Top 50 Small Press Comics and Graphic Novels: May 2016

Valiant Entertainment's new crossover event, 4001 AD #1, was May's best-selling small press comic book. Also in the top ten for Valiant, Divinity II #2 ranked #8.

Oni Press had two titles in the top ten — Invader Zim #9 at #2 and Ricky & Morty #14 at #5.

Archie Comics had four titles in the top ten — Afterlife With Archie #9 at #3, Archie #8 at #4, Sabrina #5 at #7, and Jughead #6 at #10.

Benitez Productions' Lady Mechanika: Lost Boys of West Abbey #1 ranked #6.

Rounding out the top ten, Avatar Press' new anthology from Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, Cinema Purgatorio #1, ranked #9.

Benitez Productions' Lady Mechanika Volume 1: The Mystery of the Mechanical Corpse was May's best-selling small press graphic novel.

Other publishers in the top ten include Avatar Press, Fantagraphics Books, Seven Seas Entertainment, Valiant Entertainment, Yen Press, and Zenescope Entertainment.

TOP 50 SMALL PRESS COMICS
Based on Total Unit Sales of Products Invoiced in May 2016

TOP 50 SMALL PRESS GRAPHIC NOVELS
Based on Total Unit Sales of Products Invoiced in May 2016

This information may not be reproduced in any format without the express permission of Diamond Comic Distributors.

Item codes followed by -M indicate multiple covers and skus at the standard SRP.

How does Diamond calculate the charts? It all starts at the comic book shop.

Data for Diamond’s sales charts — which includes the monthly market shares and all top product charts — are compiled by Diamond Comic Distributors from sales made to thousands of comic book specialty shops located in North America and around the world.  Additional sales made to online merchants and other specialty stores may be included as well.

Unit and dollar market shares are calculated based upon orders for comic books, graphic novels, and magazines invoiced and shipped to Diamond customers during any given month, which comprises pre-orders, advance reorders, and reorders, minus any copies that are received back from a title marked as returnable. Please note that comics marked with an asterisk (*) have had their reported quantities reduced due to retailer returnability, and thus may rank lower on the charts than their actual sales would reflect.

About the Diamond Sales Index: The Sales Index of selected monthly Best Seller Charts is presented as a comparative tool for retailers and publishers. It presents Diamond’s monthly sales for individual titles in relation to Diamond’s total sales for the issue of DC Comics' monthly Batman comic book. (Batman is used as the control title — with a value of 100 — because sales of Batman usually remain relatively stable.) This allows for easy comparison to other titles and helps retailers gauge their orders for all other titles. This formula is only a guide, other factors may impact a titles’ ability to sell in certain locations and clientele.