Last month, we said "in September, DC will crush Marvel as the 3D Covers lift their backlist considerably…"

Well, in September , DC Comics' share of dollars spent in the direct market rose a massive ten points from 30.16% to 40.39%% while Marvel's fell from 33.7% to 28.49%, the first time they've been under the psychologically important 30% for quite some time. And DC's share of actual comics rose from 33.14% to 45.17% while Marvel's continued to fall from 36.3% to 29.83%. That's a massive victory by DC and a vindication of Villains Month.

There was a sizable rise in sales between August to September, both four week months, comics rising in dollars by 31.66% and in units by 29.26%. But it's not just the 3D covers, graphic novels rose in dollars by 11.93% and in units by 9.89%.

Year on year, 2013's September was well above last year's September with the DC Zero issues, both four week months, by 33.90% in dollars, DC's 3D covers significantly outperforming Zero Month.

However it's worth pointing out that the 2D covers are all returnable… and many retailers are returning lots of them. We won;t see the impact of that until the end of the year.

And year on year, 2013 is still doing better than 2012 so far, up 10.43% in dollars raised, significantly outperforming all other print industries,

DC have managed to put five titles in the top ten comics, alongside Marvel, with DC's Forever Evil taking the top spot, and Marvel's Infinity taking the next two followed by Battle Of The Atom, with Infinity crossover titles mixing and matching with the 3D covers for the rest of the top ten.

And in graphic novels, Hickman and Dragotta's new hit book from Image Comics, East Of West, dominates, beating everyone else to the top spot as Image take five of the top ten.

But what's also worth checking is the Marketshare Per Comic, as we did last month. More on that when I've crunched the numbers…

PUBLISHER MARKET SHARES

RETAIL MARKET SHARE PUBLISHER SHARE DC ENTERTAINMENT 40.39% MARVEL COMICS 28.49% IMAGE COMICS 6.87% IDW PUBLISHING 4.89% DARK HORSE COMICS 4.76% DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 2.27% BOOM! STUDIOS 1.83% EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS 0.95% AVATAR PRESS 0.88% VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT 0.87% OTHER NON-TOP 10 3.31% UNIT MARKET SHARE PUBLISHER SHARE DC ENTERTAINMENT 45.17% MARVEL COMICS 29.83% IMAGE COMICS 7.00% IDW PUBLISHING 4.12% DARK HORSE COMICS 4.04% DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 2.19% BOOM! STUDIOS 1.65% VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT 0.91% AVATAR PRESS 0.72% ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT 0.66% OTHER NON-TOP 10 3.72%

NEW TITLES SHIPPED

PUBLISHER COMICS SHIPPED GRAPHIC NOVELS SHIPPED MAGAZINES SHIPPED TOTAL SHIPPED DC ENTERTAINMENT 129 22 0 151 MARVEL COMICS 67 32 0 99 IMAGE COMICS 39 15 0 54 DARK HORSE COMICS 27 19 0 46 IDW PUBLISHING 32 12 0 44 DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 31 5 0 36 BOOM! STUDIOS 19 6 0 25 AVATAR PRESS 8 2 1 11 VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT 7 2 0 9 EAGLEMOSS 0 0 4 4 OTHER PUBLISHERS 85 140 33 258

COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS

DOLLARS UNITS SEPTEMBER 2013 VS. AUGUST 2013 COMICS 31.66% 29.26% GRAPHIC NOVELS 11.93% 9.89% TOTAL COMICS/GN 25.69% 27.79% SEPTEMBER 2013 VS. SEPTEMBER 2012 COMICS 33.90% 26.97% GRAPHIC NOVELS 1.76% -2.96% TOTAL COMICS/GN 23.40% 24.47% YEAR-TO-DATE 2013 VS. YEAR-TO-DATE 2012 COMICS 12.50% 9.56% GRAPHIC NOVELS 6.03% 3.67% TOTAL COMICS/GN 10.43% 9.09% THIRD QUARTER 2013 VS. SECOND QUARTER 2013 COMICS 7.00% 5.59% GRAPHIC NOVELS -1.79% -2.05% TOTAL COMICS/GN 4.21% 4.98% THIRD QUARTER 2013 VS. THIRD QUARTER 2012 COMICS 11.12% 8.27% GRAPHIC NOVELS 0.30% -4.86% TOTAL COMICS/GN 7.64% 7.16%

TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS

RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE VENDOR 1 FOREVER EVIL #1 $3.99 DC 2 INFINITY #2 $3.99 MAR 3 INFINITY #3 $3.99 MAR 4 X-MEN:BATTLE OF THE ATOM #1 $3.99 MAR 5 BATMAN #23.1: THE JOKER $3.99 DC 6 BATMAN #23.2: THE RIDDLER $3.99 DC 7 MIGHTY AVENGERS #1 $3.99 MAR 8 BATMAN #23.4: BANE $3.99 DC 9 AVENGERS #19 $3.99 MAR 10 BATMAN #23.3: THE PENGUIN $3.99 DC

TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS

RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE VENDOR 1 EAST OF WEST VOLUME 1: THE PROMISE TP $9.99 IMA 2 JUSTICE LEAGUE VOL. 3: THE THRONE OF ATLANTIS HC $24.99 DC 3 STAR WARS VOLUME 1: IN THE SHADOW OF YAVIN TP $19.99 DAR 4 THE WALKING DEAD VOLUME 9 HC (MR) $34.99 IMA 5 THE WALKING DEAD 100 PROJECT TP (MR) $12.99 IMA 6 JUSTICE LEAGUE VOL. 2: THE VILLAINS' JOURNEY TP $16.99 DC 7 SAGA VOLUME 1 TP (MR) $9.99 IMA 8 SAGA VOLUME 2 TP (MR) $14.99 IMA 9 MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC VOLUME 2 TP $17.99 IDW 10 SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN VOLUME 1 HC $34.99 MAR

TOP 10 BOOKS

RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE VENDOR 1 STAR WARS: JEDI ACADEMY HC $12.99 SCH 2 NEIL GAIMAN: FORTUNATELY THE MILK HC $14.99 HAR 3 DC SUPER HEROES WONDER WOMAN: ATTACK OF THE CHEETAH SC $4.95 CAP 4 DOCTOR WHO: CYBERMAN BUST & BOOK KIT $9.95 RUN 5 THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: HYRULE HISTORIA HC $34.99 DAR 6 DC SUPER HEROES BATMAN: TWO-FACE'SDOUBLE TAKESC $4.95 CAP 7 DC SUPER HEROES WONDER WOMAN: MONSTER MAGIC $4.95 CAP 8 FRANK FRAZETTA: ART AND REMEMBRANCES HC $49.99 HER 9 DC SUPER HEROES WONDER WOMAN: CREATURE OF CHAOS $4.95 CAP 10 MARVEL CHRONICLE: A YEAR BY YEAR HISTORY HC $50.00 DK

TOP 10 TOYS

RANK DESCRIPTION VENDOR 1 DC COMICS COVER GIRLS: BATGIRL STATUE DC 2 DC COMICS VARIANT PLAY ARTS KAI: WONDER WOMAN FIGURE SQU 3 DC COMICS VARIANT PLAY ARTS KAI: BATMAN FIGURE SQU 4 MARVEL SELECT: THE WOLVERINE MOVIE FIGURE DST 5 DOCTOR WHO TITANS SERIES 2 MINI-FIGURES TTN 6 DC THE NEW 52: TRINITY WAR ACTION FIGURE BOX SET DC 7 BATMAN: HUSH: SCARECROW/NIGHTWING/POISON IVY ACTION FIGURE 3-PACK DC 8 DC COMICS VARIANT PLAY ARTS KAI: GREEN LANTERN FIGURE SQU 9 DC COMICS BOMBSHELLS: SUPERGIRL STATUE DC 10 MARVEL UNIVERSE ACTION FIGURES HAS

TOP 10 GAMES

RANK DESCRIPTION VENDOR 1 RISK LEGACY HAS 2 DC HEROCLIX: BATMAN '66 CLASSIC TV SERIES EXPANSION NEC 3 DC HEROCLIX: BATMAN '66 CLASSIC TV SERIES BATMOBILE NEC 4 MY LITTLE PONY MONOPOLY USA 5 MARVEL HEROCLIX: WOLVERINE & X-MEN BOOSTER BRICK NEC 6 THE WALKING DEAD TV BOARD GAME CRY 7 YU-GI-OH! TCG 2013 WAVE 1 COLLECTIBLE TINS KON 8 THE WALKING DEAD COMIC BOARD GAME ALL 9 MAGIC THE GATHERING CCG DUEL DECKS: HEROES VS. MONSTERS ALL 10 PATHFINDER ADVENTURE CARD GAME: RISE OF THE RUNELORDS BASE SET PAI