Here’s our weekly look at the digital comics best-sellers on four different platforms; note that the lists are updated hourly so this is just a snapshot.
1. Injustice: Gods Among Us #30
2. All-New X-Men #15
3. Superior Spider-Man #15
4. Avengers, vol. 5 #17
5. Earth 2 #15
6. Green Lantern #23
7. Detective Comics #23
8. Hunger #2
9. Trillium #1
10. Trinity of Sin: The Phantom Stranger #11
As usual with comiXology, it’s a list of DC and Marvel single-issue comics, but the latest issue of The Manhattan Projects, Jonathan Hickman’s Image series, made #11. When I checked the list last night, the first issue of the indy digital-first comic The Bunker was in the #10 spot. It has now dropped a few spaces, but it’s impressive to see a comic completely unaffiliated with any major publisher do so well. I have a special interest in this comic because I talked to the creators last week, and also because it’s a damn good comic.
1. The Walking Dead, vol. 1
2. Deadpool, vol. 1: Secret Invasion
3. Injustice: Gods Among Us #1
4. Wolverine by Claremont and Miller
5. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
6. Superman #1
7. Injustice: Gods Among Us #2
8. Injustice: Gods Among Us #3
9. Batman, vol. 2: The City of Owls
10. Injustice: Gods Among Us #4
As always, the Amazon list (this is for comics that use Kindle Panel View) is a mix of single-issue comics and graphic novels.
1. Injustice: Gods Among Us #23
2. Injustice: Gods Among Us #25
3. Injustice: Gods Among Us #29
4. Star Trek The Next Generation/Doctor Who Assimilation #1
5. Injustice: Gods Among Us #28
6. Injustice: Gods Among Us #26
7. Snoopy at the Bat
8. It’s a Dog’s Life, Snoopy
9. The World According to Lucy
10. The Walking Dead, vol. 1
I pulled out the free comics to make this list comparable to the others, but it’s worth noting that Nook users are spending a bit more; the first seven comics were not free. It’s also an odd mix, what with the Walking Dead, Injustice, Peanuts, and a Star Trek TNG/Doctor Who crossover. Those Peanuts comics might be worth a second look.
iBooks
1. Injustice: Gods Among Us #30
2. Injustice: Gods Among Us #31
3. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #9
4. Injustice: Gods Among Us #29
5. Injustice: Gods Among Us #1
6. Injustice: Gods Among Us #28
7. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #1
8. Batman Beyond 2.0 #1
9. Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Search, part 2
10. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #3
Let’s look at Injustice: Gods Among Us as it appears on these list. The most recent issues, including #31, which is a pre-order, make the top of the iBooks list, but issue #1 is on there too, so people are still discovering it. Amazon allows pre-orders as well, but I have yet to see an upcoming issue make the list—on the contrary, the early issues in the series dominate the Kindle list. Are people discovering it there and then moving to another platform? Nook users are keeping current with the series via their devices, but they aren’t reading a whole lot of other stuff. And the most recent issue always tops the comiXology list, but other issues don’t make the top ten at all. That may be not so much because sales of Injustice are weak but because comiXology sells a lot of other comics.
One would expect the first issue of the digital-first Batman Beyond 2.0 to be on the comiXology list, and perhaps it was on Wednesday, but by the time I looked at the best-sellers, on Monday morning, it had slipped to #17. It’s interesting that the debut issue makes the iBooks list, though, breaking up the Injustice/My Little Pony cartel.
A former book editor and newspaper reporter, Brigid Alverson started MangaBlog to keep track of her daughters¹ reading habits and now covers comics and graphic novels for Comic Book Resources , School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly Comics World, Robot 6, and MTV Geek. She also edits the Good Comics for Kids blog at School Library Journal. Brigid was a judge for the 2012 Eisner Awards. Send her an email to wordballoons@gmail.com