Best Selling Non-Super Hero comics of April 2013

Best Selling Non-Super Hero comics of April 2013

Here we will analyze the 50 best selling comic books that venture into drama, sci-fi, horror, fantasy, movie/tv franchises and kids titles.    46 comics this month had orders of over 10,000 copies each !

The strength of Walking Dead has helped give rise to a growing number of non-superhero comic book titles.   Image leads the way with 3 of the top 4 titles.   This chart is impressive showing that 50 of the Top 200 best selling comics are non-superhero that is an impressive 25% of all comic sales.   However note that only 4 titles make the Diamond Top 50 showing that hero books still have a grip on the biggest overall sales and consistently best selling titles.

What is unique to this list in particular though is the growing fan base has helped increase the values of most of these books early issues.    We all know about Walking Dead #1 being worth $1000.00 and leading the pack for most valuable 21st century comic book.   However early issues of Saga, Star Wars, East Of West, My Little Pony, Adventure Time, Sex, Morning Glories, Manhattan Projects, Revival, Thief Of Thieves, Doctor Who, Five Ghosts, Bedlam etc. have ALL gone up in value and all moved into numerous reprintings.

Image in the past year has been the hot bed for back issue price increases with most of the titles on this list.   In this particular month we even see 2nd printing of East Of West #1 make this Top 50 chart at #48 which is considerably high for a non “big 2” reprint book.

The highest ranking books on the list which have NOT seen price increases yet include Jirni and Constantine.   In the case of Jirni #1 it was low priced at $ 1.00 which helped create the huge print run of 35,000 so that book is not likely to ever go up in value.  Constantine has potential but is not a new character (Swamp Thing #37 in 1985).   This could help create interest in older appearances but is no guarantee of the demand in the new book.  However there are 2 things in this book’s favor.  First of all the #1 1st print has sold out and the #2 issue had a print run almost as high as #1 meaning that the quality is there and retailers did not drastically reduce their orders like they usually do from a #1 to a #2 issue.

Star Wars, My Little Pony, Buffy, Adventure Time, Star Trek, Doctor Who, GI  Joe are all strong franchises with orders of 13,000 each or higher.   The cartoon titles My Little Pony and Adventure Time have both sold out original print runs and have been some of the most impressive selling titles ever to a potentially younger audience.   Regular Show #1 comes out in a month and will likely rank just as high with potential of a sell out of #1.

The Big Two = DC has a number of titles always appearing due to their non superhero “Vertigo” line.   Marvel really seems to be missing the boat in the non-hero genre with only 2 titles in the entire Top 50.

IDW is the kingpin of franchise titles so they have a strong showing on this list.

Small indie publishers with strong showings on the chart include Aspen, Boom, Avatar, Oni all with 1 title each.  These are books to watch in the future and will be some of the most likely books to increase in value as these books have reached a lot of hype.

Of course this list is up for debate as some titles cross-over with hero characters so you can argue that some books on this list might not truly belong here but it gives us a great overview in comparing what is popular and how the publishers are selling on their top non-hero books.

WalkingDead109Saga12StarWars4

RANK – DIAMOND – TITLE – ISSUE – PRICE – PUBLISHER – PRINT RUN

1 8 Walking Dead 109 $2.99 Image 90362
2 27 Saga 12 $2.99 Image 53339
3 40 Star Wars 4 $2.99 Dark Horse 45019
4 46 East of West 2 $3.50 Image 41838
5 60 Jirni 1 $1.00 Aspen 35777
6 65 My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic 6 $3.99 IDW 33903
7 69 Constantine 2 $2.99 DC 30789
8 73 Swamp Thing 19 $2.99 DC 29254
9 79 Animal Man 19 $2.99 DC 27562
10 91 My Little Pony Micro Series 3 $3.99 IDW 23338
11 95 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 Freefall 20 $2.99 Dark Horse 21901
12 97 Adventure Time 15 $3.99 Boom 21682
13 101 Sex 2 $2.99 Image 21342
14 103 Morning Glories 26 $1.00 Image 20918
15 104 Adventure Time Fionna & Cake 4 $3.99 Boom 20760
16 115 Morbius Living Vampire 4 $2.99 Marvel 17544
17 116 Manhattan Projects 11 $3.50 Image 17517
18 120 Star Wars Darth Vader & Ninth Assassin 1 $3.50 Dark Horse 17278
19 121 Revival 9 $2.99 Image 16977
20 123 All Star Western 19 $3.99 DC 16838
21 125 Star Wars Legacy 2 $2.99 Dark Horse 16384
22 131 Star Trek Countdown To Darkness 4 $3.99 IDW 15782
23 132 Fables 128 $2.99 DC 15606
24 133 Fairest 14 $2.99 DC 15269
25 135 Thief of Thieves 13 $2.99 Image 15201
26 138 Doctor Who Prisoners of Time 4 $3.99 IDW 14653
27 142 Angel & Faith 21 $2.99 Dark Horse 14102
28 150 G.I. Joe Cobra Files 1 $3.99 IDW 13231
29 152 Five Ghosts Haunting of Fabian Gray 2 $2.99 Image 13127
30 154 Chew 33 $2.99 Image 12964
31 158 Conan The Barbarian 15 $3.50 Dark Horse 12845
32 160 Bedlam 6 $3.50 Image 12607
33 161 Django Unchained 3 $4.99 DC 12561
34 162 Dark Tower Gunslinger Evil Ground 1 $3.99 Marvel 12473
35 164 Star Wars Dark Times Fire Carrier 3 $2.99 Dark Horse 12435
36 169 Abe Sapien Dark & Terrible 1 $3.50 Dark Horse 11783
37 172 I Vampire 19 $2.99 DC 11469
38 173 Sword of Sorcery 7 $3.99 DC 11412
39 177 BPRD Vampire 2 $3.50 Dark Horse 11072
40 178 Uber 0 $3.99 Avatar 10849
41 182 Lost Vegas 2 $3.50 Image 10608
42 184 Locke & Key Omega 4 $3.99 IDW 10466
43 186 BPRD Hell On Earth 106 $3.50 Dark Horse 10419
44 187 Doctor Who Vol. 3 8 $3.99 IDW 10414
45 188 G.I. Joe 3 $3.99 IDW 10372
46 189 Helheim 2 $3.99 Oni 10256
47 191 1 For $1 Mind Mgmt 1 $1.00 Dark Horse 9926
48 193 East of West 1 $3.50 Image 9742
49 194 Magic The Gathering Path of Vengeance 4 $4.99 IDW 9734
50 196 Massive 11 $3.50 Dark Horse 9661

I am always happy to hear your comments and thoughts/criticisms on any of my posts.

Terry Hoknes (author) loves analyzing statistics and watching the growth and fall of comic titles over a period of time.  He sells all the hot new comics at www.HoknesComics.com and also self-publishes a series of books called “Investing In Comic Books” that focus on the Golden, Silver and Bronze ages of comics.

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