August 2011 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Comics Shipped to North American Comics Shops
Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

The beginnings of DC's "New 52" relaunch were to be found in the August 2011 shipments. DC's regular non-Vertigo series ended, and Flashpoint #5 and Justice League #1 released on the last day of the month. Nearly half the market's shortfall for the year was made up in August, as the numbers were all up double-digits percentage-wise year over year — though that could not be entirely be attributed to DC's relaunch, as trade paperback sales leapt, too. August 2011 was also a five-week month for shipping purposes, and the industry's performance in August 2010 was fairly weak, as well.

Justice League #1 shipped nearly 186,000 copies between the main listing and the Combo Pack. The standard issue alone had more than 171,000 first-day copies in U.S. and Canadian stores on August 31, with nearly 15,000 more in the Combo Pack, which included a variant cover and a code for a digital copy. It was already enough to make it the top-selling issue of the year on the continent, but it wasn't done selling, as many of the late-placed North American preorders were filled in September.

Ultimate Fallout #4 was a hit, with a snap reprint ordered that shipped in two versions on August 31. Comichron learned from Diamond that the first printing's sales in August were likely was in the 65,000 copy range — and that the reprints received from Marvel were evenly divided between the two versions. Diamond confirmed a further data collection error that resulted in around 12,000 copies of the Aug. 31 reprints not making the August charts — and apparently also not landing in any later monthly charts, though their existence is reflected in the end-of-year data. That would put the issue's August sales near 85,000 copies — not enough to change its ranking.

More copies of both the first and second printing would ship in later months, totalling nearly 150,000 copies for the issue all told; click to read our FAQ on the issue.

Read more in our preliminary and final analysis posts for the month. You can also click to skip to the Top Graphic Novels for the month.

—John Jackson Miller

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 300 chart plus any post-#300 items from its Top Independent and Small Publisher charts.
If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.
Items marked with asterisks [*] had their reported orders reduced by 10% due to returnability.
Click to read the methodology for this table's estimates.
Distributor charts are regional commodity reports, not measures of a work's total reach. Read our FAQ.
The links lead to current listings for each item on eBay. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

August 2011 Graphic Novel Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks Shipped to North American Comics Shops Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 300 Graphic Novel charts, plus any post-#300 items from its Top Independent and Manga charts. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.

The links lead to title details on Amazon (paid links). You can also find the books at your comics shop.

Dark Horse's Serenity: Better Days and Other Stories led the top graphic novel list.