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September 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 recovery in the comics shop market gained steam in the third quarter of 2018, as September comics and graphic novel orders rose 4% over the previous year, allowing the three-month period to close up 6%. Significantly better than the second quarter's 1% win, the $137.5 million quarter was the best in dollar terms since the fourth quarter of 2016. In all, orders during the past six months were up $9 million over the same period in 2017. The $45.18 million month of September was up $1.6 million, meaning that the year-to-year loss piled up this winter was cut in half for the third month in a row.



Graphic novels were a big winner in the month, up 12% year-over-year thanks to the Image trifecta of new editions of Saga, Walking Dead, and Monstress, which finished 1-2-3 in the unit sales charts.



Marvel's Return of Wolverine #1 led new comics sales, becoming the tenth comic book in 2018 to ship more than 200,000 copies and the sixth to top 250,000 copies. (By contrast, only three comics topped 200,000 copies in all of 2017, and only two were above a quarter-million.) with DC's Heroes in Crisis #1 placing second; the controversial Batman: Damned #1 placed fifth in units and second in dollars.



Marvel released 10 more comics than in the previous September; DC, 10 fewer. Perhaps consequently, Marvel's overall dollar sales were up 9% year-over-year for the month, while DC's were unchanged.



Image's graphic novels joined with a larger new comics slate to send the publisher up 10%; Image had the same number of new comics as DC, 66. It was the first time Image's slate has been as large as DC's since September 2015. Dark Horse's dollar sales were up substantially, in part thanks to the debut of Stranger Things #1 in 20th place.



Marvel offered a free overship on Iceman #1, doubling its paid orders; it's the only Marvel title all year where an overship is evident, and the extra copies' effect on both Marvel's unit share for the month and the overall unit sales for the Direct Market is negligible. Oblivion Song #7 saw a modest increase and shows evidence of a significant added discount.



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









Read more in ourandposts 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 thefor 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 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.

September 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 and Manga 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 novels had a good month, with Image releasing new collections for three of its strongest franchises.



