Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Batman, bestseller, bleedingcool, civil war, Comics, dc, entertainment, marvel

Bleeding Cool Bestseller List – 6th November 2016 – A Little Animosity Towards Batman

Published Sun, 06 Nov 2016 11:00:28 -0600

Last updated Mon, 02 Jan 2017 12:06:29 -0600

This is the Top Ten Bleeding Cool Bestseller List, as compiled by a number of comic stores from their sales on Wednesday and Thursday. It measures what are known as the "Wednesday Warriors", those who can't wait to the weekend to get this week's comics. We salute you, and the keenness you bring to your passion.

DC still dominate with Rebirth, Marvel do a bit better with launches, but The Walking Dead places high, and in creeps Animosity….

1. Batman #10
2. Superman #10
3. Justice League #8
4. Avengers #1
5. Unworthy Thor #1
6. The Walking Dead #160
7. Green Lanterns #10
8. Nightwing #8
9. Green Arrow #10
10. Animosity #3

Thanks to the following retailers,

Rodman Comics of Ankeny, Iowa
Issues Needed Comics, Apple Valley, Minnesota
Dr. No's Comics & Games Superstore of Marietta, Georgia
Yesteryear Comics of San Diego, California
Fat Jack's Comicrypt of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Famous Faces & Funnies of West Melbourne, Florida.
G-Mart Comic Books– Champaign, IL

Who had this to say,

DC takes seven of our store's top ten, with Superman topping Batman this week (fan interest in Jonathan Kent & Damian Wayne is extremely high, apparently!). The superb Animosity earned a top ten slot for AfterShock, Walking Dead locked into the top ten for Image, and Marvel managed one lone book in our top ten–Unworthy Thor, a title that appealed to fans because of the hope that it might bring back the original Thor after far too long an absence. Avengers, once a Marvel flagship title, barely broke into the Top Ten here, and even the Dark Knight III Master Race #6 hardcover (an upscale format edition of a two-week-old book) topped the moribund Occupy Avengers #1.

Batman took the top spot however what took the number 2 and 3 spots surprised us. Walking dead has exploded in our store due to the new season starting and took the number 2 spot and Champions lost very little steam from the first issue and took the third spot. Marvel Now is very hit and miss but it looks like some titles have some staying power! and of course DC took 5 spots so still the leader of the week.

Unworthy Thor 1 outsold Avengers 1. Avengers 1 coming out just weeks after the previous series ended along with it just keeping the previous story arc about Kang gave it the feeling as anything put a new first issue. Rebirth once again did great. Batman needs to get better writing. People enjoying Detective and All Star Batman far better than the main Batman title now. Harley Quinn oddly enough sold out on Wednesday even though the previous issue is still on the stands. Meaning we sold more of the newest issue than the previous one. The wonders of the world of comic ordering.

Strong interest in mid-90s Superman books along with renewed interest in Bronze Age Iron Fist books this week…

Thank God…finally a breather.Great week for sales and the racks are thinning out a little since people can play catch up on other titles since this was a lighter week for releases.Batman was #1 and Avengers and Unworthy Thor did rather well and seemed to be better received than other launches…decent sign.

Oof. What a week. Huge divide in numbers between the top five and 6-10.
Marvel managed to get two titles on the list. Avengers #1 was our number two seller of the week, though no one seems the least bit excited about it. People are excited about Unworthy Thor, though it was still out sold by Justice League, Walking Dead, and Superman. Small week of releases makes for good Image books charting. Bitch Planet and Wicked + Divine both made the list for us.
Week to week I really try to focus on the positives but Marvel is making it very difficult this week. Champions is DOA, Occupy is laughable. Everything is cyclical. This down period just can't last much longer.

Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine..guy..not girl…were the back issue movers of the week.With Marvel finally getting over the five year tantrum with the new launches poised for next year, it seems that people have a skip in their walk when heading to the back-issue bin.

Same old song as Batman continues to dominate our top sales every time it ships. The good news is that Marvel got a few books into our top ten, or just barely outside of it, but the bad news for Marvel is that Batman 10 at number one more than triples our sales of Unworthy Thor 1, Avengers 1 and Champions 2, which come in at 8, 10 and 11 for us in the first few days of sales. Superman 10, the real surprise of Rebirth also goes 2.5 to 3 times our sales on our top 3 Marvel books this week as well. Batman, Superman, Walking Dead, Justice League, Green Arrow, Green Lanterns and Aquaman make our top 7, with Animosity 3 also outselling almost every Marvel book for us at spot 9. If you would have told me a year ago that Aquaman 10 would outsell Avengers 1 in our store, I wouldn't have believed you, but since this is the 5th relaunch of the main Avengers title since 2010, it's being met with diminishing returns as Marvel continues to alienate long time readers, and they're not bringing in anyone new to replace them. They need to spend some of that movie or Disney money on advertising OUTSIDE of the industry to bring in new readers or returning readers like DC did with Rebirth, because our Marvel sales are starting to hit record lows for the last decade and every new event and relaunch is met with less excitement and less people that want to spend $5 on new comics. Most new Marvel NOW books aren't selling a fraction of even our conservative estimates, and we've just never seen as much apathy towards a whole new line as we have with these new books and relaunches. Even on a book like Mosiac, where we threw the first issue in for Uncanny Inhuman subs, 70% of our sub customers are passing and putting it back on the shelf without even trying the first issue. Somewhere between lack of interest and budget, these titles just aren't selling. Marvel needs to try something new quick, and I don't just mean relaunch these books again in six months. They need to do something to bring in a new audience. Even Jessica Jones with millions of Netflix viewers didn't sell close to what I thought we would, and that's one of the better selling Now titles for us so far. We sold more Teen Titans 1 and Flash 9 so far in the first few days of their second week on sale than we sold of Death Of X 3, and almost as many Saga 39 in week two. This is still the best year in our store's history, but I am worried about where comic sales will be at in six months, especially Marvel if they don't heavily re-examine their publishing plans.

We are still selling a bunch of Walking Dead back issues, including several copies of 100 (first Negan) in the last few weeks since the show returned. Lots of people looking for Walking Dead 53 (first Abraham, Rosita & Eugene) and 108 (first Ezekiel and Shiva), but we are now out of both. We continue to move solid amounts of Batman back issues, Green Lantern, Uncanny X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man and even a little Fantastic Four this week. Lots of younger kids are buying older Marvel or DC books for $2 or $3 for a comic with a cover that catches their eye rather than new books at $3 or $4. We've sold a few more Dr Strange issues this week and plenty of Dr Strange TPBs, especially The Oath by Brian K Vaughan, which is easily my favorite Dr Strange story.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!