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September 2017 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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While September closed out the worst quarter year-over-year (off nearly 16% in dollar terms) in nearly a decade and a half, it was the best of the three months in comparison with the same month the previous year. Overall orders were down 6%, while orders for Marvel comics and graphic novels were up 14% in dollar terms over the previous September, an increase of about $2 million at retail. That represented the publisher's best year-over-year performance since June 2016.

A major part was the chart-topping Marvel Legacy #1, which played on DC's earlier success with lenticular covers. With lenticular and non-lenticular versions at the same cover price, combined orders were reported as one entry in the charts, totaling more than 298,000 copies and becoming the top-seller of the year thus far. While Marvel did some deep-discounting on graphic novels, the effect was partially offset by several Omnibus editions priced at over $100. Marvel's 88 new comic books in September was also the smallest number of periodical releases for the publisher in any month during the year.

Marvel's improvement relative to its past performance continued to reverse the trend seen earlier in 2017, in which the publisher was entirely responsible for the industry's decline in dollar terms; as of September it was DC, up against the previous year's Rebirth numbers, which accounted for most of the loss. But there, too, DC's rate of decline in September was nearly half what it was in August, thanks to the continuation of its Dark Multiverse event and the fact that Rebirth was starting to come down off its heights from the previous year. DC had two Action Comics issues with lenticular and regular editions; combined, they would have made the top 10.

Retailers ordered 24% more copies DC's Mister Miracle #2 than they had ordered of the first issue the month before, an infrequent occurence usually associated with high reorder activity.

The 50th place comic book was up above 40,000 copies for the first time since January; the level was significant because few years in the 21st Century to that point had seen the 50th place title regularly go above it.

Read more in our preliminary and final analysis posts for the month. You can also click to skip to the Top Graphic Novels for the month.

—John Jackson Miller

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 300 charts, plus any post-#300 items from its Top 50 Indy and Small Publisher charts. 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 2017 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 300 charts, plus any post-#300 items from its Top 50 Indy, Manga, and Small Publisher charts. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.

The links lead to details about each title on Amazon. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

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A new Walking Dead volume led the chart in a month in which graphic novel sales continued to lag behind periodical sales.