Top 100 Comics: November 2011

Wonder Woman and Aquaman enter the fray in the battle against the Parademons while Vic Stone is transformed into a new hero in Geoff Johns and Jim Lee's Justice League #3 from DC Comics, the best-selling comic book to comics retailers on the month of November.

In addition to Justice League, DC Comics had six titles in the top ten best-selling comics sold in November. Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Batman #3 ranked #2; Grant Morrison and Rags Morales' Action Comics #2 ranked #3; Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke, and Christian Alamy's Green Lantern #3 ranked #4; Tony S. Daniel's Detective Comics #3 ranked #8; and Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato's The Flash #3 ranked #9.

Marvel Comics rounded out the top ten with four titles at the top echelons of the sales chart. Point One, the over-sized issue that reveals tidbits about the post-Fear Itself world, was the publisher's top book at #5. Zeb Wells and Joe Madureira's Avenging Spider-Man #1, the first issue of Spider-Man's new team-up title, ranked #6. Kieron Gillen and Carlos Pacheco's Uncanny X-Men #1, which introduced readers to Cyclops' new X-Men team and mission, ranked #7. Finally, Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo's Wolverine and the X-Men #2 ranked #10.

Among the Premier Publishers, Dark Horse Comics' top book for November was Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 #3 at #64 which continued the adventures of Joss Whedon's vampire slayer. IDW Publishing's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4 ranked #4, and Image Comics' The Walking Dead #91 ranked #68.

TOP 100 COMIC BOOKS
Based on Total Unit Sales of Products Invoiced in November 2011

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, which comprises initial pre-orders, advance reorders, and reorders, minus any copies that are received back from a title marked as returnable.

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.