Secret Invasion #1, the first issue in Marvel’s newest editorial event, launched at a high level, with over 250,000 copies sold by Diamond Comic Distributors to independent retailers in April. This compares very favorably to the first issue of Civil War, which sold only 10,000 more copies, at 260,804 only 4% more, two years ago in May of 2006.
Secret Invasion also topped the graphic novel list, where Diamond sold over 7200 copies of the $19.99 Secret Invasion: The Infiltration TP in April.
DC's Countdown to Final Crisis series wrapped up with the final issues at around 70,000 each.
Marvel had nine out of the top ten comics, and 15 out of the top 25 comics in April.
Nine out of the top 25 titles were higher than the previous issue; 12 of the top 25 were lower.
Here are ICv2's estimates of the sales by Diamond Comic Distributors to comic stores on the top 25 comic titles in April:
250,263 Secret Invasion #1 (Of 8) SI
110,470 New Avengers #40 SI
103,029 Dark Tower: The Long Road Home #2 (Of 5)
97,239 Mighty Avengers #12 SI
93,369 Uncanny X-Men #497 DWS
92,487 Hulk #3
91,981 Thor #8
86,902 Amazing Spider-Man #555
85,807 Justice League of
85,750 X-Force #3 DWS
83,580 Buffy the Vampire Slayer #13
80,635 Captain America #37
80,507 Justice Society of
78,458 Amazing Spider-Man #556
77,441 X-Men Legacy #210 DWS
77,057 Amazing Spider-Man #557
75,584 Titans #1
72,703 Countdown to Final Crisis 1
71,593 Young X-Men #1 DWS
71,138 Batman #675
70,163 Countdown to Final Crisis 2
69,829 Countdown to Final Crisis 3
69,630 Countdown to Final Crisis 4
65,568 Cable #1 DWS
65,347 Green Lantern #30
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 April, see "Comic Sales Slip in April."
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 April 2008, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 100 GNs Index."