Diamond Comics has just released its sales charts for March, representing orders from direct sales comics shops. James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’Edera’s Something Is Killing the Children #21 was the best selling comics periodical – kicking off a new storyline in the popular series.
The Hero Initiative edition of the Kurt Busiek/George Pérez classic JLA/Avengers was the top selling graphic novel.
These charts are, of course, without DC books, and with about 30-40% of Marvel sales.
Periodicals were dominated by Boom! and Image titles, with Strange #1 by Jed MacKay and Marcelo Ferreira at #7 the sole Marvel title.
Although Something Is Killing the Children was the top seller, Spawn was really king of the list, with four titles in the top ten. The resurgence of Spawn in comics shops has been one of the big stories in comics retailing over the last few months.
Among the premier publishers, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo‘s supernatural series We Have Demons #1 from Dark Horse Comics was their top book for March at #13, and Dynamite Entertainment’s Draculina #2 by Christopher Priest and Michael Sta. Maria ranked #44 for the month.
Over in in the GN list, after JLA/Avengers it was a mixed bag of manga from Viz and Dark Horse, four Image titles and one from Boom!.
BTW, since JLA/Avengers had a print run of 7000 copies, you can do some of the math yourself on the sales volume of some of these titles.
From the other premier publishers, Marvel Comics’ top book, The Death of Doctor Strange, ranked #36, while Dynamite’s top book, Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files: Bigfoot, ranked #91.
Diamond also includes a listing for Toys, and that list was led by Funko’s POP! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Dontallo (with Black & White Chase) Vinyl Figure a PREVIEWS exclusive figure.
BTW, in case you’re wondering, it is highly likely that we’ll never get any meaningful sales data from Lunar on DC or PRH on Marvel and IDW, so until we get a real Bookscan for periodicals, this is the fragmentary data we have.
TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS BY UNITS SOLD
|
RANK
|
PRODUCT TITLE
|
PRICE
|
ITEM CODE
|
PUBLISHER
|
|
1
|
SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN #21
|
$3.99
|
JAN220737-M
|
BOOM! STUDIOS
|
|
2
|
SPAWN #327
|
$2.99
|
DEC210334-M
|
IMAGE COMICS
|
|
3
|
SPAWN: THE SCORCHED #3
|
$2.99
|
DEC210328-M
|
IMAGE COMICS
|
|
4
|
SAGA #57 (MR)
|
$2.99
|
JAN220296
|
IMAGE COMICS
|
|
5
|
SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN #21 DIE-CUT MASK VARIANT COVER
|
$4.99
|
JAN220738-M
|
BOOM! STUDIOS
|
|
6
|
LITTLE MONSTERS #1 (MR) [*]
|
$3.99
|
JAN220067-M
|
IMAGE COMICS
|
|
7
|
STRANGE #1
|
$4.99
|
DEC211133-M
|
MARVEL COMICS
|
|
8
|
ROGUE SUN #1 [*]
|
$3.99
|
DEC210054-M
|
IMAGE COMICS
|
|
9
|
GUNSLINGER SPAWN #6
|
$2.99
|
JAN220263-M
|
IMAGE COMICS
|
|
10
|
SPAWN #328
|
$2.99
|
JAN220301-M
|
IMAGE COMICS
|
TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS BY UNITS SOLD
|
RANK
|
PRODUCT TITLE
|
PRICE
|
ITEM CODE
|
PUBLISHER
|
|
1
|
JLA/AVENGERS TP HERO INITIATIVE EDITION
|
$29.99
|
JAN228074
|
THE HERO INITIATIVE
|
|
2
|
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOLUME 30 GN
|
$9.99
|
JAN221787
|
VIZ MEDIA LLC
|
|
3
|
THE ME YOU LOVE IN THE DARK
VOLUME 1 TP (MR) |
$16.99
|
DEC210158
|
IMAGE COMICS
|
|
4
|
ASTRO CITY METROBOOK VOLUME 1 TP
|
$29.99
|
DEC210124
|
IMAGE COMICS
|
|
5
|
BERSERK DELUXE EDITION VOLUME 10 HC
|
$49.99
|
NOV210327
|
DARK HORSE COMICS
|
|
6
|
A RIGHTEOUS THIRST FOR VENGEANCE VOLUME 1 TP (MR)
|
$9.99
|
JAN220159
|
IMAGE COMICS
|
|
7
|
RADIANT BLACK VOLUME 2 TP
|
$16.99
|
JAN220204
|
IMAGE COMICS
|
|
8
|
ONCE & FUTURE VOLUME 4 TP
|
$16.99
|
NOV210760
|
BOOM! STUDIOS
|
|
9
|
JUJUTSU KAISEN VOLUME 3 GN
|
$9.99
|
FEB202196
|
VIZ MEDIA LLC
|
|
10
|
AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER: NORTH & SOUTH OMNIBUS TP
|
$24.99
|
OCT210258
|
DARK HORSE COMICS
|
TOP 10 TOYS BY DOLLARS INVOICED
|
RANK
|
PRODUCT TITLE
|
PRICE
|
ITEM CODE
|
PUBLISHER
|
|
1
|
POP! TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: DONATELLO (WITH BLACK & WHITE CHASE) VINYL FIGURE
|
$13.99
|
MAR218990
|
FUNKO
|
|
2
|
MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS: LORD DRAKKON 1/6-SCALE FIGURE
|
$96.49
|
JUN218916
|
THREEZERO
|
|
3
|
POP! IRON MAN 2: IRON MAN MK. IV WITH GANTRY GLOW-IN-THE-DARK DELUXE VINYL FIGURE
|
$29.99
|
DEC209218
|
FUNKO
|
|
4
|
POP! TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: RAPHAEL (WITH BLACK & WHITE CHASE) VINYL FIGURE
|
$13.99
|
MAR218993
|
FUNKO
|
|
5
|
POP! THE SIMPSONS: ALIEN MR. BURNS VINYL FIGURE
|
$14.99
|
JAN218320
|
FUNKO
|
|
6
|
MARVEL GALLERY: AVENGERS INFINITY WAR: IRON SPIDER-MAN PVC FIGURE
|
$49.99
|
JUN182325
|
DIAMOND SELECT TOYS
|
|
7
|
THE LORD OF THE RINGS DELUXE FIGURES SERIES 4
|
$179.94
|
JUN212274
|
DIAMOND SELECT TOYS
|
|
8
|
HALLOWEEN 2: MICHAEL MYERS & DR. LOOMIS 7-INCH FIGURE 2-PACK
|
$75.99
|
JUL218394
|
NECA
|
|
9
|
DUCK TALES DAH-040: DARKWING DUCK DYNAMIC 8-CTION HEROES FIGURE
|
$69.00
|
FEB218295
|
BEAST KINGDOM CO
|
|
10
|
MARVEL SELECT: THE IMMORTAL HULK FIGURE
|
$29.99
|
SEP201919
|
DIAMOND SELECT TOYS
|
TOP 10 GAMES BY DOLLARS INVOICED
|
RANK
|
PRODUCT TITLE
|
PRICE
|
ITEM CODE
|
PUBLISHER
|
|
1
|
POKEMON TCG: SWORD & SHIELD—FUSION STRIKE BOOSTERS
|
$90.00
|
DEC219273
|
POKEMON USA
|
|
2
|
POKEMON TCG: SWORD & SHIELD—CHILLING REIGN BOOSTERS
|
$90.00
|
DEC219272
|
POKEMON USA
|
|
3
|
VAULT OF MAGIC (D&D 5E) HC
|
$49.99
|
MAY218691
|
PAIZO PUBLISHING
|
|
4
|
YU GI OH HIDDEN ARSENAL CHAPTER ONE DIS
|
$119.92
|
APR218762
|
KONAMI DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT
|
|
5
|
D&D ICONS OF THE REALMS; VAN RICTEN’S GUIDE TO RAVENLOFT BOOSTERS
|
$159.92
|
AUG218253
|
NECA
|
|
6
|
D&D ICONS OF THE REALMS: BEYOND WITCHLIGHT MINIATURES BOOSTERS
|
$159.92
|
MAY218572
|
NECA
|
|
7
|
PATHFINDER: LOST OMENS: MONSTERS OF MYTH HC
|
$34.99
|
OCT212857
|
PAIZO PUBLISHING
|
|
8
|
TOME OF BEASTS 2 HC
|
$49.99
|
SEP202470
|
PAIZO PUBLISHING
|
|
9
|
DEEP MAGIC (D&D 5E) HC
|
$49.99
|
JUL202620
|
PAIZO PUBLISHING
|
|
10
|
PATHFINDER CORE RULEBOOK HC
|
$59.99
|
MAY193227
|
PAIZO PUBLISHING
|
And Bookscan still wouldn’t be enough, as the metric retailers and collectors need most is how many copies originally existed. Nobody searching for Walking Dead #1 sales data cares what place it landed in originally, or whether those copies sold immediately or sat on shelves or in boxes for a while — they only want to know what’s out there.
We’re able to get a little bit more than half of that initial supply information now from what we know from Diamond and can extrapolate about Marvel. Which is about what percentage we knew in the multi-distributor era, the difference being there were no significant Direct Market exclusives complicating matters.
after years of reading these types of charts, it is really starting to blow my mind that most Big Four series are still stuck ‘writing for the trade’ when these trades, barring a handful of true perennials, sell like garbage.
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