Spurred by the increasingly frequent practice of multiple cover marketing, Alex Ross' new Justice maxi-series for DC (which sported two different Ross covers) topped the charts in August with sales of over 190,000 copies.  Although no title came close to July's record-setting debut of the Frank Miller/Jim Lee All-Star Batman and Robin The Boy Wonder, and 19 of the top 22 continuing series posted declines, comic book sales for August were up substantially from July and posted an even more impressive 16% gain over sales in August 2004.

 

Comics written by Brian Michael Bendis, New Avengers #8 (156,000), New Avengers #9 (146,000) and House of M #5 (141,000) took the second, third and fourth spots with Astonishing X-Men #12 (126,000) coming in fifth giving Marvel four out of the top five spots.  DC kept the market share battle with Marvel very close by snagging 6 out the top 10 titles and 10 out of the top 25.

 

In addition to Supergirl #1 (shipping with two covers), which debuted at #6, DC had the only three top 25 titles that actually gained circulation, The Omac Project #5, JLA #117 and Teen Titans #27.

 

Alan Moore's Top Ten: the Forty Niners hardcover dominated the graphic novel charts with sales of nearly 10,000 copies of the $25.00 volume.  In 7th place on the graphic novel list, Viz' Naruto Vol. 7 was the top-selling non-Marvel/DC graphic novel with Dark Horse's Trigun Maximum Vol. 6 close behind.

 

The top 25 comic titles in August with our estimates of the number sold to North American comic shops through Diamond Comic Distributors are:

 

190,424                       Justice #1 (of 12)

156,037                       New Avengers #8

145,673                       New Avengers #9

140,680                       House of M #5

125,834                       Astonishing X-Men #12

123,270                       Supergirl #1

108,511                       Green Lantern #3

  96,932                       Green Lantern #4

  94,010                       The Omac Project #5 (of 6)

  87,995                       JLA #117

  87,610                       Uncanny X-Men #463

  84,721                       Villains United #4 (of 6)

  82,690                       Ultimates 2 Annual #1 

  77,378                       Ultimate Iron Man #3

  76,342                       X-Men #174

  76,229                       Ultimate X-Men #62

  75,618                       Wolverine #31

  75,572                       Ultimate Spider-Man #81

  75,101                       The Rann / Thanagar War #4 (of 6)

  74,782                       Teen Titans #27

  72,046                       Amazing Spider-Man #523

  71,887                       Day of Vengeance #5 (of 6)

  71,767                       Ultimate Fantastic Four #22

  70,811                       Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1

  67,910                       Ultimate X-Men Annual #1

 

We are estimating actual sales by Diamond U.S. (primarily to North American comic stores), using Diamond's published sales indexes and publisher sales data to estimate a sales number for Batman (the anchor title Diamond uses in its calculations), and using that number and the indexes to estimate Diamond's sales on the remaining titles.  We can check the accuracy of our numbers by comparing the Batman number that we calculate using multiple data points; our numbers for Batman are within 1/10 of 1% of each other, ensuring a high degree of accuracy.
 
For an analysis of the dollar trends in August, see 'Comic Sales Soar in August.'
 

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during August, see 'Top 300 Comics Actual--August 2005.'

 

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during August, see 'Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--August 2005.'

 

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during July, see 'Top 300 Comics Actual--July 2005.'

 

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during July, see 'Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--July 2005.'

 

For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through August 2005, see 'ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 100 GNs Index.'