That's a new one. Both Marvel and DC took under 30% of retail marketshare in November, 29.87% and 29.24% respectively. While both have dipped under that psychologically important share point before, for both to have done so in the same month means something's up.

It's not a big drop for either based on October's figures, where Marvel had 30.47%and DC had 31.02% and both are still neck and neck. And for share of actual comics sold, Marvel is ahead on 33.65% to DC's 31.90%, a hauntingly similar to October's 33.63% and 31.15%. So what changed? Image? No, their retail marketshare was down from 9.26% to 8.67% , while unit share dropped from 10.85% to 9.77%.

Instead DC, Marvel and Image's loss seems to be spread out across other publishers, Dark Horse up from 5.36% to 6.11%. IDW up from 6.27% to 6.68%, Dynamite up from 2.47% to 3.20% and Boom slightly up from 1.84% to 1.90% and Valiant finlly getting over 1% retail marketshare to make it onto the chart with 1.58% with just 8 comics – a little Unity #1 at work there.

As for the top 10 charts, Harley Quinn is probably the big surprise with issue #0 beating all the Marvel titles, including the launch of Amazing X-Men, as well as event titles Forever Evil and Infinity. Though Batman #25 still reigned supreme, Harley Quinn remains the only $2.99 title in the top ten…

There's a slip in sales from October to November by a fifth, explained away by November only being a four week month and October being five weeks. But there's also a slip on November 2013, also a four week month, selling 8% less comics, even as there's a 11% increase in graphic novels. Overall it's down from November to November – but for the year as a whole, 2014, has still outperformed 2013 by 7-10%

TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS

RETAIL MARKET SHARE PUBLISHER SHARE MARVEL COMICS 29.97% DC COMICS 29.24% IMAGE COMICS 8.67% IDW PUBLISHING 6.68% DARK HORSE COMICS 6.11% DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 3.20% BOOM! STUDIOS 1.90% EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS LTD 1.86% VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT 1.58% VIZ MEDIA 1.19% OTHER NON-TOP 10 9.59% UNIT MARKET SHARE PUBLISHER SHARE MARVEL COMICS 33.65% DC COMICS 31.90% IMAGE COMICS 9.77% IDW PUBLISHING 6.26% DARK HORSE COMICS 4.91% DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 3.00% BOOM! STUDIOS 1.92% VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT 1.74% AVATAR PRESS INC 0.91% ARCHIE COMIC PUBLICATIONS 0.81% OTHER NON-TOP 10 5.13%

NEW TITLES SHIPPED

PUBLISHER COMICS SHIPPED GRAPHIC NOVELS SHIPPED MAGAZINES SHIPPED TOTAL SHIPPED DC ENTERTAINMENT 85 29 1 115 MARVEL COMICS 74 34 0 108 IDW PUBLISHING 46 31 0 77 DARK HORSE COMICS 37 31 0 68 IMAGE COMICS 42 14 0 56 DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 30 18 0 48 VIZ MEDIA 0 25 0 25 BOOM! STUDIOS 20 3 0 23 VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT 8 2 0 10 EAGLEMOSS COLLECTIONS 0 0 9 9 OTHER NON-TOP 10 64 116 16 196

COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS

DOLLARS UNITS NOVEMBER 2013 VS. OCTOBER 2013 COMICS -18.80% -18.95% GRAPHIC NOVELS -9.72% -14.98% TOTAL COMICS/GN -16.07% -18.65% NOVEMBER 2013 VS. NOVEMBER 2012 COMICS -1.21% -8.43% GRAPHIC NOVELS 14.59% 11.44% TOTAL COMICS/GN 3.39% -7.12% YEAR-TO-DATE 2013 VS. YEAR-TO-DATE 2012 COMICS 11.09% 7.69% GRAPHIC NOVELS 5.55% 3.92% TOTAL COMICS/GN 9.33% 7.39%

TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS

RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE VENDOR 1 BATMAN #25 $4.99 DC 2 HARLEY QUINN #0 $2.99 DC 3 AMAZING X-MEN #1 $3.99 MAR 4 SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #4 $3.99 DC 5 FOREVER EVIL #3 $3.99 DC 6 INFINITY #6 $5.99 MAR 7 ALL-NEW X-MEN #18 $3.99 MAR 8 SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #22 $3.99 MAR 9 BATMAN/SUPERMAN #5 $3.99 DC 10 SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #21 $3.99 MAR

TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS

RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE VENDOR 1 THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 19: MARCH TO WAR TP $14.99 IMA 2 YU-GI-OH! 5DS VOLUME 5 GN $9.99 VIZ 3 FAIREST IN ALL THE LAND HC (MR) $22.99 DC 4 BATMAN: NIGHT OF THE OWLS TP (N52) $19.99 DC 5 THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS VOLUME 3 TP $14.99 IMA 6 INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US VOLUME 1 HC $19.99 DC 7 NOWHERE MEN VOLUME 1: FATES WORSE THAN DEATH TP $9.99 IMA 8 BATMAN IN DETECTIVE COMICS VOL. 2: SCARE TACTICS (N52) $16.99 DC 9 S.H.I.E.L.D. ORIGINS TP $7.99 MAR 10 HAWKEYE VOLUME 1 HC $34.99 MAR

TOP 10 BOOKS

RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE VENDOR 1 DOCTOR WHO: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO 50 YEARS OF DOCTOR WHO $20.00 PEN 2 DC SUPER HEROES: BATMAN: HARLEY QUINN'S SHOCKING SURPRISE TP $4.95 CAP 3 STAR TREK: LIGHT UP STARSHIP ENTERPRISE KIT $12.95 RUN 4 LEGEND OF ZELDA: HYRULE HISTORIA HC $34.99 DAR 5 STAR WARS: DEATH STAR OWNERS TECHNICAL MANUAL $30.00 RAN 6 SPECTRUM VOLUME 20 TP $35.00 PUB 7 THE SHADOW DOUBLE NOVEL VOLUME 78 $14.95 SAN 8 DOCTOR WHO OFFICIAL ANNUAL 2014 $12.99 PEN 9 THE ART OF SEAN PHILLIPS HC (MR) $39.99 DE 10 DC SUPER HEROES: BATMAN: BAT MITE'S BIG BLUNDER TP $4.95 CAP

TOP 10 TOYS

RANK DESCRIPTION VENDOR 1 DC COMICS: THE NEW 52 SUPER HEROES VS. SUPER VILLAINS 7-PACK DC 2 MICHAEL JORDAN: REAL MASTERPIECE #23 "ROAD UNIFORM" FIGURE ENT 3 SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN: THE KISS STATUE DC 4 BATMAN BLACK & WHITE: THE JOKER STATUE BY GREG CAPULLO DC 5 MARVEL SELECT: CLASSIC THOR ACTION FIGURE DST 6 MARVEL SELECT: THOR: THE DARK WORLD: THOR ACTION FIGURE DST 7 BATMAN BLACK & WHITE: BATMAN STATUE BY GREG CAPULLO DC 8 BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS SERIES 1: THE JOKER ACTION FIGURE DC 9 JUSTICE LEAGUE: WE CAN BE HEROES 7-PACK BOX SET DC 10 BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS SERIES 1: BATMAN ACTION FIGURE DC

TOP 10 GAMES

RANK DESCRIPTION VENDOR 1 MARVEL HEROCLIX: INVINCIBLE IRON MAN BOOSTER BRICK NEC 2 RISK: THE WALKING DEAD SURVIVAL EDITION USA 3 MONOPOLY: THE WALKING DEAD SURVIVAL EDITION USA 4 GAME OF THRONES: WESTEROS 4D CITYSCAPE PUZZLE 4D 5 MARVEL HEROCLIX:AVX: AVENGERS STARTER SET NEC 6 MARVEL HEROCLIX: AVX: X-MEN STARTER SET NEC 7 MARVEL HEROCLIX: INVINCIBLE IRON MAN BOOSTER PACKS NEC 8 THE WALKING DEAD TV BOARD GAME: THE BEST DEFENSE CRY 9 DC HEROCLIX: BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS BOOSTER PACKS NEC 10 FIREFLY BOARD GAME ALL