May 2018 had 6,967,776 units in the top 300 comics list, an increase of 158,547 units from last month. This was the stronger month for the top 300 since the 7,028,651 units in October 2017. Marvel sold over a million more units than DC.

Part of that was the extra sized issues of Amazing Spider-Man #800, Despicable Deadpool #300 and Invincible Iron Man #600. The other main ingredient is Marvel's relaunched titles, including Venom #1, Avengers #1 and Black Panther #1.

Marvel Comics placed 3,345,737 units in the top 300 comics and was up 170,896 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 48.02% of the total units for the top 300 comics. Four Marvel items sold over 120,000 units and the rest sold under 67,000 units. Sales for Marvel seem to be more based on incentive covers and first issues or x-hundred issues numbers than on a sustainable interest in the story content.

DC Comics placed 2,269,529 units in the top 300 comics and was down 171,638 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 32.57% of the total units for the top 300 comics. Doomsday Clock continues to do well for DC when it is released. It also had reorder activity for all previously released issues. Neither Justice League: No Justice nor Man of Steel reached 100,000 units, but both first issues were in the top 10.

The premiere publishers (Marvel, DC, Image, IDW, Dark Horse, BOOM! Studios and Dynamite Entertainment) accounted for 96.98% of the units in the top 300 comics this month while all of the other publishers with items in the top 300 accounted for 3.02% of the units.

The up-swing of 2,950,845 units from new and increased sales was enough to compensate for the down-swing of -2,798,478 units from lost sales. New titles were the main factor this month almost offsetting the losses from defunct titles and suspended titles.

Comics have been in this churn based mode for a while with titles constantly starting and stopping. Relaunching a title is done in the hope of getting more readers and usually they do. But the end of a title is about a good of a jumping off point as a reader can get. There is no guarantee that reader will transition to the replacement title. Not all titles end with a clear replacement title either.

The continuing titles which gained sales category added 64,560 units compared to last month. Invincible Iron Man #600 got a bump of 24:552 units. That was the final issue of that Iron Man series and of of the work Brian Michael Bendis was doing for Marvel.

Flash got an increase with the prelude and start of the Flash War storyline. The increase will probably last for the duration of the arc with the usual attrition of the course of it.

Most titles didn't gain a significant number of units over last month. This lack of growth on ongoing titles is why publishers relaunch titles periodically.

The continuing titles which shipped more issues category added 177,545 units compared to last month. April had four shipping weeks and May had five. All of the titles in this category were from Marvel which shipped two issues in May and only one in April.

The continuing titles with reasonably stable sales category removed 2,815 units compared to last month. Most of these losses were only a percent or two of attrition. The exception was Kiss/Army of Darkness which was down 4.53% from last month.

The continuing titles which shipped fewer issues category removed 416,440 units compared to last month. Most of the titles in this group were Marvel titles.

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Venomized was a five issue miniseries. Four of the issues shipped last month and the final issue shipped in May. Venomized #5 sold 39,849 units and was down 7.6% from the previous issue. Venomized #1 sold around 103,720 units and the middle three issues sold between 43,100 and 44,600 units.

Sonic the Hedgehog was weekly in April and only one issue shipped in May. While the sales of Sonic the Hedgehog #5 of 12,561 units are about half the 24,693 units Sonic the Hedgehog #1 sold, all four of the weekly issues from last month has reorder activity in the top 500 comics list in May.

Amazing Spider-Man was down 14,364 units for the month but Amazing Spider-Man #800 topped the sales in May 2018 with around 411,480 units. In addition to being an oversized "magic number" issue, the issue was the penultimate issues of Dan Slott's lengthy run and had an open-to-order alternate cover, a 1-in-25 incentive cover, 1 1in-500 incentive cover, a 1-in-1,000 incentive cover and a meet-or-exceed 150% of Amazing Spider-Man #797 blank incentive cover.

The continuing titles which lost sales category removed 297,719 units compared to last month.

Second issue drops on Marvel titles can be sharp. An example of this is Domino #1 which sold 92,939 units last month followed by a 71.66% drop on Domino #2 which sold 26,343 units. Domino #1 has two 1-in-25 incentive cover, a 1-in-50 incentive cover and two meet-or-exceed 125% of X-Men Red #2 incentive covers. Using first issue sales to gauge interest on a Marvel title is increasingly pointless.

Immortal Men #2 was down 42.56% to around 27,896 units. The difference between this and a drop of a similar percentage for a Marvel title is the first issue of Immortal Men didn't have a number of incentive covers.

Last month Domino was in the ballpark of twice the units of Immortal Men. This month, Immortal Men sold about 500 more units and Domino. A case could be made that Domino is the strong title because it launched higher. Or that it is the weaker title because it had a sharper drop. Or that the two issues are on roughly even footing because they are currently selling roughly the same amount. It is all a matter of perspective.

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My perspective is the number of incentive covers being offered indicates there is a significant number of people either collecting the variants or potentially speculating on those variants going up in price. Collecting variants because you like the cover is fine. Speculation on the value of incentive variants, however, has some dangers attached to it.

The 1990s had a similar gimmick cover period and when that speculator market dried up, sales dropped and numerous stores closed. As long as all involved parties are aware of the risks of catering to a speculator market and act responsibly, there isn't a problem. Even if that isn't the case, if the speculator market declines in a slow enough manner, things could work out okay.

The new titles category added 1,951,196 units compared to last month.

Venom #1 launched high with 225,782 units. The issue had a 1-in-25 incentive cover, a 1-in-50 incentive cover, a 1-in-100 incentive cover, a 1-in-500 incentive cover, a 1-in-100 incentive cover and two meet-or-exceed 200% of Amazing Spider-Man/Venom Inc Omega #1 incentive cover.

Avengers #1 launched strong with 131,450 estimated units. The issue had a 1-in-50 incentive cover, a 1-in-100 incentive cover, two meet-or-exceed 250% of Avengers #676 incentive covers and two meet-or-exceed 300% of Avengers #676 incentive covers.

Avengers #2, on the other hand, only had a 1-in-25 incentive cover and a 1-in-100 incentive cover and sold around 66,646 units, a drop of 49.3%.

Black Panther #1 launched strong with 22,358 estimated units. The issue had a 1-in-10 incentive cover, a 1-in-25 incentive cover, a 1-in-50 incentive cover, a 1-in-100 incentive cover, a 1-in-500 incentive cover, a 1-in-1,000 incentive cover and three meet-or-exceed 200% of Black Panther #172 incentive covers.

Expect a sharp drop on Black Panther #2 which only had a 1-in-25 incentive cover.

Justice League: No Justice was a repositioning miniseries for the Justice League, similar to how the No Surrender storyline for the Avengers ended one era of the team and set up the transition to the next era. Justice League: No Justice #1 sold 86,775 units and the weekly series lost sales from there with the final issue selling around 64,342 units.

Man of Steel #1 had reported sales of 78,942 units but the issue was returnable and the reported quanity were reduced to reflect possible returns.

Barrier was a digital comic by PanelSyndicate.com which was printed in as a weekly miniseries. The attrition in sales on the title wasn't too bad and could reflect people being able to check out the digital version for free before buying the print version. The "name your price" approach at PanelSyndicate.com seems to be working for them.

The returning titles category added 392,340 units compared to last month. Doomsday Clock account for roughly have the units in this category.

Calexit which launched in August 2017 has had some delays. The solicit for the trade indicated it would include previously the unpublished material from the final two issues of the miniseries implying those issues would not be released as issues. Those two issues have not been listed as canceled by Diamond. Depending if those two issues end up being published or if the series is aborted to trade, this might actually be a defunct title. These are the sorts of things which drive readers to skip the issues and go straight to the trade paperback.

The suspended titles category removed 955,609 units compared to last month.

Action Comics accounted for over have of those units. Action Comics #1000 did 52,129 units of reorder activity putting the total sales of the issue through Diamond around 501,916 units. Between the release of Action Comics #1000 and Man of Steel #1 DC released Action Comics Special #1 which sold 47,236 units and Superman Special #1 which sold 43,378 units.

The defunct titles category removed 1,097,731 units compared to last month.

The previous volume of Avengers ended last month to make room for the latest volume this month. The previous volume sold a total of around 206,336 units across four issues and the new volume sold a total of 198,096 units across the first two issues. Likewise the previous volumes of Justice League, Superman, Venom and Mighty Thor all ended to make room for new volumes.

The annuals/specials category added 30,057 units compared to last month.

The non-series category added 335,147 units compared to last month.

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Marvel's True Believers line of reprints seem to bring in in the ballpark of 100,000 units on a practically monthly basis. These low cost reprints are working for Marvel. DC might want to consider doing a similar line of reprints. Perhaps ones showcasing characters from the various television shows. Or maybe they could think a little more outside of the box and try something like a weekly series reprinting the Legion of Super-Heroes stories from the beginning.

The reorders category removed 28,164 units compared to last month. DC dominated reorder activity within the top 300 this month while Marvel dominated last month. Looking at the top 500 comics, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Thanos and Doomsday Clock all had reorder activity on multiple issues.

Looking at the unit for the top 300 comics, we can see that sales are doing much better in the second quarter than they were during the first quarter of 2018. A weak first quarter is not unusual. Shifts in sales of millions of units from month to month are also not uncommon. The up-swing of 2,950,845 units and the down-swing of -2,798,478 units this month with 6,967,776 units for the top 300 comics show how much volatility there is in the market. A certain amount of fluctuation in sales from month to month is excepted. But the magnitude and frequency of the units shifting up and down every month comes with some risk.

In addition to risk, the constant rotation and relaunching of titles makes it more complex for new people to get engaged in reading comics. The $3.99 price point doesn't help either. Being a casual comic book fan is harder than it needs to be. Comic book properties are as accepted by the mass audience as they are every likely to get. Now is the time for the industry to work on converting these fans of the properties in to comic book readers. Even if they are causal comic book readers which only pick up the occasional comic book, they is still a major step in the right direction. With sales of new items on the top 300 comics list averaging between around 18,000 and 28,000 units most months, converting even a tiny percentage of the people watching the television shows and movies based on comics could result in a measurable increase in sales.

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 archived cover 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.