“Rebirth,” “Civil War II” tops comics sales for May 2016

iPad and newspaper

Last updated on December 10th, 2021

It’s rebooting time again at DC Comics, with “DC Universe: Rebirth” #1 as the top-selling comic for May 2016. A few of DC’s final pre-Rebirth books are also in the top 10.

However, not to be outdone, Marvel’s “Civil War II” #0 came in second place. Also appearing in the top 10 is the now-controversial “Captain America: Steve Rogers” #1 comic. Last month‘s #1, “Black Panther,” has come in in ninth place, keeping with the usual inflated numbers for first issues.

Here’s a list of the top 10 selling books for May 2016. Figures are from Diamond and Comichron.com.

Rank Title Price Publisher
1 DC UNIVERSE: REBIRTH #1 $2.99 DC
2 CIVIL WAR II #0 $4.99 MAR
3 THE PUNISHER #1 $3.99 MAR
4 BATMAN #52 $3.99 DC
5 CAPTAINAMERICA: STEVE ROGERS #1 $4.99 MAR
6 STAR WARS #19 $3.99 MAR
7 JUSTICE LEAGUE #50 $5.99 DC
8 DARTH VADER #20 $4.99 MAR
9 BLACK PANTHER #2 $3.99 MAR
10 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #12 $3.99 MAR

On the trade paperback and graphic novel side, the top seller is, once again, the nearly-30-year-old “The Killing Joke.” I’m wondering if the hype related to the upcoming direct-to-video animated version of this comic helped boost sales. Fortunately, the rest of the top 10 are books written after the Reagan administration, including “Chew,” “Star Wars,” and “Spider-Gwen.” See the full list of top graphic novels below.

Rank Title Price Publisher
1 BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE SPECIAL EDITION HC $17.99 DC
2 DESCENDER VOLUME 2 TP (MR) $14.99 IMA
3 CIVIL WAR TP $24.99 MAR
4 BLACK SCIENCE VOLUME 4: GODWORLD TP (MR) $14.99 IMA
5 WE STAND ON GUARD DELUXE HC (MR) $24.99 IMA
6 CHEW VOLUME 11: LAST SUPPERS TP (MR) $14.99 IMA
7 THE JOKER: ENDGAME TP $24.99 DC
8 STAR WARS: KANAN VOLUME 2: FIRST BLOOD TP $17.99 MAR
9 SPIDER-GWEN VOLUME 1: GREATER POWER TP $17.99 MAR
10 SPIDER-MAN/DEADPOOL: DON’T CALL IT A TEAM UP TP $34.99 MAR

The top five comics publishers’ sales, by dollar share:

  1. Marvel, 39.64%
  2. DC, 26.45%
  3. Image, 8.38%
  4. IDW, 5.7%
  5. Dark Horse, 3.25%

The top five comics publishers by unit share:

  1. Marvel, 44.8%
  2. DC, 26.34%
  3. Image, 7.95%
  4. IDW, 4.99%
  5. Boom! Studios, 2.34%

Total comics/graphic novel sales have dropped by 6.46%/4.77% (by dollars/units respectively) since April 2016. Since May 2015, they’ve dropped by 9.05%/16.58%. For the year to date, comics sales are down by 5.11%/12.72% compared to 2015.

As usual, Marvel’s got a comfortable lead and dominance of comics sales. But we’ll see if June (at least for that month) finally sees DC beat Marvel with the first big wave of Rebirth books.

Anthony Dean

Anthony Dean is the owner of Diverse Tech Geek and Diverse Media Notes.

View all posts by Anthony Dean →

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *