After closing the gap with category leader Marvel, DC’s market share in comic stores dropped back in May as Marvel surged behind the launch of Secret Wars, widening the share gap to nearly 15%.  Marvel’s share topped 40%, as DC’s dropped to around 25%.  In another notable share move, BOOM! Studios moved up to #5, ahead of Dark Horse, behind the strong sales of Bravest Warriors:  Tales of Holo John #1, which we assume had a one-time sale through a special channel.  (It’s worth noting that Dark Horse, which has pivoted to a greater emphasis on book publishing, placed three video game titles in Diamond’s Top Ten Books chart, where share is not counted in the comic market share numbers.)

May 2015 Comic Direct Market Share

40.17%                  Marvel Comics
25.43%                  DC Comics
  8.89%                  Image Comics
  5.06%                  IDW Publishing
  3.96%                  BOOM! Studios
  3.83%                  Dark Horse Comics
  2.22%                  Dynamite Entertainment
  1.16%                  Eaglemoss Publications
  1.01%                  Viz Media
  0.85%                  Valiant Entertainment

Year-over-year growth continued in May, with comic sales up 19.94% over May 2014 and graphic novel sales in the comic store channel roughly flat (down 0.29%) for a 13.49% over-all increase; however, the results were affected by a five-week month in May 2015 compared to a four-week month in May 2014, a comparison that will flip in the other direction in June.

Marvel had seven of the top ten comic titles, including #1.  Six of them were Secret Wars-related titles; the outlier was Star Wars, which continues to chart strong.  Bravest Warriors:  Tales of Holo John #1 was the #2 title in May.  DC placed two Convergence issues in the #9 and #10 spots.

Top 10 Comics—May 2015

  1. Secret Wars #1
  2. Bravest Warriors:  Tales of Holo John #1
  3. Secret Wars #2
  4. Star Wars #5
  5. Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars #1
  6. A-Force #1
  7. Old Man Logan #1
  8. Darth Vader #5
  9. Convergence #5
  10. Convergence #6

The top graphic novels were from an eclectic mix of publishers; five different companies placed titles in the Top 10.  The second new Batman:  Earth-One volume was the #1 title for the month, DC’s only title in the top ten.  Marvel’s inexpensively priced Night Nurse collection was the top Marvel, at #2, along with Civil War and Deadpool collections at #5 and #8, respectively.  Rat Queens and Southern Bastards joined two Saga volumes as Image’s four titles in the Top 10.  Viz, with its new Legend of Zelda manga collection, and Valiant, with The Valiant, each placed a title in the Top 10 this month.

Four titles in the Top 10 Graphic Novels were priced below $10, an unusually strong concentration of lower-priced volumes.

Top 10 Direct Market Graphic Novels—May 2015 

  1. Batman:  Earth-One Vol. 2
  2. Night Nurse
  3. Rat Queens Vol. 2:  The Far Reaching Tentacles of N’Rygoth
  4. Southern Bastards Vol. 2:  Gridiron
  5. Civil War
  6. Saga Vol. 4
  7. Legend of Zelda:  A Link to the Past
  8. Deadpool Vol. 8:  All Good Things
  9. The Valiant
  10. Saga Vol. 1

For an overview and analysis of comic sales in May, see "'Secret Wars' Dominates May Sales."
 
For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during May, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--May 2015."
 
For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during May, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--May 2015."
 
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 2015."
 
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 2015."
 
For an overview and analysis of the best-selling comics and graphic novels in April, see "Eleven Titles Over 100K in April."  For an analysis of the dollar trends in April, see "Comic Sales Soar in April."

For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through May 2015, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 300 GNs Index."