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July 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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The comics shop market made up considerable ground in comparison with a weak July 2017, thanks to the Batman wedding storyline and several high-profile launches. Retailers ordered $44.64 million worth of comic books, graphic novels, and magazines in the month; the year-to-date deficit, piled up in winter, was cut in half to less than 2%.



Both Marvel and DC contributed, combining for a dual market share of 70.69%, the highest proportion of the market seen since October 2011, right after the debut of the New 52. DC's Batman #50 led the comics list with nearly 441,000 copies shipped; it was the third regularly priced item of the year to top 400,000 copies. The issue edged past Amazing Spider-Man #800 to be the second-best seller of the year as of July. (See all 2018 sales here.)



While DC announced both it and Catwoman #1 would be made returnable owing to retailer concerns over the storyline and its premature revelation online, Diamond Comic Distributors did not adjust the issues' numbers downward for returnability. This is normal, in keeping with practices regarding comics that are not made returnable until after they've been ordered; comics become returnable after they've been ordered and/or shipped all the time, and those items are not adjusted in tables. The end-of-year totals always account both for returns and for reorders; Batman #50 did lead comics in the reorder charts twice during the month.



Market share leader Marvel beat its July 2017 dollar sales by 16%, aided by Amazing Spider-Man #1 and Captain America #1, among other launches. DC's dollar sales were up 29% year over year, a figure exactly matched by IDW, which followed up a June in which it had a recent-record-low number of new comic books on the shelves (19) with nearly three times as many, 56.



Die Die Die #1, which shipped without being solicited and went on sale July 11, landed in 174th place even though it was the highest-circulation Image book of the month. That's because its initial shipment, reportedly equal to the 80,000 or so copies shipped of Robert Kirkman's previous launch, Oblivion Song #1, was provided to retailers at no charge, and Diamond confirmed it had treated those copies as promotional items. Retailers reordered 9,975 copies in July in the United States and Canada, and it is those copies that appear in the table below. The number of copies in circulation, however, is more than 90,000.



Discordant notes came again from graphic novels, down 9% in dollars — but only 5% in units, owing to significant deep-discount sales.





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

Read more 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 Independent Publisher charts. 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 Independent Publisher and Manga charts. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.

The links lead to details on Things from Another World. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

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Batman: Vol. 6 benefited from the attention paid to Batman #50 to become the top graphic novel of the month. Sales were still down in the category, but only by single digits. Marvel had significant deep-discount sales.

