October 2017 had 7,028,651 units in the top 300 comics list, an increase of 192,398 units from last month. The premiere publishers accounted for 94.06% of the units in the top 300 comics this month while all of the other publishers with items in the top 300 accounted for 5.94% of the units. DC took 7 of the top ten slots with Dark Nights: Metal #3 topping the list with 158,698 units.

Marvel Comics placed 3,010,507 units in the top 300 comics and was up 40,565 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 42.83% of the total units for the top 300 comics. The new Legacy volumes started coming out this month and most of the new titles for Marvel fell into this category. The term "relaunch" seems to best describe these new volumes as most of them do not involve a radical new take on the character to warrant the term "retooling." None of them are tossing out the old continuity so calling them "reboots" would be inaccurate.

The titles launched after Secret Wars weren't "reboots," even though a number of them involved significant retcons. These distinctions might not seem important but they are more than mere semantics. The retcon (retroactive continuity) of establishing that Miles Morales somehow has been on the mainstream Marvel Earth along with Peter Parker attempts to keep the backstory of each Spider-Man intact while ambiguously implying they happened on the same world. This retcon doesn't disavow the previous adventures and titles while a reboot would. This distinction has a serious impact on story accessibility which in turn impacts sales. October saw new volumes of Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers, Black Panther, Cable, Captain Marvel, Deadpool vs Old Man Logan, Despicable Deadpool, Falcon, Incredible Hulk, Invincible Iron Man, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Mighty Thor and Spirits of Vengeance.

Even with all of those new titles, Marvel only gained 40,565 units over last month. Part of that is due to the lost of 292,910 units from the Marvel Legacy one-shot last month. Sone of the relaunched titles got a second issue out in October such as Amazing Spider-Man which dropped by 52.12% and Despicable Deadpool which dropped by 63.96%. In both cases, the first of the Legacy numbered issues had multiple covers while the second has one or none.

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DC Comics placed 2,709,116 units in the top 300 comics and was up 145,264 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 38.54% of the total units for the top 300 comics. Dark Nights: Metal is clearly a success for DC not only taking the top rank but the four one-shots for it all placed in the top 10. Once again, Action Comics had both regular and lenticular versions of the issues released as part of the "Oz Effect" storyline. Those issues seem to be doing well while the other meta-arc storyline over in Detective Comics are doing on par with how that title has been selling lately. The implication is the bump in aggregate sales for the Action Comics issues is because of the lenticular cover gimmick and not because the story ties into the Rebirth meta-arc. DC had both a larger net gain in October than Marvel and far less of an up-swing and down-swing than Marvel.

Image Comics placed 618,267 units in the top 300 comics and was up 55,901 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 8.80% of the total units for the top 300 comics. A number of items from Image had Walking Dead Tribute variant covers causing a number of sales spikes on those titles. These sorts of spikes result in the sales of any given issue or how it has gone up or down from the previous issue being insufficient to determine how the sales is trending in sales.

Bongo Entertainment, Black Mask Studios, Joe Books, Broadsword Comics, Avatar Press, Fantagraphics Books and American Mythology Productions dropped out of the top 300 comics this month.

The up-swing from new titles and other categories was 2,589,275 units while the down-swing from last month was 2,396,877 units netting out to the increase of 192,398 units for the month.

The continuing titles which gained sales category added 389,427 units compared to last month.

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Marvel had a few variant cover themes this month such as the McKone Legacy Headshot variants, the Zdarsky How To Draw variants and the Christopher Trading Card variants among others. Marvel had 16 items with sales increases between 57.29% and 201.33% with the average bump of around 25,601 units. Given the following issues of those titles don't have similar promotions, these shenanigan spikes are extremely unlikely to have any sales impact on the following issues. The total gain this month on those 16 titles was 409,620 units for Marvel. Marvel sales fluctuate significantly from month to month because of these variant cover gimmicks and the constant relaunching of titles. Legacy might mark the end of the constant relaunching of titles at Marvel but the cover gimmicks continue to be standard operating procedure. Given the predictable sales bump they bring, it makes sense for Marvel to continue the practice of variant covers. At least for as long as these variant covers continue to generate these sales bumps. Hopefully Marvel isn't too reliant on the income from these shenanigan spikes.

The continuing titles which shipped more issues category added 187,180 units compared to last month. With both September and October having four weeks, only a few titles released an additional issue in October and most of them were from Marvel.

The continuing titles with reasonably stable sales category removed 2,001 units compared to last month.

The continuing titles which shipped fewer issues category removed 301,704 units compared to last month. Venomverse concluded in October with only the final issue being released in October compared to the first four which were released on September. All of the other titles in this category released two issues in September and only a single issue in October.

The continuing titles which lost sales category removed 391,025 units compared to last month. Teen Titans, Suicide Squad and Nightwing tied into Dark Nights: Metal last month but did not do so in October resulting in a drop in sales compared to the bump in on those titles in September. Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Captain Phasma released the final tow issue of the miniseries in October versus the first two in September. The drop in sales reflect the higher orders on the first issue.

The new titles category added 1,719,800 units compared to last month. Shadow/Batman launch lower than the Batman/The Shadow miniseries launched but stronger than the other issues of that series sold. As mentioned above, Marvel relaunched a number of titles as part of the Legacy initiative. Expect most of those titles to be in the continuing titles which lost sales category next month.

The returning titles category added 292,868 units compared to last month. All Star Batman and Silver Surfer both returned to the list this month for the final issue of each series. Both titles will move into the defunct titles category next month.

The suspended titles category removed 390,699 units compared to last month.

The defunct titles category removed 961,928 units compared to last month. With the relaunch of numerous Marvel titles is a corresponding end of the previous volumes of those titles. Marvel lost 773,471 units from defunct titles but had 1,1845,121 units of new titles this month resulting in a net increase between those two categories for Marvel.

The annuals/specials category removed 58,733 units compared to last month.

The non-series category removed 272,396 units compared to last month. The various Batman one-shots connected to Dark Nights: Metal account for most of this category for DC with Marvel Legacy being the sole item from Marvel.

The reorders category removed 18,391 units compared to last month.

There were a number of titles with variant cover induced sales spikes this month, mainly from Marvel and Image. Again, given the practice works, it is understandable why the publishers keep using it. But while it results in sales of comics, those variant covers ironically might be making it harder to sell comics. A variant cover sells an issue but the story inside the comic sells the series. Long term, it is the sales of the series, not just the issues with the variant covers which determines if a titles is a success or not. Ultimately, any title which is able to keep being published for as long as the creator wants to keep doing it is a success regardless of where the title lands on the best-sellers list. Variant covers can help make that happen but it is the story itself that should support the sales of the series.

For a more in-depth discussion of the sales data, check out the Mayo Report episodes of the Comic Book Page podcast at www.ComicBookPage.com. The episode archive covers the past decade of comic book sales on a monthly basis with yearly recap episodes. In addition to those episodes on the sales data, every Monday is a Weekly Comics Spotlight episode featuring a comic by DC, a comic by Marvel and a comic by some other publisher. I read around 200 new comics a month so the podcast covers a wide variety of the comics currently published. If you are looking for more or different comics to read, check out the latest Previews Spotlight episode featuring clips from various comic book fans talking about the comics they love. With thousands of comics in Previews every month, Previews Spotlight episodes are a great way to find out about new comic book titles that may have flown under your comic book radar.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at John.Mayo@ComicBookResources.com.