352895_20160120052859_large.jpg

by David Carter

Greetings, sales charts fans! It’s time once again to look at DC’s sales figures.

Things were bad for DC in January. How bad? With records going back to March 2003, DC had its second worst average sales on record of 21,845, just barely beating the March 2009 low point of 21,792. The Vertigo line had its lowest average sales on record by far: 6,832, beating the previous average low of 7,055 in March 2015. And the median sales for both lines was even lower: 24,624 & 5,802 respectively.

DC shipped twenty fewer comics in January as compared to December (74 versus 94). Two titles not shipping in January were two of DC’s top sellers, Dark Knight III and Justice League. They moved a total estimated 1,616,524 comic units in January, compared to 2,640,519 in December, a difference of over a million units!

I’m surprised that the Adult Coloring Book variants didn’t sell better. I’m guessing that retailers for the most part were unaware that the adult coloring book movement is huge right now? They regularly show up at or near the top of Amazon’s Comics & Graphic Novel chart (which is annoying because I have to strip them out when I do my weekly Amazon comics chart columns). One of the best selling is the Grimm Fairy Tales Adult Coloring Book, which I’m guessing is the highest selling thing that Zenescope has ever produced. I would not be surprised to see DC do a collection of these covers, and for it to sell like gangbusters (outside of the Diamond comics market, of course!)

Important Note! You may notice that there are a great number of revised sales numbers below (i.e. the number is square brackets). I took the time to go through the Diamond Top 1000 sales charts for 2014 & 2015. What I found was a great number of hidden sales that didn’t show up in the first-month sales numbers that we get in the monthly Diamond Top 300. These represent additional sales through either reorders or second printings; or in the case where the numbers dropped from the first-month figures they presumably represent returns. A few take-aways:

  • In the vast majority of cases, the final sales numbers were just a few hundred higher than the first-month sales. This would tend to make sense, as in general retailers should have a pretty good idea of how a long-running title will sell in their store.
  • In a few cases however the hidden sales were particularly significant, as much as an additional 5K or even as much as 10K. These extra sales never appeared in the monthly figures likely because they were spread out over more than one month and always fell below the threshold for those months.
  • This process isn’t perfect: Any book below the Top 1000 cut-off (28,963 in 2014; 28,447 in 2015) won’t see any adjustments. So it’s possible (though very unlikely) that a low-selling Vertigo book could be seeing 100 or so additional sales each month for 10 months which would mean an additional 1,000 in sales that remain hidden. Also, books that come out in December will never see an adjustment, as their extra sales (or returns) would come in the next calendar year. But despite these shortcomings, I felt it was worth it to make the adjustments on the books that we can see, as it leads to sales figures that are closer to accurate in a greta number of cases.
  • In general, the practice of adding an additional 10% for returnable comics bears out; it is never exact, but with a few exceptions the +10% number is closer to the eventual ‘final’ number (as represented in the year-end figures) than the reported first-month figures.
  • The very notable exception to that is most (though not all) of the titles that launched as part of DCYou in June 2015. Many of those titles saw returns that not only wiped out that extra 10%, but in some cases down past the reported numbers as well. (One notable exception: Starfire #1, whose final numbers were above even the +10% figure.) Why did retailers over-order on these books? (Despite being returnable, I believe there is some sort of restocking fee, plus the time involved in processing the returns—any retailers out there want to verify this?) I suspect that the combination of incentive variants plus returnablility was a situation that incentivized over-ordering.

So keep in mind over the coming year as we look at the first-month sales each month that they do not represent the total sales for the books. I’ll make revisions again when the 2016 year-end numbers are released next January.

(The monthly average charts at the end still represent only the first-month sales.)

Warning: The commentary below may contain reasoned analysis, speculation (unfounded and otherwise), opinion, and/or snark. Those looking for a more straightforward analysis are directed to John Jackson Miller’s excellent Comichron analysis, posted earlier this month over at Comichron!

Please consider the fine print at the end of the column. Thanks to Milton Griepp and ICv2.com for the permission to use their figures. An overview of ICv2.com’s estimates can be found here.

(Note that the percentage comparisons are done with total orders including reorder activity, as opposed to initial orders as was the practice of this column under the previous administration.)

8 - BATMAN ($3.99)
01/2006: Batman #649    --  62,679  [64,645] 
01/2011: Batman #706    --  60,231
01/2012: Batman #5      -- 135,145 [142,499]
01/2013: Batman #16     -- 145,923 
01/2014: Batman #27     -- 115,492 [117,395]
----------------------------------
01/2015: Batman #38     -- 110,232 (+  6.3%) [120,385]
02/2015: Batman #39     -- 118,106 (+  6.8%) [128,627]
03/2015: -- 
04/2015: Batman #40     -- 131,128 (+ 20.3%) [154,764]
05/2015: -- 
06/2015: Batman #41     -- 142,155 (-  6.1%) [145,305]
07/2015: Batman #42     -- 117,441 (- 18.3%) [118,702]
08/2015: Batman #43     -- 124,697 (+  7.8%) [127,996]
09/2015: Batman #44     -- 114,409 (-  9.9%) [115,351]
10/2015: Batman #45     -- 109,367 (-  4.6%) [110,031]
11/2015: Batman #46     -- 106,989 (-  2.1%) [107,758]
12/2015: Batman #47     -- 127,201 (+ 18.0%) 
01/2016: Batman #48     -- 100,962 (- 20.6%) 
-----------------
6 months: - 14.9%
1 year  : - 16.1%
2 years : - 14.0%
5 years : + 67.6%
10 years: + 56.2%

With Dark Knight III sitting on the sidelines in January, Batman is DC’s best-selling title of the month, and the only title to sell over 100K. In fact, it sells nearly double the amount of their number two title.

Like most of the titles that had polybagged f.o.v.s last in December, Batman drops precipitously with just a normal f.o.v. in January. The combination of declining readership and the relative unpopularity of the Adult Coloring Book f.o.v.s (at least with retailers…) sends Batman to its lowest level since the launch of the New 52.

24 - BATMAN/TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ($3.99)
12/2015: Batman/TMNT #1 of 6 -- 134,526           [146,932]
01/2016: Batman/TMNT #2 of 6 --  52,337 (- 64.4%)

Only one incentive variant this month, and thus the numbers take a huge Marvel-sized fall after last month’s retailer incentive variant-fueled debut. Another 12K copies of #1 show up on the January chart, likely a late-shipping variant. Second printings of #1 & #2 are on their way for February, so while there many be plenty of extra copies floating around at store that went big on the incentives, other locations are seeing greater demand than their initial orders.

30 - JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ($3.99)
01/2006: JLA #124          --  74,069  
01/2011: JL of America #53 --  47,093
01/2012: --
01/2013: --
01/2014: JL of America #11 --  65,365  [66,039]
-------------------------------------
06/2015: JL of America #1  -- 150,845 (+192.7%) [148,624]
07/2015: JL of America #2  --  70,979 (- 51.3%) [ 72,335]
08/2015: JL of America #3  --  67,118 (-  5.3%) [ 68,504]
09/2015: --
10/2015: JL of America #4  --  56,543 (- 17.0%) [ 56,854]
11/2015: JL of America #5  --  52,604 (-  6.7%) [ 53,027]
12/2015: JL of America #6  --  55,410 (+  4.5%)
01/2016: JL of America #7  --  47,835 (- 13.7%)
-----------------
6 months: - 33.9%
2 years : - 27.6%
5 years : +  1.6%
10 years: - 35.4%

Drops below where the previous New 52 incarnation of JLA ended.

37 - DETECTIVE COMICS ($3.99)
01/2006: Detective Comics #815 -- 35,569
01/2011: Detective Comics #873 -- 38,417
01/2012: Detective Comics #5   -- 99,342
01/2013: Detective Comics #16  -- 92,300 
01/2014: Detective Comics #27  -- 88,702  [90,335]
----------------------------------------
01/2015: Detective Comics #38  -- 51,301 (-  6.6%)
02/2015: Detective Comics #39  -- 54,698 (+  8.1%) [55,457]
03/2015: Detective Comics #40  -- 56,126 (+  2.3%) [56,742]
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: Detective Comics #41  -- 57,648 (+  2.9%) [58,361]
07/2015: Detective Comics #42  -- 50,743 (- 12.5%) [51,055]
08/2015: Detective Comics #43  -- 53,576 (+  5.4%) [53,797]
09/2015: Detective Comics #44  -- 55,871 (+  4.4%) [56,177]
10/2015: Detective Comics #45  -- 47,972 (- 14.2%) [48,220]
11/2015: Detective Comics #46  -- 47,256 (-  1.9%) [47,280]
12/2015: Detective Comics #47  -- 45,867 (-  3.0%)
01/2016: Detective Comics #48  -- 45,111 (-  1.6%)
-----------------
6 months: - 11.6%
1 year  : - 12.1%
2 years : - 50.1%
5 years : + 17.4%
10 years: + 26.8%

December was the “Robin War” crossover issue, but the return of the f.o.v. in January isn’t enough to keep Detective from sliding to its lowest level since the start of the New 52.

38 - HARLEY QUINN ($3.99)
01/2014: Harley Quinn #2  --  66,363  [82,031]
------------------------------------
01/2015: Harley Quinn #14 --  64,735 (-  0.3%) [67,900]
02/2015: --
03/2015: Harley Quinn #15 --  66,904 (+  0.8%) [68,445]
04/2015: Harley Quinn #16 --  72,055 (+  8.1%) [73,976]
05/2015: --
06/2015: Harley Quinn #17 --  68,243 (-  6.2%) [69,406]
07/2015: Harley Quinn #18 --  59,566 (- 13.1%) [60,292]
08/2015: Harley Quinn #19 --  64,223 (+  8.1%) [65,155]
09/2015: Harley Quinn #20 --  56,836 (- 10.0%) [58,652]
10/2015: Harley Quinn #21 --  55,272 (-  5.7%) [55,282]
11/2015: Harley Quinn #22 --  58,344 (+  6.2%) [58,734]
12/2015: Harley Quinn #23 --  69,168 (+ 17.8%)
01/2016: Harley Quinn #24 --  44,967 (- 35.0%)
-----------------
6 months: - 25.4%
1 year  : - 33.8%
2 years : - 45.2%

For whatever reason, DC decided to not give Harley Quinn an Adult Coloring Book f.o.v. in January, just a 1:25 incentive variant. The result is the lowest sales of the current series by a very wide margin—nearly 11K lower than issue #21 (the previous low).

41, 42, 44, 48 - BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL ($2.99)
01/2015: Batman Eternal #40 --  46,832 (-  2.0%)
01/2015: Batman Eternal #41 --  46,648 (+  0.5%) [47,043]
01/2015: Batman Eternal #42 --  46,516 (-  1.4%) [46,393]
01/2015: Batman Eternal #43 --  45,912 (+  0.5%) [46,618]
02/2015: Batman Eternal #44 --  45,391 (-  2.0%) [45,698]
02/2015: Batman Eternal #45 --  45,199 (-  0.2%) [45,603]
02/2015: Batman Eternal #46 --  44,763 (-  0.4%) [45,399]
02/2015: Batman Eternal #47 --  44,699 (   0.0%) [45,399]
03/2015: Batman Eternal #48 --  44,505 (-  1.4%) [44,764]
03/2015: Batman Eternal #49 --  44,277 (-  0.3%) [44,649]
03/2015: Batman Eternal #50 --  43,982 (+  0.8%) [45,011]
03/2015: Batman Eternal #51 --  44,065 (-  0.1%) [44,949]
04/2015: Batman Eternal #52 --  47,359 (+  4.0%) [46,741]
05/2015: --
06/2015: --
07/2015: --
08/2015: --
09/2015: --
10/2015: Batman & Robin #1  --  76,882 (+ 68.8%) [78,912]
10/2015: Batman & Robin #2  --  54,267 (- 28.9%) [56,079]
10/2015: Batman & Robin #3  --  53,626 (-  4.1%) [53,770]
10/2015: Batman & Robin #4  --  49,985 (-  4.1%) [51,566]
11/2015: Batman & Robin #5  --  46,545 (- 10.0%) [46,431]
11/2015: Batman & Robin #6  --  45,081 (-  1.4%) [45,766]
11/2015: Batman & Robin #7  --  43,825 (-  2.4%) [44,652]
11/2015: Batman & Robin #8  --  42,763 (-  2.4%) [43,589]
12/2015: Batman & Robin #9  --  41,943 (-  3.8%)
12/2015: Batman & Robin #10 --  41,505 (-  1.0%)
12/2015: Batman & Robin #11 --  40,557 (-  2.3%)
12/2015: Batman & Robin #12 --  40,297 (-  0.6%)
12/2015: Batman & Robin #13 --  39,613 (-  1.7%)
01/2016: Batman & Robin #14 --  39,044 (-  1.4%)
01/2016: Batman & Robin #15 --  38,858 (-  0.5%)
01/2016: Batman & Robin #16 --  38,321 (-  1.4%)
01/2016: Batman & Robin #17 --  37,675 (-  1.7%)
-----------------
6 months:    n.a.
1 year  : - 17.7%

Like its predecessor, B&R Eternal is drifting down with each issue. But the percentage drops tend to be a bit higher for each issue than they were for Batman Eternal, which is accelerating the overall decline.

47 - SUPERMAN ($3.99)
01/2006: Superman #225 --  61,768
01/2011: Superman #707 --  41,843
01/2012: Superman #5   --  73,719
01/2013: Superman #16  --  50,621 
01/2014: Superman #27  --  35,266  [34,749]
----------------------------------
01/2015: --
02/2015: Superman #38  --  48,987 (+  6.7%) [53,740]
03/2015: Superman #39  --  50,260 (-  3.9%) [51,637]
04/2015: Superman #40  --  52,666 (+  4.1%) [53,756]
05/2015: --
06/2015: Superman #41  --  53,393 (+  3.0%) [55,368]
07/2015: Superman #42  --  46,691 (- 12.5%) [48,442]
08/2015: Superman #43  --  49,825 (+  4.5%) [50,637]
09/2015: Superman #44  --  43,921 (- 11.3%) [44,908]
10/2015: Superman #45  --  42,693 (-  4.1%) [43,069]
11/2015: Superman #46  --  41,657 (-  3.0%) [41,765]
12/2015: Superman #47  --  47,377 (+ 13.4%) 
01/2015: Superman #48  --  37,690 (- 20.4%)
-----------------
6 months: - 22.2%
1 year  :    n.a.
2 years : +  8.5%
5 years : -  9.9%
10 years: - 39.0%

Hits the same position on the sales chart as in December, but with nearly 10K fewer copies.

Not the lowest that the title has been since the New 52, but certainly the lowest since the advent of the f.o.v. program.

In case you’re wondering, Superman has never dipped below 30K in the modern Diamond-served comics market. The lowest ever recorded sales were 31,504 for issue #697 back in February of 2010.

49 - GREEN LANTERN ($3.99)
01/2006: Green Lantern #7   --  84,723
01/2011: -- 
01/2012: Green Lantern #5   --  97,878
01/2013: Green Lantern #16  --  72,884 
01/2014: Green Lantern #27  --  48,831  [49,099]
--------------------------------------
01/2015: Green Lantern #38  --  39,342 (- 10.7%)
02/2015: Green Lantern #39  --  41,997 (+  7.9%) [42,459]
03/2015: Green Lantern #40  --  42,334 (+  1.8%) [43,232]
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: Green Lantern #41  --  45,704 (+  6.7%) [46,109]
07/2015: Green Lantern #42  --  39,290 (- 13.9%) [39,708]
08/2015: Green Lantern #43  --  42,482 (+  7.7%) [42,750]
09/2015: Green Lantern #44  --  39,371 (-  7.6%) [39,501]
10/2015: Green Lantern #45  --  38,406 (-  2.5%) [38,519]
11/2015: Green Lantern #46  --  38,976 (+  1.4%) [39,053]
12/2015: Green Lantern #47  --  45,706 (+ 17.0%)
01/2015: Green Lantern #48  --  36,068 (- 21.1%)
-----------------
6 months: -  9.2%
1 year  : -  8.3%
2 years : - 26.5%
5 years :    n.a.
10 years: - 57.4%

Hits its lowest level since the launch of the New 52, even with the f.o.v.

52 - ROBIN WAR ($4.99)
12/2015: Robin War #1 of 2 -- 45,058
01/2016: Robin War #2 of 2 -- 35,062 (- 22.2%)

Another title that hits the same position on the chart as in December, but also with 10K fewer copies.

54 - BATMAN/SUPERMAN ($3.99)
01/2006: --
01/2011: Superman/Batman #80 --  30,363
01/2014: Batman/Superman #7  --  61,074  [62,432]
---------------------------------------
01/2015: Batman/Superman #18 --  41,750 (-  4.2%) [42,854]
02/2015: Batman/Superman #19 --  44,134 (+  6.1%) [45,456]
03/2015: Batman/Superman #20 --  43,428 (-  1.0%) [45,009]
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: Batman/Superman #21 --  49,204 (+ 11.0%) [49,946]
07/2015: Batman/Superman #22 --  41,672 (- 15.9%) [41,985]
08/2015: Batman/Superman #23 --  44,259 (+  6.5%) [44,704]
09/2015: Batman/Superman #24 --  40,132 (- 10.2%) [40,271]
10/2015: Batman/Superman #25 --  37,566 (-  6.4%) [37,782]
11/2015: Batman/Superman #26 --  38,056 (+  1.3%) [38,181]
12/2015: Batman/Superman #27 --  30,021 (- 21.1%)
01/2016: Batman/Superman #28 --  34,507 (+ 14.9%)
-----------------
6 months: - 17.8%
1 year  : - 19.5%
2 year  : - 44.7%
5 years : + 13.6%
10 years:    n.a.

Lowest ever sales for the New 52 edition, even with the return of the f.o.v.

58 - WONDER WOMAN ($3.99)
01/2006: Wonder Woman #225 -- 42,661
01/2011: Wonder Woman #606 -- 33,601
01/2012: Wonder Woman #5   -- 57,626
01/2013: Wonder Woman #16  -- 40,105 
01/2014: Wonder Woman #27  -- 32,035  [32,769]
------------------------------------
01/2015: Wonder Woman #38  -- 39,669 (-  2.0%) [42,214]
02/2015: Wonder Woman #39  -- 42,634 (+  5.0%) [44,330]
03/2015: -- 
04/2015: Wonder Woman #40  -- 45,172 (+  2.5%) [45,457]
05/2015: -- 
06/2015: Wonder Woman #41  -- 45,284 (+  0.6%) [45,740]
07/2015: Wonder Woman #42  -- 36,668 (- 18.7%) [37,183]
08/2015: Wonder Woman #43  -- 39,646 (+  7.9%) [40,128]
09/2015: Wonder Woman #44  -- 36,151 (-  9.1%) [36,478]
10/2015: Wonder Woman #45  -- 33,885 (-  6.1%) [34,251]
11/2015: Wonder Woman #46  -- 34,042 (+  0.6%) [34,454]
12/2015: Wonder Woman #47  -- 40,123 (+ 16.5%)
01/2016: Wonder Woman #48  -- 32,687 (- 18.5%)
-----------------
6 months: - 12.1%
1 year  : - 22.6%
2 years : -  0.3%
5 years : -  2.7%
10 years: - 23.4%

Once again, an Adult Coloring Book f.o.v. proves far less popular with retailers than a comic in a plastic bag where no one can see the cover. Comics people are weird.

60 - ACTION COMICS ($3.99)
01/2006: Action Comics #835 --  41,114
01/2011: Action Comics #897 --  32,134
01/2012: Action Comics #5   -- 109,350
01/2013: Action Comics #16  --  58,645 
01/2014: Action Comics #27  --  36,042  [36,448]
--------------------------------------
01/2015: Action Comics #38  --  35,018 (- 10.6%)
02/2015: Action Comics #39  --  38,070 (+ 10.0%) [38,519]
03/2015: Action Comics #40  --  38,216 (+  2.4%) [39,451]
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: Action Comics #41  --  44,083 (+ 12.7%) [44,456]
07/2015: Action Comics #42  --  37,956 (- 13.5%) [38,434]
08/2015: Action Comics #43  --  41,883 (+  9.7%) [42,149]
09/2015: Action Comics #44  --  37,927 (-  9.5%) [38,130]
10/2015: Action Comics #45  --  36,560 (-  3.8%) [36,694]
11/2015: Action Comics #46  --  35,569 (-  2.2%) [35,898]
12/2015: Action Comics #47  --  29,021 (- 19.2%)
01/2016: Action Comics #48  --  31,958 (+ 10.1%)
-----------------
6 months: - 16.8%
1 year  : -  8.7%
2 years : - 12.3%
5 years : -  0.5%
10 years: - 22.3%

Return of the f.o.v.

62 - POISON IVY: CYCLE OF LIFE AND DEATH ($2.99)
01/2016: Poison Ivy Cycle #1 of 6 -- 31,351

These number are… okay? Certainly about as good as could be expected. (There’s a 1:25 incentive variant but no f.o.v.)

63 - ROBIN, SON OF BATMAN ($3.99)
01/2006: Robin #146         -- 29,499  [31,851] 
01/2014: Damian SoB #4 of 4 -- 45,247  [46,873]
-------------------------------------
06/2015: Robin SoB #1       -- 70,505 (+ 36.2%) [63,858]
07/2015: Robin SoB #2       -- 44,232 (- 28.5%) [45,674]
08/2015: Robin SoB #3       -- 38,413 (- 13.5%) [39,523]
09/2015: Robin SoB #4       -- 38,162 (-  1.9%) [38,777]
10/2015: Robin SoB #5       -- 35,619 (-  7.2%) [35,981]
11/2015: Robin SoB #6       -- 35,633 (-  0.2%) [35,904]
12/2015: Robin SoB #7       -- 34,815 (-  3.0%)
01/2016: Robin SoB #8       -- 31,220 (- 10.3%)
-----------------
6 months: - 31.6%
2 years : - 33.4%
10 years: -  1.1%
64 - GRAYSON ($3.99)
01/2006: Nightwing #116 -- 35,113  [37,851]
01/2012: Nightwing #5   -- 56,040
01/2013: Nightwing #16  -- 69,643 
01/2014: Nightwing #27  -- 38,325  [38,669]
---------------------------------
01/2015: Grayson #6     -- 38,505 (-  6.6%) [39,816]
02/2015: Grayson #7     -- 41,164 (+  3.8%) [41,313]
03/2015: Grayson #8     -- 40,859 (+  1.4%) [41,911]
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: Grayson #9     -- 39,610 (-  3.4%) [40,478]
07/2015: Grayson #10    -- 33,990 (- 13.8%) [34,882]
08/2015: Grayson #11    -- 36,538 (+  7.2%) [37,402]
09/2015: Grayson #12    -- 32,284 (- 11.0%) [33,281]
10/2015: Grayson #13    -- 32,260 (-  1.5%) [32,786]
11/2015: Grayson #14    -- 31,831 (-  1.8%) [32,201]
12/2015: Grayson #15    -- 35,765 (+ 11.1%)
01/2016: Grayson #16    -- 30,420 (- 14.9%)
-----------------
6 months: - 12.8%
1 year  : - 23.6%
2 years : - 21.3%
10 years: - 19.6%

The f.o.v.s return, but fall short of last month’s variant-free “Robin War” crossover issues.

66 - SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN ($3.99)
01/2014: Superman/Wonder Woman #4  -- 47,350  [49,144]
--------------------------------------------
01/2015: Superman/Wonder Woman #15 -- 36,877 (-  9.2%) [37,449]
02/2015: Superman/Wonder Woman #16 -- 38,550 (+  2.9%) [38,529]
03/2015: -- 
04/2015: Superman/Wonder Woman #17 -- 39,868 (+  4.3%) [40,167]
05/2015: -- 
06/2015: Superman/Wonder Woman #18 -- 39,787 (+  2.3%) [41,077]
07/2015: Superman/Wonder Woman #19 -- 36,666 (-  8.3%) [37,676]
08/2015: Superman/Wonder Woman #20 -- 38,834 (+  4.5%) [39,381]
09/2015: Superman/Wonder Woman #21 -- 34,349 (- 12.0%) [34,636]
10/2015: Superman/Wonder Woman #22 -- 32,044 (-  6.8%) [32,262]
11/2015: Superman/Wonder Woman #23 -- 31,315 (-  1.9%) [31,641]
12/2015: Superman/Wonder Woman #24 -- 25,000 (- 21.0%)
01/2016: Superman/Wonder Woman #25 -- 29,087 (+ 16.3%)
-----------------
6 months: - 22.8%
1 year  : - 22.3%
2 years : - 40.8%

The f.o.v. returns, but 4K copies isn’t enough to put the book back over 30K.

68 - SWAMP THING ($2.99)
01/2006: Swamp Thing #23     --  8,527
01/2012: Swamp Thing #5      -- 43,806
01/2013: Swamp Thing #16     -- 32,262 
01/2014: Swamp Thing #27     -- 19,755 
--------------------------------------
01/2015: Swamp Thing #38     -- 15,751 (-  3.6%)
02/2015: Swamp Thing #39     -- 15,360 (-  2.5%)
03/2015: Swamp Thing #40     -- 15,966 (+  3.9%)
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: --
07/2015: --
08/2015: --
09/2015: --
10/2015: --
11/2015: --
12/2015: --
01/2016: Swamp Thing #1 of 6 -- 29,048 (+ 81.9%)
----------------
6 months:    n.a.
1 year  : + 84.4%
2 years : + 47.0%
10 years: +240.7%

Swamp Thing returns with a new mini-series by Len Wein and Kelley Jones. On the plus side it’s sales are a sizable improvement over where the previous New 52 ongoing ended. But on the minus side those aren’t great numbers from which to start, though since Swamp Thing is more of a known quantity it may not see as sizable a drop as one might otherwise get. (There was a 1:25 incentive variant.)

70 - SUPERMAN: AMERICAN ALIEN ($3.99)
11/2015: American Alien #1 of 7 -- 41,441           [42,842]
12/2015: American Alien #2 of 7 -- 31,025 (- 27.6%)
01/2016: American Alien #3 of 7 -- 28,828 (-  7.1%)

Not a terrible third issue drop.

72 - DEATHSTROKE ($2.99)
01/2012: Deathstroke #5  -- 23,872 
01/2013: Deathstroke #16 -- 12,758 
----------------------------------
01/2015: Deathstroke #4  -- 33,011 (-  2.9%) [38,454]
02/2015: Deathstroke #5  -- 32,863 (-  0.4%) [37,315]
03/2015: Deathstroke #6  -- 31,666 (-  3.6%) [33,923]
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: Deathstroke #7  -- 38,807 (+ 22.6%) [39,993]
07/2015: Deathstroke #8  -- 33,648 (- 13.3%) [34,754]
08/2015: Deathstroke #9  -- 36,583 (+  8.7%) [37,419]
09/2015: Deathstroke #10 -- 31,241 (- 14.6%) [31,832]
10/2015: Deathstroke #11 -- 31,121 (-  0.4%) [31,649]
11/2015: Deathstroke #12 -- 31,939 (+  2.6%) [32,568]
12/2015: Deathstroke #13 -- 25,344 (- 20.6%) 
01/2016: Deathstroke #14 -- 27,648 (+  9.1%) 
-----------------
6 months: - 20.4%
1 year  : - 28.1%

Return of the f.o.v.

76 - BATGIRL ($2.99)
01/2006: Batgirl #72    -- 26,480
01/2011: Batgirl #17    -- 25,189
01/2012: Batgirl #5     -- 57,030
01/2013: Batgirl #16    -- 72,470 
01/2014: Batgirl #27    -- 37,226  [37,305]
---------------------------------
01/2015: Batgirl #38    -- 45,096 (+  6.5%) [48,003]
02/2015: Batgirl #39    -- 40,880 (- 10.4%) [43,024]
03/2015: Batgirl #40    -- 41,729 (+  1.7%) [43,772]
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: Batgirl #41    -- 33,220 (- 16.5%) [36,553]
07/2015: Batgirl #42    -- 33,168 (-  6.5%) [34,194]
08/2015: Batgirl #43    -- 32,079 (-  5.0%) [32,478]
09/2015: Batgirl #44    -- 30,654 (-  4.9%) [30,882]
10/2015: Batgirl #45    -- 29,276 (-  3.8%) [29,715]
11/2015: --
12/2015: Batgirl #46    -- 27,591 (-  7.1%)
01/2016: Batgirl #47    -- 26,905 (-  2.5%)
-----------------
6 months: - 21.3%
1 year  : - 44.0%
2 years : - 27.9%
5 years : +  6.8%
10 years: +  1.6%

Looks like the bloom is off the rose for the Batgirl of Burnside. Not that these are horrible numbers for a Batgirl book, especially seeing as there haven’t been any variants for a while. And the book does tend to sell above its weight class in digital. But I have a sneaking suspicion that when Rebirth rolls around (whatever it is…) DC will make the decision that they can do better, at least in the short term, with a more traditional Batgirl comic.

77 - GREEN LANTERN CORPS: EDGE OF OBLIVION ($2.99)
01/2006: GLC Recharge #4 of 5     -- 59,952  [61,540]
01/2011: Green Lantern Corps #54  -- 57,448
01/2012: Green Lantern Corps #3   -- 65,393
01/2013: Green Lantern Corps #16  -- 45,387 
01/2014: Green Lantern Corps #27  -- 31,447  [31,555]
-------------------------------------------
01/2015: Green Lantern Corps #38  -- 27,765 (- 15.5%)
02/2015: Green Lantern Corps #39  -- 29,825 (+  8.6%) [30,860]
03/2015: Green Lantern Corps #40  -- 29,412 (-  0.4%) [30,029]
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: --
07/2015: --
08/2015: --
09/2015: --
10/2015: --
11/2015: --
12/2015: --
01/2016: Edge of Oblivion #1 of 6 -- 26,819 (- 8.8%)
----------------
6 months:    n.a.
1 year  : -  3.4%
2 years : - 15.0%
5 years : - 53.3%
10 years: - 56.4%

I’m tracking this new mini-series along with the previous series with Green Lantern Corps in their titles. Though if you want to compare to Green Lantern: Lost Army, of which this is (I believe—I don’t really follow the GL books) a follow-up to, that series started at 47,240 and ended at 20,972.

85 - THE LEGEND OF WONDER WOMAN (Digital-First) ($3.99)
01/2016: Legend of WW #1 of 9 -- 25,047

The top-selling non-DCU title for January. More or less replaces Sensation Comics on both the digital and print schedules. That series ended last month with issue #17 at 9,138, so this seems to have been a good move.

86 - NEW SUICIDE SQUAD ($2.99)
01/2012: Suicide Squad #5      -- 32,726
01/2013: Suicide Squad #16     -- 27,061 
01/2014: Suicide Squad #27     -- 24,175 
----------------------------------------
01/2015: New Suicide Squad #6  -- 32,304 (+  3.6%) [34,002]
02/2015: New Suicide Squad #7  -- 30,537 (-  6.2%) [31,884]
03/2015: New Suicide Squad #8  -- 30,443 (-  0.0%) [31,882]
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: New Suicide Squad #9  -- 42,225 (+ 35.6%) [43,224]
07/2015: New Suicide Squad #10 -- 35,365 (- 17.1%) [35,842]
08/2015: New Suicide Squad #11 -- 37,915 (+  7.2%) [38,434]
09/2015: New Suicide Squad #12 -- 34,622 (-  8.9%) [35,013]
10/2015: New Suicide Squad #13 -- 33,260 (-  4.1%) [33,584]
11/2015: New Suicide Squad #14 -- 32,925 (-  1.1%) [33,219]
12/2015: New Suicide Squad #15 -- 26,449 (- 20.4%)
01/2016: New Suicide Squad #16 -- 24,870 (-  6.0%)
-----------------
6 months: - 30.6%
1 year  : - 26.9%
2 years : +  2.9%

Forced to fend for itself without f.o.v.s anymore and NSS is starting to struggle, despite their being a movie coming out later in the year.

87 - STARFIRE ($2.99)
06/2015: Starfire #1  -- 50,928           [52,638]
07/2015: Starfire #2  -- 33,659 (- 34.7%) [34,389]
08/2015: Starfire #3  -- 30,207 (-  9.7%) [31,052]
09/2015: Starfire #4  -- 30,485 (-  0.4%) [30,930]
10/2015: Starfire #5  -- 28,714 (-  6.2%) [29,021]
11/2015: Starfire #6  -- 27,941 (-  3.7%) 
12/2015: Starfire #7  -- 21,230 (- 23.9%) 
01/2016: Starfire #8  -- 24,378 (+ 14.7%) 
-----------------
6 months: - 29.1%

The f.o.v. returns.

Ending with issue #12; as, I suspect will many other of the remaining DCYou titles to pave the way for Rebirth. Even though none of them are listed as being Final Issue in the May solicits. But we know, DC, we know!

88 - TEEN TITANS ($2.99)
01/2006: Teen Titans #31 -- 35,223
01/2011: Teen Titans #91 -- 25,443
01/2012: Teen Titans #5  -- 54,606
01/2013: Teen Titans #16 -- 63,726 
01/2014: Teen Titans #27 -- 27,558 
----------------------------------
01/2015: Teen Titans #6  -- 30,955 (-  6.8%) [31,779]
02/2015: Teen Titans #7  -- 34,051 (+ 11.1%) [35,304]
03/2015: Teen Titans #8  -- 38,363 (+ 13.3%) [39,993]
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: Teen Titans #9  -- 33,412 (- 15.5%) [33,804]
07/2015: Teen Titans #10 -- 28,547 (- 14.3%) [28,963]
08/2015: Teen Titans #11 -- 32,112 (+ 12.6%) [32,621]
09/2015: --
10/2015: Teen Titans #12 -- 26,796 (- 17.9%) 
11/2015: Teen Titans #13 -- 26,511 (-  1.1%)
12/2015: Teen Titans #14 -- 26,239 (-  1.0%)
12/2015: Teen Titans #15 -- 27,201 (+  3.7%)
01/2015: Teen Titans #16 -- 24,201 (- 11.0%)
-----------------
6 months: - 16.4%
1 year  : - 23.8%
2 years : - 12.2%
5 years : -  4.9%
10 years: - 31.3%

The f.o.v. returns, but it still takes a dip compared to the previous issue’s “Robin War” tie-in.

90 - SUPERMAN: LOIS AND CLARK ($3.99)
10/2015: Lois & Clark #1 -- 35,009           [35,991]
11/2015: Lois & Clark #2 -- 22,898 (- 36.4%)
12/2015: Lois & Clark #3 -- 21,630 (-  5.5%)
01/2016: Lois & Clark #4 -- 23,766 (+  9.9%)
92 - TITANS HUNT ($3.99)
10/2015: Titans Hunt #1 of 12 -- 31,037           [32,768]
11/2015: Titans Hunt #2 of 12 -- 22,466 (- 31.4%)
12/2015: Titans Hunt #3 of 12 -- 20,918 (-  6.9%)
01/2016: Titans Hunt #4 of 8  -- 23,578 (+ 12.7%)

Two series get f.o.v.s for the first time this month.

95 - AQUAMAN ($3.99)
01/2006: Aquaman #38 -- 18,321
01/2012: Aquaman #5  -- 63,450
01/2013: Aquaman #16 -- 62,153 
01/2014: Aquaman #27 -- 36,610  [37,132]
------------------------------
01/2015: Aquaman #38 -- 28,356 (-  6.9%) [29,030]
02/2015: Aquaman #39 -- 32,162 (+ 14.6%) [33,267]
03/2015: Aquaman #40 -- 32,404 (+  2.0%) [33,941]
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: Aquaman #41 -- 33,629 (+  0.6%) [34,131]
07/2015: Aquaman #42 -- 28,158 (- 16.6%) [28,479]
08/2015: Aquaman #43 -- 30,480 (+  8.3%) [30,835]
09/2015: Aquaman #44 -- 26,396 (- 14.4%)
10/2015: Aquaman #45 -- 25,495 (-  3.4%)
11/2015: Aquaman #46 -- 25,962 (+  1.8%)
12/2015: Aquaman #47 -- 20,251 (- 22.0%)
01/2016: Aquaman #48 -- 23,373 (+ 15.4%)
-----------------
6 months: - 17.9%
1 year  : - 19.5%
2 years : - 37.1%
10 years: + 27.6%

Return of the f.o.v.

96 - RED HOOD/ARSENAL ($2.99)
01/2012: Red Hood & Outlaws #5  -- 42,560
01/2013: Red Hood & Outlaws #16 -- 59,621 
01/2014: Red Hood & Outlaws #27 -- 24,813 
-----------------------------------------
01/2015: Red Hood & Outlaws #38 -- 18,014 (-  3.8%)
02/2015: Red Hood & Outlaws #39 -- 17,270 (-  4.1%)
03/2015: Red Hood & Outlaws #40 -- 17,110 (-  0.9%)
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: Red Hood/Arsenal #1    -- 44,078 (+137.3%) [40,597]
07/2015: Red Hood/Arsenal #2    -- 26,829 (- 33.9%)
08/2015: Red Hood/Arsenal #3    -- 23,841 (- 11.1%)
09/2015: Red Hood/Arsenal #4    -- 22,113 (-  7.2%)
10/2015: Red Hood/Arsenal #5    -- 21,025 (-  4.9%)
11/2015: Red Hood/Arsenal #6    -- 19,857 (-  5.6%)
12/2015: Red Hood/Arsenal #7    -- 25,789 (+ 29.9%)
01/2015: Red Hood/Arsenal #8    -- 22,900 (- 11.2%)
-----------------
6 months: - 14.6%
1 year  : + 27.1%
2 years : -  7.7%

Gets an f.o.v. for the first time, but it’s not enough to make up for the loss of the “Robin War” crossover.

101 - GREEN ARROW ($2.99)
01/2006: Green Arrow #58  -- 30,990
01/2011: Green Arrow #8   -- 35,307
01/2012: Green Arrow #5   -- 33,593
01/2013: Green Arrow #16  -- 19,888 
01/2014: Green Arrow #27  -- 23,785 
-----------------------------------
01/2015: Green Arrow #38  -- 20,207 (-  3.3%)
02/2015: Green Arrow #39  -- 19,651 (-  2.8%)
03/2015: Green Arrow #40  -- 19,792 (+  0.7%)
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: Green Arrow #41  -- 29,545 (+ 52.1%) [30,098]
07/2015: Green Arrow #42  -- 24,921 (- 17.2%)
08/2015: Green Arrow #43  -- 29,998 (+ 21.6%) [30,298]
09/2015: Green Arrow #44  -- 25,620 (- 15.4%)
10/2015: Green Arrow #45  -- 23,614 (-  7.8%)
11/2015: Green Arrow #46  -- 24,393 (+  3.3%)
12/2015: Green Arrow #47  -- 30,834 (+ 26.4%)
01/2016: Green Arrow #48  -- 22,117 (- 28.3%)
-----------------
6 months: - 11.3%
1 year  : +  9.5%
2 years : -  7.0%
5 years : - 37.4%
10 years: - 28.6%

The loss of the polybag leads to a big dip, even with the f.o.v.

103 - DC COMICS BOMBSHELLS (Digital First) ($3.99)
08/2015: Bombshells #1  --  59,253           [61,985]
09/2015: Bombshells #2  --  37,136 (- 39.8%) [37,306]
10/2015: Bombshells #3  --  32,147 (- 11.7%) [32,939]
11/2015: Bombshells #4  --  27,239 (- 17.3%)
11/2015: Bombshells #5  --  25,335 (-  7.0%)
12/2015: Bombshells #6  --  23,679 (-  6.5%)
12/2015: Bombshells #7  --  23,014 (-  2.8%)
01/2016: Bombshells #8  --  21,904 (-  4.8%)

Back to just one issue in January.

104 - SUICIDE SQUAD MOST WANTED: DEADSHOT/KATANA ($4.99)
01/2016: Deadshot/Katana #1 of 6 -- 21,642

Two stories for a little more than the price of one. Do we cut this title some slack because it’s oversized and extra-priced?

112 - SINESTRO ($2.99)
01/2015: Sinestro #9  -- 26,346 (- 16.4%) 
02/2015: Sinestro #10 -- 28,698 (+ 11.1%) [29,268]
03/2015: Sinestro #11 -- 28,384 (-  0.4%) [29,158]
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: Sinestro #12 -- 28,848 (-  0.0%) [29,156]
07/2015: Sinestro #13 -- 23,044 (- 20.1%) 
08/2015: Sinestro #14 -- 25,505 (+ 10.7%) 
09/2015: Sinestro #15 -- 22,090 (- 13.4%) 
10/2015: Sinestro #16 -- 23,179 (+  4.9%) 
11/2015: Sinestro #17 -- 22,331 (-  3.7%) 
12/2015: Sinestro #18 -- 17,189 (- 23.0%) 
01/2016: Sinestro #19 -- 20,535 (+ 19.5%) 
-----------------
6 months: - 10.9%
1 year  : - 21.8%

Return of the f.o.v.

113 - BATMAN BEYOND ($2.99)
01/2013: Unlimited #12     -- 17,446
01/2014: Universe #6       -- 15,070 
------------------------------------
01/2015: --
02/2015: --
03/2015: --
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: Batman Beyond #1  -- 59,151 (+303.9%) [53,362]
07/2015: Batman Beyond #2  -- 35,000 (- 34.4%) [35,238]
08/2015: Batman Beyond #3  -- 30,806 (- 12.0%) [31,276]
09/2015: Batman Beyond #4  -- 31,202 (+  1.3%) [31,518]
10/2015: Batman Beyond #5  -- 29,409 (-  5.7%) [29,626]
11/2015: Batman Beyond #6  -- 27,778 (-  5.5%)
12/2015: Batman Beyond #7  -- 21,946 (- 21.0%)
01/2016: Batman Beyond #8  -- 20,342 (-  7.3%)
-----------------
6 months: - 42.3%
1 year  :    n.a.
2 years : + 35.0%

116 - EARTH 2: SOCIETY ($2.99)
01/2013: Earth 2 #8     -- 50,860 
01/2014: Earth 2 #19    -- 36,103 (-  2.8%)
---------------------------------
01/2015: Earth 2 #30    -- 28,618 (-  5.5%)
02/2015: Earth 2 #31    -- 27,513 (-  3.9%)
03/2015: Earth 2 #32    -- 27,361 (-  0.6%)
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: E2 Society #1  -- 45,102 (+ 52.6%) [41,763]
07/2015: E2 Society #2  -- 31,663 (- 23.2%) [32,074]
08/2015: E2 Society #3  -- 28,381 (- 10.6%) [28,671]
09/2015: E2 Society #4  -- 25,443 (- 11.3%)
10/2015: E2 Society #5  -- 23,459 (-  7.8%)
11/2015: E2 Society #6  -- 21,948 (-  6.4%)
12/2015: E2 Society #7  -- 21,059 (-  4.1%)
01/2015: E2 Society #8  -- 19,682 (-  6.5%)
----------------
6 months: - 38.6%
1 year  : - 31.2%
2 years : - 45.5%

117 - DARK KNIGHT III: THE MASTER RACE COLLECTORS' EDITION ($12.99)
12/2015: Dark Knight III Coll #1 of 8 -- 24,005
01/2016: Dark Knight III Coll #2 of 8 -- 19,367 (- 19.3)

Tracking these separately from the main title, since they’re such a different beast.

119 - CYBORG ($2.99)
07/2015: Cyborg #1  -- 45,187           [47,357]
08/2015: Cyborg #2  -- 29,167 (- 35.5%) [30,229]
09/2015: --
10/2015: Cyborg #3  -- 27,550 (-  5.5%) 
10/2015: Cyborg #4  -- 25,926 (-  5.9%) 
11/2015: --
12/2015: Cyborg #5  -- 23,618 (-  8.9%) 
12/2015: Cyborg #6  -- 17,864 (- 24.4%) 
01/2016: Cyborg #7  -- 18,975 (- 24.4%) 
----------------
6 months: - 59.9%

Return of the f.o.v.

123 - MARTIAN MANHUNTER ($2.99)
06/2015: Martian Manhunter #1  -- 40,239 (+ 66.8%) [37,003]
07/2015: Martian Manhunter #2  -- 24,957 (- 32.6%)
08/2015: Martian Manhunter #3  -- 22,540 (-  9.7%)
09/2015: Martian Manhunter #4  -- 19,738 (- 12.4%)
10/2015: Martian Manhunter #5  -- 18,416 (-  6.7%)
11/2015: Martian Manhunter #6  -- 17,038 (-  7.5%)
12/2015: Martian Manhunter #7  -- 15,962 (-  6.3%)
01/2016: Martian Manhunter #8  -- 18,655 (+ 16.9%)
-----------------
6 months: - 25.3%

Gets an f.o.v. for the first time.

127 - CONSTANTINE: THE HELLBLAZER ($2.99)
01/2006: Hellblazer #215    -- 14,590
01/2011: Hellblazer #275    --  9,507
01/2012: Hellblazer #287    --  9,368
01/2013: Hellblazer #299    --  9,329 
01/2014: Constantine #10    -- 20,729 
-------------------------------------
01/2015: Constantine #21    -- 15,209 (-  2.3%)
02/2015: Constantine #22    -- 14,716 (-  3.2%)
03/2015: Constantine #23    -- 14,530 (-  1.3%)
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: The Hellblazer #1  -- 41,888 (+177.6%) [40,335]
07/2015: The Hellblazer #2  -- 27,512 (- 34.3%)
08/2015: The Hellblazer #3  -- 24,040 (- 12.6%)
09/2015: The Hellblazer #4  -- 21,974 (-  8.6%)
10/2015: The Hellblazer #5  -- 20,431 (-  7.0%)
11/2015: The Hellblazer #6  -- 19,328 (-  5.4%)
12/2015: The Hellblazer #7  -- 18,601 (-  3.8%)
01/2016: The Hellblazer #8  -- 17,853 (-  4.0%)
-----------------
6 months: - 35.1%
1 year  : + 17.4%
2 years : - 13.9%
5 years : + 87.8%
10 years: + 22.4%

No variants, just standard attrition.

132, 147 - INJUSTICE: YEAR FIVE (Digital-First) ($2.99)
01/2013: Injustice #1     -- 20,733 [35,438]
01/2014: Injustice Y2 #1  -- 24,700 
-----------------------------------
01/2015: Injustice Y3 #7  -- 15,796 (-  2.1%)
02/2015: Injustice Y3 #8  -- 15,816 (+  0.1%)
02/2015: Injustice Y3 #9  -- 15,345 (-  3.0%)
02/2015: Injustice Y3 #10 -- 15,417 (+  0.5%)
03/2015: Injustice Y3 #11 -- 15,526 (+  0.7%)
03/2015: Injustice Y3 #12 -- 15,322 (-  1.3%)
04/2015: --
05/2015: Injustice Y4 #1  -- 17,958 (+ 17.2%)
05/2015: Injustice Y4 #2  -- 15,653 (- 12.8%)
06/2015: Injustice Y4 #3  -- 15,982 (+  2.1%)
06/2015: Injustice Y4 #4  -- 15,493 (-  3.1%)
07/2015: Injustice Y4 #5  -- 15,905 (+  2.7%)
07/2015: Injustice Y4 #6  -- 15,556 (-  2.2%)
08/2015: Injustice Y4 #7  -- 15,559 (+  0.0%)
08/2015: Injustice Y4 #8  -- 15,269 (-  1.9%)
09/2015: Injustice Y4 #9  -- 15,414 (+  0.9%)
09/2015: Injustice Y4 #10 -- 16,243 (+  5.4%)
10/2015: Injustice Y4 #11 -- 14,992 (-  7.7%)
10/2015: Injustice Y4 #12 -- 14,848 (-  1.0%)
11/2015: --
12/2015: --
01/2016: Injustice Y5 #1  -- 17,049 (+ 14.8%)
01/2016: Injustice Y5 #2  -- 14,787 (- 13.3%)
----------------
6 months: +  1.2%
1 year  : +  0.8%
2 years : - 35.6%

The final year begins. Like all the previous Years, it sees a small boost for issue #1, then back to the previous sales level for issue #2.

141 - BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT: GENESIS (Digital-First) ($2.99)
08/2015: BAK Genesis #1 of 6  -- 35,652           [38,463]
09/2015: BAK Genesis #2 of 6  -- 21,555 (- 44.0%) 
10/2015: BAK Genesis #3 of 6  -- 19,045 (- 11.6%) 
11/2015: BAK Genesis #4 of 6  -- 18,843 (-  1.1%) 
12/2015: BAK Genesis #5 of 6  -- 16,730 (- 11.2%) 
01/2016: BAK Genesis #6 of 6  -- 16,283 (-  2.7%)

There are still some Arkham Knight one-shots and whatnot in the pipeline, so the video game tie-in hasn’t yet played out.

144 - BLACK CANARY ($2.99)
06/2015: Black Canary #1  -- 44,865 (+ 39.5%) [41,006]
07/2015: Black Canary #2  -- 27,512 (- 32.9%)
08/2015: Black Canary #3  -- 23,253 (- 15.5%)
09/2015: Black Canary #4  -- 23,678 (+  1.8%)
10/2015: Black Canary #5  -- 22,215 (-  6.2%)
11/2015: --
12/2015: Black Canary #6  -- 21,666 (-  2.5%)
01/2015: Black Canary #7  -- 15,758 (- 27.3%)
-----------------
6 months: - 51.7%

No more f.o.v. (at least for this month). A shame about the low sales; this issue had a fight scene with some inventive imagery. In a kinder universe this would be selling at least twice as many copies.

146 - GOTHAM ACADEMY ($2.99)
01/2015: Gotham Academy #4  -- 22,576 (- 14.8%)
02/2015: Gotham Academy #5  -- 20,844 (-  7.7%)
03/2015: Gotham Academy #6  -- 20,361 (-  2.3%)
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: Gotham Academy #7  -- 26,594 (+ 30.6%)
07/2015: Gotham Academy #8  -- 22,359 (- 15.9%)
08/2015: Gotham Academy #9  -- 18,048 (- 19.3%)
09/2015: Gotham Academy #10 -- 17,292 (-  4.2%)
10/2015: Gotham Academy #11 -- 16,560 (-  4.2%)
11/2015: --
12/2015: Gotham Academy #12 -- 15,865 (-  4.2%)
12/2015: Gotham Academy #13 -- 22,947 (+ 44.6%)
01/2016: Gotham Academy #14 -- 15,023 (- 34.5%)
----------------
6 months: - 32.8%
1 year  : - 33.5%

Right back to where it left off before the “Robin War” tie-in.

151 - CATWOMAN ($2.99)
01/2006: Catwoman #51   -- 22,681  
01/2012: Catwoman #5    -- 44,034
01/2013: Catwoman #16   -- 33,915 
01/2014: Catwoman #27   -- 24,956 
---------------------------------
01/2015: Catwoman #38   -- 22,386 (- 11.0%)
02/2015: Catwoman #39   -- 26,450 (+ 18.2%) [28,608]
03/2015: Catwoman #40   -- 26,534 (+  0.3%)
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: Catwoman #41   -- 27,034 (+  1.9%)
07/2015: Catwoman #42   -- 21,983 (- 18.7%)
08/2015: Catwoman #43   -- 26,451 (+ 20.3%)
09/2015: Catwoman #44   -- 21,507 (- 18.7%)
10/2015: Catwoman #45   -- 20,229 (- 18.7%)
11/2015: Catwoman #46   -- 21,661 (+  7.1%)
12/2015: Catwoman #47   -- 15,038 (- 30.6%)
01/2016: Catwoman #48   -- 14,408 (-  4.2%)
-----------------
6 months: - 34.5%
1 year  : - 35.6%
2 years : - 42.3%
10 years: - 36.5%

156 - BATMAN '66 MEETS THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. (Digital-First) ($2.99)
12/2015: Batman 66/UNCLE #1 of 6 -- 17,363 (- 15.4%)
01/2016: Batman 66/UNCLE #2 of 6 -- 13,940 (- 19.7%)

And by issue #2 its back down to where sales for the regular Batman ’66 series ended.

157 - SECRET SIX ($2.99)
01/2011: Secret Six #29 -- 20,327
---------------------------------
01/2015: --
02/2015: Secret Six #2  -- 26,579 (- 39.7%)
03/2015: --
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: Secret Six #3  -- 28,458 (+  7.1%) [28,999]
07/2015: Secret Six #4  -- 22,813 (- 19.8%)
08/2015: Secret Six #5  -- 30,418 (+ 33.3%) [30,884]
09/2015: Secret Six #6  -- 17,376 (- 42.9%)
10/2015: Secret Six #7  -- 16,343 (-  5.9%)
11/2015: Secret Six #8  -- 15,375 (-  5.9%)
12/2015: Secret Six #9  -- 14,663 (-  4.6%)
01/2016: Secret Six #10 -- 13,888 (-  5.3%)
-----------------
6 months: - 39.1%
1 year  :    n.a.
5 years : - 31.7%

158 - JUSTICE LEAGUE 3001 ($2.99)
01/2014: Justice League 3K #2   -- 41,423  [43,099]
-----------------------------------------
01/2015: Justice League 3K #13  -- 17,432 (-  6.6%)
02/2015: Justice League 3K #14  -- 16,778 (-  3.8%)
03/2015: Justice League 3K #15  -- 16,604 (-  1.0%)
04/2015: --
05/2015: --
06/2015: Justice League 3K1 #1  -- 35,391 (+ 76.7%) [29,332]
07/2015: Justice League 3K1 #2  -- 21,301 (- 27.4%) 
08/2015: Justice League 3K1 #3  -- 18,931 (- 11.1%)
09/2015: Justice League 3K1 #4  -- 16,704 (- 11.8%)
10/2015: Justice League 3K1 #5  -- 15,512 (-  7.1%)
11/2015: Justice League 3K1 #6  -- 14,659 (-  5.5%)
12/2015: Justice League 3K1 #7  -- 13,979 (-  4.6%)
01/2016: Justice League 3K1 #8  -- 13,283 (-  5.0%)
-----------------
6 months: - 37.6%
1 year  : - 23.8%
2 years : - 69.2%

163 - LUCIFER (Vertigo) ($3.99)
01/2006: Lucifer #70 -- 10,775 
------------------------------
12/2015: Lucifer #1  -- 17,306 (+ 57.2%)
01/2016: Lucifer #2  -- 12,497 (- 27.8%)
-----------------
10 years: + 16.0%

The best-selling Vertigo title of the month. And issue #1 has a second printing coming out in February. Compared to all of the other recent Vertigo launches, Lucifer is a star.

165 - WE ARE ROBIN ($3.99)
06/2015: We Are Robin #1  -- 57,137           [49,597]
07/2015: We Are Robin #2  -- 31,209 (- 34.1%) [32,668]
08/2015: We Are Robin #3  -- 26,830 (- 17.9%) 
09/2015: We Are Robin #4  -- 22,893 (- 14.7%) 
10/2015: We Are Robin #5  -- 21,243 (-  7.2%) 
11/2015: We Are Robin #6  -- 19,210 (-  9.6%) 
12/2015: We Are Robin #7  -- 28,181 (+ 46.7%) 
01/2015: We Are Robin #8  -- 12,086 (- 57.1%) 
-----------------
6 months: - 63.0%

Yowsa. Those are just awful numbers coming out of the “Robin War” crossover. Did a couple of boxes of We Are Robin fall off the back of a UPS truck somewhere?

168 - DOCTOR FATE ($2.99)
06/2015: Doctor Fate #1  -- 39,558           [34,514]
07/2015: Doctor Fate #2  -- 22,967 (- 41.9%) 
08/2015: Doctor Fate #3  -- 18,951 (- 17.5%) 
09/2015: Doctor Fate #4  -- 16,258 (- 14.2%) 
10/2015: Doctor Fate #5  -- 14,560 (- 10.4%) 
11/2015: Doctor Fate #6  -- 13,090 (- 10.1%) 
12/2015: Doctor Fate #7  -- 11,954 (-  8.7%) 
01/2016: Doctor Fate #8  -- 11,109 (-  7.1%) 
-----------------
6 months: - 51.6%

Yet another DC title that I enjoy that sells poorly. DC really ought to consider paying me to *not* buy their comics, as I seem to have the kiss of death!

174 - MIDNIGHTER ($2.99)
06/2015: Midnighter #1  -- 35,420 (+221.8%) [31,915]
07/2015: Midnighter #2  -- 19,812 (- 37.9%)
08/2015: Midnighter #3  -- 16,563 (- 16.4%)
09/2015: Midnighter #4  -- 14,431 (- 12.9%)
10/2015: Midnighter #5  -- 13,235 (-  8.3%)
11/2015: Midnighter #6  -- 12,186 (-  7.9%)
12/2015: Midnighter #7  -- 11,267 (-  7.5%)
01/2016: Midnighter #8  -- 10,408 (-  7.6%)
-----------------
6 months: - 47.5%

175 - ASTRO CITY (Vertigo) ($3.99)
01/2006: -- 
01/2011: --
01/2012: --
01/2013: --
01/2014: Astro City #8   -- 14,831 
----------------------------------
01/2015: Astro City #19  -- 11,734 (- 2.1%)
02/2015: Astro City #20  -- 11,603 (- 1.1%)
03/2015: Astro City #21  -- 11,492 (- 1.0%)
04/2015: Astro City #22  -- 11,359 (- 1.2%)
05/2015: Astro City #23  -- 11,215 (- 1.3%)
06/2015: Astro City #24  -- 11,226 (+ 0.1%)
07/2015: Astro City #25  -- 11,242 (+ 0.1%)
08/2015: Astro City #26  -- 11,118 (- 1.1%)
09/2015: Astro City #27  -- 11,019 (- 0.9%)
10/2015: Astro City #28  -- 10,808 (- 1.9%)
11/2015: Astro City #29  -- 10,748 (- 0.6%)
12/2015: Astro City #30  -- 10,476 (- 2.5%)
01/2016: Astro City #31  -- 10,351 (- 1.2%)
-----------------
6 months: -  7.9%
1 year  : - 11.8%
2 years : - 30.2%
5 years :    n.a.
10 years:    n.a.

Back to business as usual. Not really sure what could be done at this point to arrest the standard attrition.

176 - THE TWILIGHT CHILDREN (Vertigo) ($4.99)
10/2015: Twilight Children #1 of 4 -- 16,896
11/2015: Twilight Children #2 of 4 -- 12,063 (- 28.6%)
12/2015: Twilight Children #3 of 4 -- 10,982 (-  9.0%)
01/2015: Twilight Children #4 of 4 -- 10,301 (-  6.2%)

The Vertigo mini-series ends above 10K. Given the creators involved, this is one that may have a nice long-tail life in its collected edition.

178 - HE-MAN: ETERNITY WAR ($2.99)
01/2013: He-Man & MotU #6    -- 16,441 
01/2014: --
--------------------------------------
01/2015: He-Man Eternity #2  -- 12,104 (- 35.9%)
02/2015: He-Man Eternity #3  -- 11,700 (-  3.3%)
03/2015: He-Man Eternity #4  -- 11,746 (+  0.4%)
04/2015: He-Man Eternity #5  -- 11,625 (-  1.0%)
05/2015: He-Man Eternity #6  -- 11,426 (-  1.7%)
06/2015: --
07/2015: He-Man Eternity #7  -- 11,315 (-  1.0%)
07/2015: He-Man Eternity #8  -- 11,096 (-  1.9%)
08/2015: He-Man Eternity #9  -- 11,053 (-  0.4%)
09/2015: He-Man Eternity #10 -- 10,845 (-  1.9%)
10/2015: He-Man Eternity #11 -- 10,618 (-  2.1%)
11/2015: He-Man Eternity #12 -- 10,382 (-  2.2%)
12/2015: He-Man Eternity #13 -- 10,096 (-  2.8%)
01/2016: He-Man Eternity #14 --  9,714 (-  3.8%)
----------------
6 months: - 13.3%
1 year  : - 19.7%
2 years :    n.a.

Every month when I do these charts I’m surprised that He-Man is still being published.

183 - THE OMEGA MEN ($2.99)
06/2015: Omega Men #1  -- 33,174           [28,446] *
07/2015: Omega Men #2  -- 17,093 (- 39.9%) 
08/2015: Omega Men #3  -- 13,246 (- 22.5%) 
09/2015: Omega Men #4  -- 11,302 (- 14.7%) 
10/2015: Omega Men #5  -- 10,532 (-  6.8%) 
11/2015: Omega Men #6  --  9,709 (-  7.8%) 
12/2015: Omega Men #7  --  9,251 (-  4.7%) 
01/2016: Omega Men #8  --  8,864 (-  4.2%) 
-----------------
6 months: - 48.1%

Omega Men #1 did not show up on the Diamond Top 1000 chart for 2015, so it must have sold below the #1000 title (Magneto #18 at 28,447). The revised number is an upper limit; it probably sold even lower.

195 - TELOS ($2.99)
10/2015: Telos #1 -- 20,126
11/2015: Telos #2 -- 11,202 (- 44.3%)
12/2015: Telos #3 --  9,619 (- 14.1%)
01/2016: Telos #4 --  7,735 (- 19.6%)

The low mark for New 52 titles was The Green Team, which by issue #4 was selling 8,493. Telos is lower than that.

197 - CLEAN ROOM (Vertigo) ($3.99)
10/2015: Clean Room #1 -- 14,304
11/2015: Clean Room #2 --  9,351 (- 35.6%)
12/2015: Clean Room #3 --  8,073 (- 13.7%)
01/2015: Clean Room #4 --  7,572 (-  6.2%)

204 - SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP (All-Ages) ($2.99)
01/2014: Scooby-Doo Team-Up #2  --  9,882 
-----------------------------------------
01/2015: Scooby-Doo Team-Up #8  --  6,678 (- 11.3%)
02/2015: --
03/2015: Scooby-Doo Team-Up #9  --  6,780 (+  1.5%)
04/2015: --
05/2015: Scooby-Doo Team-Up #10 --  6,566 (-  3.2%)
06/2015: --
07/2015: Scooby-Doo Team-Up #11 --  6,809 (+  3.7%)
08/2015: --
09/2015: Scooby-Doo Team-Up #12 -- 15,426 (+126.7%)
10/2015: --
11/2015: Scooby-Doo Team-Up #13 --  8,008 (- 48.1%)
12/2015: --
01/2016: Scooby-Doo Team-Up #14 --  7,214 (-  9.9%)
-----------------
6 months: +  5.9%
1 Year  : +  8.0%
2 Years : - 27.0%

Featuring Aquaman in January.

211 - THE SHERIFF OF BABYLON (Vertigo) ($3.99)
12/2015: Sheriff of Babylon #1 of 8 -- 10,234 
01/2015: Sheriff of Babylon #2 of 8 --  7,063 (- 31.0%)

Hang on to your cookies, as the sales numbers for Vertigo will be living up to their imprints name from here on out.

Justice League missed its January ship date, but issue #47 saw another 6,718 in reorders in January.

258 - UNFOLLOW (Vertigo) ($3.99)
11/2015: Unfollow #1  -- 10,740 
12/2015: Unfollow #2  --  7,082 (- 34.1%) 
01/2016: Unfollow #3  --  6,510 (-  8.1%)
281 - FABLES: THE WOLF AMONG US (Vertigo) (Digital-First) ($3.99)
01/2015: Fables: TWAU #1  -- 13,620 
02/2015: Fables: TWAU #2  -- 10,224 (- 24.9%) 
03/2015: Fables: TWAU #3  --  9,352 (-  8.5%) 
04/2015: Fables: TWAU #4  --  8,793 (-  6.0%) 
05/2015: Fables: TWAU #5  --  8,378 (-  4.7%) 
06/2015: Fables: TWAU #6  --  8,019 (-  4.3%) 
07/2015: Fables: TWAU #7  --  7,683 (-  4.2%) 
08/2015: Fables: TWAU #8  --  7,398 (-  3.7%) 
09/2015: Fables: TWAU #9  --  7,123 (-  3.7%) 
10/2015: Fables: TWAU #10 --  6,965 (-  2.2%) 
11/2015: Fables: TWAU #11 --  6,788 (-  2.5%) 
12/2015: Fables: TWAU #12 --  6,470 (-  4.7%) 
01/2016: Fables: TWAU #13 --  6,254 (-  3.3%) 
-----------------
6 months: - 18.6%
1 Year  : - 54.1%

Woe in Vertigo land.

200 - DC ESSENTIALS ($1.00)
10/2015: Supergirl #1        -- 8,703
01/2016: The New Frontier #1 -- 6,051

(DC Essentials, being basically promo items, are not included in the sales statistics at the end of the column.)

237 - RED THORN (Vertigo) ($3.99)
11/2015: Red Thorn #1  -- 11,335 
12/2015: Red Thorn #2  --  6,799 (- 40.0%) 
01/2016: Red Thorn #3  --  5,802 (- 14.7%)
238 - JACKED (Vertigo) ($3.99)
11/2015: Jacked #1 of 6 -- 11,056 
12/2015: Jacked #2 of 6 --  7,078 (- 36.0%) 
01/2016: Jacked #3 of 6 --  5,787 (- 18.2%)
239 - ART OPS (Vertigo) ($3.99)
10/2015: Art Ops #1 -- 12,211
11/2015: Art Ops #2 --  7,982 (- 34.6%)
12/2015: Art Ops #3 --  6,771 (- 15.2%)
01/2016: Art Ops #4 --  5,772 (- 14.8%)
242 - SURVIVORS' CLUB (Vertigo) ($3.99)
10/2015: Survivors' Club #1 -- 13,194
11/2015: Survivors' Club #2 --  7,846 (- 40.5%)
12/2015: Survivors' Club #3 --  6,668 (- 15.0%)
01/2016: Survivors' Club #4 --  5,731 (- 14.1%)
246 - NEW ROMANCER (Vertigo) ($3.99)
12/2015: New Romancer #1 of 6 -- 8,639 
01/2016: New Romancer #2 of 6 -- 5,655 (- 34.5%)

The woe continues.

A $1 reprint of the original Lucifer #1 comes in at position 263 with sales of 5,074. (As with the DC Essentials, this won’t be included in the sales statistics at the end of the column.)

And another 5,050 copies of Dark Knight III show up here at position 265. They’ll be added in to the DK3 numbers when that title eventually ships again…

267 - SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? (All-Ages) ($2.99)
01/2006: Scooby-Doo #104               -- 4,454
01/2011: Scooby-Doo Where Are You? #5  -- 4,543
01/2012: Scooby-Doo Where Are You? #17 -- 4,533
01/2013: Scooby-Doo Where Are You? #29 -- 4,729
01/2014: Scooby-Doo Where Are You? #41 -- 4,649 
-----------------------------------------------
01/2015: Scooby-Doo Where Are You? #53 -- 4,703 
02/2015: Scooby-Doo Where Are You? #54 -- ????? (< 4,804) 
03/2015: Scooby-Doo Where Are You? #55 -- ????? (< 4,917) 
04/2015: Scooby-Doo Where Are You? #56 -- ????? (< 6,352) 
05/2015: Scooby-Doo Where Are You? #57 -- 4,794  
06/2015: Scooby-Doo Where Are You? #58 -- 5,033 (+ 5.0%)  
07/2015: Scooby-Doo Where Are You? #59 -- ????? (< 5,446)  
08/2015: Scooby-Doo Where Are You? #60 -- 5,091  
09/2015: Scooby-Doo Where Are You? #61 -- 5,220 (+ 2.5%)  
10/2015: Scooby-Doo Where Are You? #62 -- 5,143 (- 1.5%)  
11/2015: Scooby-Doo Where Are You? #63 -- 5,215 (+ 1.4%)  
12/2015: Scooby-Doo Where Are You? #64 -- ????? (< 5,848)  
01/2016: Scooby-Doo Where Are You? #65 -- 4,906   
-----------------
6 months:    ???%
1 year  : +  4.3%
2 years : +  5.5%
5 years : +  8.0%
10 years: + 10.1%

Scooby-Doo returns to the chart this month, and we see that it has slipped back down below 5K.

275 - LAST GANG IN TOWN (Vertigo) ($3.99)
12/2015: Last Gang in Town #1 of 6 -- 8,396 
01/2016: Last Gang in Town #2 of 6 -- 4,750 (- 43.4%)
285 - SLASH & BURN (Vertigo) ($3.99)
11/2015: Slash & Burn #1  -- 9,623 
12/2015: Slash & Burn #2  -- ????? (< 5,848) 
01/2016: Slash & Burn #3  -- 4,403

I’ll be surprised if wither of these make the Top 300 in February. Still, not the worst selling Vertigo books this month; that honor belongs to…

+300 - VERTIGO QUARTERLY SFX (Vertigo) ($7.99)
01/2015: Black #1   -- 5,516 (- 13.6%) 
02/2015: --
03/2015: --
04/2015: POP! #1    -- ????? (< 6,352) 
05/2015: --
06/2015: --
07/2015: SLAM! #1   -- ????? (< 5,446) 
08/2015: --
09/2015: --
10/2015: KRAK! #1   -- ????? (< 4,248) 
11/2015: --
12/2015: --
01/2016: BANG! #1   -- ????? (< 4,028) 
----------------
6 months:  ????%
1 year  :  ????%

Unsurprisingly, there haven’t been any more of these anthologies announced.

Average Periodical Sales (not counting reprints, reorders shipping after the initial month of release, and magazines; based on first-month sales only.)

DC COMICS
01/2006: 33,019
01/2011: 21,922
01/2012: 33,887
01/2013: 31,759 
01/2014: 27,881 
---------------
01/2015: 24,289 (- 16.4%)
02/2015: 24,537 (+  1.0%)**
03/2015: 23,466 (-  4.4%)**
04/2015: 38,318 (+ 63.3%)**
05/2015: 31,237 (- 18.5%)**
06/2015: 35,318 (+ 13.1%)**
07/2015: 27,005 (- 23.5%)**
08/2015: 27,301 (+  1.1%)**
09/2015: 26,092 (-  4.4%)**
10/2015: 25,681 (-  0.5%)**
11/2015: 30,743 (+ 19.7%)
12/2015: 28,091 (-  8.6%)**
01/2016: 21,845 (- 22.2%)**
-----------------
6 months: - 19.1%
1 year  : - 10.1%
2 years : - 21.6%
5 years : -  0.4%
10 years: - 33.8%


DC UNIVERSE
01/2006: 40,118
01/2011: 24,321
01/2012: 37,145
01/2013: 33,485 
01/2014: 33,120 
---------------
01/2015: 30,680 (- 12.0%)
02/2015: 32,403 (+  5.6%)
03/2015: 28,559 (- 11.9%)
04/2015: 49,845 (+ 74.5%)
05/2015: 42,635 (- 14.5%)
06/2015: 46,980 (+ 10.2%)
07/2015: 32,688 (- 30.4%)
08/2015: 33,079 (+  1.2%)
09/2015: 30,645 (-  7.4%)
10/2015: 30,402 (-  0.8%)
11/2015: 38,396 (+ 26.3%)
12/2015: 34,981 (-  8.9%)
01/2015: 27,664 (- 20.1%)
-----------------
6 months: - 15.4%
1 year  : -  9.8%
2 years : - 16.5%
5 years : + 13.7%
10 years: - 31.0%


VERTIGO
01/2006: 15,036
01/2011: 10,145
01/2012:  9,995
01/2013: 10,764 
01/2014: 11,473 
---------------
01/2015:  8,361 (- 36.6%)
02/2015:  8,612 (+  3.0%)**
03/2015:  7,055 (- 15.6%)**
04/2015:  7,257 (+  2.9%)**
05/2015: 10,616 (+ 46.3%)**
06/2015:  8,011 (- 24.5%)**
07/2015: 15,251 (+ 90.4%)**
08/2015: 10,216 (- 33.0%)**
09/2015: 15,814 (+ 54.8%)**
10/2015: 10,771 (- 31.9%)**
11/2015:  9,780 (-  9.2%)
12/2015:  8,630 (- 11.8%)**
01/2016:  6,832 (- 20.5%)**
-----------------
6 months: - 55.2%
1 year  : - 18.3%
2 years : - 40.5%
5 years : - 32.7%
10 years: - 54.6%

6 month comparisons
===================

+  5.9% - Scooby-Doo Team-Up
+  1.2% - Injustice
-  7.9% - Astro City
-  9.2% - Green Lantern
- 10.9% - Sinestro
- 11.3% - Green Arrow
- 11.6% - Detective Comics
- 12.1% - Wonder Woman
- 12.8% - Grayson
- 13.3% - He-Man Eternity War
- 14.6% - Red Hood/Arsenal
- 14.9% - Batman
- 16.4% - Teen Titans
- 16.8% - Action Comics
- 17.8% - Batman/Superman
- 17.9% - Aquaman
- 18.6% - Fables: The Wolf Among Us
- 20.4% - Deathstroke
- 21.3% - Batgirl
- 22.2% - Superman
- 22.8% - Superman/Wonder Woman
- 25.3% - Martian Manhunter
- 25.4% - Harley Quinn
- 29.1% - Starfire
- 30.6% - New Suicide Squad
- 31.6% - Robin, Son of Batman
- 32.8% - Gotham Academy
- 33.9% - Justice League of America
- 34.5% - Catwoman
- 35.1% - Constantine the Hellblazer
- 37.6% - Justice League 3001
- 38.6% - Earth 2 Society
- 39.1% - Secret Six
- 42.3% - Batman Beyond
- 47.5% - Midnighter
- 48.1% - Omega Men
- 51.6% - Doctor Fate
- 51.7% - Black Canary
- 63.0% - We Are Robin


1 year comparisons
===================

+ 84.4% - Swamp Thing
+ 27.1% - Red Hood/Arsenal (Red Hood & the Outlaws)
+ 17.4% - Constantine
+  9.5% - Green Arrow
+  8.0% - Scooby-Doo Team-Up
+  4.3% - Scooby-Doo Where Are You?
+  0.8% - Injustice
-  3.4% - Green Lantern Corps
-  8.3% - Green Lantern
-  8.7% - Action Comics
- 11.8% - Astro City
- 12.1% - Detective Comics
- 16.1% - Batman
- 17.7% - Batman & Robin Eternal (Batman Eternal)
- 19.5% - Batman/Superman
- 19.5% - Aquaman
- 19.7% - He-Man Eternity War
- 21.8% - Sinestro
- 22.3% - Superman/Wonder Woman
- 22.6% - Wonder Woman
- 23.6% - Grayson
- 23.8% - Teen Titans
- 23.8% - Justice League 3001 (JL3K)
- 26.9% - New Suicide Squad
- 28.1% - Deathstroke
- 31.2% - Earth 2 Society (Earth 2)
- 33.5% - Gotham Academy
- 33.8% - Harley Quinn
- 35.6% - Catwoman
- 44.0% - Batgirl
- 54.1% - Fables: The Wolf Among Us


2 year comparisons
===================

+ 47.0% - Swamp Thing
+ 35.0% - Batman Beyond
+  8.5% - Superman
+  5.5% - Scooby-Doo Where Are You?
+  2.9% - New Suicide Squad (Suicide Squad)
-  0.3% - Wonder Woman
-  7.0% - Green Arrow
-  7.7% - Red Hood/Arsenal (Red Hood & the Outlaws)
- 12.2% - Teen Titans
- 12.3% - Action Comics
- 13.9% - Constantine
- 14.0% - Batman
- 15.0% - Green Lantern Corps
- 21.3% - Grayson
- 26.5% - Green Lantern
- 27.0% - Scooby-Doo Team-Up
- 27.6% - Justice League of America
- 27.9% - Batgirl
- 30.2% - Astro City
- 33.4% - Robin, Son of Batman (Damian)
- 35.6% - Injustice
- 37.1% - Aquaman
- 40.8% - Superman/Wonder Woman
- 42.3% - Catwoman
- 44.7% - Batman/Superman
- 45.2% - Harley Quinn
- 45.5% - Earth 2 Society (Earth 2)
- 50.1% - Detective Comics
- 69.2% - Justice League 3001 (JL3K)


5 year comparisons
===================

+ 87.7% - Constantine (Hellblazer)
+ 67.5% - Batman
+ 17.4% - Detective Comics
+ 13.6% - Batman/Superman (Superman/Batman)
+  8.0% - Scooby-Doo Where Are You?
+  6.8% - Batgirl
+  1.6% - Justice League of America
-  0.5% - Action Comics
-  2.7% - Wonder Woman
-  4.9% - Teen Titans
-  9.9% - Superman
- 31.7% - Secret Six
- 37.4% - Green Arrow
- 53.3% - Green Lantern Corps


10 year comparisons
===================

+240.7% - Swamp Thing
+ 56.2% - Batman
+ 27.6% - Aquaman
+ 26.8% - Detective Comics
+ 22.4% - Constantine (Hellblazer)
+ 16.0% - Lucifer
+ 10.1% - Scooby-Doo Where Are You?
+  1.6% - Batgirl
-  1.1% - Robin
- 19.6% - Grayson (Nightwing)
- 22.3% - Action Comics
- 23.4% - Wonder Woman
- 28.6% - Green Arrow
- 31.3% - Teen Titans
- 35.4% - Justice League of America
- 36.5% - Catwoman
- 39.0% - Superman
- 56.4% - Green Lantern Corps
- 57.4% - Green Lantern

Sales Indices
=============

DCU: Average: 27,664. Median: 24,624. No.: 50. Total: 1,383,204

3.6 - Batman
1.9 - Batman/TMNT
1.7 - Justice League of America
1.6 - Detective Comics
1.6 - Harley Quinn
1.4 - Batman & Robin Eternal (14)
1.4 - Batman & Robin Eternal (15)
1.4 - Batman & Robin Eternal (16)
1.4 - Superman
1.4 - Batman & Robin Eternal (17)
1.3 - Green Lantern
1.3 - Robin War
1.2 - Batman/Superman
1.2 - Wonder Woman
1.2 - Action Comics
1.1 - Poison Ivy
1.1 - Robin, Son of Batman
1.1 - Grayson
1.1 - Superman/Wonder Woman
1.1 - Swamp Thing
1.0 - Superman: American Alien
1.0 - Deathstroke
1.0 - Batgirl
1.0 - Green Lantern Corps
0.9 - New Suicide Squad
0.9 - Starfire
0.9 - Teen Titans
0.9 - Superman: Lois & Clark
0.9 - Titans Hunt
0.8 - Aquaman
0.8 - Red Hood/Arsenal
0.8 - Green Arrow
0.8 - Suicide Squad Most Wanted
0.7 - Sinestro
0.7 - Batman Beyond
0.7 - Earth 2 Society
0.7 - Dark Knight III Collectors' Ed
0.7 - Cyborg
0.7 - Martian Manhunter
0.6 - COnstantine the Hellblazer
0.6 - Black Canary
0.5 - Gotham Academy
0.5 - Catwoman
0.5 - Secret Six
0.5 - Justice League 3001
0.4 - We Are Robin
0.4 - Doctor Fate
0.4 - Midnighter
0.3 - Omega Men
0.3 - Telos


Vertigo: Average: 6,832**. Median: 5,802**. No.: 15. Total: 102,476**

1.8 - Lucifer
1.5 - Astro City
1.5 - Twilight Children
1.1 - Clean Room
1.0 - Sheriff of Babylon
1.0 - Unfollow
0.9 - Fables the Wolf Among Us
0.8 - Red Thorn
0.8 - Jacked
0.8 - Art Ops
0.8 - Survivors' Club
0.8 - New Romancer
0.7 - Last Gang in Town
0.6 - Slash & Burn
0.6 - Vertigo Quarterly SFX **


Digital First & Other: Average: 14,538. Median: 14,787. No.: 9. Total: 130,844

1.7 - Legend of Wonder Woman
1.5 - DC Comics Bombshells
1.2 - Injustice Year 5 (1)
1.1 - Batman Arkham Knight Genesis
1.0 - Injustice Year 5 (2)
1.0 - Batman '66 Meets The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
0.7 - He-Man Eternity War
0.5 - Scooby-Doo Team-Up
0.3 - Scooby-Doo Where Are You?

The Fine Print (Disclaimers, et cetera)

The numbers above are estimates for comic-book sales in the North American direct market, as calculated by ICv2.com according to the chart and index information provided by Diamond Comic Distributors.

ICv2.com’s estimates are somewhat lower than the actual numbers, but they are consistent from month to month, so the trends they show are fairly accurate. Since it’s a “month-to-month” column, the comments, unless otherwise noted, are on the most recent month.

Bear in mind that the figures measure sales of physical comics to retailers, not customers. Also, these numbers do not include sales to bookstores, newsstands, other mass-market retail chains or the United Kingdom. Re-orders are included, so long as they either reached stores in a book’s initial calendar month of release or were strong enough to make the chart again in a subsequent month. Keep in mind that sales for some titles may include incentives to acquire variants and not every unit sold is necessarily even intended to be sold to a customer.

If additional copies of an issue did appear on the chart after a book’s initial calendar month of release, you can see the total number of copies sold in brackets behind those issues (e.g. “[36,599]”). Should more than one issue have shipped in a month which is relevant for one of the long-term comparisons, the average between them will be used.

Titles which are returnable have their numbers artificially adjusted down by Diamond. To make up for that this column increases the reported numbers for those titles by 10%. Which is likely also wrong, but it’s a different and likely less wrong kind of wrong, and experience has shown that this leads to sales figures which are more consistent.

Titles released under the All-Ages line and magazines, such as Mad, mostly sell through channels other than the direct market, so direct-market sales don’t tell us much about their performance. For most Vertigo titles, collection sales tend to be a significant factor, so the numbers for those books should be taken with a grain of salt as well. To learn (a little) more about Vertigo’s collection sales, go right here.

Please keep in mind that raw sales numbers do not tell us about how profitable a book is for a publisher or for the creators.

Above all, do not allow sales numbers to dictate your purchasing and enjoyment of a particular comic. If you enjoy reading a comic series then go right on buying and reading that comic, no matter what the sales figures say.

** Two asterisks after a given month in the average charts mean that one or more periodical release did not make the Top 300 chart in that month. In those cases, it’s assumed that said releases sold either as many units as the No. 300 comic on the chart for that month or what the sales of the previous issue of the series were—whichever is lower—for the purposes of the chart, although its actual sales are likely to be less than that.

Opinions expressed in this column are mine alone, and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer, Heidi MacDonald or anyone at The Comics Beat, the International Society of Heavy Metal Studies, or my former neighbor’s dog Miles.

The author of this column does weekly snapshots of Amazon comic sales charts at http://yetanothercomicsblog.blogspot.com/ and tweets about comics and related subjects on Twitter at @davereadscomics (PM me there is you need to contact me).

As always, we welcome your comments and corrections below. Please try to keep things civilized.

21 COMMENTS

  1. “In case you’re wondering, Superman has never dipped below 30K in the modern Diamond-served comics market. The lowest ever recorded sales were 31,504 for issue #697 back in February of 2010.”

    superman 29 sold around 33k

    Superman 29 $2.99 DC 33,633

  2. “Despite being returnable, I believe there is some sort of restocking fee, plus the time involved in processing the returns—any retailers out there want to verify this?”

    DC did NOT charge a restock fee this time (thankfully), and DC structured the program so that, in order to qualify, you had to order either half-of-BATMAN or BATMAN depending on the title — For example, ROBIN SON OF BATMAN was “order BATMAN”, while STARFIRE was “order half of BATMAN” — and you had to order like that on EVERY title, or NONE of them were returnable.

    So, basically, they encouraged us to WILDLY over order.

    -B

  3. It’s super sad that DC encouraged wild over-ordering on such lame books.
    The DC-YOU books were, by and large, just really lame and uncompelling.

    You’re not going to shift PREZ copies without a HUGE name writer or artist. Further, someone who is ‘big in novels’ or ‘big in TV’ does not translate as big in comics.

    I hear Superman American Alien is good (i’m not buying it) but the house Ads for it were just a picture of Max Landis. I don’t know who Max Landis is, but his picture makes me think i wouldn’t like his stuff (Hipster looking guy) – so, no sale.

    I mean jesus, if Jonathan Hickman isn’t announced as a Rebirth Author – i’m f**king scared for DC and MOnthly Floppy comics overall. These are frightening/sad numbers.

  4. There’s really no reason to buy floppies anymore. Why should we pay more for individual issues in which a third of the content is advertisements, when we can wait and pay less for an ad-free slicker bound version?

    Floppies are a waste. Time to evolve, DC and Marvel.

  5. Shame about some of those numbers. I’m enjoying Constantine, but I imagine it’s not going to survive whatever shake up is planned for Rebirth.

  6. Crazy idea. In my admittedly limited view, it’s seemed like DC always had an older audience than Marvel. Or to be more precise, Marvel grabbed a bigger chunk of the young/new reader market from the 1970s on.

    Are these numbers fundamentally about the DC reader dying off?

    Mike

  7. @Skottie – because we don’t want to wait six months for the trade? And DC doesn’t want to pay writers/artists for six months without getting any revenue?

  8. @Zach: Why shouldn’t the Star Wars titles count? They’re comic books, right?

    In terms of absolute numbers, the Marvel figures are a bit more of a mixed bag. But in relative terms there are quite a few Marvel titles that did better than DC’s books in January. The important caveat here is that there are a lot of #1 and #2 issues from Marvel since January was still an important month for their ANAD launch.

    Batman #48 was DC’s best-selling title, and it placed #8 for the month at ~101K. There were six (3 SW, 3 super-hero issues) Marvel titles (plus one Image title) that sold better than that. The next highest DC issue came in at #24 on the Diamond countdown and only sold slightly better than half of Batman #48.

    DC shipped 74 issues in January. Twenty-one Marvel issues *each* shipped more copies than 97% of DC’s output. Of those twenty-one issues, seventeen were super-hero issues.

    DC had only 4 issues in January that shipped more than 45K according to ICv2. Marvel had thirty-one issues that shipped more than 45K and Image had two. So Marvel had thirty-one issues with bigger numbers than 94% of DC’s output.

    When comparing DC numbers to Marvel numbers for January, yes, DC’s numbers are very soft relative to Marvel’s, and it isn’t just Star Wars issues.

  9. @comicsatemybrain – because the Star Wars comics sales were basically dropped in the lap of Marvel by Disney, not by any sort of comics publishing savvy on Marvel’s part.

    It’s the same reason that people kinda wonder what the “real” sales were like for a book that gets inserted into a Loot Crate or something. Because you can’t compare that 500,000 sales month with other books or other months.

  10. @Comicsatemybrain – they certainly count, and Marvel is doing a great job on both sticking the right creators on them and being judicious in launching new Star Wars titles. My point was really having to do with Mbunge’s idea about Marvel somehow having a stable of characters that attract a younger audience. Since the Star Wars characters are, as Glenn noted above, not REALLY Marvel in nature (and certainly not created by Marvel), I think Mbunge’s idea doesn’t really have merit.

  11. Cyborg #5 — 23,618
    Cyborg #6 — 17,864
    Cyborg #7 — 18,975

    DC’s plan to ship CYBORG twice a month beginning this fall seems pretty questionable (unless they have some A-List creators signed up).

    Steve

  12. MBunge, they’re seeing the rewards of throwing out a good chunk of their loyal fanbase with the New 52. Just desserts, you ask me.

  13. “they’re seeing the rewards of throwing out a good chunk of their loyal fanbase with the New 52”

    Until recently, sales before the New 52 were at record lows. Such more for the “loyal fanbase.”

  14. Until recently, sales before the New 52 were at record lows. So much for the “loyal fanbase.” (goddamn autocorrect)

  15. @comicsatemybrain: Star Wars comics shouldn’t count because they’re a completely different animal from ‘comics as usual’; besides the fact that Star Wars is a complete cultural phenomenon (the likes of which the superhero business hasn’t enjoyed since the 80s, though we’re seeing a resurgence in popularity), Disney has been heavily promoting the SW comics on their end…and the Disney merchandising and promotion machine is truly a fearsome thing to behold.

  16. @ Glenn @Mercy: Sorry, IMO none of those are reasons that the Star Wars comics shouldn’t count.

    So what if it is a Marvel title that isn’t super-heroes? What, is Marvel only allowed to publish super-heroes or something?

    So what if the property has strong support from the parent conglomerate? So what if Marvel has access to the property because SW is owned by Disney? How many times when a Marvel or DC title is canceled b/c of sales have we seen folks moan about “if only the publisher had supported the title”… well, look what’s happening here.

    So what if the property is a cultural phenomenon that originated from a different medium? Why should that matter? Isn’t a popular new property in comics a good thing? Do comic books always have to be relegated to the mother’s basement of pop culture?

    I don’t recall anybody ever saying that the original Star Wars comics from the late 70’s “shouldn’t count” even though it was a non-superhero cash cow for Marvel at that time. Why should it be any different now?

    The Star Wars titles are still *comics* and Marvel happens to be the publisher. And people happen to be buying them. I’m sure there are a lot of LCS owners who count those sales when they are looking at their bottom line each month!

    What if DC started to publish Harry Potter comics and the world went nuts over those? Would Harry Potter comics suddenly not count for DC?

  17. I am admittedly a huge DC fan and have more DC titles on my monthly pull list than anything else. However, this upcoming Rebirth exercise has me irked. Granted, the price point for most books is dropping to $2.99 which is great. The renumbering thing is what irritates me the most. More #1’s. Yay! NOT! The stunt they are pulling with the numbering for Action Comics and Detective Comics is even more asinine. Action Comics is “reborn” starting with issue #957 and then goes twice-monthly. So the original run goes 904 issues, the New52/DCYou era goes 52 issues, and now it is “reborn” with #957 that puts it back in with the original run that started in the late 1930’s? Brilliant. I got back into comics with the New52 after almost 20 years away from comics because it was a chance to start a new collection from the beginning. So much for that. Now I need to start all over again. I may be one of the few people who currently enjoys the current crop of DC titles. Hopefully the rebirth will be equally as entertaining or better.

  18. Star Wars sales should count because those sales consume part of the money available each month to buy comics. Unless a book is pulling in lots of sales from civilians, its sales have to come at the expense of other titles in the marketplace.

    I was a huge DC buyer prior to the New 52. I carried on with some of the new titles but eventually lost interest in them. This endless rebooting and renumbering has gone a long way to killing off my interest in comics in general.

    Every series such just be a 12 issues limited series, say Superman 2016 #1 to #12. I was about to write that this would take this foolishness to its logical conclusions but that isn’t true. The ultimate endpoint would be something like Superman March 2016 #1. Then every month could be #1 month.

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