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
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond
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."
