Sales Charts

Marvel NOW! debuts handily took 8 of the top 10 spots on the sales charts for November, just released by Diamond. Overall sales are...

As expected, DC Comics's average and total comic-book unit sales were dropping again in October, in the wake of September's zero-issue stunt. To be fair, though, it's not a huge drop, and viewed over the last four months, the publisher's averages continue to look sturdy. Thanks to a new round of crossovers -- notably "Death of the Family" in the Batman line and "Rise of the Third Army" in the Green Lantern line -- and Annuals, as well as continually strong sales from the expanding line of "digital-first" compilation titles, the pertinent figures remain well within the spectrum that's been established following last year's relaunch.

After September's virtual hiatus, October saw Marvel emerge from crossover season and hit the ground running. AVENGERS VS X-MEN wraps up, while Marvel Now gets underway with the debut issues of UNCANNY AVENGERS and A PLUS X. On top of that, there's AVX: CONSEQUENCES, the MARVEL NOW: POINT ONE one-shot, a new ongoing series with WOLVERINE: MAX, the "Minimum Carnage" crossover, and more. Given all that, it's no surprise that Marvel had the biggest share of the North American direct market, leading DC by 40% to 34% in units and 35% to 32% in dollars.

Okay just in case you needed more proof that my bronies are real, check out MY LITTLE PONY #1's placement at the iBookstore: #13 in a garden of Shades of Gray and James Patterson.

Backing up what we were saying the other day, two hardcover graphic novels debuted on Publishers Weekly Bestseller list via BookScan. Superman Earth One,...

Walking Dead continues at the top, although it's likely to get pushed down a little by the upcoming juggernaut of, um, My Little Pony. The usual suspects are joined this month by Grant Morrison's Happy, and X)-Manowar and Spawn push back into the top part of the indie chart. However, things are not good further down the chart. There are a lot of longer-running titles, from the likes of Aspen, Top Cow and Dynamite amongst others, that seem to be selling fractions of what they once sold, and that maybe need to be retired in favour of new concepts. The retailers and more importantly customers seem to be voting with their dollars in that respect, and some dead horses are being hopelessly flogged towards the lower end of the chart.

DC's sales experts Bob Wayne and John Cunningham have gone off on their monthly round of website chat, and things didn't go well at...

Led by strong sales for UNCANNY AVENGERS, Marvel won the top publisher crown in both dollars and units for October. SUPERMAN EARTH ONE Volume...

Can comics become legitimate bestsellers, the Beat's own John Shableski has been asking in a series of publishing procedurals. But in truth...comics already ARE legit best sellers!

So I like to paw through the back issue bins at conventions, judging books by their cover, buying cheap ($1-3) copies of old comics! ...

One year after the big relaunch, DC wanted to give its superhero line another jolt by borrowing a gimmick from the glory days of 1994 and releasing "zero" issues of all of the "New 52" titles. In terms of average sales, this means an increase of more than 1,000 units compared to August. Of course, these are sales to retailers, and increases based on this type of gimmick never stick around for subsequent issues, but the fact that retailers have enough faith in DC to support the initiative to this degree is good news, certainly.

The AVENGERS VS X-MEN crossover built towards its finale in September (though the actual final issue slipped to the next month). And - well, yes, that's about it in terms of notable releases in September. Schedules don't get much quieter than this, and with many of the titles also on their way to an imminent relaunch, the main points of interest on this month's chart really involve seeing how recent launches are getting on.