Sales to comic stores on the top titles in October, the first month since the global economic crisis has been front page news for the full month, appear to have slipped, with only two titles in the top 25 eking out an increase over the previous month's issues. Amazing Spider-Man #573 (2 covers, 50/50; plus a "Cobert" incentive cover) displayed the “Colbert Bump,” picking up sales over the previous issue; and Batman #680, the penultimate issue in the RIP storyline, also gained. But other than that, declines of a few percentage points vs. the previous issue were the norm.
Event books remained the bestsellers at the top of the chart, with Secret Invasion #7 (154,675 copies) and Final Crisis #4 (115,666 copies) taking the top two spots.
There seemed to be an unusually high percentage of late books among the top sellers, with no September issues for nine of the top 25 titles (six DC and three Marvel).
Marvel had a fairly typical seven out of the top ten titles, and 17 of the top 25. There were no titles not published by the Big Two in the top 25 comics list. In fact, to find a non-Big Two title you have to look all the way down to #65 and #66, where IDW’s new G.I. Joe comic (two covers, 50/50) and Angel: After the Fall landed, to find anything from another publisher.
IDW was ahead of Image in market share again this month, coming in at #4.
Titles from a more diverse range of publishers hit the top ten graphic novel list this month, where five publishers, Marvel, DC, Dynamite, Dark Horse, and Avatar, had titles in the top ten.
DC’s original hardcover graphic novel Joker was the top graphic novel title in comic stores in both units and dollars by a large margin, with over 17,000 copies sold in October. The Marvel Zombies trade paperback (featuring three covers) was the top Marvel, with The Boys tops from Dynamite Entertainment, Serenity: Better Days from Dark Horse, and Warren Ellis Aetheric Mechanics a top ten title from Avatar. Watchmen slipped from #1 to #6, with over 6,000 copies sold in during October, still a huge number for a 20 year old book.
Dark Horse’s Hellsing Vol. 9 was the top manga on the graphic novel chart, with over 3,700 copies sold in November.
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Here are ICv2's estimates of the sales by Diamond Comic Distributors to comic stores on the top 25 comic titles in October:
154,675 Secret Invasion #7 (Of 8) SI*
115,666 Final Crisis #4 (Of 7)
110,261 Hulk #7*
103,941 Batman #680 RIP*
99,513 New Avengers #46 SI
87,258 Mighty Avengers #19 SI
86,770 Astonishing X-Men #27 MD
82,550 Amazing Spider-Man #573 NWD*
81,074 Uncanny X-Men #503 MD
80,731 Justice League of
78,673 Thor #11
77,353 Justice League of
76,407 Final Crisis Rage of Red Lanterns #1
72,405 Captain America #43
72,073 Justice Society of
69,609 Astonishing X-Men: Ghost
69,069 Amazing Spider-Man #574
68,913 Amazing Spider-Man #575
65,888 X-Men Legacy #217 XOS 2
65,878 Detective Comics #849 RIP
65,732
64,443 The Stand: Captain Trips #2 (Of 5)*
64,412 Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #2 (Of 5)
64,194 Marvel Zombies 3 #1 (Of 4)*
63,757 Avengers / Invaders #5 (Of 12)*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 October, see "Comics Up 9% Over 2007."
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 October 2008, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 100 GNs Index."