Image Comics dominated the April Top 10 Graphic Novels chart for sales to comic stores released by Diamond Comic Distributors, with four of the top five titles and seven of the top ten.  Perhaps more impressive, those seven Image titles included only one volume of Image’s top franchise, The Walking Dead, and that was at #10.  It was impressive, however, that the volume of The Walking Dead that made the Top 10 was Vol. 1, indicating that there are still significant numbers of new readers finding the title.  That's an improvement from last month. 

In addition to The Walking Dead, five properties published by Image were in the Top 10 Graphic Novels, all by top talent.  Matt Fraction’s Sex Criminals, with art by Chip Zdarsky, was #1, an impressive showing for a title with adult themes. 
 
The perennially top-selling Saga, written by Brian K. Vaughan with art by Fiona Staples, took three slots, including #2 for the newest volume, Saga Vol. 3 (holding that position now for two consecutive months), and Vol 1 at #4 and Vol. 2 at #8.
 
The newest volume of East of West by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta, Vol. 2, came in at #3, giving Image the top three slots for three different non-Walking Dead franchises. 
 
And the first volume of Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Ríos’ Pretty Deadly came in at #9, a new Image entrant into the ranks of top selling titles. 
 
Image's market share has grown significantly over the last couple of years (see "DC Is Losing Market Share to Smaller Publishers").

Image has been doing similarly well in the bookstore market, with nine of the top 20 titles in April (see "April BookScan--Top 20 Graphic Novels"), but on a smaller range of titles.  Sex Criminals, East of West, and Pretty Deadly have yet to reach the top ranks in that channel. 
 
The three Big Two titles in the Top 10 (same number as last month) were two titles tied to 2014 films, Amazing Spider-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy, and DC’s The Joker:  Death of the Family.
 
Top 10 Graphic Novels for April 2014
Sex Criminals Vol. 1
Saga Vol. 3
East of West Vol. 2: We Are All Alone
Saga Vol. 1
Amazing Spider-Man: Family Business
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1: Cosmic Avengers
The Joker: Death of the Family
Saga Vol. 2
Pretty Deadly Vol. 1
The Walking Dead Vol. 1
 
Marvel was the big winner overall, behind sales of its #1 seller Amazing Spider-Man #1 (see "Marvel Surged in April").