Sales of periodical comics through Diamond Comic Distributors rose 2% in September, reversing a seven month string of declining year over year comic sales.  Although a 2% gain versus September of 2007 doesn’t sound like much, it represents a major year-over-year improvement from August during which comic sales declined a whopping 9%, the largest monthly drop since March.

The slight rise in September was not enough to offset declines in July and August, so comic sales for the third quarter were off 4% from Q3 2007.  After substantial 19% and 16% gains in July and August respectively, graphic novel sales of the top 100 titles increased only 2% in September.  For the third quarter graphic novel sales on the top sellers were up 12%, which nearly offset the 4% decline in comic sales and left the combined sales of comics and graphic novels for the quarter down just 1% from 2007, a considerable improvement from the 5% decline in overall sales in Q1 and a 4% decline in the same index in Q2.  Of course, there may be effects from less visible areas of sales, such as sales of graphic novels below the top 100, that have impacts on these over-all numbers in a broader analysis. 

For the top 300 comics in September, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--September 2008."

For the top 100 graphics novels in September, see "Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--September 2008."

For an overview and analysis of the best-selling comics and graphic novels in September, see "'Secret Invasion' Rules Again."

For the top 300 comics in August, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--August 2008."

For the top 100 graphics novels in August, see "Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--August 2008."

For an overview and analysis of the best-selling comics and graphic novels in August, see "'Watchmen' Top Dollar Book in August."  For an analysis of the dollar trends in August, see "Comics Continue Slide in August."

For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through September 2008, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 100 GNs Index."