Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, HRL

Bleeding Cool Bestseller List, November 12th, 2017: "How Many Different Ways Can You Type 'DC Is Beating The Pants Off Marvel In My Store' And Keep It Fresh?"

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 to the weekend to get this week's comics. We salute you, and the keenness you bring to your passion.

Every single reporting store reported Batman: Lost #1 as their best-selling title of the week. Nothing came close. But Metal-linked Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps certainly benefitted, just beating out Detective Comics. Mister Miracle continues to outperform, outselling every Marvel title — and The Flash. Only Star Wars and the relaunched Moon Knight made it in from Marvel…

1. Batman Lost #1
2. Hal Jordan & the Green Lantern Corps #32
3. Detective Comics #968
4. Action Comics #991
5. Mister Miracle #4
6. Flash #34
7. Wonder Woman #34
8. Star Wars #38
9. Moon Knight #188
10. Titans #17

Thanks to the following retailers…

• Ssalefish Comics of Winston-Salem & Greensboro, NC
• Famous Faces & Funnies of West Melbourne, FL
• Comix Experience Outpost, San Francisco, CA
• Fat Jack's Comicrypt of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Dr. No's Comics & Games Superstore of Marietta, Georgia
• Velocity Comics – Richmond, Virginia
• Big Planet Comics – 4 stores in the Washington DC area
• Hourglass Comics, BC, Canada

…who had this to say:

How many different ways can you type "DC is beating the pants off Marvel in my store" and keep it fresh? I think Metal might just be the most successful event book we've ever had at my shop, in almost 15 years. I've never seen tie-ins getting the boost that these are, and those one-shots are killing it.

On the other end, Star Wars cracks the top 10 but is experiencing some fatigue & attrition. Moon Knight had a good showing– and was a pretty sharp issue, so I hope people continue with it. In the positive for Marvel: will say I have high hopes for Donny Cates' books at Marvel, and our preorders on Ed Piskor's X-Men Grand Design are the highest we've had from any Marvel title in the last year.

—–

Again and again, Metal leads the charge this week in the FFF Top Ten. The top five books were DC with Batman: Lost and Hal Jordan in the lead by a pretty wide margin. Coyotes was the first non-DC book at #6. This is a book that'll be generating some buzz in the future and it's first week is off to a great start already. Moon Knight was shockingly the highest selling Marvel book (as well as the only one in the Top Ten). I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume it has nothing to do with Marvel's Batman and everything to do with Max Bemis being the writer. He's one of the few needle movers Marvel has left (and he isn't even exclusive).

The only other Legacy title to make it into the Top Twenty was Spider-Man vs Deadpool which came in at #13. Star Wars, Runaways, and Uncanny Avengers were the other Marvel books in the Top Twenty and honestly Uncanny Avengers was a bit of a surprise. With only one issue left, it feels like a bit of a lost cause for a book to start selling well.

On the indie side of things, Sink from Comix Tribe came in from behind at #20. It's another one of those books that isn't getting the buzz it deserves but will be a book that people will be talking about as it goes on (for the three issues it has left).

With Doomsday clock coming out at the end of the month, I don't see DC losing the top spots anytime soon. Marvel still doesn't quite know what they're doing and with the loss of Bendis (even if he wasn't a top selling name) it seems more and more like they're about to hit a wall. Hopefully Moon Knight can maintain its numbers and maybe even have a few titles join it in the Top Ten. But when Superwoman outsells Star Wars the future doesn't look so positive.

—-

DC rules again. Batman Lost was number 1 as expected. Marvel only had 2 titles in the top ten. X-Men Gold has regained some energy because of Legacy, and the first 2 issues of Falcon have been very strong.

—-

Business as usual this week. BATMAN LOST #1, this week's Metal tie-in, soars past the competition as our best seller. DC as a whole dominated our sales this week, with ACTION COMICS #991 placing *twice* on our list thanks to its lenticular variant cover. The only almost-surprise is seeing HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERNS #32 so high on the list, but as it's a metal tie-in that tracks. Marvel titles that did well this week include the Legacy debuts of MOON KNIGHT #188 and DAREDEVIL #595.

—–

DC took nine of our store's top ten slots for the week. The only Marvel title that placed was Star Wars #38 in ninth place; the next Marvel was X-Men Gold in 12th place, with ony three other Marvels in the top twenty. Most of the Marvel Legacy second issues lost 50%-70% of their first-issue audience, indicating that readers didn't find enough of interest to inspire them to add the books to their monthly reading. That's a troubling trend…

Recent sales of note:

• We sold a whole run of the original Infinity Inc. recently. It isn't the most sought after collection, but with early McFarlane work and the introduction of the best bureaucrat in the DC universe (Mr. Bones) it is a nice get for somebody who wants to read the series without having to track down the out of print hardcovers.

• Our main back issue stock is at the North Carolina Comicon in Durham so things were a little slow in the back issue department.

• MARVEL SUPER SPECIAL KISS #1 VF $75.00

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!