So, a few general comments about Diamond's February 2014 Graphic Novels chart (
take your pick of sources over here).
For the Top 300 there are approximately 122 new items and 178 backlist items. That's not precise, since there are some definition questions. For example, I count the listing for BATMAN DARK VICTORY TP as backlist, even though the listing this month is a new edition at a higher price and a new ISBN. However, most books fall more firmly on one side of the other. Anyway, that's the reverse of the normal new to backlist ratio, entirely due to Marvel selling a bunch of stuff at higher than normal discounts. I'll have
a separate post about that, but over 90 of the entries appear to be Marvel books at high discounts. Without those it probably would have been closer to the normal. I might also look at some new items that fell below the charts later.
The Marvel sale flood also served to drown out a lot of the other backlist items you'd normally expect. Mostly what's left are the
perennials which almost always chart. Of the remaining backlist entries, 67 of them were on the chart at least 4 of the last 6 months. The other backlist entries are recent books seeing second and third month sales before probably falling off forever and older books which occasionally pop up based on various factors. PREACHER BOOK ONE probably shows up a lot lately with the publicity behind the TV show, and it looks like Dark Horse reprinted a bunch of HELLBOY books this month, and Slave Labor reprinted some Jhonen Vasquez books, so those sales are probably the result of a few months of accumulated demand being filled at once, or benefiting from having a proper catalogue listing to remind retailers they exist.
On to the new stuff, LOCKE & KEY HC VOL 06 by Gabriel Rodriguez and Joe Hill is the top book by a pretty good margin. It would have been even wider if IDW hadn't bifurcated the sales by offering the book with a slipcase to fit the whole series for $10 more (and that's a good number of slipcases to sell, especially if they encourage people to get the other five hardcovers). Combine the two and you have sales of over 6200 copies. The rest of IDW's new entries are collections of their various licensed books.
| Title |
Price |
Pub |
Sales |
| LOCKE & KEY HC VOL 06
ALPHA & OMEGA |
$29.99 |
IDW |
4,532 |
| MY LITTLE PONY TALES TP VOL 02 |
$17.99 |
IDW |
2,874 |
| LOCKE & KEY SLIPCASED HC
VOL 06 ALPHA & OMEGA |
$39.99 |
IDW |
1,678 |
| TMNT ONGOING TP VOL 07 CITY
FALL PT 2 |
$17.99 |
IDW |
1,492 |
| MARS ATTACKS JUDGE DREDD TP |
$17.99 |
IDW |
677 |
| MR PEABODY & SHERMAN TP |
$17.99 |
IDW |
550 |
| X-FILES CLASSICS HC VOL 03 |
$29.99 |
IDW |
478 |
| GI JOE TP VOL 02 THREAT MATRIX |
$19.99 |
IDW |
467 |
Image's top book is FATALE TP VOL 04. The first three books have been solid sellers, I suspect that'll continue at least until the serialization ends, then we'll see if it becomes a permanent fixture on the charts in some form. Image has another ten collections of recent comics, all at least partly creator owned (sometimes owned by the creator of the character but not the creators of the specific stories being printed), later down the list.
| Title |
Price |
Pub |
Sales |
| FATALE TP VOL 04 PRAY FOR RAIN |
$14.99 |
IMA |
4,174 |
| INVINCIBLE TP VOL 19 THE WAR
AT HOME |
$16.99 |
IMA |
3,608 |
| REVIVAL TP VOL 03 A FARAWAY
PLACE |
$14.99 |
IMA |
2,772 |
| THIEF OF THIEVES TP VOL 03 |
$14.99 |
IMA |
2,355 |
| PROPHET TP VOL 03 EMPIRE |
$14.99 |
IMA |
2,244 |
| ZERO TP VOL 01 AN EMERGENCY |
$9.99 |
IMA |
2,054 |
| PETER PANZERFAUST TP VOL 03
CRY O/T WOLF |
$14.99 |
IMA |
1,684 |
| SPAWN ORIGINS TP VOL 20 |
$14.99 |
IMA |
921 |
| REALITY CHECK TP |
$14.99 |
IMA |
593 |
| HOAX HUNTERS TP VOL 03 BOOK OF
MOTHMAN |
$14.99 |
IMA |
563 |
| MICE TEMPLAR TP VOL 04 .1
LEGEND PT 1 |
$17.99 |
IMA |
460 |
Boom comes in at #3 with ADVENTURE TIME TP VOL 04, and their only other Top 300 book is the related BRAVEST WARRIORS TP VOL 02. Looks like a good choice of a licensing avenue for them to explore.
| Title |
Price |
Pub |
Sales |
| ADVENTURE TIME TP VOL 04 |
$14.99 |
BOO |
3,941 |
| BRAVEST WARRIORS TP VOL 02 |
$14.99 |
BOO |
1,248 |
Marvel's top book is STAR LORD ANNIHILATION CONQUEST, which is one of those borderline cases which could have just as easily been listed on the comics chart. Their top actual book is INFINITY HC, the now traditional $75 collection of their most recent event series and its major crossovers. DC's top book is FLASH TP VOL 02 ROGUES REVOLUTION, collecting the current series. DC and Marvel have enough entries on the list to warrant separate posts later (
here's DC,
here's Marvel).
Dark Horse's best-selling book is AVATAR LAST AIRBENDER SEARCH LIBRARY ED HC at #16, a $40 hardcover collecting three smaller volumes of the series. Pretty impressive, and the book is selling well in the mass-market as well. Dark Horse has one of the most varied publishing lines around, and their entries include collections of recent licensed comics, recent creator owned comics, classic comics, manga and original graphic novels.
| Title |
Price |
Pub |
Sales |
| AVATAR LAST AIRBENDER SEARCH
LIBRARY ED HC |
$39.99 |
DAR |
2,431 |
| LOBSTER JOHNSON TP VOL 03
SATAN SMELLS A RAT |
$18.99 |
DAR |
2,059 |
| MASS EFFECT FOUNDATION TP VOL
01 |
$16.99 |
DAR |
1,563 |
| ANGEL & FAITH TP VOL 05
WHAT YOU WANT NOT WHAT YOU NEED |
$17.99 |
DAR |
1,504 |
| AXE COP TP VOL 05 AXE COP GETS
MARRIED |
$14.99 |
DAR |
1,465 |
| CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT TP VOL 01 |
$14.99 |
DAR |
1,358 |
| CONAN PHANTOMS O/T BLACK COAST
TP |
$19.99 |
DAR |
1,329 |
| SHERLOCK HOLMES & VAMPIRES
OF LONDON HC |
$17.99 |
DAR |
1,185 |
| BREATH OF BONES A TALE O/T
GOLEM HC |
$14.99 |
DAR |
1,057 |
| CHRONICLES OF KING CONAN TP
VOL 07 DAY OF WRATH |
$19.99 |
DAR |
1,025 |
| STRAIN TP VOL 03 THE FALL |
$19.99 |
DAR |
998 |
| STAR WARS LEGACY HC VOL 03 |
$34.99 |
DAR |
952 |
| EC ARCHIVES VAULT OF HORROR HC
VOL 03 |
$49.99 |
DAR |
805 |
| BLOOD C GN VOL 03 |
$12.99 |
DAR |
668 |
| CREEPY COMICS TP VOL 03
LURKING FATE |
$19.99 |
DAR |
661 |
| CREEPY ARCHIVES HC VOL 18 |
$49.99 |
DAR |
594 |
| BLOOD BLOCKADE BATTLEFRONT TP
VOL 05 |
$12.99 |
DAR |
516 |
Dynamite Entertainment has six books, collecting recent licensed and creator owned books, plus a few books collecting comics from prior publishers of properties they currently license.
| Title |
Price |
Pub |
Sales |
| RED SONJA TP VOL 01 QUEEN OF
PLAGUES |
$19.99 |
DE |
1,314 |
| VAMPIRELLA THE ESSENTIAL
WARREN YEARS TP |
$24.99 |
DE |
762 |
| MOCKING DEAD TP VOL 01 |
$17.99 |
DE |
704 |
| UNCANNY TP VOL 01 SEASON OF
HUNGRY GHOSTS |
$19.99 |
DE |
634 |
| SHADOW MASTER SERIES TP VOL 01 |
$24.99 |
DE |
607 |
| DEJAH THORIS & GREEN MEN
OF MARS TP VOL 01 RED MEAT |
$16.99 |
DE |
582 |
Various other publishers have four or fewer new books in the Top 300. Oddly Viz, which usually has over a dozen entries on the list, is completely absent. It looks like they only shipped three books during the month (getting most of their February scheduled books out early in January), and they were all lower selling ones which might make the list sometimes, but not in the face of Marvel's bargain basement backlist bonanza.
Note the publisher codes Diamond. RAN is Random House, mostly manga books published by Kodansha. HAC is Hachette, mostly Yen Press. ST. is St. Martin's, which tends to be either First Second or Seven Seas Entertainment. DIA can be any number of publishers, in the case below British publisher PS Artbooks.
| Title |
Price |
Pub |
Sales |
| BOJEFFRIES SAGA GN |
$14.95 |
TOP |
1,962 |
| SIXTH GUN TP VOL 06 |
$19.99 |
ONI |
1,584 |
| ATOMIC ROBO REAL SCIENCE ADV
TP VOL 02 |
$13.95 |
RED |
1,123 |
| WHERE BOLD STARS GO TO DIE GN |
$7.95 |
SLA |
1,039 |
| HARBINGER TP VOL 04 PERFECT
DAY |
$14.99 |
VAL |
1,022 |
| ARCHER & ARMSTRONG TP VOL
04 SECT CIVIL WAR |
$14.99 |
VAL |
951 |
| GFT WONDERLAND THROUGH THE
LOOKING GLASS TP |
$15.99 |
ZEN |
887 |
| ARCHIE 1000 PG COMICS PALOOZA
TP |
$14.99 |
ARC |
883 |
| GFT NO TOMORROW TP |
$15.99 |
ZEN |
668 |
| FAIRY TAIL GN VOL 35 |
$10.99 |
RAN |
662 |
| ALONE FOREVER GN |
$9.95 |
TOP |
644 |
| FERALS TP VOL 03 |
$19.99 |
AVA |
626 |
| DRAGONAR ACADEMY GN VOL 01 |
$12.99 |
ST. |
618 |
| CHARLIE BROWN & FRIENDS TP |
$9.99 |
POC |
608 |
| STRIKE WITCHES MAIDENS I/T SKY
GN VOL 01 |
$12.99 |
ST. |
588 |
| MYSTERIOUS STRANGERS TP VOL 01
STRANGE WAYS |
$19.99 |
ONI |
566 |
| ANT COLONY HC |
$21.95 |
DRA |
558 |
| IS THIS A ZOMBIE GN VOL 07 |
$13.00 |
HAC |
555 |
| DOWN SET FIGHT GN |
$19.99 |
ONI |
493 |
| BATTLE ANGEL ALITA LAST ORDER
OMNIBUS VOL 03 |
$19.99 |
RAN |
471 |
| BTOOOM GN VOL 05 |
$11.99 |
HAC |
465 |
| DISAPPEARANCE OF NAGATO YUKI
CHAN GN VOL 05 |
$13.00 |
HAC |
462 |
| JOYNERS 3D HC |
$29.95 |
ARA |
453 |
| PUELLA MAGI KAZUMI MAGICA GN
VOL 04 INNOCENT MALICE |
$11.99 |
HAC |
447 |
| ROY THOMAS PRESENTS VOL 03
PLANET COMICS HC |
$49.99 |
DIA |
442 |
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