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Bleeding Cool Bestseller List 16th December 2018 – Batman Damned Beats The One Who Laughs

Published Sun, 16 Dec 2018 11:26:10 -0600

Last updated Sun, 16 Dec 2018 11:26:33 -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 till the weekend to get this week's comics. We salute you, and the keenness you bring to your passion.

And it was close but Batman Damned #2 beats The Batman Who Laughs #2 – but only just. And the Batman Annual made it three for three, not even Spider-Man could break that trinity this week. And Tom King isn't even around…

Batman Damned #2
The Batman Who Laughs #1
Batman Annual #3
Amazing Spider-Man #11
Superman #6
Miles Morales Spider-Man #1
Detective Comics #994
Avengers #11
Justice League Dark #6
Fantastic Four Wedding Special #1

Thanks to the following retailers,

Ssalefish Comics, Winston-Salem & Greensboro, North Carolina.
Graham Crackers Comics – 11 stores throughout the USA.
Comix Experience Outpost, San Francisco, California.
Comix Experience, San Francisco, California.
Rodman Comics, Ankeny, Iowa.
Fat Jack's Comicrypt, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Famous Faces & Funnies of West Melbourne, Florida
Dr. No's Comics & Games Superstore of Marietta, Georgia

And this is what they have to say,

The week belonged to BATMAN, taking 4 of the top 10 books. Biggest mistake of the week was my ordering of the FF WEDDING SPECIAL. Not a good year for comic book weddings, I figured 'at least all my regular FF readers will buy it, plus maybe a few extras that are curious?'

NOPE – $5 book died on the shelf I would have done better playing the horses with that money. Evidently there is no such thing as 'REGULAR FF READERS' as the book is constantly delayed, can't find a regular artist and there is no REGULAR NUMBER because it drops with every issue they produce. Plus the Wedding Special was a train wreck anyway, can't blame the customers I should have CUT to sell out first week instead of having any faith in it. Plenty of money lost…

On the flip side everyone is digging Tomasi on Detective – hope it leads to a strong DETECTIVE COMICS #1000 event…

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Batman is back on Top this week at FFF taking FIVE of the Top Ten spots on our bestseller list. Batman Who Laughs actually outsold Batman Damned, but both sold over fifty copies more than the third place book, Amazing Spider-Man. Batman Damned doesn't seemed to have slowed down as we've actually seen people who came in to our shop for the first time for #1 come back for the second issue. It hasn't sold as quickly as #1 did, but over the next week I expect we'll almost all of our remaining copies. The Batman Annual this week tied with Amazing which is no surprise as people are loving Tom King's run (even after the whole wedding thing). It's pretty wild to see him maintain the numbers he has this far into his run. Detective Comics still sells well as well, placing just behind the Annual in terms of copies sold. I imagine as we get closer to #1000 we'll see an uptick in sales on the title. Miles Morales hit the Top Ten close to the middle. Into the Spider-Verse has definitely brought some curious readers in looking for something like the film and it's a nice change of pace to actually have a new #1 to suggest along with tried and true trades. All in all, even though the major share of this week's sales went to DC (and Batman in particular, it's nice to see Marvel books both hold solid numbers and start out strong. It feels like this could be a positive change in direction for sure.

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Batman "D Word" (as a customer said to me one day this week) ruled the roost. In fact, Batman took the top 3 slots without the main title even. Batman Annual sold okay, but lots of people put it back because it appeared to have no relation to the current story and also no Tom King. Spider-Man made a smaller impact but nevertheless still took 3 top slots with Miles leading the sales. I noticed lots of new readers gravitating towards him. I think we've reached a point where he speaks more to new readers and Peter is a little more abstract.

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Not a bad week. Batman Damned #2 dropped sales wise for us big time. Good weather is helping sales at least.

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The top half of the list is dominated by DC and Marvel's respective top franchises: Batman and Spider-Man. Of biggest note are the first issues, BATMAN WHO LAUGHS and MILES MORALES SPIDER-MAN both opened with good numbers at our store.

The second half of the list is more very familiar faces, with the likes of SUPERMAN, THE FLASH, and some X-MEN. This is the farewell issue of X-MEN RED, a book I am quite sad to see the end of.

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Indie action/fantasy series Head Lopper had a great week, making it to number 3 on our bestsellers list! That's no small feat. With the movie out this week, the first issue of Miles Morales: Spider-Man also did well! Unsurprisingly, the two Batman titles led in sales this week, including the previously controversial Batman: Damned. The new Vertigo series, Goddess Mode, also made it onto our list this week.

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DC wins the week on a 6/4 split with Marvel–but DC also managed to take our store's Top Three with a Batman triumvirate. Batman: Damned #2 scores a big win, selling more copies on day one than the first issue did (and that's even without any sort of nudity controversy). Fantastic Four Wedding Special comes in at fourth place, beating a trio of great Spider-Man books to establish itself as Marvel's best-selling book for the week. Independent titles got pushed way to the bottom of the list, with Magic Order the only indy to place in our store's top twenty.

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Excellent sales week. The holiday season is bringing us more customers. Doomsday Clock took the top spot. Batman fell to 4th place. People did not like the fact there were so many X titles this week. Walking Dead 186 still made it in the top ten. Team Sonic Racing 1 makes an appearance for IDW. Not Marvel's week with only two titles in the top ten.

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