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Bleeding Cool Bestseller List – 8th July 2018 – Captain America Overshadowed by the Bat Wedding

Published Sun, 08 Jul 2018 09:00:27 -0500

This is the Top 10 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 till the weekend to get this week's comics. We salute you, and the keenness you bring to your passion.

And this week every reporting store had the same number one. A certain Batman Fifty…

Batman #50
Catwoman #1
Justice League #3
Captain America #1
Man of Steel #6
Avengers #4
Cosmic Ghost Rider #1
Walking Dead #181
Death of the Inhumans #1
Saga #53

Thanks to the following retailers

Dr. No's Comics & Games Superstore of Marietta, Georgia
Fat Jack's Comicrypt of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Comix Experience Outpost, San Francisco, California
Rodman Comics of Ankeny, Iowa
Ssalefish Comics Winston-Salem – North Carolina
Collector's Paradise, Canoga Park, California
Famous Faces & Funnies of West Melbourne, Florida
Comix Experience, San Francisco, California

Who had this to say,

Batman blew every other book away this week at FFF even with all of the back lash from both readers and retailers aimed at DC Comics. We sold more than double our usual Batman numbers and double what the second best selling book, Catwoman, sold this week. Captain America was a close third to Catwoman and actually has some pretty positive buzz around it. Considering that the last time a Cap #1 tried to outmatch a big DC midnight release ended with a fascist reveal that left a bad taste in a lot of mouths, it was nice to see Winghead receive a graceful entrance. Donny Cates of course had a great week at our store with both Cosmic Ghost Rider and Death of the Inhumans selling well enough to take the #5 and #8 spots in our Top Ten. Deathstroke also got a boost from Batman and managed to take #7.

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I actually spoke with a sizable number of regulars who had managed to avoid the big spoiler all week (and one even a few days after). Even after the reveal and all the talk that surrounded it, Batman has sold shockingly well. We've gotten a fair share of speculators sure, but we're also getting both new and regular readers coming in to check out just how the Wedding of the Century went down. Even though it evokes shades of X-Men Gold, Batman somehow got the attention of many more people. DC may have messed up big and put the future of too many stores in jeopardy, but they know how to put out a book that grabs people and keeps them talking. Even if the talk isn't so positive.

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Spoilers be damned, Batman was an unstoppable Juggernaut this week, both our exclusive Joshua Middleton cover and all three standard covers. Many people knew the spoiler coming in but didn't care. Many more suspect (as I do too) that in a proposed 100 issue run, that things still have time to come to fruition. I can't speak for every store, but the spoiler didn't do the damage to us that many speculated would. Plenty of books performed right on track with their usual numbers, but Captain America didn't debut as well as I thought and hoped it would. Cosmic Ghost Rider exceeded expectations going higher on the list than anticipated.

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Some big releases this week! BATMAN #50 had no trouble taking the top spot on our bestsellers list this week, despite the abundant spoilers available online, and it also helped propel Joelle Jones' new CATWOMAN #1 into our top 3. In between those two DC titles, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Leinil Francis Yu's CAPTAIN AMERICA #1 was our runner-up.

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Despite controversy surrounding the title, BATMAN #50 had little trouble claiming the top spot on our best sellers list this week. Following not too far behind was CATWOMAN #1, a book I like to believe would have been a hit on the strength of Joelle Jones' phenomenal artistic and writing talents regardless of Bat-wedding hype.

Marvel made some waves as well: a CAPTAIN AMERICA #1 on the Fourth of July by a superstar creative team and sporting an Alex Ross wraparound cover is pretty much guaranteed to do well. DC took the rest of the top half of the list, however, as JUSTICE LEAGUE and MAN OF STEEL continued to do strong numbers.

The bottom half of the list gives us usual suspects like AVENGERS and ASTONISHING X-MEN, while Marvel's excellent IMMORTAL HULK stays strong on it's second issue and COSMIC GHOST RIDER -everyone's newest favorite "two characters mashed together"- makes a solid debut.

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July 4th was a heck of day. We had a line and everything like it was Black Friday instead of July 4th. I think with the 4th being in the middle of the week not as many people traveled for the 4th and had the day off so they stopped in. Batman 50 was of course the top seller though not nearly as popular as we would have hoped. It was a sloppy mess of a read. People were upset with the issue being spoiled and we have customers stating this is their last issue of Batman, which of course we hope it isn't. Nightwing made a surprise appearance in our top ten thanks to the very in demand variant cover. Marvel's Captain America 1 and Star Wars 50 were our only two Marvel titles to make it into the top ten. Captain America for a first issue did not sell that great. People are getting worn out over first issues of series that just came out weeks ago. Star Wars is dropping in sales also, people seem disenchanted after the Last Jedi movie with Star Wars. Was worried most of our customers came in on the 4th and our sales for Thursday would be terrible. Thankfully they weren't bad.

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What an amazing Wednesday; between midnight sales and our regular business on Wednesday, we did almost double an average Wednesday's sales. The big winner was Batman #50, which outsold the second-place title almost 3 to 1. Captain America #1 was marvel's best-selling title this week in our store, but Cosmic Ghost Rider performed much better than we anticipated. The big surprise? Wedding fever helped to propel True Believers Fanastic Four: The Wedding of Reed and Sue #1 (reprinting the wedding story from FF Annual #3) to tenth place in our store. At least we could guarantee those readers that they WOULD get a wedding by the end of the issue…

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Batman #50 sold well despite the bad DC PR – and customers tended to buy both Batman and Catwoman, buying multiple covers. Captain America #1 was overshadowed by the Bat Wedding, but people still picked up copies and multiple covers.

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Notable sales:

X-Men #14 gd/vg $75.00 That's a cool cover, and who knows, maybe we'll get a proper visual representation on the big screen someday.
Flash Comics #26 Gd $125.00
Amazing Spider-Man #42 CGC 6 (estimated) $140 Continued strong interest in Silver Age Marvel and DC titles–
All New Marvel Now Point One #1 nm $30 A premiere modern key, first Appearance of Kamala Khan in really great shape.
Amazing Spider-Man #4 NM $125 I heard they were going to make that movie….
Faith Ssalefish Comics Exclusive #1 nm $10 Started selling our Foil Juan Jose Ryp Faith #1 exclusive again with the rumors swirling that a Faith movie is in the works.

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