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August 2018 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Comics Shipped to North American Comics Shops

Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

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August was a fourth growth month out of five, despite a dearth of new comics releases. Comics dollar sales were up 5% and units were down 5% in a five-week month that saw 11% fewer new comics released than the same month in the previous year. August 2017 was one of the most disappointing months of the comics recession that year, so a rebound was welcome. Graphic novels were also up, thanks to significant deep-discount sales; it was just the second month both comics and graphic novels were up since 2016.



In the wake the news of Disney's takeover of Fox's film assets, Marvel's First Family returned to the shelves with Fantastic Four #1 shipping nearly 369,000 copies. It was the second month of the year in which both comics and graphic novels increased in sales year over-year. Marvel's Fresh Start relaunch mostly past, the month saw only three comics selling over 100,000 copies. But DC saw a strong launch for Sandman Universe #1, placing third in dollars and sixth in units with around 83,500 copies shipped to the United States and Canada.



Marvel's shipments in dollar terms were up 22% in dollars over the previous August, a rate of increase that was better than the overall market's 4% rally, and a pace matched among top-ten publishers only by Boom. DC and Dark Horse were also up slightly.



The average cover price of comics in the Top 300 set a new record, $4.12; the previous record had been set in June 2017. Click to see monthly cover prices across time, and also all of our Diamond Exclusive Era records.



Batman #50 did not chart again, despite having led the comics reorder charts twice in July. The comic book was made retroactively returnable.



Unit sales comparisons during the year remained much distorted, due to Marvel's overships in January 2017 and Image's 25-cent anniversary issues that year, as well as the fact that the reported million-copy selling 25¢ book DC Nation #0 was not counted in Diamond's comparative charts.





We have a video walkthrough of the month's preliminary sales report here:

Read in our preliminary and final analysis posts for the month. You can see the reorders that were placed during the month on our pages for reorders and advance reorders for the year. You can also click to skip to the Top Graphic Novels for the month.



—John Jackson Miller

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 500 charts, plus any post-#500 items from its Top 50 Indy Publisher chart. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.

Items marked with asterisks [*] had their reported orders reduced by 10% due to returnability.

Distributor charts are regional commodity reports, not measures of a work's total reach. Read our FAQ.

The links lead to current listings for each item on eBay. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

August 2018 Graphic Novel Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks Shipped to North American Comics Shops Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 500 charts, plus any post-#500 items from its Top 50 Indy, Manga, and Small Publisher charts. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.

The links lead to details about each title on TFAW.com. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

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Graphic novel sales were up for the month, in part due to a major sale; a larger number of deep-discounted volumes sold than had been seen in some months. The 157th place title, the history book Comic Book Implosion, was a misfile in this list, as it was not a graphic novel.



