The top comic titles were AWOL in November, leading to a weak month over-all.  Six of the top ten comics in October (Secret Invasion, Final Crisis, New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Astonishing X-Men, and Justice League of America) had no corresponding issue in November.  So it’s not surprising that the dollars of the Top 300 Comics dropped 11% in November 2008 vs. the year ago period. 

 

Marvel’s Ultimatum #1 and DC’s Batman #681 (the final chapter in the RIP storyline) were the only two titles with sales to comic shops of over 100,000 in November, the lowest number of titles over that threshold since March.  The top two titles in October were the Big Two’s event books, Secret Invasion and Final Crisis, neither of which shipped an issue in November.

 

Individual titles were relatively strong.  An unusually high seven titles in the top 25 sold more in November than they did of their previous issues (the corresponding number in October was two), with 12 dropping and seven new #1s.

 

Marvel had 14 of the top 25 titles, DC 10, and Dark Horse one (Buffy the Vampire Slayer #19 coming in at #8). 

 

Here are ICv2's estimates of the sales by Diamond Comic Distributors to comic stores on the top 25 comic titles in November:

 

114,230           Ultimatum #1

103,151           Batman #681 RIP

  90,776           Hulk #8

  88,910           Wolverine #69

  77,773           Uncanny X-Men #504

  76,625           Amazing Spider-Man #577

  75,493           Captain America #44

  74,202           Buffy the Vampire Slayer #19

  72,862           JSA: Kingdom Come Special Superman #1

  71,355           Justice Society of America #20

  69,522           Batman: Cacophony #1

  68,956           Amazing Spider-Man #576

  66,564           Amazing Spider-Man #578

  64,196           Detective Comics #850 (RIP)

  63,512           X-Men Legacy #218

  61,331           Fantastic Four #561

  58,547           Action Comics #871

  58,279           Dark Tower: Treachery #3

  57,241           X-Force #9

  57,205           JSA: Kingdom Come Special Kingdom #1

  56,931           Final Crisis: Resist #1

  56,224           Avengers / Invaders #6

  55,560           JSA: Kingdom Come Special Magog #1

We are estimating actual sales by Diamond U.S. (primarily to North American comic stores), using Diamond's published sales indexes and publisher sales data to estimate a sales number for Batman (the anchor title Diamond uses in its calculations) and using that number and the indexes to estimate Diamond's sales on the remaining titles.  We can check the accuracy of our numbers by comparing the Batman number that we calculate using multiple data points; our numbers for Batman are within 1/10 of 1% of each other, ensuring a high degree of accuracy.

For an analysis of the dollar trends in November, see "'Fables' Tops Comic Store GNs."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during November, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--November 2008."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during November, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--November 2008."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during October, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--October 2008."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during October, see "Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--October 2008"

For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through November 2008, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 100 GNs Index."

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