Top Selling Comics & Publisher Market Share: March 2015

Each month, Diamond Comic Distributors announces their top sellers, via press release, in the realm of comic books and more. This can give readers an idea of what folks are gravitating towards. What's working? What isn't? Let's take a look at the best of the best for March 2015.

Last month, Marvel took the top spot and floated around the same area. DC dropped in both dollar and unit share, while Image jumped up a little bit in both.

If you're more visual, here's some pie charts.

The top book for March was PRINCESS LEIA #1. In fact, four of the top ten books are Star Wars related. The only non-Marvel book to make the list was #9 BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT #1. However, keep in mind, this was the month were DC was winding down for CONVERGENCE.

The top trade for March was from IDW: NEMO: RIVER OF GHOSTS. In addition, Walking Dead did not make the top 10, which is a huge surprise.

Here's the "who shipped what" numbers.

Finally, here's some more numbers comparing the dollars and units percentages for different months and years.

How do they calculate this information? 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 comic book specialty shops located in North America and around the world. The account base includes brick-and-mortar comic book specialty shops, Internet merchants, and other specialty stores.

Unit and dollars sales are calculated based upon orders invoiced and shipped to Diamond accounts during January to December 2013, which comprises initial pre-orders, advance reorders, and reorders, minus any copies that are received back from a title marked as returnable.

What are your thoughts on all these numbers? What's your predictions for this month?

im interested in seeing if convergence helps dc at all. It seems like every month marvel is getting further ahead.

It seems like a lot of people are "taking the month off" from DC for Convergence based on comments I've seen. Not too many people seem terribly interested.

A part of the problem is that all of DC's books were forced to end and many times, it's obvious creators did not get the time they needed to end their stories. I've heard of many people just not caring about how everything wraps up because of this.

Disgusting to see Princess Liea be the top seller.

Here is my monthly LEGITIMATE sales post: Valiant on the rise, almost to 1% of total units sold, which is pretty nuts considering they only put out 9 books per month:

@drellassassin: Yup, all I read is DC, I get 12 a month on delivery and I took the month off .

DC is not going to beat Marvel now that they have Star Wars, some good selling ongoing solos and the upcoming Secret Wars.

@inferiorego:

i agree with you. The guys on the flash did a terrific job as usual. Everytime there is an event, or event "month" they seem to plan the flash out perfectly, it has never felt forced. They always get the story in, in good fashion. Props to them, too bad none of the other creators could get it in, in time

Interesting that Leia went on tope, cause I thought it was kinda shit. I do live that Bobs Burgers made it in the top 10 in graphic novels

@starbrand1: What's DC got to be ashamed of? Star Wars and a couple of number 1 books boosted Marvel sales, not that DC doesn't sell.

@superguy1591:

i didnt say they have anything to be ashamed of. Im always going to be a DC man at heart. My pull list is even, 6 marvel, 6 dc books.

As long as Marvel has number one issues and Star Wars, they'll always be on top.

Holy crap, is the Star Wars that good, or just hyped?

MARVEL BUTT RAPED DC!

wowwwwwwwwwwww

@dman1366: Thanks, I was wondering how Valiant did. I'm really enjoying what I'm picking up from them so far.

Valiant, Image and IDW are the only companies I buy from anymore. And from Dynamite when they have an Army of Darkness/Evil Dead ongoing.

Wow, Marvel is slaughtering!

All of their Star Wars offerings have been great so far.

@tyger said:

Wasn't Star Wars basically the property that propped up Dark Horse Comics for years? When some Star Wars fans weren't even aware Dark Horse existed? And now Marvel has Disney to help push it?

It's market impact is likely to be significant.

It looks like Marvel and DC are competing against each other. Marvel is beating it.

Pretty much this.

I'm legitimately interested as to how things would look if there weren't so many new #1s, which didn't need to exist since they are usually direct continuations. It all just feels so artificial and meaningless when the one issue of a book that is pretty much guaranteed to sale is used as the metric by which ongoing series in maybe their 20th or 50th issues are judged.

Yeah, Dark Empire was even a significant factor in bringing Star Wars 'expanded universe' into existence. (Aliens was also a big draw for them.)

Glad to hear that Marvel is putting the effort into making it count.

Wow, I am surprised to see Leia as number 1. But, I'm glad to see a female-based comic top the list, regardless of its franchise.

One DC book made it to the top 10!!!!

Yeesh...

No Chrononauts? Marvel fans need to expand their reading selections.

Damn DC got stomped LOL

@jwalser3 said:

Why is that disgusting?

Typically Batman is DC's best seller and it took March off. Justice League was off as well and that typically does strong. I'm sure that impacted the wide gap between Marvel and DC.

Image, IDW, and DarkHorse should make some kind of coalition to up their sway in the market. They're about 90% of what's good in comics today. DC and Marvel are just stale, Convergence, and Star Wars reflects that perfectly.

All the new readers in today's market are being attracted by the creator owned books. I've gotten a few people hooked on comics, and none of them even want to touch DC or Marvel (Excluding Vertigo).

I only have two books from DC left on my monthly list, as a big DC fan since childhood. Wonder Woman and Batman. I'm about to drop Wonder Woman, and having the same thoughts for Batman. Haven't touched anything Marvel for the last year, the movies are enough for any Marvel fix I need.

I've got two copies of Princess Leia, one's a variant and the other is a standard issue signed by both Mark Waid and Carrie Fisher. I'm so happy :)

It's such a bad comic. It ruined her character and just did weird Star Wars stuff.

All my top titles are Image right now. I only have a few Marvel titles going (one just ended) and one DC (Fables but that's more Vertigo and that's ending too). I only buy trades, so that's what I look at on here. And the people I got into comic like creator owned stuff too. Just got someone to read Invisibles.

That sucks. I wish DC knew how to market a little better.

Marvel knows how to make money. They have so many big properties and characters under their book. Also the constant #1s and 4$ price tag helps a lot for them.

~MiB

Mickey Mouse be like: chick better have my money.

This (battle) thread should be locked due to spite.

And Marvel editorial should be in jail for raping DC.

Wow! How long has Marvel been a much bigger share than DC? I figured they'd be about even.

I wonder if DC's new titles in June will help their market share.

@chocolatefrogs: Three things will help DC

1. License a POPULAR franchise, I mean, real popular, like Harry Potter.

2. Raise their price tags to 3.99

3. Renumber their titles every 6 months.

Works for Marvel.

MARVEL

On a side note, DC needs to make some changes or else the gaps not shrinking anytime soon.

@skit: Mickey don't play bout dem dollar bills.

@poor_censored: No, it's not really that. It's because a lot of people are afraid to jump into a universe that has years of history and now since Marvel rebooted the Star Wars universe by making the expanded universe non-canon people decide to jump in now. It seems like people still think they get lost when jumping into an old universe but I disagree. I feel you will always find your place once you jump in no matter how old. This is why every company is deciding to reboot including Marvel to get more comic book sales.

Dc.....

wow........I am speechless. Hopefully if the gap gets bigger they will fire Dan and get someone else to run the company....just wow. Is this the biggest the Gap been? I seriously don't know what DC can do besides go back to the pre 52 stuff what can boost sells.

@dark_guyver: are you a real guyver fan? My mouth is dry and I have gone without water for weeks. Neither have I came across a guyver fan in months.

DC launching 24 books in June I'm really interested to see how that plays out.

I'm loving Star Wars their success is well earned.

Well won!

Hopefully DC's market share dwindles to the point where DC's top brass gets sacked by their WB corporate overlords. Lord know that Didio and co. haven't been doing any good these last ten years.

@juzacloud: Well, I've only saw the two movies and I'm a fan of those. Never read the manga.

Really cool to see Bob's Burgers selling.

@dman1366: I was waiting for this; Valiant just needs constant pushing to be further well known. I just started reading Harbinger and loved it!

@skit said:

@lukehero said:

Mickey Mouse be like: chick better have my money.

On a side note, DC needs to make some changes or else the gaps not shrinking anytime soon.

Mickey the Pimp

Lol, the Laugh i get when people tell me that the New 52 was necessary, and that now DC has way more readers than it had back in the day...lolol, i've never seen DC eating the dust so much, like ever.

This.

DC now seems to live for the cartoons, the movies, and the TV-shows.

But thei're biggest problem, is the biased editorial, which (mark my words) will be their downfall.