Top Selling Comics & Publisher Market Share: July 2015

Each month, Diamond Comic Distributors announces their top sellers, via press release, in the realm of comic books and more. This can give readers an idea of what folks are gravitating towards. What's working? What isn't? Let's take a look at the best of the best for July 2015.

Marvel takes the top spot, yet again, with DC falling behind.

Here's the visual component.

SECRET WARS #4 takes the top spot, and Marvel took 8 of the top 10, with BATMAN #42 grabbing 5th and ARCHIE #1 grabbing the 7th slot.

The final volume of FABLES grabs the top spot this past month. The top graphic novels list is a nice mix, and DIVINITY from Valiant made it onto the list as well.

Here's how many comics and graphic novels each company shipped.

Here's the comparative sales statistics.

How do they calculate this information? It all starts at the comic book shop.

Data for Diamond’s sales charts — which include the monthly market shares and all top product charts — are compiled by Diamond Comic Distributors from a universe of over 3,500 comic book specialty shops located in North America and around the world. The account base includes brick-and-mortar comic book specialty shops, Internet merchants, and other specialty stores.

Unit and dollars sales are calculated based upon orders invoiced and shipped to Diamond accounts during January to December 2013, which comprises initial pre-orders, advance reorders, and reorders, minus any copies that are received back from a title marked as returnable.

What are your thoughts on all these numbers? What's your predictions for this month?

Marvel continues to destroy the competition

Hmm, Marvel keeps killing it with each month.

Marvel just keeps on growing their share...

And in come all the butthurt DC fanboys in 3. 2. 1.

Woah! Marvel did way better than DC.
Usually its pretty close.

You gotta give it to Marvel; they're putting out quality stuff, and people are buying. Even the event and tie-in stuff is top notch.

once again, the number 1's and star wars rule the board

I'm just hoping Cyborg did good.

People are starting to realize how lame DC is.

As a DC fanboy I can say with confidence that Marvel Comics is making DC Entertainment suck it! What's their secret?

Star wars is the reason why in my opinion. Secret wars would still be up there and so would batman but without the Star wars at Marvel it probably would have went to IDW and they would have been at the top.

@mfundroid: Other aspects, Marvel gets kids young with movies and yadda yadda. Cause when it comes to comics they both do the same things, just Marvel has more fans to lose and not be affected by a dum action.

Just my two cents

@darling_luna: Makes sense I guess.

@mfundroid: I could be talking out of my butt But a big part of the this business is popularity. The... (I hate using this word) Causal fans will effect numbers

So it's not really a shocker

Guardians of Knowwhere cracks the top 10, now that's a surprise!

Wow Archie comics higher than Dynamite & Boom! . But i am glad to see them once in top ten.

Out of the top ten books I have zero interest in any of them. I guess Im picky.

@lone_wolf_and_cub: you know, you're starting to become predictable.

Divinity baby! Hail the Valiant!

@mfundroid: Star Wars, dude. It's all Star Wars. Before Marvel started publishing those titles, it was pretty even.

@zeeguy91: Well it was a pretty smart business move by Disney to have Marvel Comics publish them. I love how they make sure to benefit all parties in their "circle".

The Star Wars effect.

@mfundroid:

A lot of reasons really;

1. They constantly renumbered their titles. People are less intimidated by a #1 than a #41, so they'll buy it.

2. Events. People on the Vine complain about all of Marvel's events, but they sell like gangbusters. People like "Earth shattering events".

3. Star Wars. The most well known film franchise of all time now belongs to them, it will always sell.

4. Media exposure. Movies sell comics. Right now Marvel is killing the movie scene, film goers will buy comics starring their favorite Avengers.

5. $3.99 price tag. It's easy to get a higher dollar share when you charge a dollar more for you books.

@sprior93: Thanks for this extremely intelligent analysis Mr. Business expert

Ooooooooh, A Valiant book on the top 10. How is Divinity anyway?

Wow, Lando beat Justice League in the top ten. Pretty soon DC is going to have rename everything Batman and..... or nothing is going to sell for them.

As a reader of both Marvel and DC I want to state I am happy with the quality of titles DC is releasing. While I'm sure Star Wars, Secret Wars, and Marvel's savy marketing ability help set Marvel apart in terms of sales, I personally don't feel it reflects a gap in quality of material between the companies.

@mfundroid: oh, absolutely. It was an incredibly smart business move. It's just hilarious to see Marvel fanboys claiming that this is "proof" that Marvel is better when the reality is that the gap isn't even being driven by mainstream Marvel stuff.

In all truthfulness, in order to get close to closing the gap, DC would probably need to wrestle the Star Trek license away from IDW.

I'm a DC fan why would I be butt hurt??I'm not getting paid either way.

@johnapocalypse: Amazing, it is a very interesting take on sci-fi

Thank you. Yet plenty of people are lol.

@micah: Some people have low self-esteem.

Awwww yeah Divinity BABY!

@emperorxhadesx420: I swear it's like this everytime these market shares come out lol.

@drellassassin: Not being a dick and seriously asking, What at Marvel are you considering quality? I only read a couple Marvel books now. I tried to read more but didn't find a lot of it worth keeping up with.

All of the Star Wars stuff has been fantastic (Princess Leia mini to a lesser extent). Secret Wars is proving to be an event that will go down as one of the best ever. I'm not currently reading any of them, but the Secret Wars tie-ins have been very well received, and are benefiting by not tying into the main Secret Wars story at all. Then there are the normal books, which at the moment it's kind of hard to list because so many have ended recently or are ending soon in preparation for All-New, All-Different. Daredevil, Ant-Man, Black Widow, Silver Surfer are just a few off the top of my head that are really killing it. The thing with Marvel is they just have a very large variety of books with different feels to them, with a huge variety of great talent. Their shake up of the status quo of late has been enormously refreshing, and the sales show it's paying off.

@drellassassin: And what exactly are Marvel doing for their customers? Are you receiving any of their profits?

Marvel has an even greater advantage in unit share compared to dollar share.

Marvel has started using more creative art styles for comics earlier then DC, stuff like Black Canary and Batgirl, Hawkeye and Squirrel Girl.

DC is copying the big changes to A-list heroes without any skill. Batmans replacement makes less sense than Falcon AND lacks the diversity factor.

The broader variety of characters and scenarios is also an aspect. A fan of sci-fi, who doesn't like Green Lantern will probably be hardpressed to find something in DC. Almost all the street based heroes are Batman characters, who are considered simply lesser versions of Batman by many.

@zeeguy91: you mad?

What are they doing for their costumers? They're providing comics! What else should they be doing? I know positivity can be a foreign concept on the internet, but if someone is producing content that I enjoy then I'm all for supporting them.

good job DC

Meh. This only covers sells for Diamond.

@lone_wolf_and_cub: no, just disappointed that you can't seem to be original. Somehow I knew exactly what you would say before you said it.

@zeeguy91: I think DC should make a Harry Potter title. It's the only thing that will come close to Star Wars popularity. And, there's a new movie coming out. Get JK to approve and they can have a hit on their hands.

I guess war sell comics. Marvel has Secret War, Civil War, and most importantly Star Wars

@zeeguy91: Maybe you need to relax an not take things so serious. These are comics we are talking about no need to whine.