Please refer to the July 2015 column for a preamble and explanation as to why sales standards for Image books are likely to be different than those for DC or Marvel.
May was a five-Wednesday month, wherein publishers typically shop more titles than they do in a normal month, and Image was no exception: they shipped 60 comics in May, compared to 52 comics in April, 59 in March (also a five-Weds month), 49 in February, 45 in January, 47 in December, 48 in November, 55 in October and 52 in September. They shipped only 41 comics in May 2016.
Warning: The commentary below may contain reasoned analysis, speculation (unfounded and otherwise), opinion, and/or snark. Those looking for a more straightforward analysis are directed to John Jackson Miller's excellent Comichron analysis, posted in June over at Comichron!
Please consider the fine print at the end of the column. Thanks to Milton Griepp and ICv2.com for the permission to use their figures. An overview of ICv2.com's estimates can be found here.
(Note that the percentage comparisons are done with total orders including reorder activity, as opposed to initial orders.)
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??? - SAGA ($0.25) 05/2012: Saga #3 -- 38,895 05/2013: -- 05/2014: Saga #19 -- 55,422 [61,856] 05/2015: Saga #28 -- 55,239 [56,275] --------------------------- 05/2016: -- 06/2016: -- 07/2016: -- 08/2016: Saga #37 -- 50,016 (+ 2.2%) 09/2016: Saga #38 -- 48,106 (- 3.8%) 10/2016: Saga #39 -- 46,749 (- 2.8%) 11/2016: Saga #40 -- 44,944 (- 3.9%) 12/2016: Saga #41 -- 43,628 (- 2.5%) [43,837] 01/2017: Saga #42 -- 42,567 (- 2.9%) 02/2017: -- 03/2017: -- 04/2017: -- 05/2017: Saga #43 -- ?????? ----------------- 6 months: ???% 1 year : n.a. 2 years : ???% 5 years : ???%Saga returns from hiatus with a 25¢ issue, which as per Diamond's practice is not included in their Top 300 chart. So we have no idea how well it sold, but I'm guessing it was Image's top seller for May.
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10 - THE WALKING DEAD ($2.99) 05/2007: -- 05/2012: The Walking Dead #97 -- 53,733 [60,175] 05/2012: The Walking Dead #98 -- 49,974 [60,699] 05/2013: The Walking Dead #110 -- 76,455 05/2014: The Walking Dead #127 -- 71,352 [84,593] 05/2015: The Walking Dead #141 -- 68,931 [69,970] ----------------------------------------- 05/2016: The Walking Dead #154 -- 68,922 (+ 2.3%) 06/2016: The Walking Dead #155 -- 71,755 (+ 4.1%) 07/2016: The Walking Dead #156 -- 76,355 (+ 6.4%) 08/2016: The Walking Dead #157 -- 97,689 (+ 37.0%) [104,596] 09/2016: The Walking Dead #158 -- 94,316 (- 9.8%) 10/2016: The Walking Dead #159 -- 91,291 (- 3.2%) 11/2016: The Walking Dead #160 -- 88,367 (- 3.2%) 12/2016: The Walking Dead #161 -- 85,459 (- 3.3%) 01/2017: The Walking Dead #162 -- 85,395 (- 0.1%) 02/2017: The Walking Dead #163 -- 750,000 (+778.3%) ** 02/2017: The Walking Dead #164 -- 83,999 (- 88.8%) 03/2017: The Walking Dead #165 -- 70,422 (- 16.2%) 04/2017: The Walking Dead #166 -- 68,205 (- 3.1%) 05/2017: The Walking Dead #167 -- 74,062 (+ 8.6%) ----------------- 6 months: - 16.2% 1 year : + 7.5% 2 years : + 5.8% 5 years : + 22.5% 10 years: n.a.Okay, I'm stumped. There don't seem to have been any variants for issue #167, it's the middle of a story line, and the increase is a bit too large to be a normal correction. Was there a major character death or something that caused Walking Dead to rise so much this month?
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79 - SEVEN TO ETERNITY ($3.99) 09/2016: Seven to Eternity #1 -- 32,790 [39,394] 10/2016: Seven to Eternity #2 -- 27,968 (- 29.0%) 11/2016: Seven to Eternity #3 -- 26,669 (- 4.6%) 12/2016: Seven to Eternity #4 -- 25,729 (- 3.5%) 01/2017: -- 02/2017: -- 03/2017: -- 04/2017: Seven to Eternity #5 -- 32,667 (+ 27.0%) 05/2017: Seven to Eternity #6 -- 30,632 (- 6.2%) ----------------- 6 months: + 14.9%Still holding on to a good chunk of its gains from the previous issue.
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91 - PAPER GIRLS ($2.99) 05/2016: -- 06/2016: Paper Girls #6 -- 36,385 (- 2.2%) 07/2016: Paper Girls #7 -- 35,392 (- 2.7%) 08/2016: Paper Girls #8 -- 33,731 (- 4.7%) 09/2016: Paper Girls #9 -- 32,320 (- 4.2%) 10/2016: Paper Girls #10 -- 32,119 (- 0.6%) 11/2016: -- 12/2016: -- 01/2017: -- 02/2017: Paper Girls #11 -- 30,562 (- 4.8%) 03/2017: Paper Girls #12 -- 29,047 (- 5.0%) 04/2017: Paper Girls #13 -- 27,993 (- 3.6%) 05/2017: Paper Girls #14 -- 27,362 (- 2.3%) ----------------- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : n.a.The joys of standard attrition.
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102 - YOUNGBLOOD ($3.99) 05/2012: Youngblood #71 -- 7,611 05/2013: -- --------------------------------- 05/2017: Youngblood #1 -- 24,661 ----------------- 5 years : +224.0%Only two issues of the previous Youngblood series (2012-2013, with legacy numbering #71-78) made it on the Top 300 chart, so this is a definite improvement. Of course there were oodles of variants, and don't expect the 25K number to hold any more than it has for other recent Image series that debuted in the mid-20K range.
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The Spawn #1 25th Anniversary Director's Cut comes in at #111, selling 23,672 copies of a $4.99 book, which is actually kind of impressive for this sort of thing.
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121 - GOD COUNTRY ($3.99) 01/2017: God Country #1 of 6 -- 14,322 [19,357] 02/2017: God Country #2 of 6 -- 17,701 (- 8.6%) 03/2017: God Country #3 of 6 -- 15,321 (- 13.4%) 04/2017: God Country #4 of 6 -- 16,174 (+ 5.8%) 05/2017: God Country #5 of 6 -- 20,706 (+ 28.0%)Speaking of Spawn, it's Spawn Month in Image's variant cover program. So when you see large jumps like this, think Spawn!
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122 - A.D.: AFTER DEATH ($5.99) 11/2016: AD After Death #1 of 3 -- 41,484 12/2016: AD After Death #2 of 3 -- 21,844 (- 28.7%) 01/2017: -- 02/2017: -- 03/2017: -- 04/2017: -- 05/2017: AD After Death #3 of 3 -- 20,536 (- 6.0%) ----------------- 6 months: - 50.5%I'm guessing this was just very late, and wasn't resolicited. Otherwise the drop from a gap like that would likely have been more severe.
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124 - REDNECK ($3.99) 04/2017: Redneck #1 -- 22,317 [29,576] 05/2017: Redneck #2 -- 19,957 (- 32.5%)A good number of reorders (2nd printings, likely) for the first issue show up. Many early issues of Image books have had second printings lately, but there seldom make the Top 300 chart, so this augers well for Redneck. (The second issue has a 2nd printing in June as well.)
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125 - REGRESSION ($3.99) 05/2017: Regression #1 -- 19,654Had a Spawn month variant cover. Already up to three printings of the first issue (one in June & one in July), which is encouraging for sales.
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127 - KILL OR BE KILLED ($3.99) 08/2016: Kill or Be Killed #1 -- 30,050 09/2016: Kill or Be Killed #2 -- 23,812 (- 20.8%) 10/2016: Kill or Be Killed #3 -- 23,883 (+ 0.3%) 11/2016: Kill or Be Killed #4 -- 22,889 (- 4.2%) 12/2016: -- 01/2017: Kill or Be Killed #5 -- 21,261 (- 7.1%) 02/2017: Kill or Be Killed #6 -- 26,312 (+ 23.8%) 03/2017: Kill or Be Killed #7 -- 22,957 (- 12.8%) 04/2017: Kill or Be Killed #8 -- 19,616 (- 14.6%) 05/2017: Kill or Be Killed #9 -- 19,283 (- 1.7%) ----------------- 6 months: n.a.Stabilizing, for a month at least. There was an Image Firsts edition of the first issue this month, so maybe that helped in some way? Hard to tell; those seem more likely to drive trade collection sales, but???
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137 - OUTCAST BY KIRKMAN & AZACETA ($2.99) 05/2015: Outcast #9 -- 28,961 [30,104] ------------------------------ 05/2016: -- 06/2016: -- 07/2016: Outcast #19 -- 22,167 (+ 4.3%) 08/2016: Outcast #20 -- 21,919 (- 1.1%) 09/2016: Outcast #21 -- 20,886 (- 4.7%) 10/2016: Outcast #22 -- 20,347 (- 2.6%) 11/2016: Outcast #23 -- 19,556 (- 3.9%) 12/2016: -- 01/2017: Outcast #24 -- 18,520 (- 5.3%) 02/2017: Outcast #25 -- ?????? 03/2017: Outcast #26 -- 17,820 04/2017: -- 05/2017: Outcast #27 -- 17,371 (- 2.5%) ----------------- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : n.a. 2 years : - 42.3%Just going right on its merry way with standard attrition, as if the 25¢ issue never happened.
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143 - SPAWN ($2.99) 05/2007: Spawn #167 -- 24,277 05/2012: Spawn #219 -- 12,804 05/2013: Spawn #231 -- 16,502 05/2014: Spawn #243 -- 11,714 05/2015: Spawn #252 -- 15,904 ---------------------------------- 05/2016: Spawn #263 -- 16,109 (- 14.2%) 06/2016: -- 07/2016: Spawn #264 -- 17,157 (+ 6.5%) 08/2016: Spawn #265 -- 15,927 (- 7.2%) 09/2016: -- 10/2016: Spawn #266 -- 22,304 (+ 40.0%) 11/2016: Spawn #267 -- 16,976 (- 23.9%) 12/2016: Spawn #268 -- 16,652 (- 1.9%) 01/2017: Spawn #269 -- 16,257 (- 2.4%) 02/2017: Spawn #270 -- 15,778 (- 2.9%) 03/2017: Spawn #271 -- 15,517 (- 1.7%) 04/2017: Spawn #272 -- 15,400 (- 0.8%) 05/2017: Spawn #273 -- 16,886 (+ 9.6%) ----------------- 6 months: - 0.5% 1 year : + 4.8% 2 years : + 6.2% 5 years : + 31.9% 10 years: - 30.4%Where every month is Spawn month! (Except for June and September...)
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146 - MONSTRESS ($3.99) 05/2016: Monstress #6 -- 20,850 (- 4.4%) 06/2016: -- 07/2016: -- 08/2016: -- 09/2016: -- 10/2016: Monstress #7 -- 20,799 (- 0.2%) 11/2016: Monstress #8 -- 18,830 (- 9.5%) 12/2016: Monstress #9 -- 17,515 (- 7.0%) 01/2017: -- 02/2017: Monstress #10 -- 19,345 (+ 10.4%) 03/2017: -- 04/2017: Monstress #11 -- 16,757 (- 13.4%) 05/2017: Monstress #12 -- 16,480 (- 1.7%) ----------------- 6 months: - 12.5% 1 year : - 21.0%End of second story arc. No further issues have been solicited yet, but the trade collections are doing well so I won't be surprised if we get more issues at some point.
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149 - OLD GUARD ($3.99) 02/2017: Old Guard #1 -- 23,867 03/2017: Old Guard #2 -- 17,991 (- 24.6%) 04/2017: Old Guard #3 -- 13,978 (- 22.3%) 05/2017: Old Guard #4 -- 16,080 (+ 15.0%)Spawn month variant? Indeed.
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161 - EAST OF WEST ($3.99) 03/2013: East of West #1 -- 49,518 [54,470] 03/2014: East of West #10 -- 28,853 03/2015: East of West #18 -- 23,080 ----------------------------------- 05/2016: East of West #26 -- 17,645 (- 8.6%) 06/2016: East of West #27 -- 18,146 (+ 2.8%) 07/2016: East of West #28 -- 17,019 (- 6.2%) 08/2016: East of West #29 -- 16,613 (- 2.4%) 09/2016: -- 10/2016: -- 11/2016: -- 12/2016: East of West #30 -- 15,635 (- 5.9%) 01/2017: -- 02/2017: East of West #31 -- 16,964 (+ 8.5%) 03/2017: East of West #32 -- 16,281 (- 4.0%) 04/2017: -- 05/2017: East of West #33 -- 14,511 (- 10.9%) ----------------- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : n.a. 2 years : - 29.5%Unlike the previous two issues, there was no theme month variant in May.
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168 - THE WICKED + THE DIVINE ($3.99) 05/2015: Wicked + Divine #10 -- 20,562 -------------------------------------- 05/2016: Wicked + Divine #19 -- 16,929 (- 4.4%) 06/2016: Wicked + Divine #20 -- 17,831 (+ 5.3%) 07/2016: Wicked + Divine #21 -- 16,283 (- 8.7%) 08/2016: Wicked + Divine #22 -- 15,969 (- 1.9%) 09/2016: W + D 1831 one-shot -- 16,408 (+ 2.7%) 10/2016: -- 11/2016: Wicked + Divine #23 -- 15,238 (- 7.1%) 12/2016: Wicked + Divine #24 -- 14,666 (- 3.8%) 01/2017: Wicked + Divine #25 -- 14,164 (- 3.4%) 02/2017: Wicked + Divine #26 -- 15,651 (+ 10.5%) 03/2017: Wicked + Divine #27 -- 14,589 (- 6.8%) 04/2017: Wicked + Divine #28 -- 13,045 (- 10.6%) 05/2017: W+D 455AD one-shot -- 13,728 (+ 5.2%) ----------------- 6 months: - 9.9% 1 year : - 18.9% 2 years : - 33.2%A bit of a bump for the one-shot interstitial.
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172 - ROSE ($3.99) 04/2017: Rose #1 -- 20,499 05/2017: Rose #2 -- 13,436 (- 34.5%)
181 - PLASTIC ($3.99) 04/2017: Plastic #1 -- 18,980 05/2017: Plastic #2 -- 12,753 (- 32.8%)A couple of second issues, with typical second issue drops.
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182 - ETERNAL EMPIRE ($3.99) 05/2017: Eternal Empire #1 -- 12,614New series from Jonathan Luna & Sarah Vaughn. They're a known quantity (e.g. their rather good previous Image series, Alex + Ada), so maybe the future drops won't be as severe?
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184 - BLACK CLOUD ($3.99) 04/2017: Black Cloud #1 -- 19,583 05/2017: Black Cloud #2 -- 12,412 (- 36.5%)Yet another typical second issue drop.
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185 - BLACK SCIENCE ($3.99) 05/2014: -- 05/2015: Black Science #14 -- 17,090 ------------------------------------ 05/2016: -- 06/2016: -- 07/2016: Black Science #22 -- 12,829 (- 2.0%) 08/2016: Black Science #23 -- 12,466 (- 2.8%) 09/2016: Black Science #24 -- 11,810 (- 5.3%) 10/2016: Black Science #25 -- 11,425 (- 3.3%) 11/2016: -- 12/2016: Black Science #26 -- 11,041 (- 3.4%) 01/2017: Black Science #27 -- 10,631 (- 3.7%) 02/2017: Black Science #28 -- 10,478 (- 1.4%) 03/2017: -- 04/2017: Black Science #29 -- 11,542 (+ 10.2%) 05/2017: Black Science #30 -- 12,391 (+ 7.4%) ----------------- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : n.a. 2 years : - 27.5%Spawn month variant.
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190 - INVINCIBLE ($2.99) 05/2007: Invincible #40 -- 13,230 05/2012: Invincible #91 -- 14,556 05/2013: -- 05/2014: Invincible #111 -- 18,440 05/2015: Invincible #120 -- 13,191 ---------------------------------- 05/2016: Invincible #128 -- 11,982 (- 0.5%) 06/2016: Invincible #129 -- 12,510 (+ 4.4%) 07/2016: -- 08/2016: Invincible #130 -- 11,921 (- 4.7%) 09/2016: -- 10/2016: -- 11/2016: Invincible #131 -- 11,579 (- 2.9%) 12/2016: -- 01/2017: -- 02/2017: Invincible #132 -- 11,505 (- 0.6%) 02/2017: Invincible #133 -- ?????? 03/2017: Invincible #134 -- 11,605 04/2017: Invincible #135 -- 13,658 (+ 17.7%) 05/2017: Invincible #136 -- 12,058 (- 11.7%) ----------------- 6 months: + 4.1% 1 year : + 0.6% 2 years : - 8.6% 5 years : - 17.2% 10 years: - 8.9%No variant this month.
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191 - GRRL SCOUTS: MAGIC SOCKS ($3.99) 05/2017: Magic Socks #1 of 6 -- 11,939The previous Grrl Scouts series, Work Sucks, came out in 2003 with final issue orders of just 5.5K. So this is pretty good, even considering the multiple covers (including a Spawn month cover). There was a second printing of this first issue in June, which is encouraging.
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192 - ROYAL CITY ($3.99) 03/2017: Royal City #1 -- 24,597 04/2017: Royal City #2 -- 13,721 (- 44.2%) 05/2017: Royal City #3 -- 11,708 (- 14.7%)A typical third issue drop.
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195 - RAT QUEENS ($3.99) 05/2014: -- 05/2015: -- --------------------------------- 05/2016: Rat Queens #16 -- 12,092 (+ 0.8%) 06/2016: -- 07/2016: -- 08/2016: -- 09/2016: -- 10/2016: -- 11/2016: -- 12/2016: -- 01/2017: -- 02/2017: -- 03/2017: Rat Queens #1 -- 22,461 (+ 85.7%) 04/2017: Rat Queens #2 -- 14,057 (- 37.4%) 05/2017: Rat Queens #3 -- 11,422 (- 18.7%) ----------------- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : - 5.5% 2 years : n.a.Three issues three months in a row? It has literally been years since Rat Queens has succeeded at that.
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199, 287 - SEX CRIMINALS ($3.99/$4.69) 05/2014: -- 05/2015: -- -------------------------- 05/2016: -- 06/2016: -- 07/2016: -- 08/2016: -- 09/2016: -- 10/2016: -- 11/2016: -- 12/2016: -- 01/2017: -- 02/2017: Sex Criminals #16 -- 22,494 (- 13.3%) 03/2017: Sex Criminals #17 -- 19,020 (- 15.4%) 04/2017: Sex Criminals #18 -- 17,716 (- 6.9%) 05/2017: Sex Criminals #19 -- 16,944 (- 4.4%) ----------------- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : n.a. 2 years : n.a.Combined sales for the regular and XXX variants.
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205 - DEADLY CLASS ($3.99) 05/2014: Deadly Class #5 -- 17,099 05/2015: Deadly Class #13 -- 12,299 ----------------------------------- 05/2016: -- 06/2016: Deadly Class #21 -- 10,892 (+ 5.1%) 07/2016: -- 08/2016: -- 09/2016: Deadly Class #22 -- 9,865 (- 9.4%) 10/2016: -- 11/2016: Deadly Class #23 -- 9,215 (- 6.6%) 11/2016: Deadly Class #24 -- 8,757 (- 5.0%) 12/2016: Deadly Class #25 -- 8,567 (- 2.2%) 01/2017: -- 02/2017: Deadly Class #26 -- 9,760 (+ 13.9%) 03/2017: Deadly Class #27 -- 9,339 (- 4.3%) 04/2017: -- 05/2017: Deadly Class #28 -- 10,659 (+ 14.1%) ----------------- 6 months: + 18.6% 1 year : n.a. 2 years : - 13.3%Spawn month variant, in addition to a normal variant.
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206 - LOW ($3.99) 05/2015: -- -------------------------- 05/2016: -- 06/2016: Low #14 -- 13,903 (- 0.4%) 07/2016: -- 08/2016: Low #15 -- 12,955 (- 6.8%) 09/2016: -- 10/2016: -- 11/2016: -- 12/2016: -- 01/2017: -- 02/2017: -- 03/2017: Low #16 -- 13,478 (+ 4.0%) 04/2017: Low #17 -- 10,915 (- 19.0%) 05/2017: Low #18 -- 10,564 (- 3.2%) ----------------- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : n.a. 2 years : n.a.---
208 - CURSE WORDS ($3.99) 01/2017: Curse Words #1 -- 18,162 02/2017: Curse Words #2 -- 15,248 (- 16.0%) 03/2017: Curse Words #3 -- 12,116 (- 20.5%) 04/2017: Curse Words #4 -- 12,219 (+ 0.9%) 05/2017: Curse Words #5 -- 10,511 (- 14.0%)No theme variant this month, just the regular variant.
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209 - EXTREMITY ($3.99) 03/2017: Extremity #1 -- 17,917 04/2017: Extremity #2 -- 11,973 (- 33.2%) 05/2017: Extremity #3 -- 10,481 (- 12.5%)Typical third issue drop.
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223 - THE DYING AND THE DEAD ($3.99) 05/2015: -- ----------------------------------------- 05/2016: -- 06/2016: -- 07/2016: -- 08/2016: -- 09/2016: -- 10/2016: -- 11/2016: -- 12/2016: -- 01/2017: -- 02/2017: -- 03/2017: -- 04/2017: -- 05/2017: Dying and the Dead #4 -- 9,639 (- 43.0%)Gee, who could have expected such a huge drop after a twenty-month gap between issues?
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232 - RENATO JONES: SEASON TWO ($3.99) 05/2016: One Percent #1 -- 14,857 06/2016: One Percent #2 -- 10,565 (- 28.9%) 07/2016: One Percent #3 -- 9,027 (- 14.6%) 08/2016: One Percent #4 -- 7,418 (- 17.8%) 09/2016: -- 10/2016: One Percent #5 -- 6,671 (- 10.1%) 11/2016: -- 12/2016: -- 01/2017: -- 02/2017: -- 03/2017: -- 04/2017: -- 05/2017: Season Two #1 -- 8,966 (+ 34.4%) ----------------- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : - 39.7%Returns from hiatus with a new #1 and a Spawn month variant.
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233 - PAKLIS ($5.99) 05/2017: Paklis #1 -- 8,946New science fiction series from Dustin Weaver. The higher price may help it survive, if the forthcoming inevitable drops aren't too severe...
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The Image Firsts edition of Seven to Eternity comes in at #240 with 8,404 in sales. These $1 promotional issues don't normally make the Top 300 chart; there were nine of them in May, but this was the only one that charted.
(The others were: Black Magic, Head Lopper, Kill or Be Killed, Renato Jones, Snotgirl, The Fix, The Goddamned, and Think Tank.)
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245 - THE FIX ($3.99) 05/2016: The Fix #2 -- 10,433 (- 30.3%) 06/2016: The Fix #3 -- 11,128 (+ 6.7%) 07/2016: The Fix #4 -- 11,115 (- 0.1%) 08/2016: -- 09/2016: The Fix #5 -- 10,463 (- 5.9%) 10/2016: The Fix #6 -- 9,425 (- 9.9%) 11/2016: -- 12/2016: The Fix #7 -- 8,246 (- 12.5%) 01/2017: -- 02/2017: The Fix #8 -- 7,569 (- 8.2%) 03/2017: -- 04/2017: -- 05/2017: The Fix #9 -- 7,941 (+ 4.9%) ----------------- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : - 23.9%Start of the third story arc, with an April Fools variant (delayed from last month) providing a bit of an uptick.
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246 - SAMARITAN: VERITAS ($3.99) 05/2017: Veritas #1 -- 7,879New Top Cow series from Matt Hawkins and Atilio Rojo.
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254 - LAZARUS SOURCEBOOK ($3.99) 04/2016: Sourcebook #1 -- 8,915 05/2017: Sourcebook #2 -- 7,327 (- 17.8%)About 5K below where the last issue of the regular series sold.
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240 - MANIFEST DESTINY ($2.99) 05/2014: -- 05/2015: -- --------------------------------------- 05/2016: Manifest Destiny #19 -- 9,900 (- 5.7%) 06/2016: Manifest Destiny #20 -- 9,399 (- 5.1%) 07/2016: Manifest Destiny #21 -- 8,763 (- 6.8%) 08/2016: Manifest Destiny #22 -- 8,526 (- 2.7%) 09/2016: Manifest Destiny #23 -- 8,039 (- 5.7%) 10/2016: Manifest Destiny #24 -- 7,815 (- 2.8%) 11/2016: -- 12/2016: -- 01/2017: Manifest Destiny #25 -- 7,403 (- 5.3%) 02/2017: Manifest Destiny #26 -- 9,007 (+ 21.7%) 03/2017: Manifest Destiny #27 -- 7,028 (- 22.0%) 04/2017: -- 05/2017: Manifest Destiny #28 -- 6,904 (- 1.8%) ----------------- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : - 30.3% 2 years : n.a.Late, so the Spawn month variant doesn't show up until June...
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264 - GREEN VALLEY ($2.99) 10/2016: Green Valley #1 of 9 -- 16,091 11/2016: Green Valley #2 of 9 -- 9,713 (- 39.6%) 12/2016: Green Valley #3 of 9 -- 8,219 (- 15.4%) 01/2017: Green Valley #4 of 9 -- 7,553 (- 8.1%) 02/2017: Green Valley #5 of 9 -- 7,187 (- 4.8%) 03/2017: Green Valley #6 of 9 -- 7,204 (+ 0.2%) 04/2017: Green Valley #7 of 9 -- 6,842 (- 5.0%) 05/2017: Green Valley #8 of 9 -- 6,683 (- 2.3%) ----------------- 6 months: - 31.2%---
266 - BIRTHRIGHT ($2.99) 05/2015: Birthright #7 -- 12,561 --------------------------------- 05/2016: -- 06/2016: Birthright #16 -- 9,015 (- 3.5%) 07/2016: Birthright #17 -- 8,264 (- 8.3%) 08/2016: Birthright #18 -- 8,146 (- 1.4%) 09/2016: Birthright #19 -- 7,832 (- 3.9%) 10/2016: Birthright #20 -- 7,567 (- 3.4%) 11/2016: -- 12/2016: -- 01/2017: Birthright #21 -- 7,147 (- 5.6%) 02/2017: Birthright #22 -- 7,025 (- 1.7%) 03/2017: Birthright #23 -- 6,756 (- 3.8%) 04/2017: -- 05/2017: Birthright #24 -- 6,611 (- 2.1%) ----------------- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : n.a. 2 years : - 47.7%---
273 - THE FEW ($4.99) 01/2017: The Few #1 of 6 -- 10,571 02/2017: The Few #2 of 6 -- 8,431 (- 20.2%) 03/2017: The Few #3 of 6 -- 6,067 (- 28.0%) 04/2017: The Few #4 of 6 -- 5,119 (- 15.6%) 05/2017: The Few #5 of 6 -- 6,415 (+ 25.3%)A Spawn month variant keeps The Few on the Top 300 chart.
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300 - COPPERHEAD ($3.99) 05/2015: Copperhead #7 -- 9,679 --------------------------------- 05/2016: -- 06/2016: -- 07/2016: -- 08/2016: -- 09/2016: -- 10/2016: -- 11/2016: -- 12/2016: -- 01/2017: -- 02/2017: -- 03/2017: Copperhead #11 -- 6,369 (- 26.5%) 04/2017: Copperhead #12 -- 5,517 (- 13.4%) 05/2017: Copperhead #13 -- 5,254 (- 4.8%) ----------------- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : n.a. 2 years : - 45.7%---
Image titles shipping but not making the Top 300 in May (cutoff at 5,254) include: The Beauty, Black Road, Cannibal, Hadrian's Wall, Horizon, Magdalena, Planetoid Praxis, Postal, Ringside, Rock Candy Mountain, Romulus, Savage Dragon, Sons of the Devil, Southern Cross, Spread, Sun Bakery, Think Tank, Throwaways, Underwinter.
Note that this doesn't necessarily mean that any of them are in danger of being cancelled; there are many reasons that the creators of these books may desire to keep them going.
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The Fine Print (Disclaimers, et cetera)
The numbers above are estimates for comic-book sales in the North American direct market, as calculated by ICv2.com according to the chart and index information provided by Diamond Comic Distributors.
ICv2.com's estimates are somewhat lower than the actual numbers, but they are consistent from month to month, so the trends they show are fairly accurate. Since it's a "month-to-month" column, the comments, unless otherwise noted, are on the most recent month.
Bear in mind that the figures measure sales of physical comics to retailers, not customers. Also, these numbers do not include sales to bookstores, newsstands, other mass-market retail chains or the United Kingdom. Re-orders are included, so long as they either reached stores in a book's initial calendar month of release or were strong enough to make the chart again in a subsequent month. Keep in mind that sales for some titles may include incentives to acquire variants and not every unit sold is necessarily even intended to be sold to a customer.
If additional copies of an issue did appear on the chart after a book's initial calendar month of release, you can see the total number of copies sold in brackets behind those issues (e.g. "[36,599]"). Should more than one issue have shipped in a month which is relevant for one of the long-term comparisons, the average between them will be used.
Titles which are returnable have their numbers artificially adjusted down by Diamond. To make up for that this column increases the reported numbers for those titles by 10%. Which is likely also wrong, but it's a different and likely less wrong kind of wrong, and experience has shown that this leads to sales figures which are more consistent.
Image is not a normal comics publisher, and the typical metrics for sales success may not apply. For many titles, collection sales tend to be a significant factor, so the numbers for those books should be taken with a grain of salt as well.
Please keep in mind that raw sales numbers do not tell us about how profitable a book is for a publisher or for the creators.
Above all, do not allow sales numbers to dictate your purchasing and enjoyment of a particular comic. If you enjoy reading a comic series then go right on buying and reading that comic, no matter what the sales figures say.
Opinions expressed in this column are mine alone, and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer, The International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions, or my former neighbor's dog Miles.
The author of this column does weekly snapshots of Amazon comic sales charts at http://yetanothercomicsblog.blogspot.com/ and tweets about comics and related subjects on Twitter at @davereadscomics (PM me there if you need to contact me).
As always, we welcome your comments and corrections below. Please try to keep things civilized.
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