Top 100 Comics: October 2013

Robert Kirkman celebrated ten years of his best-selling zombie series The Walking Dead with The Walking Dead #115, the best-selling comic book in October.

DC Comics had five titles in the top ten for October, led by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Batman #24, an oversized issue, at #2. Also in the top ten were Forever Evil #2 at #4, Justice League #24 at #6, Superman/Wonder Woman #1 at #7, and the long-awaited The Sandman: Overture #1 by Neil Gaiman and J.H. Williams III from the Vertigo imprint at #8.

Rounding out the top ten with four books was Marvel Comics, with Jonathan Hickman and Jim Cheung's Infinity #4 their top book at #3. Also in the top ten were Infinity #5 at #5, Superior Spider-Man #20 at #9 and Superior Spider-Man #19, the issue that guest-starred Spider-Man 2099, at #10.

Among the other premier publishers, Dark Horse Comics' top book in October was The Star Wars #2 at #28, the second issue of the adaptation of George Lucas' early Star Wars screenplay.

Finally, IDW Publishing's top book for the month was My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #12 at #109.

TOP 100 COMIC BOOKS
Based on Total Unit Sales of Products Invoiced in October 2013

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

For retailers, Diamond offers the Top 300 Comics and Top 300 Graphic Novels sales charts on the Diamond Tools page of the Diamond Retailer Services website to provide more information about the industry's top selling publications.

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.

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

Data for Diamond’s sales charts – which include the monthly market shares and all top product charts – are compiled by Diamond Comic Distributors from a universe of over 3,500 accounts, comprised of comic book specialty shops and other merchant stores and buyers. The shops are primarily located in North America, with a percentage of sales also to international stores and buyers located throughout the world. The account base includes not only brick-and-mortar comic book specialty shops, but also Internet stores, chain stores, and other specialty stores.

Unit and dollars sales are calculated based upon orders invoiced and shipped to Diamond accounts during any given month, minus any copies that are distributed free of cost.

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.