Every Friday I highlight the digital comics bargains of the week, and every Sunday I look at the best-seller lists, and seldom do the two converge. This week is the exception (except for the Nook store).
1. Forever Evil #3
2. Amazing X-Men #1
3. Batman, vol. 1: The Court of Owls
4. Superman Unchained #4
5. Batman/Superman #5
6. Earth 2 #17
7. Cataclysm: The Ultimates’ Last Stand #1
8. Detective Comics, vol. 1: Faces of Death
9. Batman and Robin, vol. 1: Born to Kill
10. Justice League, vol. 1: Origin
We’re seeing something that seldom happens on comiXology: Graphic novels make the best-seller list. All four are Batman graphic novels, the first volumes of a number of New 52 series, which were marked down this weekend from $12.99 to $3.99. ComiXology readers aren’t usually bargain hunters—the 99-cent sales seldom make a big impact on the top ten—but apparently a good percentage of them found these deals too good to resist. If you look at the top 20, even more of these books show up. That makes sense: These are people who are used to paying $3.99 for a 28-page comic, so the graphic novels are a super deal. You would think that comiXology readers would own all the single issues in these trade collections already, but maybe some do not—or maybe their collecting instinct extends to digital and they want to have both the single issues and the trades.
1. Batman, vol. 1: The Court of Owls
2. Justice League, vol. 1: Origin
3. The Hedge Knight: The Graphic Novel
4. Batman and Robin, vol. 1: Born to Kill
5. The Sandman, vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes
6. The Dark Knight, vol. 1: Knight Terrors
7. Ultimate Comics Wolverine vs. Hulk
8. Detective Comics, vol. 1: Faces of Death
9. Batgirl, vol. 1: The Darkest Reflection
10. Nightwing, vol. 1: Traps and Trapezes
Kindle users, on the other hand, love a good sale, and every book on the top ten is discounted from its list price. Amazon actually discounted those DC graphic novels more heavily than comiXology, pricing them at $3.03; the only two books on the list that cost more than that are The Hedge Knight, a George R.R. Martin that just came out this week (and has already been on the best-seller list for weeks on the strength of pre-orders) and the first volume of Neil Gaiman’s original Sandman series, which has also been on the list for weeks, no doubt because of the new Sandman prequel series that just launched.
1. The Sandman: Overture #1
2. Naruto, vol. 63
3. Forever Evil #3
4. It’s a Dog’s Life, Snoopy
5. Sandman #1
6. The World According to Lucy
7. Snoopy at the Bat
8. The Walking Dead, vol. 1
9. Injustice: Gods Among Us #1
10. Big Nate: Game On
Barnes and Noble was also offering the New 52 graphic novels for $3.99, but nobody was biting; Nook users seem to prefer to save money by downloading the free stuff. That Big Nate book was Number 37 on the overall list, although Nook is the only one that mixes free with paid comics, so it may not be all that fair to keep pointing this out. Still, it’s odd that none of the DC graphic novels made the top ten, or even the top 20; the first one I could find, the Justice League one, showed up at number 89 on the overall list. It’s interesting that Viz’s most popular titles, Bleach and Naruto, usually make the Nook charts the week they come out; there must be a substantial manga-reading community, which occasionally dwarfs the Peanuts fans and the folks who prefer free downloads of action comics featuring scantily clad ladies.
iBooks
1. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #12
2. My Little Pony 2013 Annual
3. The Sandman: Overture #1
4. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #3
5. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #1
6. Blue is the Warmest Color
7. Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Search, part 3
8. The Walking Dead, vol. 1
9. Batman, vol. 1: The Court of Owls
10. Justice League, vol. 1: Origins
Nothing knocks the latest issue of My Little Pony out of the top slot in the iBookstore, but the new Sandman series makes it to the number 3 spot. The rest of the list serves to demonstrate the eclectic tastes of iPad owners, and yes, two of the New 52 books do make it onto the list.
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