Top 100 Comics: April 2016

T'Challa faces revolution in Wakanda in Marvel Comics' Black Panther #1 from National Book Award-winning Ta-Nahesi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze, the best-selling comic book of April.

In total, Marvel Comics had seven titles in the top ten, including Charles Soule and Phil Noto's Star Wars: Poe Dameron #1 at #2, James Robinson and Tony Harris' Star Wars Special: C-3P0 #1 at #4, Christopher Hasting and Gurihiru's Gwenpool #1 at #6, Jason Aaron and Leinil Francis Yu's Star Wars #18 at #7, Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca's Darth Vader #19 at #8, and Dan Slott and Giuseppe Camuncoli's Amazing Spider-Man #10 at #10.

DC Entertainment rounded out the top ten with three titles — Frank Miller, Brian Azzarello, Andy Kubert, and Klaus Janson's Dark Knight III: The Master Race #4 at #3; Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Batman #51 at #5; and Rob Williams and Jim Lee's Harley Quinn & the Suicide Squad April Fool's Special at #9.

Among the premier publishers, Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead #153 was Image Comics' top book at #13. Cullen Bunn and David Baldeon's Micronauts #1 was IDW Publishing's top book in April at #75. Finally, Dark Horse Comics' Aliens: Defiance #1 was their top book at #132.

TOP 100 COMIC BOOKS
Based on Total Unit Sales of Products Invoiced in April 2016

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

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 month, as Batman did not ship, Convergence #8 from DC Entertainment was used as the control index.) 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.