DC's Infinite Crisis seven-issue mini-series had held the top spot on Diamond Comic Distributors Top 300 for its first six issues, but issue #7, which actually posted a 2% gain in sales over #6, was overwhelmed by the debut of Marvel's politically-charged Civil War cross-over event, which debuted with sales of 260,804 -- just a hair's breath behind the total of 261,046 posted by Frank Miller and Jim Lee's All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder in July of 2005, which happens to be the best-selling full price comic ever tracked by ICv2 since we began compiling circulation numbers in 2001. The strength of the market was evidenced by the fact that among the Top 25 titles twice as many books (14) posted gains as suffered declines (7).
In spite of the transcendent performance of Civil War #1, for the first time this year DC Comics edged out Marvel in both dollar and unit market share, largely because of the strong debut of the four weekly 52 books, all of which finished in the top ten. DC had seven of the top ten books and 12 out of the top 25, while Marvel managed to get 13 out of the top 25. Thirteen May titles topped 100,000, while only seven managed to sell more than 100K in April.
Devil's Due's Family Guy Vol. 1 easily topped the graphic novel list with sales that nearly hit 16,000, while DC's Y: The Last Man Vol. #7 was a solid second with sales of over 10K. DC had five graphic novels in the top ten, while Marvel had four. 2006's best-selling direct market graphic novel so far, V for Vendetta dropped to #88, though it managed to add nearly 1400 to its total.
Viz's Full Metal Alchemist Vol. 7 was the top-selling manga title at #12, followed by Del Rey's Negima Vol. 10 at #23 and ADV's NGE Angelic Days Manga Vol. 1 at #25.
The top 25 comic titles in May, with our estimates of the number sold to North American comic stores by Diamond Comic Distributors, are:
260,804 Civil War #1 (of 7)
198,442 Infinite Crisis #7 (of 7)
160,401 All Star Batman & Robin #4
140,971 52: Week #1
131,522 Wolverine Origins #2
128,393 52: Week #2
123,982 52: Week #3
123,318 New Avengers #19
121,440 52: Week #4
118,821 Superman/Batman #26
103,702 Superman/Batman #25
102,860 Supergirl #6
102,582 Ultimate Fantastic Four #30
95,544 Amazing Spider-Man #532
93,558 Wolverine #42
79,536 X-Men #186
79,335 Uncanny X-Men #473
78,926 Green Lantern #11
77,419 X-Men Deadly Genesis #6 (of 6)
77,257 Batman #653
75,333 Moon Knight #2
74,051 Ultimate Spider-Man #94
73,564 Ultimate Spider-Man #95
72,954 Teen Titans #35
72,235 Ultimate X-Men #70
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during May, see 'Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--May 2006.'
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during April, see 'Top 300 Comics Actual--April 2006.'
For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during April, see 'Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--April 2006.'
For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through May 2006, see 'ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 100 GNs Index.'