Posted in: Comics | Tagged:

Bleeding Cool Best-Seller List, 21st May 2017 – Flash, Batman And Superman Push Down Secret Empire

Published Sun, 21 May 2017 09:00:31 -0500

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.

The Button takes the top, but Batman and Superman also beat out Secret Empire this week…

Flash #22
Batman #23
Superman #23
Secret Empire #2
Teen Titans #8
Justice League #21
Super Sons #4
Mighty Thor #19
Nightwing #21
Star Wars #31

Thanks to retailers…

Dr. No's Comics & Games Superstore of Marietta, Georgia
Rodman Comics of Ankeny, Iowa
Fat Jack's Comicrypt of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Comix Experience, San Francisco, CA
Comix Experience Outpost, San Francisco, CA
Geek Out, Burleson, Texas
Famous Faces & Funnies of West Melbourne, FL
Velocity Comics, Richmond VA

Who had this to say…

Incredible sales for DC books this week resulted in DC taking the top nine spots in our store, followed by Secret Empire #2 in tenth place. The biggest disappointment was the very poor performance of Generation X #1 and Luke Cage #1, with both titles barely cracking our store's Top Twenty. Star Wars sales continue to flatten as well, leaving Marvel struggling for a winning book.

Affordably priced Marvel and DC books from the 80s and 90s remain popular; readers can get solid storytelling and art for about the same price as a new comic today.
—-

The Button closes out at Famous Faces by continuing the trend of the previous issues and absolutely CRUSHING everything else that came out this week. Flash 22 sold more issues than the next three top sellers combined and outsold the top selling Marvel book six times over.

The first Marvel book in the Top Sellers is Secret Empire at #11, immediately followed by X-Men Gold at #12. Secret Empire has already begun to lose reader's interest. It has already dropped almost ten spots in our Top Sellers and it only just started. I don't see it selling much better for 8 more issues. X-Men Gold is still doing relatively well and should keep healthy numbers as long as the title maintains a sense of direction that all of the X-Series post-AVX have lacked.

On the Indie side of things, after God Country at #5, Image's Curse Words and Aftershock's Animosity round out the Top Twenty at #19 & #20 respectively. Curse Words has done well and we've been pushing it since issue #1. Animosity is usually in the Top Ten, so it's kind of (after)shocking to see it so low on the list, but a lot of the copies we sell are to customers with pulls who haven't stopped by this week. We are excited to hear Donny Cates hinting at working for Marvel later this year and early next year, so we expect to see that boost up our Marvel sales quite a bit. That guy is on fire. We can't wait for Babyteeth and somehow every issue of God Country is even better than the last.

On the back issue side of things, we've still been selling a lot of Guardians of the Galaxy and related titles like Rocket and Groot and Starlord (by Humphries). We've also sold a noticeable amount of various Wildstorm titles from the first relaunch in the mid 2000s. On top of this we continue to sell early Rebirths issues as well as older Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, Walking Dead, Spawn, and some 1990's Superman.
—–

FLASH #22 unsurprisingly ran circles around everything else, outperforming maybe the best single issue of the year to date, BATMAN #23. It takes a Batman tie-in to unseat Batman, weirdly enough. Secret Empire is lagging way behind at #9, most people just aren't into it. Marvel's downward sales have had a measurable impact on our shop at this point, and I don't know if they're really ready to understand why sales are bad or do what it'll take to fix it. Just waiting it out at this point.

Anything with Adam Warlock in it is going nuts, especially Jim Starlin related issues. On the DC side, early jason Todd and Tim Drake stories and Watchmen singles have had strong showings.

—–

Not a bad week. I thought with Wizard World coming into town this weekend people would try to save their money for it and spend less here. Flash 22's 3D cover of course was the number one selling title.

—–

Secret Empire #2 was our top seller this week, with very little drop-off from #1, possibly because of that reveal at the end. I'm interested to see how Nick Spencer has written himself out of the "this is the real Steve Rogers" trap, and a lot of readers seem to feel the same way. American Gods continues to sell well, still drawing interest from novel readers/tv show viewers that otherwise might not pick up a comic. The Star Wars Poe Dameron comic also did well this week, which, honestly, is always worth picking up to look at Oscar Isaac's likeness for a while.

—–

It came as no surprise that DC dominated sales this week, with the final chapter in "the button" storyline in Flash #22.
God Country continues to gain fans, with reprints of the first 3 issues out selling most Marvel titles this week. Secret Empire has gained a little traction, but most customers still talk about it as gimmick instead of a cross-over. The "best of the rest" from Marvel, included Deadpool Punisher and Generation X barely missing the top 10.
Other indie books from Image, Boom and Valiant did well this week, but not good enough to crack the top 10. But as readership picks up on those titles, and customers depart from Marvel titles, I expect we will be seeing more of those indies making it on thelist.

Copper age back issue continue to be strong, and recent "hot book" back issues (within the last few months) also continue to be strong sellers. Silver age books have seen a slight slow down, with the exception of anything Kirby. Kirby books have seen an increase this past week, especially moderately priced series like Kamandi and New Gods.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!