ten titles, and 17 of the top 25.  There were no titles not published by the Big Two in the top 25 comics list.  In fact, to find a non-Big Two title you have to look all the way down to #65 and #66, where IDW’s new G.I. Joe comic (two covers, 50/50) and Angel: After the Fall landed, to find anything from another publisher.

 

IDW was ahead of Image in market share again this month, coming in at #4. 

 

Titles from a more diverse range of publishers hit the top ten graphic novel list this month, where five publishers, Marvel, DC, Dynamite, Dark Horse, and Avatar, had titles in the top ten.

 

DC’s original hardcover graphic novel Joker was the top graphic novel title in comic stores in both units and dollars by a large margin, with over 17,000 copies sold in October.  The Marvel Zombies trade paperback (featuring three covers) was the top Marvel, with The Boys tops from Dynamite Entertainment, Serenity: Better Days from Dark Horse, and Warren Ellis Aetheric Mechanics a top ten title from Avatar.  Watchmen slipped from #1 to #6, with over 6,000 copies sold in during October, still a huge number for a 20 year old book.   

 

Dark Horse’s Hellsing Vol. 9 was the top manga on the graphic novel chart, with over 3,700 copies sold in November. 

 

Note that you can now find the latest market reports from ICv2 by clicking on the "Markets" button at the top of every page.

 

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

 

154,675           Secret Invasion #7 (Of 8) SI*

115,666           Final Crisis #4 (Of 7)

110,261           Hulk #7*        

103,941           Batman #680 RIP*    

  99,513           New Avengers #46 SI

  87,258           Mighty Avengers #19 SI         

  86,770           Astonishing X-Men #27 MD  

  82,550           Amazing Spider-Man #573 NWD*

  81,074           Uncanny X-Men #503 MD    

  80,731           Justice League of America #25          

  78,673           Thor #11        

  77,353           Justice League of America #26          

  76,407           Final Crisis Rage of Red Lanterns #1

  72,405           Captain America #43 

  72,073           Justice Society of America #19*         

  69,609           Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes #1 (Of 2)    

  69,069           Amazing Spider-Man #574    

  68,913           Amazing Spider-Man #575    

  65,888           X-Men Legacy #217 XOS 2   

  65,878           Detective Comics #849 RIP   

  65,732           Dark Tower: Treachery #2 (Of 6)*    

  64,443           The Stand: Captain Trips #2 (Of 5)*         

  64,412           Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #2 (Of 5)          

  64,194           Marvel Zombies 3 #1 (Of 4)*

  63,757           Avengers / Invaders #5 (Of 12)*

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 October, see "Comics Up 9% Over 2007."

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

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

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

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

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