Comic sales in July stayed true to form, with Batman topping the list, Marvel taking the most slots (19 out of the top 25), and roughly the same number of titles up as down in the top 25.  Although Batman was #1 with an estimated 146,601 copies sold (up from last issues), DC took only three of the top 25 slots.  Among debuts, Marvel's Spectacular Spider-Man took the #2 slot with a respectable 118,805, while Image's big cross-over launch, GI Joe/Transformers, topping 98,000 with its debut issue. 

 

The top 25 comics sold by Diamond in July, with our estimates of the quantity sold are:

 

146,601   Batman #617

118,805   Spectacular Spider-Man #1

109,687   Ultimate X-Men #35

103,192   Ultimates #11

101,316   Ultimate Spider-Man #43

  99,850   New X-Men #143

98,091   GI Joe/Transformers #1

95,467   Amazing Spider-Man #55

95,173   Amazing Spider-Man #54

93,546   Uncanny X-Men #428

92,095   Uncanny X-Men #427

90,717   Wolverine #3

90,350   Spectacular Spider-Man #2

75,206   Teen Titans #1

65,765   X-Treme X-Men #28

64,959   Incredible Hulk #57

64,886   Transformers Generation One Vol. 2 #4  

62,804   Incredible Hulk #58

60,282   Silver Surfer #1

60,165   Daredevil #49

59,154   JLA #83

57,292   GI Joe/Transformers #2

57,116   Spider-Man & Wolverine #2

56,002   Fantastic Four #501

  54,624   Born #2
 
The top graphic novel titles were notable for their variety, with six publishers represented in the top ten titles.  DC's manga-esque Death at Death's Door by Jill Thompson took the top slot with over 15,000 copies out of the gate.
 

We are estimating actual sales by Diamond U.S. (primarily to North American comic stores) rather than pre-orders (as we did for the past several years) because Diamond recently changed its reporting and began basing its indexes on actual sales (see 'ICv2 Kicks Off New Top 300 Reporting').  We use those indexes and publisher sales data to estimate a sales number for Batman (the anchor title diamond uses in its calculations), and use that number and the indexes to estimate Diamond's sales on the remaining titles.  Because of that change, we will not be able to do year over year comparisons until February of 2004, but in general, it's an improvement to have actual numbers to work with rather than preorders, which have significant differences from sales. 

 

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during July, see 'Top 300 Comics Actual -- July 2003.'

 

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during July, see 'Top 50 Graphic Novels Actual--July 2003.'

 

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during June, see 'Top 300 Comics Actual--June 2003.'

 

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during June, see 'Top 50 Graphic Novels Actual--June 2003.'

 

For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through July 2003, see 'ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 50 GNs Index.'