The Batman: Earth One hardcover shipped nearly 33,000 copies to comic stores (from North America) in July, according to our Top 300 Graphic Novel estimates for July (see "Top 300 Graphic Novels--July 2012"), an excellent showing in a graphic novel market that often has struggled to produce a title over 10,000 copies recently.  It topped even the latest volume of The Walking Dead, which was just over 28,000 copies last month (see "Top 300 Graphic Novels--June 2012").  Of course, Earth One is new material vs. The Walking Dead volume, which collects previously published material, but the number is a strong one, regardless.

The latest volume of Fables was also over 10,000, with around 11,000 sold.

On the comic side, we’ve known for several weeks that The Walking Dead sold over 300,000 copies, a monster number driven both by the popularity of the property and numerous variants (see "'The Walking Dead' #100 Hits 383,612 in Initial Orders").  Our estimates show around 335,000 copies sold, reflecting the difference between the number of copies sold to comic stores from North America and the number released by Image, which includes copies sold by Diamond UK as well as Diamond U.S.

There were five comic titles over 100,000 in July, down from eight in June.  That difference is from the decline of Before Watchmen sales, with the only #1 in the group selling only around 88,000 copies in July; the bottom #1 in the group in June sold over 101,000 copies.  The second Before Watchmen issues declined by around two thirds from the first issue sales in June. 

Among titles outside the Big Two universes, Mark Millar’s Hit Girl #2 (from Marvel) stayed strong at over 45,000 copies sold, down only around 25% from #1; and Image Comics’ Saga #5 sold around 40,556 copies, down only a fraction from sales of 41,143 #4 in June.

Valiant’s Bloodshot #1 sold around 29,000 copies, a strong showing for a non-Big Two launch but down from Valiant’s last #1, Harbinger #1, which sold over 32,000 copies in June.

Here are ICv2's estimates of the direct market North American sales of the "Top 25" comics sold through Diamond Comic Distributors in July.

335,082      Walking Dead #100 (MR)
179,208      Avengers Vs X-Men #7
174,910      Avengers Vs X-Men #8
127,210      Batman #11
123,971      Justice League #11
  88,210      Before Watchmen Ozymandias #1 (MR) [*]
  86,526      AvX VS #4 AVX
  79,835      Detective Comics #11
  78,708      Green Lantern #11
  76,232      Action Comics #11
  68,768      Before Watchmen Minutemen #2 (MR) [*]
  68,632      Batman The Dark Knight #11
  67,403      Earth 2 #3 [*]
  66,114      Uncanny X-Men #15 AVX
  65,043      Batman and Robin #11
  63,835      Uncanny X-Men #16 AVX
  63,686      Before Watchmen Comedian #2 (MR) [*]
  63,169      Avengers #28 AVX
  62,739      New Avengers #28 AVX
  62,689      Wolverine and the X-Men #13 AVX
  61,563      Before Watchmen Silk Spectre #2 (MR) [*]
  61,029      Wolverine and the X-Men #14 AVX
  60,880      Wolverine #310
  59,859      Amazing Spider-Man #689
  58,976      Amazing Spider-Man #690

For an analysis of the dollar trends in July, see "Comics Soar Again in July."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during July, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--July 2012."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during July, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--July 2012."

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 2012."

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 2012."

For an overview and analysis of the best-selling comics and graphic novels in June, see "Eight Comics Over 100,000 in June."  For an analysis of the dollar trends in June, see "First Half Comic Sale Up 18%."