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Bleeding Cool Bestseller List, 7th April 2019 – A League Of Realms

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.

In This Preview of War of the Realms #1, a Character Will Die! (Spoilers)

War Of The Realms topped the chart, but it was no means universal and at one point, Justice League looked like toppling it. And Walking Dead was pushed out by Die… and both topped by Major X.

Top ten best-selling comics of the week:

  1. War of the Realms #1
  2. Justice League #21
  3. Amazing Spider-Man #18.HU
  4. Green Lantern #6
  5. Immortal Hulk #16
  6. Uncanny X-Men #15
  7. Avengers: No Road Home #8
  8. Young Justice #4
  9. Major X #1
  10. Die #5

Thanks to the following retailers:

Who had this to say:

Marvel is king of the comic realm this week at FFF, with War of the Realms outselling every other book. That's pretty surprising considering the lack of buzz around this event. Our midnight release was considerably slower than our Detective 1000 release, with one person showing up just to take advantage of us being open late and not even buying War of the Realms. I truly think Realms being on top has to do with all the covers Marvel pumped out for the premiere issue, and people either scooping up multiples out of speculation or out of collectibility… or both. To be fair, Marvel did retailers a nicety  by having popular artists like Campbell open order. Our customers left happy, and we sold through most of what we ordered with just a few of each left for those late to the party. That said, only time will tell if we'll see a return on #2 or if it'll dwindle down like most Marvel event books do. Cosmic Ghost Rider continues to impress his audience, but we'll see if he has the staying power of say, Deadpool. Immortal Hulk continues to heat up with each issue it seems. Like Venom, it's hot reception is well deserved proving that Marvel can have a hit without totally relying all the variants, ratios, and "hot hot issue" hype.

Moving away from Marvel, Die comes up right behind Realms. It took a while for Die to catch on, but now we're seeing several sales of the prior issues throughout the week as well as a huge demand for the newest issue. Walking Dead joins Die as the only other non Big Two book out this week, and despite a dip in sales, still has a strong following. We've cut our TWD numbers down slightly, but sub services and customers who shop the newest issue(s) off the shelf keep Rick and his gang selling steady. Overall, an average week at FFF with a few surprises. We'll see how the next few weeks of comic based movies increases foot traffic and sales on back issues. We've definitely seen an increase in people coming in excited about Captain Marvel, Shazam, and of course, End Game. Looking to be an exciting month, that's for sure!

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When Thor has art that people actually like, people buy it! Russell Dauterman's return to Thor with War of the Realms has to be the main driving force behind sales, because leading up to the event's launch, there were VERY few people that knew anything about it, and less still that seemed to actually care. If not for the art, though, I have to assume that the book's popularity at our shop was because very little actually came out otherwise- Which feels weird to say, because this was a Walking Dead week. Uncanny did well, as did Justice League and Spider-Man, but as far as The Walking Dead is concerned, it might as well be dead in the dirt given how poorly its selling compared to how it used to around here. It's been tapering off gradually, and though no one seems to be rushing to take it off their lists, they aren't really enthusiastic about coming in to pick it up when it comes out, which is telling.

—–

Our other half of Wonder Woman #67 arrived this week. With only half an order for the week that should have made it last week with the other cover that blocked her from making our top 10. Each copy of Immortal Hulk #16 arrived damaged taking that title out of the top ten. War of the Realms placed third for us. Not a great start for Marvel's latest event. Justice League and Amazing were first and second. Marvel though needs to drop the weird HU though. Multiple people I had to explain that it was a part of the story of Hunted by the same writer and not a fill in as I had to do with the previous HU issue. Just have it be numbered normally as part of Amazing.

—–

IMMORTAL HULK smashes it's way to the top of our list this week, followed very closely by JUSTICE LEAGUE and last week's DETECTIVE COMICS #1000. It's not often we have something on the list two weeks in a row (even less, to chart so high on the second week) but if anything could do it, it would be a landmark book like that.

Also doing well is Marvel's big event book WAR OF THE REALMS, as well as they're Spidey-event story with AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #18.HU. Towards the end of the list we've got CONAN and YOUNG JUSTICE continuing to do well.

It's a good bet we would have had the most recent issue of DIE somewhere in our Top 10, but that book showed up late for us this week. Womp womp.

—–

A dramatic turn of fortune as Marvel takes seven of our store's top ten this week (including the top four slots) while DC takes only three places. War of the Realms performed much better than we had anticipated based on preorder activity; a lot of customers who didn't order it in advance wanted to give the first issue a try. Major X #1 was Marvel's second premier issue to crack our top ten this week, proving that Rob Liefeld has not lost his appeal with today's readers.

Notable sales:

  • Tomb of Dracula #10 $175 1st Blade
  • Tales of Suspense #65 VF $65 Silver Age Red Skull

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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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