Marvel’s 2015 showing has been bolstered considerably by the success of its Star Wars line of comics. In June the flagship book Star Wars #6 upped its circulation about 8,000 copies and grabbed the #3 spot with sales of 152,652 according to calculations made by ICv2 based on rankings supplied by Diamond Comic Distributors. Marvel’s Darth Vader #6 also did well, dropping just 5K from #5, but Marvel’s other June-shipping Star Wars titles, Princess Leia #4, which came in at #10 and Kanan #3, which ended up at #29, both experienced considerable drops in circulation.
DC Comics continued to struggle in June with its marketshare sagging 15 points below that of Marvel for a second consecutive month in spite of the release of a slew of post-Convergence #1 issues. One of those books, Justice League of America, which is written and drawn by Bryan Hitch, did very well, coming in at #4 with estimated sales of 150,804 for its debut issue, and the Scott Snyder-penned Batman #41, which featured Jim Gordon as the new Bat-Robo, was a solid #5. But other than the Geoff Johns-written Justice League at #10, and two Harley Quinn titles (one of which was the first issue of a miniseries), plus a new Bat-title feature Damian, DC had little to cheer about in June.
With the exception of the JLA book at #4, DC’s slew of post-Convergence #1s largely failed to impress, coming it at #23, #24, #31, #34, #46, #52, #57, #58, #60, #66, #69, #70, #72, #82, #83, #86, and #94. DC only managed 6 titles in the top 25 versus 17 for Marvel and 2 for Image (both issues of The Walking Dead, currently one of the steadiest month-to-month titles of them all).
DC also had a tough June on the graphic novel side, though this was likely due to the lack of strong new releases (which varies by company from month to month). Image and Marvel both had five titles in the graphic novel top ten, which was topped by Scott Snyder’s Image series Wytches, which sold 8,946 copies. Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta’s East of West Vol. 4 from Image finished at #3, and Image also placed all 4 volumes of Saga in the top 25 along with just 1 Walking Dead title, and Rat Queens Vol. 2, which topped the charts in May and still managed to sell 2641 copies in June.
Marvel’s graphic novel offerings included Jim Starlin’s original Thanos: The Infinity Relativity, which was the #2 (in circulation) and #1 (in dollars) book in June. The female superhero saga Ms. Marvel Vol. 3 continued to perform well, especially in graphic novel form, as it finished at #4, while Marvel’s Civil War continues to give every sign of becoming a perennial backlist seller—it certainly is one of the best “high concept” crossover events in comic book history, and the fact that it is providing the storyline for the upcoming Captain America film has kept interest in this book very high. First published in graphic novel form back in 2007, the Civil War trade paperback has sold nearly 5,000 copies in both May and June.
Marvel, Image, and DC accounted for all of the top 25 graphic novel titles in June. The top book that was not published by one of the top 3 comic book houses was Dynamite’s Project Superpowers Chapter 2, Vol. 1, which came in at #28. The highest ranking manga title was Viz Media’s Naruto Vol. 70, which ended up at #29, followed by Tokyo Ghoul #1 (also from Viz Media) at #36.
For an analysis of the dollar trends in June, see "Marvel Continues Summer Domination."
For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during June, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--June 2015."
For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during June, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--June 2015."
For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during May, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--May 2015."
For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during May, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--May 2015."
For an overview and analysis of the best-selling comics and graphic novels in May, see "'Secret Wars' Dominates May Sales." For an analysis of the dollar trends in May, see "Marvel Share Tops 40% in Comic Stores."
For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through June 2015, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 300 GNs Index."
