Green Lantern Sales Numbers

[W.West Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close W.West]

Green Lantern March 2012 Sales

How was your March lantern fans? Was it better than DC Comics' sales? March 2012 saw the return of Marvel Comics in the top 10 comics sold sales chart. Diamond has released the Top 100 comics sold and "The House of Mouse" took the top two spots and #5 as well. Justice League #7 slipped to #3, while Green Lantern #7 came in at #7, two lower than last month.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #7 saw no slip as it is still firmly planted at #27 on the charts. Peter Tomasi's Green Lantern Corps #7 tops Captain America, Incredible Hulk, Daredevil, and The Fantastic Four but still manages to fall a spot from last month, coming in at #33. The Peter Milligan rage filled book Red Lanterns #7 does the same, falling one spot, landing at #42.

DC's Senior Vice President of Sales Bob Wayne was joined by DC's Vice President of Marketing John Cunningham to talk with Newsarama about the sales figures released by Diamond Comic Distributors on Thursday. They also speak with Comic Book Resources about the next wave of the New52.

In the Top 100 Graphic Novels sales chart, Flashpoint: World of Flashpoint: Green Lantern TP came in at #22. While Green Lantern Chronicles Vol 4 lands at #57.


As usual, we'll update with the actual sales numbers when they become available.

[W.West Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close W.West]

Green Lantern April 2012 Sales

Another month, another three minutes spent looking at comic book sales charts. Let's find out where the lantern titles landed in April as they ramp up towards the summer and the eventual event.

As you can see from the above chart, Green Lantern #8 came in at #5, which boosts it back up two spots from last month's drop. The other Geoff Johns penned and Hal Jordan starring book, Justice League is at #3 with its eighth issue. DC Comics still has a 60% hold on the top ten, despite giving up the top slot to Marvel Comics' latest hero vs hero event issue.

Tony Bedard's eighth issue of Green Lantern: New Guardians starts setting up for its crossover with Blue Beetle, so we'll have to check back next month to see if that boosts either book up. For now, New Guardians comes in at a spot lower than last month with a #28 placing. Also of note, New Guardians is still above Nightwing which is a big part of a Batman event right now. Hold the line Kyle! Meanwhile, Peter Tomasi and Fernando Pasarin may be banging their heads against a wall as Green Lantern Corps #8 falls two spots down to #35. Cheer up fellas, no doubt the trial of John Stewart and AlphaWar will be just what the book needs. The fourth lantern title, Red Lanterns by Peter Milligan does a nosedive from #41 last month down to #50 in April. If it makes anyone feel better, its selling a lot better than Iron Man's main title and he has a giant movie in theaters!

As usual, DC's Bob Wayne & John Cunningham talk sales, digital rankings & readership with CBR. The Top 100 Graphic Novels chart...that doesn't include any lantern collections.

UPDATE: Actual Sales Numbers

[W.West Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close W.West]

Green Lantern May 2012 Sales

Not a good month for lantern comics. Nope. May was not nice this section of the DC Universe. Probably because Batman and those fighting heroes over at the house Mickey built are running rampant all over the top ten. Though, when 3 of the top 11 books are starring a Green Lantern, how bad can things really be?

May saw the debut of the Green Lantern Alan Scott featured, universe creating, Earth 2 by James Robinson and Nicola Scott. That first issue comes in at #11 on the charts. While above it lies Justice League #9 at #4 which is just one spot lower than last month. Directly above Earth 2 was Geoff Johns' Green Lantern #9 which took a four spot tumble.

In a bit of a surprise, Peter Tomasi and Fernando Pasarin jump ahead a few spots with Green Lantern Corps #9. GLC comes in at #35, which is three spots higher than last month. Lantern fans must really love those Alpha Lanterns! Unfortunately, while GLC jumps, Green Lantern: New Guardians from Tony Bedard and Tyler Kirkham falls hard. In April, the title was at #28, and now that New Guardians is slightly crossing over with Bedard's Blue Beetle, they now rank at #38. A ten spot drop in the rankings! Ouch. Big ouch. Red Lanterns #9 also drops the title down four spots to #54. Though with a new consistent artist coming onto the title, it'll be interesting to see if that book hits a new trend upward.

On the trade side of things, Green Lantern: Sinestro Vol. 1 hits the top ten...at #10. On the digital side of things, Green Lantern #9 comes in at #4 on DC's list of digital titles.

CBR spoke with SVP of Sales Bob Wayne and SVP of Marketing John Cunningham (joined by DC Publicity Director Brandy Phillips) who also shared the rankings for DC's digital performance in the month. There, the pair discuss the surprises held in May's strong performance from collections that will help balance periodical sales to digital series marketed towards non-traditional comics fans to how the marketing machine built for the New 52 still serves the line heading towards its September "Zero Month."

*UPDATE: Actual Sale Numbers*

[Evergreen City Corps Den Mother Find all posts View Profile Close Evergreen City]

Nobody's posted updated numbers lately. Here's a useful link to the August tallies.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=40939

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Nobody's posted updated numbers lately. Here's a useful link to the August tallies.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=40939

Sorry about that. My fault. West took over and was doing an even better job, so I stopped and I guess he did too.

Here's June sales:

Comic-book Title Issue Price Publisher Est. sales
1 Avengers Vs X-Men 6 $3.99 Marvel 190,705
2 Avengers Vs X-Men 5 $3.99 Marvel 186,555
3 Batman 10 $3.99 DC 130,265
4 Justice League 10 $3.99 DC 127,090
5 Before Watchmen Minutemen 1* $3.99 DC 107,517
6 Before Watchmen Comedian 1* $3.99 DC 104,142
7 Before Watchmen Silk Spectre 1* $3.99 DC 102,955
8 Before Watchmen Nite Owl 1* $3.99 DC 101,297
9 Spider-Men 1 $3.99 Marvel 94,548
10 AVX Vs 3 $3.99 Marvel 94,528
11 Detective Comics 10 $3.99 DC 83,317
12 Astonishing X-Men 51 $3.99 Marvel 82,654
13 Action Comics 10 $3.99 DC 80,751
14 Green Lantern 10 $2.99 DC 80,615
15 Batman Incorporated 2 $2.99 DC 73,654
16 Batman The Dark Knight 10 $2.99 DC 71,671
17 Uncanny X-Men 13 $3.99 Marvel 70,521
18 Avengers 27 $3.99 Marvel 68,885
19 Earth 2 2* $2.99 DC 68,342
20 Spider-Men 2 $3.99 Marvel 68,283
.....
41 Green Lantern Corps 10 $2.99 DC 44,615
42 Green Lantern New Guardians 10 $2.99 DC 44,404
....

55 Red Lanterns 10 $2.99 DC 38,005
...
76 Justice League International 10 $2.99 DC 31,015
...
189 Green Lantern The Animated Series 3 $2.99 DC 8,716

And Trades:

11 Red Lanterns Vol. 1 Blood And Rage $14.99 DC 3,591

36 Green Lantern Corps Revolt of Alpha Lanterns $14.99 DC 2,055

68 Justice League HC Vol. 1 Origin $24.99 DC 1,480

199 Green Lantern HC Vol. 1 Sinestro $22.99 DC 486

I'll follow with July and August. I'm posting the top 20 with GL titles highlighted in Green and titles featuring a GL in bold. If they're outside of the top 20, I'll just skip to the appropriate number. September should be out in a few days.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close 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 Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close 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 The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close 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 The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

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 Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close 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 The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

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 The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close 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 Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

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 The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close 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 Green Lantern Initiate Find all posts View Profile Close tommyofshaolin]

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!