The Graphic Novel chart has around 129 new entries and 171 backlist, which is more heavy on the backlist than normal. This is mostly due to Marvel providing heavy discounts on some older books to clear out the inventory, which meant that no less than 43 old ESSENTIAL black and white volumes placed on the top 300, as well as a few high priced OMNIBUS volumes. This was also the case last month with the OMNIBUS books, and partly explains the atypically high Marvel market share in recent months.
Interesting trio at #12 - #14 on the GN chart:
STUMPTOWN HC VOL 02
ALICE COOPER HC VOL 01 WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE
PUT THE BOOK BACK ON SHELF BELLE & SEBASTIAN ANTHOLOGY GN
These are all backlist books (though the ALICE COOPER one didn't seem to have made it to the Top 300 the month it was first published), and this month each sold around 3000 copies (3009, 3002 and 3000 respectively, by the Comichron estimates). Their retail rankings indicate that they were sold at a high discount, probably to the Comics Bento subscription box service (that can be verified in a few weeks), which gives us a good idea of what their sales are. There have been a number of older books showing up on the chart in the last year with several thousand in sales, probably due to this Diamond account.
On the comic chart, second issue drops are still big and getting bigger, especially at Marvel, where a 50% drop from #1 to #2 is almost becoming the rule. Expect things to be unsettled for the next few months, as DC's lead-in to the "Rebirth" event, and subsequent double shipping of many titles, distorts the market.
