"Amazing Spider-Man" #700 Tops December Sales Chart

[Nova2814.1]

Will be intresting to see how Marvel NOW sales shift in month two. DC's still neck-and-neck with Marvel.

Thunderbolts launched outrageously high for that franchise, and once again Bendis on the cover proves to not be much of a deterrent for readers.

To be a bit pedantic, retailers would have been putting in orders All New X-Men #3 before #1 would have gone on sale, so it's ranking isn't based on readership, just where retailers were expecting/hoping the readership to be.

That said, if the sales in my local shops are any indication, it's a hit with readers too because there are usually scant shelf copies left after a month. And that's good going.

Yeah but Marvel's output is pretty low these days. DC generally puts out more titles than Marvel does these days.

If I remember correctly, in November DC had 81 items in the top 300 as opposed to Marvel's 68. That includes double shipped items.

At a quick glance, DC solicited 117 comics, graphic novels & magazines for January, and Marvel solicited 121. Its roughly the same in February, DC has 117, Marvel has 111. So for the next two months, both publishers are offering roughly the same amount of product and its probably the same story for the last few months as well. If a publisher has more items in the Top 300 its because retailers are ordering more, not because the publisher is offering more.

Of course, none of that means that the NOW titles have slipped in sales (which was the point raised by Brother). A title can sell the same amount month after month and rise up and down the chart depending on what else is going on in the market. So last month's #8 could drop to this month's #15 and not have lost a single sale.

What is interesting to me is the overall drop in sales for the market from November to December. Two of December's books ranked in the top 10 for 2012 overall (one of them selling around quarter of a million copies), ahead of any book sold in November, but the market still dropped. It's a small drop, but I was expecting it to be pretty much even.

[Iangould]

Image had over 9% of the market in dollar term and over 8% in unit terms.

That's probably the highest market share for a publisher other than MArvel or DC since the heyday of the speculator's market back in the 1990s.

[Hulk_Is]

Is it so hard for people to wrap their heads around the idea that some of us actually like his writing?

Very difficult. I'm stunned to this very day.

[Hound of UIster]

Shocked by how high Thunderbolts charted! I would never have expected a top 10 placing!

I'm not really surprised. It was advertised after all as a team of big name characters (Elektra, Flash, Rulk, Punisher and Deadpool).