September 2017 had 6,831,536 units in the top 300 comics list, an increase of 238,261 units from last month. Marvel Comics placed 2,969,942 units in the top 300 comics and was down 18,763 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 43.47% of the total units for the top 300 comics. DC Comics accounted for 37.53% of the total units with 2,563,852 units and was up 196,158 units compared to last month.

Image Comics placed 562,366 units in the top 300 comics and was up 23,088 units in the top 300 compared to last month and accounted for 8.23% of the total units for the top 300 comics. IDW was up 54,620 units with a total of 217,066 units which accounted for 3.18%. Dark Horse placed 95,967 units and was up 4,868 units compared to last month and accounted for 1.40%.

The premiere publishers accounted for 93.82% of the units in the top 300 comics this month while all of the other publishers with items in the top 300 accounted for 6.18% of the units. Albatross Funnybooks, Benitez Productions, Devil's Due/1First Comics and Abstract Studios dropped out of the top 300 comics this month.

The up-swing in September was 2,015,528 units with the new title category being the majority of it with 1,163,456 units. The down-swing was 1,777,267 units with defunct titles being the majority of it with 927,331 units.

The continuing titles which gained sales category added 207,096 units compared to last month. Teen Titans was the title with the largest gain in sales in September with 23,925 units. Teen Titans #12 was a Dark Nights: Metal tie-in issue and was up 71.56% over the sales of the previous issue. Nightwing #29 was up 55.45% and Suicide Squad #26 was up 50.59%. Both were Dark Nights: Metal tie-in issues. Mister Miracle #1 sold 33,493 units last month and the reorder activity put the total known sales at 48,175. My system calculated a "drop" of 6,600 units from the total known sales but it would be equally valid to consider Mister Miracle #2 to be up by the 8,082 units shown on this chart.

The continuing titles which shipped more issues category added 32,885 units compared to last month. August has five shipping weeks while September only had four. Only two titles, Ben Reilly, Scarlet Spider and Royals shipping more issues in September than in August.

The continuing titles with reasonably stable sales category removed 2,724 units compared to last month. Kamandi Challenge is selling better than I thought it might. This sort of series might be a bit indulgent on the part of the publisher and creators but it seems to be selling reasonably consistently from month-to-month after large second issue drop.

The continuing titles which shipped fewer issues category removed 169,420 units compared to last month. Star Wars and Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Again accounted for 108,557 of the units and the single issue of each title which shipped in September dropped by 1,044 units for Star Wars and 2,193 unit son the final issue of Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Again.

The continuing titles which lost sales category removed 374,106 units compared to last month. The title with the biggest month-to-month drop was Dark Nights: Metal which dropped by 112,510 units. Dark Nights: Metal #2 sold 149,487 units after a 44.86% drop. While the drop is large, the sales are still well above the 100,000 mark and the tie-in issues are seeing strong bumps in sales.

The new titles category added 1,163,456 units compared to last month. The various Generations one-shots accounted for 254,584 units of those units. These one-shots are showing up in this category because they were assigned series codes which normally implies future issues are expected. Venomverse accounted for 271,733 units across the four issues which shipped in September. The title launched with 105,398 units, dropped to 57,279 units on the second issue, followed by the third issue selling 55,111 units and ending the month with 53,945 units on Venomverse #4.

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Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Captain Phasma launched with 71,339 unit and dropped to 45,906 units on the second issue. Star Wars Adventures #1 launched strong for IDW with 49,184 units and dropped to 32,134 units with the second issue.

The returning titles category added 287,815 units compared to last month. There were 41 titles which returned to the top 300 list in September. Wild Storm and Doom Patrol was the top sellers of that group but the other titles averaged sales of around 6,418 units. Perhaps the most notable return was 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank #5 which concluded the five issue miniseries after four month hiatus with an issue which is a nearly year late. Delays like this on a miniseries are unfortunate as they can really hurt the story momentum and sales.

The suspended titles category removed 303,686 units compared to last month. All Star Batman was the top seller in this category. All Star Batman #14 shipped on October 4th and concludes the series.

The defunct titles category removed 927,331 units compared to last month. Secret Empire accounted for 244,683 units and the various Generations one-shots accounted for another 324,440 units. The Edge of Venomverse miniseries accounted for 81,822 units in the category but that gap was more than filled by the Venomverse miniseries.

The annuals/specials category added 60,935 units compared to last month. The Lenticular Editions of Action Comics #987 and #988 are treated as specials like I did for the Batman and Flash issues of The Button storyline. In this case, the regular versions sold around 25,00 units, down in sales over 37% compared to Action Comics #986, while the Lenticular Editions of Action Comics #987 and #988 sold 71,550 and 66,335 units respectively. That puts the net sales of Action Comics #987 at 96,867 units and Action Comics #988 at 91,303, units. If the two cover version had been at the same price point, the sales would have been combined and Action Comics #988 would have landed at rank 7 and Action Comics #988 at rank 8. The reason for the lenticular covers and the bump in sales is the OZ Effect storyline which ties into the meta-arc for the DC Universe.

The non-series category added 220,677 units compared to last month. There were a couple of high sellers in this category in September. Marvel Legacy #1 topped the top 300 comics list with 298,242 units. The loss 295,096 units from the various DC and Marvel Kirby specials last month is why this category is up only 220,667 units while having 572,394 units in sales in September. The Batman: The Murder Machine and Batman: The Red Death averaged sales of around 80,000 units and is yet another indicator of strong interest in the Dark Nights: Metal storyline.

The reorders category added 42,664 units compared to last month. The reorder activity of 14,682 units on Mister Miracle #1 is a good sign for that title as is the increase of 8,082 units on Mister Miracle #2.

The trend in cover prices towards $3.99 is something I think we've all noticed. In September 78.67% of the items in the top 300 comics were $3.99. With 41 items at the $2.99 price point is is safe to say it isn't gone yet but it is clearly being phased out. Here is a chart of the minimum, average and maximum cover prices from month-to-month for the top 300 comics:

Unsurprisingly, the average has been slowly going up from a little over $2.99 back in early 2003 to a little below $3.99 now. What I find more interesting is that the number of different price points has dropped significantly during that same time period from a high of 25 different price points down to the 5 price points.

Part of what this means is publishers seem less willing to do smaller incremental price hikes in favor of jumping from one "standard price point" to another. The other interesting thing about pricing in September was the range between the cheapest item in the top 300 and the most expensive item was the lowest it has been since early 2003 with just $3.04 between the lowest price of $2.95 and the highest price of $5.99. At this point this could be nothing more than a random fluke of the data. Just a few months ago, the range was as high as $12 between the lowest and highest price items on the top 300 comics list. One thing is certain: as the average price goes up, the ability for the average consumer to afford something costing two or three times the average cover price decreases. The ability for a publisher to put a higher price point on a event title because they think readers will buy it regardless of the price becomes more and more questionable. Ultimately, it comes down to how interested the consumers are in the story.

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.