DC handily won the comic store market share battle in September, topping Marvel by over 13 share points.  DC’s massive win in October follows a much narrower win in September, when DC topped Marvel by less than half a point (see “DC Wins September Market Share”), its first market share win in recent memory. 

DC had a dollar share of 42.47% in comic stores in October, compared to 29.10% for Marvel.  The unit share spread was over 20 points, with DC books accounting for nearly 51% of all units, and Marvel with around a 30% unit share.

DC #2s held the top six slots in the top comics charts (with Justice League #2 leading the way at #1), and seven out of the top ten. 

The positive year over year trend for the over-all market accelerated in October, with comics up 24% over October 2010, graphic novels down 13%, and the total of comics and graphic novels up 12% vs. 2010. 

The October growth for the over-all market pulled up the year-to-date numbers to around a 2% decline in comics and graphic novel sales for the first ten months of 2011, compared to the same period in 2010.  That number has now been improving for the last three months.  Comics are nearly flat for the year (down .23%), and graphic novels are down a little over 5% (down 5.39%), bringing the over-all market to a 1.93% decline year-to-date over 2010. 

If current trends continue, 2011 will end up being an up year for comics and graphic novels in comic stores, an incredible turnaround from dismal trends as recent as July.  

All of the numbers above were provided by Diamond Comic Distributors.

For an overview and analysis of comic sales in October, see "New 52 #2s Down Only 6%."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during October, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--October 2011."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during October, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--October 2011."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during September, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--September 2011."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during September, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--September 2011."

For an overview and analysis of the best-selling comics and graphic novels in September, see "'Batman' #1 Tops September Sales."  For an analysis of the dollar trends in September, see "DC Wins September Market Share."

For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through October 2011, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 300 GNs Index."