Image Comics’s self-reported top ten comics and books for last month give a sense of a company that has a lot going on at the moment. While the top two publishers in the U.S. comics market have essentially nothing but superhero books as their primary “hits,” Image — the third-largest comics publisher in the market — has a pretty wide variety of big brands, licenses, and new material.
Skinbreaker, the new series from Robert Kirkman and David Finch, took the top spot in their single-issue sales chart, with Skybound as a whole accounting for about half of the top ten. The Energon Universe, well-represented with Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Void Rivals all in the top ten, is likely to get a little bump in the near future since an animated series is on the way.
Speaking of which, Invincible Universe: Battle Beast came in at #2 on the list. But it wasn’t all IP-driven stuff; Exquisite Corpses #5 came in at #4, and rounding out the top ten was Everything Dead & Dying #1 by Tate Brombal and Jacob Phillips.
These numbers are interesting in that, as we suggested above, Image’s diverse lineup of titles and talent is more representative of the breadth of American comics as a whole than are most other big-money publishers. While familiar titles like Spawn and the Universal Monsters franchise are both on the list, it’s hardly just ten books that look and feel alike.
There’s even more variability in the book sales; Spectators, an original graphic novel, nabbed the top spot, with collected editions taking up much of — but not all of — the rest of the list. The Pizza Witch and Gracie’s Ghost both make an appearance, and those are OGNs as well. There’s also trade collections of Exquisite Corpses, The Power Fantasy, Monstress, Invincible, and The Rocketfellers. The only licensed books that make the list are a pair of G.I. Joe books, reminding us just how big the Energon Universe has been for Skybound over the last couple of years.
Here’s the September sales charts as Image reported them:
TOP 10 COMICS
1. SKINBREAKER #1
2. INVINCIBLE UNIVERSE: BATTLE BEAST #5
3. TRANSFORMERS #24
4. EXQUISITE CORPSES #5
5. G.I. JOE #11
6. VOID RIVALS #23
7. SPAWN #368
8. G.I. JOE A REAL AMERICAN HERO #320
9. UNIVERSAL MONSTERS THE INVISIBLE MAN #2 (OF 4)
10. EVERYTHING DEAD & DYING #1 (OF 5)
TOP 10 BOOKS
1. SPECTATORS OGN
2. EXQUISITE CORPSES, VOL. 1 TP
3. MONSTRESS COMPENDIUM, VOL. 1 TP
4. INVINCIBLE, VOL. 11 TP (NEW EDITION)
5. THE POWER FANTASY, VOL. 2 TP
6. CODENAME: G.I. JOE DELUXE EDITION, BOOK 2 HC
7. GRACIE’S GHOST OGN
8. THE PIZZA WITCH OGN
9. THE ROCKETFELLERS, VOL. 1 TP
10. G.I. JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO – THE SILENT MISSIONS TP
