Jupiter’s Legacy #1, the Mark Millar-Frank Quitely superhero crossover under the Image Comics imprint (announced as Jupiter’s Children, see "Millar-Quitely Magnum Opus"), debuted as the #3 comic in comic shops in April, according to rankings released by Diamond Comic Distributors.  It was topped only by Thanos Rising #1 from Marvel at #2 and DC’s Batman #19 at #1. 

Image had a great month for a non-Big Two publisher in April, placing a second title (Walking Dead) in the Top Ten Comics and dominating graphic novels with the top four books (in order, Walking Dead Vol. 1, The Manhattan Projects Vol. 2, Happy, and Saga Vol. 1).  Image had a 9.04% share in April.

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Marvel was the big winner in the month, with a 37.95% share, far above DC’s 25.98% share.  IDW Publishing approached 8% with a 7.54% share.

April’s sales were up 14.18% overall vs. April 2012, combining a 13.87% growth rate in comics and 14.83% in graphic novels.  That’s actually a below average month this year; the year-to-date growth rate over-all is 18.32%.

For an overview and analysis of comic sales in April, see "An Image #1 Tops 100K."
 
For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during April, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--April 2013."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during April, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--April 2013."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during March, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--March 2013."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during March, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--March 2013."

For an overview and analysis of the best-selling comics and graphic novels in March, see "'Guardians' Debuts Over 200K."  For an analysis of the dollar trends in March, see "Comic Market Up 22+% in March."
 
For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through April 2013, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 300 GNs Index."