‘The Walking Dead’ shambles to top of October sales charts

(CBR) While DC Comics and Marvel continued to jockey for the top of the direct market heap in October, Image Comics took top honors as “The Walking Dead” once again shambled to the number one position, passing “Batman,” “Infinity” and “Sandman” on its way to the top. The tenth anniversary of Robert Kirkman’s unkillable zombie epic featured a number of variant covers and kicked off the series’ biggest storyline to date, a combination which fueled its surge to the head of the charts.
DC followed up on its record-setting Villains Month-fueled September by leading the Direct Market in dollars, even as Marvel inched its longtime competition out in Units sold. The $6.99 “Batman” #24 and $4.99 “Sandman: Overture” made sure of that, helped along by the top ten debut of “Superman/Wonder Woman,” “Forever Evil” #2 and “Justice League” #24. “Infinity” took two top ten positions for Marvel, as did two issues of “Superior Spider-Man.”
Overall, DC accounted for 31.02% of the Direct Market’s Dollars in October to Marvel’s 30.47%, and 33.15% of it’s Units to Marvel’s 33.63%. Image Comics’ Dollar share rose from 6.87% in September to 9.26% i October, while Units rose from 7.00% to 10.85%.
Check out the charts and graphs below and come back next week for John Mayo’s look at the Top 300 and in-depth analysis.

TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS

PUBLISHER

DOLLAR

SHARE

UNIT

SHARE

DC ENTERTAINMENT

31.02%

33.15%

MARVEL COMICS

30.47%

33.63%

IMAGE COMICS

9.26%

10.85%

IDW PUBLISHING

6.27%

4.96%

DARK HORSE COMICS

5.36%

4.70%

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

2.47%

2.54%

BOOM! STUDIOS

1.84%

1.78%

EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS LTD

1.40%

0.32%

ARCHIE COMICS

1.01%

1.24%

AVATAR PRESS

1.01%

0.90%

OTHER NON-TOP 10

9.88%

5.94%

COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS

DOLLARS

UNITS

OCTOBER 2013 VS. SEPTEMBER 2013

COMICS

0.30%

-0.57%

GRAPHIC NOVELS

16.57%

16.62%

TOTAL COMICS/GN

4.68%

0.55%

OCTOBER 2013 VS. OCTOBER 2012

COMICS

11.90%

8.69%

GRAPHIC NOVELS

-4.65%

0.05%

TOTAL COMICS/GN

6.36%

7.98%

YEAR-TO-DATE 2013 VS. YEAR-TO-DATE 2012

COMICS

12.42%

9.46%

GRAPHIC NOVELS

4.69%

3.25%

TOTAL COMICS/GN

9.95%

8.96%

TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS

RANK

DESCRIPTION

PRICE

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

THE WALKING DEAD #115 (MR)

2.99

AUG130518-M

IMA

2

BATMAN #24

6.99

AUG130235-M

DC

3

INFINITY #4

3.99

AUG130735-M

MAR

4

FOREVER EVIL #2

3.99

AUG130159-M

DC

5

INFINITY #5

3.99

AUG130740-M

MAR

6

JUSTICE LEAGUE #24

3.99

AUG130172-M

DC

7

SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN #1

3.99

AUG130187-M

DC

8

THE SANDMAN: OVERTURE #1 (MR) [*]

4.99

AUG130325-M

DC

9

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #20

3.99

AUG130787-M

MAR

10

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #19

3.99

AUG130784-M

MAR

TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS

RANK

DESCRIPTION

PRICE

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

BATMAN HC VOL 03 DEATH OF THE FAMILY

$24.99

MAY130216

DC

2

AVENGERS: ENDLESS WARTIME HC

$24.99

JUN130674

MAR

3

THE JOKER: DEATH OF THE FAMILY HC

$29.99

JUN130256

DC

4

BATMAN: THE COURT OF OWLS BOOK & MASK SET

$24.99

MAY130220

DC

5

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER VOL. 6: THE SEARCH PART 3

$10.99

JUN130051

DAR

6

HELLBOY: MIDNIGHT CIRCUS HC

$14.99

JUN130031

DAR

7

BATMAN VOLUME 2: THE CITY OF OWLS TP

$16.99

JUL130235

DC

8

LAZARUS VOLUME 1 TP (MR)

$9.99

AUG130621

IMA

9

SAGA VOLUME 1 TP (MR)

$9.99

AUG120491

IMA

10

SAGA VOLUME 2 TP (MR)

$14.99

APR130443

IMA