The first full week of 2018 saw a repeat at the top of the reorder charts at Diamond Comic Distributors — and a new mix of books atop the advance reorder charts. Let’s look first at how the books already in stores fared, and move on to the future:
TOP REORDERED ITEMS for Jan. 2-8, 2018 (in dollars)
These are items that have already shipped, but have been receiving additional orders from retailers. In most cases below, the items are in stock and so the orders are being filled; occasionally items are back-ordered, so their reorders will enter into the channel once they become available.These are ranked by invoiced dollars, so retailers’ discounts have already applied to the totals before ranking.
DC’s Hawkman Found #1, a “Dark Nights” tie-in that went on sale Dec. 27, repeated as the top reordered comic book of the week.
Repeating yet again, Marvel’s Infinity Gauntlet was the top reordered softcover.
And DC’s Batman & Robin by Tomasi and Gleason Omnibus was the top reordered hardcover. It shipped back on Nov. 8.
The links in the table go to the Diamond information pages for each book.
TOP ADVANCE REORDERED ITEMS for Jan. 2-8, 2018 (in dollars)
Let’s turn now to the future. These are items that have not yet shipped, but for which the Final Order Deadlines have passed. These reorders, if books are available to fill them, may or may not land in the same shipping month as the books’ release weeks, so a book’s presence on this chart can mean that an item might make a repeat appearance in Diamond’s monthly top-seller charts.
Topping the list overall was the second printing of the top advance-reordered hardcover, Batman: The Dark Prince Charming Book 1, a $12.99 book slated for Valentine’s Day release. The Action Comics #1000: 80 Years of Superman book, first among hardcovers last week, placed second.
The top advance-reordered comic book was Flash Annual #1, a $4.99 edition set to go on sale on January 31. Missing the Top 25 altogether this week after topping the past two weekly lists is Oblivion Song by Kirkman and De Felici Collector’s Edition from Image. It’s expected to go on sale March 7.
The leading trade paperback was X-Men: Grand Design from Marvel. It’s an April 4 title.
Remember, this is ranked by invoiced dollars and not units.
We’ve seen enough reorders and advance from the past few weeks from Diamond Comic Distributors to be able to collate some information onto pages for December 2017 and January 2018; check them out for a further glance at the future.
Comichron founder John Jackson Miller has tracked the comics industry for more than 25 years, including a decade editing the industry’s retail trade magazine; he is the author of several guides to comics, as well as more than a hundred comic books for various franchises.
He is the author of novels including Star Wars: Kenobi, Star Wars: A New Dawn, Star Trek: Discovery – The Enterprise War, and his upcoming release, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – The High Country. Read more about them at his fiction site.
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