As was the case last month, three cross-over promotions with dark-hued titles landed near the top of the Top 300 Comics chart in August, with DC’s Blackest Night and Marvel’s Dark Reign and Dark Avengers/X-Men crossovers accounting for the top book and 11 of the top 25 comics in August.

 

Blackest Night and Captain America: Reborn traded the #1 and #2 slots, with Blackest Night #2 coming in at around 146,000 copies, down only 18% from #1 in July.  Captain America: Reborn #2, after a less well received first issue, dropped 35% with its second issue in July. 

 

Marvel’s Ultimate-line relaunch scored well, with Ultimate Comics Avengers #1 (written by Mark Millar) coming in at #5 with around 95,000 copies sold in, and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 (written by Brian Michael Bendis) launching at #11, with around 86,000 copies sold in. 

 

The first issue of The Marvels Project, the centerpiece of Marvel’s 70th anniversary celebration, came in at #9, with around 89,000 sold. 

 

A fairly typical six of the top 25 titles were up and 13 down, with six new titles. 

 

Wednesday Comics appears to be settling in the top 100 titles, with the four issues in August falling between #53 and #62, selling in the 30s.

 

DC had nine of the top 25 vs. Marvel’s 15, with an atypical three of the top four titles.    

 

The top title from a publisher other than the Big Two was Archie’s heavily publicized Archie #600, at #35.  followed closely by Dark Horse’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer #27, at #37.

 

Robert Kirkman’s tenth The Walking Dead trade paperback was the top graphic novel, with a very respectable 15,000+ sold in.  Bill Willingham’s twelfth Fables collection was second, with over 12,000 copies.

 

The #3 title, BOOM!'s Irredeemable Vol. 1, sold less than half the copies of the #2 title, but it was still a strong showing for August’s #7 publisher.    

 

The top two manga were both Dark Horse titles, Oh! My Goddess Vol. 33 at #45 and Gantz Vol. 6 at #46, followed closely by Viz’s Vampire Knight Vol. 7 (which topped the bookstore charts, see “Vampire Knight Is #1”).

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

 146,092     Blackest Night #2 (of 8)
 125,366     Captain America: Reborn #2 (of 5)
 110,594     Batman and Robin #3
 102,431     Green Lantern #45 (Blackest Night)
   94,985     Ultimate Comics Avengers #1
   94,191     Dark Avengers #8 DAX
   90,316     Uncanny X-Men #514 DAX
   89,996     New Avengers #56 DKR
   89,062     The Marvels Project #1 (of 8)
   86,261     Blackest Night: Batman #1 (of 3)
   86,008     Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1
   84,241     Green Lantern Corps #39 (Blackest Night)
   78,392     Batman #689
   78,107     The Flash: Rebirth #4 (of 6)
   77,455     Hulk #14
   76,899     Blackest Night: Superman #1 (of 3)
   74,279     Amazing Spider-Man #601
   73,486     Daredevil #500
   71,532     Amazing Spider-Man #602
   71,369     Hulk #13 DKR
   71,051     Amazing Spider-Man #603
   68,593     Dark Wolverine #77 DKR
   64,767     Blackest Night: Titans #1 (of 3)
   64,120     Incredible Hulk #601
   63,316     X-Men: Legacy #227 DAX

For an analysis of the dollar trends in August, see "Comics Up Again in August."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during August, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--August 2009."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during August, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--August 2009."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during July, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--July 2009."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during July, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--July 2009."

For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through August 2009, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 300 GNs Index."

Being Used as Insulation