DC Comics has announced that all 52 first issues of its New 52 titles have sold out and gone back to press, an unprecedented phenomenon for a full month’s comics.  Given that the final week’s books were beyond the Final Order Cut-off date when the New 52 titles kicked off (and that retailers ordered substantially more on those titles, see “Inside the New 52”), sales must have continued at a higher level than expected, even after the first week’s books were in stores. 

The company also shared some info on quantities sold, announcing that an eleventh title, Aquaman, now had sales of over 100,000 through Diamond, joining the ten titles previously announced (see “Justice League Is Top Comic of 2011 So Far”).  This number includes non-U.S. sales, which are not included in our monthly Top 300 estimates, but does not include channels other than comic stores, which have been included in previous sales announcements from DC. 

DC Senior Vice President Bob Wayne told ICv2 in an interview earlier this month (see “Inside the New 52”) that overprints were larger than normal, but that “…it all got vacuumed up in a way that I have never seen before.”  Justice League is in its 4th printing; Action and Batgirl are in their third printings.

Digital sales have not been reported, but have been strong enough to put comiXology’s Comics app as high as the #1 top-grossing iPad app, and at #2 for extended periods (see “comiXology Charts at #2”).

To help feed the demand (and to provide a holiday product supporting the launch), DC is releasing DC Comics: The New 52, a hardcover collection of all 52 stories, on December 7th (to comic stores; other channels street December 13th).  The volume will retail for $150.00.