Walking Dead #100 was the number one best selling comic book in the North American direct market in June. Did anyone expect otherwise? It also pushed Image comics from a 7% marketshare to a 9% marketshare, basically one comic book taking up an entire two percent of orders for the month.

DC Comics also managed to push ahead of Marvel on both dollar and product marketshare, although both took a smaller share of the overall market. DC slipped from 33.03% of dollar share to 32.71%, but ahead of Marvel's slip from 33.77% of dollar share to 31.96%, giving DC a 3/4 percentage point lead instead of their 3/4 percentage point fall behind last month. On actual numbers of comics sold, DC slipped from 38.23 to 36.55% while Marvel slipped from 37.83% to 35.45%. Basically, The Walking Dead took marketshare away from the big boys – but more from Marvel than from DC.

However as a whole July did slightly better business in dollars earned, and slightly worse in products sold, than June, both four week months, so comparable. Which basically means comics were more expensive in July than in June. And with the numbers sold, that could be down to Walking Dead being double sized and higher priced. But as a whole, the comics market is still doing better than last year, doing a fifth more business than last July.

PUBLISHER MARKET SHARES

RETAIL MARKET SHARE PUBLISHER SHARE DC COMICS 32.71% MARVEL COMICS 31.96% IMAGE COMICS 9.42% IDW PUBLISHING 6.61% DARK HORSE COMICS 4.51% DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 2.77% BOOM! STUDIOS 1.38% ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT INC 1.22% EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS LTD 1.20% VIZ MEDIA 0.95% OTHER NON-TOP 10 7.28% UNIT MARKET SHARE PUBLISHER SHARE DC COMICS 36.55% MARVEL COMICS 35.45% IMAGE COMICS 9.39% IDW PUBLISHING 4.51% DARK HORSE COMICS 3.79% DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 2.64% BOOM! STUDIOS 1.30% ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT INC 1.04% VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT LLC 0.85% AVATAR PRESS INC 0.67% OTHER NON-TOP 10 3.81%

COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS

DOLLARS UNITS JULY 2012 VS. JUNE 2012 COMICS 0.61% -1.96% GRAPHIC NOVELS -4.36% 6.45% TOTAL COMICS/GN -0.95% -1.33% JULY 2012 VS. JULY 2011 COMICS 22.09% 15.24% GRAPHIC NOVELS 16.89% 18.25% TOTAL COMICS/GN 20.46% 15.48% YEAR-TO-DATE 2012 VS. YEAR-TO-DATE 2011 COMICS 19.28% 16.71% GRAPHIC NOVELS 13.40% 11.12% TOTAL COMICS/GN 17.36% 16.25%

TOP 10 COMICS

RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE VENDOR 1 THE WALKING DEAD #100 (MR) $3.99 IMA 2 AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #7 $3.99 MAR 3 AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #8 $3.99 MAR 4 BATMAN #11 $3.99 DC 5 JUSTICE LEAGUE #11 $3.99 DC 6 BEFORE WATCHMEN: OZYMANDIAS #1 (MR) [*] $3.99 DC 7 AVX VS. #4 $3.99 MAR 8 DETECTIVE COMICS #11 $3.99 DC 9 GREEN LANTERN #11 $2.99 DC 10 ACTION COMICS #11 $3.99 DC

TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS

RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE 1 BATMAN: EARTH ONE HC $22.99 DC 2 FABLES VOLUME 17: INHERIT THE WIND TP (MR) $14.99 DC 3 RICHARD STARK'S PARKER: THE SCORE HC $24.99 IDW 4 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON 9: FREEFALL TP $17.99 DAR 5 INVINCIBLE VOLUME 16: FAMILY TIES TP $16.99 IMA 6 BATMAN & ROBIN VOLUME 1: BORN TO KILL HC $24.99 DC 7 LOCKE & KEY VOLUME 5: CLOCKWORKS HC $24.99 IDW 8 SUICIDE SQUAD VOL. 1: KICKED IN THE TEETH TP $14.99 DC 9 SCALPED VOLUME 9: KNUCKLE UP TP (MR) $14.99 DC 10 WILD CHILDREN ONE-SHOT (MR) $7.99 IMA