Green Lantern Sales Numbers

[Space Cop]

Okay, so here's July sales:

1 Walking Dead 100 $3.99 Image 335,082
2 Avengers Vs X-Men 7 $3.99 Marvel 179,208
3 Avengers Vs X-Men 8 $3.99 Marvel 174,910
4 Batman 11 $3.99 DC 127,210
5 Justice League 11 $3.99 DC 123,971
6 Before Watchmen Ozymandias 1* $3.99 DC 88,210
7 AVX Vs 4 $3.99 Marvel 86,526
8 Detective Comics 11 $3.99 DC 79,835
9 Green Lantern 11 $2.99 DC 78,708
10 Action Comics 11 $3.99 DC 76,232
11 Before Watchmen Minutemen 2* $3.99 DC 68,768
12 Batman The Dark Knight 11 $2.99 DC 68,632
13 Earth 2 3* $2.99 DC 67,403
14 Uncanny X-Men 15 $3.99 Marvel 66,114
15 Batman And Robin 11 $2.99 DC 65,043
16 Uncanny X-Men 16 $3.99 Marvel 63,835
17 Before Watchmen Comedian 2* $3.99 DC 63,686
18 Avengers 28 $3.99 Marvel 63,169
19 New Avengers 28 $3.99 Marvel 62,739
20 Wolverine And X-Men 13 $3.99 Marvel 62,689
...
38 Green Lantern Corps 11 $2.99 DC 42,996
39 Green Lantern New Guardians 11 $2.99 DC 42,929
...
53 Red Lanterns 11 $2.99 DC 36,462
...
75 Justice League International 11 $2.99 DC 29,802
...
191 Earth 2 2 $2.99 DC 8,804
...
215 Green Lantern The Animated Series 4 $2.99 DC 7,790

And in trades:

36 Green Lantern Emerald Warriors Vol. 1 $14.99 DC 1,894
98 Justice League HC Vol. 1 Origin $24.99 DC 1,057

[Mister Ed]

Yikes, the numbers of the Animated Series comic are pitiful. Is that the normal level for that kind of comic, or is it likely to get the axe for being that low?

[Space Cop]

And, finally (for now), August

1 Avengers Vs X-Men 9 $3.99 Marvel 174,356
2 Avengers Vs X-Men 10 $3.99 Marvel 169,529
3 Batman 12 $3.99 DC 125,249
4 Justice League 12 $3.99 DC 120,796
5 Amazing Spider-Man 692 $5.99 Marvel 91,071
6 Before Watchmen Rorschach 1* $3.99 DC 85,473
7 AVX Vs 5 $3.99 Marvel 78,380
8 Before Watchmen Dr Manhattan 1* $3.99 DC 77,577
9 Green Lantern 12 $2.99 DC 77,187
10 Detective Comics 12 $3.99 DC 75,998
11 Action Comics 12 $3.99 DC 71,203
12 Green Lantern Annual 1 $4.99 DC 67,648
13 Earth 2 4 $2.99 DC 67,393
14 Batman The Dark Knight 12 $2.99 DC 67,084
15 Batman Incorporated 3 $2.99 DC 66,720
16 Batman And Robin 12 $2.99 DC 63,993
17 Detective Comics Annual 1 $4.99 DC 62,571
18 Avengers 29 $3.99 Marvel 61,653
19 Aquaman 12 $2.99 DC 61,210
20 Uncanny X-Men 17 $3.99 Marvel 61,095
...
43 Green Lantern Corps 12 $2.99 DC 41,778
44 Green Lantern New Guardians 12 $2.99 DC 41,479
...
61 Red Lanterns 12 $2.99 DC 35,070
...
86 Justice League International 12 $2.99 DC 28,261
...
252 Green Lantern The Animated Series 5 $2.99 DC 6,968


And Trades:
44 Green Lantern Green Arrow $29.99 DC 1,854
75 Justice League HC Vol. 1 Origin $24.99 DC 1,431
147 Green Lantern Archives HC Vol. 7 $59.99 DC 921
215 Justice League Cry For Justice HC $24.99 DC 629
247 Green Lantern Agent Orange HC $19.99 DC 533
252 Green Lantern Tales of the Sinestro Corps HC $29.99 DC 527
295 Green Lantern HC Vol. 1 Sinestro $22.99 DC 460

[Space Cop]

Originally Posted by Mister Ed

Yikes, the numbers of the Animated Series comic are pitiful. Is that the normal level for that kind of comic, or is it likely to get the axe for being that low?

I know. It's a shame. People need to read it more. I suppose the DC Nation titles are low though. Here's August's kiddies' books:

211 Superman Family Adventures 4 $2.99 DC 8,925
241 Young Justice 19 $2.99 DC 7,375

[Mister Ed]

Well if those are fairly standard "kiddie" book numbers, maybe I shouldn't worry. Likely it will hang in for a while simply because the show is still being broadcast.

[Space Cop]

Originally Posted by Mister Ed

Well if those are fairly standard "kiddie" book numbers, maybe I shouldn't worry. Likely it will hang in for a while simply because the show is still being broadcast.

That's my guess. They'll probably try to publish it as long as the show is on. I wish more GL fans would read it. It's refreshing to have fun, one-off Hal adventures.

My biggest surprise in doing three months of numbers at a time is how GLC and GLNG are steady both in their relative place and in the fact that nearly as many people are reading one as the other. To me, this suggests a core GL group that's reading the 3 main titles with GL in the name, but many are passing on RL. Still, RL is holding pretty steady considering how negative the readership is here. For instance, in August it did slightly better than the critically acclaimed and fan-favorite Animal Man (at 35,549 titles sold). It'll be fun to see September's #s on the 0 issues and then to see if there was any effect on the readership (in either direction) by the introduction of Simon Baz as we move into this month.

[Space Cop]

September Comic Sales

1 Avengers Vs X-Men 11 $3.99 Marvel 167,327
2 Batman 0 $3.99 DC 156,561
3 Justice League 0 $3.99 DC 125,868
4 Green Lantern 0 $2.99 DC 89,909
5 Detective Comics 0 $3.99 DC 84,063
6 Action Comics 0 $3.99 DC 78,626
7 Batman The Dark Knight 0 $2.99 DC 72,919
8 Batman And Robin 0 $2.99 DC 69,146
9 Earth 2 0 $2.99 DC 69,111
10 Batman Incorporated 0 $2.99 DC 66,112
...
32 Green Lantern Corps 0 $2.99 DC 47,309
33 Green Lantern New Guardians 0 $2.99 DC 46,718
...
45 Red Lanterns 0 $2.99 DC 38,928
...
250 Green Lantern The Animated Series 6 $2.99 DC 6,619

September Trade Sales

19 Green Lantern War of the Green Lanterns $16.99 DC 2,793
20 Green Lantern Corps HC Vol. 1 Fearsome $22.99 DC 2,754
...
162 Justice League of America Archives HC Vol. 1 $49.99 DC 698
...
182 Blackest Night $19.99 DC 621
...
189 Justice League HC Vol. 1 Origin $24.99 DC 599
...
243 Green Lantern Archives HC Vol. 1 $49.99 DC 471
...
273 Justice League of America Archives HC Vol. 2 $49.95 DC 428
...
290 Justice League of America Archives HC Vol. 3 $49.99 DC 406
...


Lastly, you may be interested to know that this quarter (ending is September and estimated at $123.6 Million) was the best in sales for the comic book market since the mid-1990s. So for the doom-sayers (comics are done and print is dead),

[Mister Ed]

Originally Posted by Space Cop

Lastly, you may be interested to know that this quarter (ending is September and estimated at $123.6 Million) was the best in sales for the comic book market since the mid-1990s. So for the doom-sayers (comics are done and print is dead),

I'd be a lot more impressed with that if I didn't know that those sales figures represent a LOT less actual ISSUES sold. Comics can still be dying if far less people buy them, even if the companies involved are making the same amount of money. That sounds like a holding action to me, and one that can't continue indefinitely.

I don't think comics are doomed, mind. I just think that a better measure of the industry's health would be the number of issues sold (or, ideally, the number of actual readers), rather than the number of dollars in sales. If readership is in a fairly continuous decline (is it? I don't know. I've gotten that impression, but haven't done the research) then keeping up sales numbers with higher prices or events that cause the same readers to buy more comics temporarily seems like a short term solution.

[Space Cop]

True. Numbers sold might be more meaningful.

You can compare month per month here, but they didn't start estimating unit sales until about 2002. So, for instance, exactly ten years ago the no. 1 comic in Sept. 2002 was Transformers Generation 1 which cost $2.95 and sold 127,550 (est.). 10 years later and the top selling comic is Avengers Vs X-Men 11, priced at $3.99 and selling 167,327 issues. Of course, you'd have to do something much more in depth to get meaningful numbers.

[tommyofshaolin]

Originally Posted by Space Cop

True. Numbers sold might be more meaningful.

You can compare month per month here, but they didn't start estimating unit sales until about 2002. So, for instance, exactly ten years ago the no. 1 comic in Sept. 2002 was Transformers Generation 1 which cost $2.95 and sold 127,550 (est.). 10 years later and the top selling comic is Avengers Vs X-Men 11, priced at $3.99 and selling 167,327 issues. Of course, you'd have to do something much more in depth to get meaningful numbers.

YUP!

[Space Cop]

Okay, so the October numbers are up. I'll do top 20 and then any other GL-related title.

Comic Sales October 2012


Comic-book Title Issue Price Publisher Est. sales
1 Uncanny Avengers 1 $3.99 Marvel 303,722
2 Avengers Vs X-Men 12 $4.99 Marvel 171,452
3 Batman 13 $3.99 DC 148,305
4 Justice League 13 $3.99 DC 117,752
5 A Plus X 1 $3.99 Marvel 105,420
6 Green Lantern 13 $2.99 DC 91,814
7 Detective Comics 13 $3.99 DC 76,392
8 AVX Vs 6 $3.99 Marvel 75,298
9 Walking Dead 103 $2.99 Image 74,378
10 AVX Consequences 1 $3.99 Marvel 73,272
11 Marvel Now Point One 1 $5.99 Marvel 69,606
12 Action Comics 13 $3.99 DC 67,241
13 Uncanny X-Men 20 $3.99 Marvel 65,981
14 Batman The Dark Knight 13 $2.99 DC 65,271
15 Batman And Robin 13 $2.99 DC 63,097
16 AVX Consequences 2 $3.99 Marvel 62,799
17 Avengers 31 $3.99 Marvel 62,495
18 Earth 2 5 $2.99 DC 61,529
19 Batman Incorporated 4 $2.99 DC 60,888
20 AVX Consequences 3 $3.99 Marvel 59,896
...
33 Green Lantern Corps 13 $2.99 DC 50,773
40 Green Lantern New Guardians 13 $2.99 DC 48,500
46 Red Lanterns 13 $2.99 DC 42,804
259 Green Lantern The Animated Series 7 $2.99 DC 6,516
272 Green Lantern Annual 1 $4.99 DC 5,857

[Note: This is the first month in a while where Corps and NG were not back to back.]

And on to hardcovers and paperbacks. There were no GL-related titles in the top 20 but I give them to you for reference anyway (esp. since GL was #21). Please note that I had to shorten some titles to get them on one line.

Trade Sales October 2012


Trade Paperback title Price Publisher Est. sales
1 Superman Earth One HC Vol. 2 $22.99 DC 20,090
2 Saga Vol. 1 $9.99 Image 15,055
3 Walking Dead Compendium Vol. 2 $59.99 Image 10,333
4 Walking Dead Vol. 1 Days Gone Bye $9.99 Image 10,333
5 Walking Dead Vol. 2 Miles Behind Us $14.99 Image 6,211
6 Batman The Dark Knight HC Vol. 1 $24.99 DC 5,045
7 Deadpool Kills Marvel Universe $14.99 Marvel 5,004
8 Nightwing Vol. 1 Traps And Trapezes $14.99 DC 4,815
9 V For Vendetta Book And Mask Set $24.99 DC 4,366
10 Batman HC Vol. 1 The Court of Owls $24.99 DC 4,267
11 Unwritten Vol. 6 Tommy Taylor... $16.99 DC 3,790
12 Walking Dead Compendium Vol. 1 $59.99 Image 3,736
13 Batman Dark Knight Returns $19.99 DC 3,471
14 Castle Prem HC Richard Castles... $19.99 Marvel 3,449
15 Justice League Dark Vol. 1 In The Dark $14.99 DC 3,348
16 Sweet Tooth Vol. 5 Unnatural Habitat $14.99 DC 3,234
17 All Star Western Vol. 1 Guns And Gotham $16.99 DC 2,994
18 Wolverine And X-Men Vol. 1 $14.99 Marvel 2,935
19 Avengers Childrens Crusade $29.99 Marvel 2,931
20 Supergirl Vol. 1 Last Daughter of Krypton $14.99 DC 2,924
...
21 Green Lantern New Guardians HC Vol. 1 $22.99 DC 2,882
28 Justice League HC Vol. 1 Origin $24.99 DC 2,518
59 Green Lantern Corps The Weaponer $14.99 DC 1,709
69 Justice League of America Rise of Eclipso $16.99 DC 1,538
96 Green Lantern HC Vol. 1 Sinestro $22.99 DC 1,269
219 Red Lanterns Vol. 1 Blood And Rage $14.99 DC 593
251 Green Lantern Corps HC Vol. 1 Fearsome $22.99 DC 530

[W.West]

The annual came out in AUGUST, so that low number is people who picked it up late. The GL Annual came in at #12

[Space Cop]

Originally Posted by W.West

The annual came out in AUGUST, so that low number is people who picked it up late. The GL Annual came in at #12

Damn time flies fast.

Excellent. I actually thought that was the reason but I only thought to check back as far as September. I didn't even think it could be farther, but I should've (#0 and #13 came after). I'll just delete that stupid post.

[SD80MAC]

Yep. GL Animated is going to get tanked.

[Mister Ed]

Originally Posted by SD80MAC

Yep. GL Animated is going to get tanked.

I think it may be safe as long as the show is still around. It has sold lousy since the beginning, I think. Expectations for those kids' animated tie-in comics are pretty low.

Of course I thought the same of the Young Justice comic, and that's now cancelled. So what do I know?

[Space Cop]

Originally Posted by Mister Ed

I think it may be safe as long as the show is still around. It has sold lousy since the beginning, I think. Expectations for those kids' animated tie-in comics are pretty low.

Of course I thought the same of the Young Justice comic, and that's now cancelled. So what do I know?

I think you might be right, though. Lots of kiddie books and quirky stuff (like say IDW's Mars Attacks) seem to have about the same kind of sales. I'm sure they don't print 60,000 copies of the latest GLAS.

[Space Cop]

(Sorry for the delay. I just realized December will be posted any day now)

November Comic Sales Numbers

1 All New X-Men 1 $3.99 Marvel 181,693
2 Batman 14 $3.99 DC 159,729
3 Captain America 1 $3.99 Marvel 123,667
4 Deadpool 1 $2.99 Marvel 118,976
5 Indestructible Hulk 1 $3.99 Marvel 118,200
6 Iron Man 1 $3.99 Marvel 116,529
7 Fantastic Four 1 $2.99 Marvel 114,532
8 Uncanny Avengers 2 $3.99 Marvel 114,257
9 Justice League 14 $3.99 DC 113,094
10 Thor God of Thunder 1 $3.99 Marvel 110,443
11 All New X-Men 2 $3.99 Marvel 96,436
12 X-Men Legacy 1 $2.99 Marvel 87,081
13 Amazing Spider-Man 698 $3.99 Marvel 81,342
14 FF 1 $2.99 Marvel 80,701
15 My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic 1 $3.99 IDW 80,128
16 Green Lantern 14 $2.99 DC 78,499
17 Batgirl 14 $2.99 DC 77,468
18 Batman And Robin 14 $2.99 DC 75,543
19 Detective Comics 14 $3.99 DC 74,560
20 Iron Man 2 $3.99 Marvel 72,902
...
32 Earth 2 6 $2.99 DC 58,271
45 Green Lantern Corps 14 $2.99 DC 49,594
50 Green Lantern New Guardians 14 $2.99 DC 47,062
57 Red Lanterns 14 $2.99 DC 40,779
250 Green Lantern The Animated Series 8 $2.99 DC 5,961


November Trade Sales Numbers

(no GL titles in the top 20, so I'll give you the top 10 just for comparison)

1 Walking Dead Vol. 17 Something To Fear $14.99 Image 26,088
2 Fables Werewolves of The Heartland HC $22.99 DC 8,737
3 Adventure Time Vol. 1 $14.99 Boom 7,272
4 Fairest Vol. 1 Wide Awake $14.99 DC 6,082
5 Girl With The Dragon Tattoo HC Vol. 1 $19.99 DC 5,808
6 Avengers Vs X-Men HC $75.00 Marvel 5,336
7 Boys Vol. 12 Bloody Doors Off $19.99 Dynamic Forces 5,321
8 Walking Dead Vol. 1 Days Gone Bye $9.99 Image 5,167
9 Scalped Vol. 10 Trails End $14.99 DC 3,917
10 Red Hood And The Outlaws Vol. 1 Redemption $14.99 DC 3,762
...
49 Green Lantern Sector 2814 Vol. 1 $16.99 DC 1,568
206 Justice League HC Vol. 1 Origin $24.99 DC 519

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

Goddamnit, Red Lanterns and Earth 2 are still doing very well...

[DocLantern]

Big October to November drop for GL...

[Mister.Weirdo]

Originally Posted by DocLantern

Big October to November drop for GL...

Hey, at least it selling better than Detective Comics, Action Comics, and Superman.

It’s not gonna get cancelled anytime soon I can tell you that much.

Hell Marvel has been dominated sales again. The new 52 is turning into a failure and Green Lantern comic books are some of the few DC titles that still sell well.

Look at Red Lanterns it’s still in the top 100 after a year. The GL brand is very strong when it comes to comic book sales.

[DocLantern]

Originally Posted by Mister.Weirdo

Hey something must be going on. It sold better than detective comics.

It’s not gonna get cancelled anytime soon I can tell you that much.

No, no cancellation. May be a signal that some folks aren't thrilled with the current direction.

[Mister.Weirdo]

Originally Posted by DocLantern

No, no cancellation. May be a signal that some folks aren't thrilled with the current direction.

Maybe, although considering that Marvel is dominating the top 10, Marvel's NOW line might have something to do it.

Also I can't see DC doing anything drastic with GL considering the brand is currently it's third best-selling one after Batman and Justice League (yes all four of the regular GL titles combined sold better than all four of the major Superman titles combined).

["Chosen"]

Originally Posted by DocLantern

No, no cancellation. May be a signal that some folks aren't thrilled with the current direction.

Seriously doubt it. Marvel Now probably had alot to do with it.

[DocLantern]

Originally Posted by chosenone85

Seriously doubt it. Marvel Now probably had alot to do with it.

Maybe. Sold about 91,000 in October, and 78,000 in November. I can see dropping sales rank wise, but that many copies because of Marvel?

["Chosen"]

Look at the previous numbers you posted. Jun- Aug sold about what was sold in November. I'm sure the jump in sales in Sept and Oct were do to them being a gimmick (the zero issue) and new readers. So again it's not a big deal.