DC Comics Continues Sales Surge in September

In the past, I wrote about how the DC Rebirth initiative made a lot of business sense (doubling down on the core characters and taking advantage of cross-media momentum), and how the comic sales were playing out very well in July 2016 and especially August 2016 when DC solidly overtook Marvel... something that very rarely happens.

Well, DC Comics continued that hot selling streak in September 2016 and they also led the way in pushing comic sales overall to heights that haven't been seen since the boom of the 1990s.

For September, DC Comics garnered 36.5% of the dollars earned through physical sales (Marvel 31.4%, Image 9%) and DC offered a relatively low price per issue, with most at $2.99, and so that generosity to the fans meant that DC actually had 43.5% of the units sold. That makes three months in a row that DC outsold Marvel, even with Marvel's Civil War II event going on and Marvel boosted by the sales of the Star Wars series.

Batman (two issues) and All-Star Batman took the top three spots for the month, and Justice League (two issues), Trinity, Supergirl, and Suicide Squad also showed up in the Top Ten. That means DC had 8 of the top 10 bestselling issues! And you can see the benefits of the cross-media connections. It is also proving wise that Rebirth spread out its new #1's, because the fact that #1's are still coming out give a consistent boost and new momentum to the initiative overall.

Walking Dead was still the king of the trade paperbacks, but DC posted 6 of the top 10 in that category as well --- Marvel only posted 1 (Secret Wars).

Overall, the sales are not only good, but the stories and artwork are good, too. Here are my current top five (in no particular order) from the DC Rebirth line:

•  Batman
•  Superman
• New Super-man
• Trinity
• Green Arrow