Sales Charts

With all the rushing around, I never got to the Top 10 charts for September. I've posted the relevant charts below—short version: another good...

Kind of a quiet month this month, with only two notable debuts, JMS’s new book Sidekicks, and this month’s Aspen debut, Overtaken, amongst the usual high flyers. In fact there are only 10 new books charting all month. The return of Saga is the only other big news, going from strength to strength.

It occurred to me this month that many of Image’s new books are getting some form of returnability. However, I’ve decided that, unlike my colleague MOF on the DC column, I’m not going to adjust the figures to reflect that, I’m going to stick to the raw data.

Crossover season is upon us again, as INFINITY launches, and the first tie-ins appear. Naturally enough, Marvel don't want to distract from it with any other major launches, and so it's a pretty quiet month across the rest of the line. As usual, Marvel had the largest share of the North American direct market, though it was relatively close - they led DC by 36% to 33% in unit terms, and 34% to 30% in dollars.

Marvel was the winner again in August according to today's just released figures from Diamond. Infinity #1 was the top comics and Marvel meat...

A triumphant return for Fathom, albeit one backed by a price-promotion, and a full price relaunch for Red Sonja join Matt Fraction’s Satellite Sam as the big debuts this month, and East of West and Lazarus cement their places in the upper part of the chart. Elsewhere are a clutch of strong mid-level launches, and a slightly worrying series of drops for Valiant.

Oh yeah, speaking of Amazon, we're been awfully inconsistent about posting the weekly Amazon sales rankings compiled by Dave Carter, but here's last Friday's...

Breaking: Comics retailers will buy any old rubbish. The direct market is a peculiar distribution channel, and it has its hang-ups. One of the more peculiar aspects of this arrangement is how at every level -- publishing, retail and consumer -- its users fail singularly and incessantly to exercise or even realize their ability to help shape the market in such a way as to better serve their interests, while simultaneously bemoaning the situation that results.

by Paul O'Brien July is Spider-Man month, with the launch of SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN and the relaunch of AVENGING SPIDER-MAN as SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN TEAM-UP. We've also got the launch of AVENGERS A.I. and the miniseries HUNGER, both spinning out of AGE OF ULTRON. For once, DC had the largest dollar share of the North American direct market, leading Marvel by 32.5% to 32.3%. In units, Marvel edge it by 36% to 34%. Either way, a much closer month than usual, with DC placing some high-selling books at the very top of the chart.

And speaking of sales, Variety reports that news of the upcoming Batman/Superman movie has spiked sales of Frank Miller’s ‘Batman: The Dark Knight Returns’,...

DC is in a weird place right now. You can practically watch the publisher's retail and talent relations take a nose-dive on the Internet. Just last week, retailers Brian Hibbs and Leo McGovern called DC out on its handling of a line-wide publishing stunt in August; a "head of DC Comics" was quoted as admitting that his target audience are "45-year-olds"; popular artist Kevin Maguire announced on Twitter that he'd been "just fired" from an upcoming DC title, asked for work -- and was hired, lickety-split, by a gleeful Marvel editor in chief a few hours later; and the brave souls who read the actual comics that somehow still get made, published and sold in this environment conclude that everything kinda reads the same at DC.

Comics sales were up in double digits in nearly every comparison in July, according to figures just released by Diamond. July was a five-week...

It’s mostly as you were this month, Walking Dead continuing its residency in the top twenty, while Image generally have a strong showing at the top, Lazarus joining Jupiter’s Legacy, East of West and Ten Grand amongst the best-selling indies. X-Files and Fabulous Killjoys also score very good debuts for IDW and Dark Horse respectively.