DC Entertainment won the market share battle in the North American comic store channel for the third consecutive month in September, according to information on Diamond Comic Distributors’ sales to comic stores, released today by Diamond Comic Distributors.  The spread between DC and Marvel dropped to 5.13%, down from the 8.5% spread last month (see "Comic Store Sales Blew the Doors Off in August").

September 2016 Comic Channel Market Share

36.53%                                  DC Entertainment
31.40%                                  Marvel Comics
  9.04%                                  Image Comics
  4.60%                                  IDW Publishing
  3.23%                                  Dark Horse Comics
  2.38%                                  BOOM! Studios
  1.29%                                  Titan Comics
  1.10%                                  VIZ Media
  1.02%                                  Oni Press Inc.
  0.94%                                  Dynamite Entertainment
  8.46%                                  Other Non-Top 10

Sales grew more slowly in September than in August, with comic and graphic novel sales up 2.2% overall, behind comic sale increases of 9.23% and a graphic novel sales decline of 10.94% vs. September 2015.  Sales were up 44.58% in August.

But sales were better than the raw percentages indicate, because September had five release weeks in 2015, and only four in 2016.  If the comparison was between equal numbers of weeks, September would likely have shown double digit growth.

DC had eight of the top ten comic titles in September, with the latest issues of Civil War and The Walking Dead the only exceptions.  Only two of DC’s titles in the top ten were first issues, indicating solid staying power for the Rebirth titles.

Top 10 Comics – September 2016

  1. Batman #6
  2. All-Star Batman #2
  3. Batman #7
  4. Civil War II #5
  5. Justice League #4
  6. The Walking Dead #158
  7. Trinity #1
  8. Supergirl #1
  9. Suicide Squad #2
  10. Justice League #5

DC improved its performance at the top of the chart compared to last month, with six titles among the top ten graphic novels in September.

Top 10 Graphic Novels – September 2016

  1. The Walking Dead Volume 26: Call to Arms TP
  2. Wonder Woman: The True Amazon HC
  3. Batman Volume 8: Superheavy TP
  4. Batman Volume 9: Bloom HC
  5. The Fix Volume 1 TP
  6. Avatar: The Last Airbender Volume 13: North and South Part 1 TP
  7. Secret Wars TP
  8. Batman: The Killing Joke Special Edition HC
  9. Justice League Volume 7: The Darkseid War Part 1 TP
  10. Harley Quinn Volume 4: A Call to Arms TP


For an overview and analysis of comic sales in September, see "Dramatic Shift in DC Sales."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during September, see "Top 300 Comics Actual -- September 2016."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during September, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels -- September 2016."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during August, see "Top 300 Comics Actual -- August 2016."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during August, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels -- August 2016."

​For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through September 2016, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 300 GNs Index."