Posted in: Comics | Tagged:

Bleeding Cool Bestseller List, 24th February 2019 – 'Glad to See a Return On Guardians of the Galaxy'

Published Sun, 24 Feb 2019 14:12:50 -0600

Last updated Sun, 24 Feb 2019 14:13:14 -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.

Batman gets the top spot as usual – but it is no mean universal across comic book stores like it used to be. And Guardians Of The Galaxy came very close, with Justice League also close behind. There's also a boost for Uncanny X-Men this week, while Age Of X-Man fails to register…

Top ten best-selling comics of the week:

Batman #65
Guardians of the Galaxy #2
Justice League #18
Avengers #15
Uncanny X-Men #12
Venom #11
Return of Wolverine #5
Wolverine Infinity Watch #1
Catwoman #8
Miles Morales Spider-Man #3

Thanks to the following retailers:

Graham Crackers Comics – now 12 locations throughout the United States
Ssalefish Comics, Winston-Salem & Greensboro, North Carolina.
Comix Experience Outpost, San Francisco, California.
Comix Experience, San Francisco, California.
Dr. No's Comics & Games Superstore of Marietta, Georgia
Fat Jack's Comicrypt, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Collector's Paradise Valley, California.
Famous Faces & Funnies of West Melbourne, Florida

Who had this to say:

DC got the top spot, but MARVEL dominated with 8 out of 10 of the top selling books for our chain this week.

—-

Three DCs, six Marvels, one Image on this week's Top Ten, with Batman taking the first place position by a two-to-one spread over our second best-selling title. this Flash crossover story has driven sales on Batman up significantly– apparently readers want to see Batman more essentially connected to the DC Universe! Middlewest remains one of our best selling Image titles–and if you read it, you'll know why!

—-

It's an interesting week at FFF. This week's new comic book day was actually our lowest day sales wise, but Batman and Venom still kept weekly customers happy. Marvel had two new number ones drop this week, and neither title was able to crack the top ten. That said, they still managed to dominate our top ten this week taking eight spots. Marvel rising (or can we say he's risen to the top now?) star, Donny Cates has two top titles this week. Venom continues to sell incredibly well, gaining new followers with each issue and selling it's first collected volume like hotcakes.

I'm glad to see a return on Guardians of the Galaxy as well. Hopefully, Cates can continue his pace and keep putting out these incredible books without any one title suffering to keep another going. I would hate to see a genuine talent burn out.

It's a slower week for independent books, with a noticeable lack of Image or other smaller publishing titles in the top 10. The wall was sparse for independent gems, either with ongoing titles or with number ones. Keep in mind though that most Image series, or fandom titles like Buffy, sell well after the first week so their vacation from a top 10 list isn't an immediate cause for concern.

Speaking of selling after it's initial run, we've had several people come in excited about Umbrella Academy! We've had a few speculators disappointing in the fact the back issues are either long gone, or rising in price, but we've had so many more customers leave with the graphic novels. As a store that's always focused on reading and enjoying comics over their collectible nature, it's great to see people diving into stories for the story. Adaptions bring the flippers and all the controversies that come with their practices, but they also bring new fans that hopefully keep visiting us. The only way this works is by selling comics to a market that embraces them, when their at their best, their worst, and everything in between.

—-

This was a weird week where only two DC books made it into our shop's top 10. It was a 2-8 split between DC and Marvel, and despite that, the 2 DC titles- Batman and Justice League, of course- still out-performed the competition. The fact that Return of Wolverine managed to pick up speed on the 5th and final issue was out of the ordinary, because the title admittedly has not been selling the best at our shop. I think everyone rubbernecked on it once they realized it was ending- And I'd be remiss not to mention the fact that Wolverine's name, somehow, was in three of our top selling titles. Combined with consistent X-Men sales (and Age of X-Man, surprisingly), Marvel's mutants carried the week.

—-

Monstress #20! Good week for Vertigo/Image fan favorites including Lucifer #5 and East of West #41.

—-

Top sellers this week are usual suspects: BATMAN, UNCANNY X-MEN, CATWOMAN, etc.

The Big Two's respective tentpole team books continue to do well, holding the middle of the top sellers even as they settle into double-digit issue numbers.

The new GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY continues to maintain steam, something past relaunches have had trouble with, so that's nice to see.

The bottom of the list is dominated by Spidey ancillary titles: MILES MORALES, FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD, and VENOM.

—-

We had a bit of a snow squall New Comic Book Day. Apparently Marvel fans are a bit more intrepid as the numbers are a little unusual.

Notable sales: