Here’s a look at the digital comics best-seller lists, as taken directly from the distributors’ websites on Sunday evening.
1. The Walking Dead #112
2. Injustice: Gods Among Us #26
3. Justice League #22
4. Batman #22
5. Superman Unchained #2
6. Hawkeye #12
7. Uncanny X-Men, vol. 3 #8
8. Superior Spider-Man #13
9. Batman ’66 #2
10. Young Avengers, vol. 2 #7
Marvel’s digital-first comic Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted Infinite Comic #1 didn’t make the list—it was number 11—which doesn’t bode well, because this should be the natural habitat for this comic. It’s not like it will sell much better anywhere else; in fact, I don’t think it’s available anywhere else.
Also, the answer to the question “What does it take to dislodge Injustice: Gods Among Us from the top spot?” seems to be “A new Walking Dead comic.” No surprise there.
As in previous weeks, all the top ten comics were released in the past week.
1. Injustice: Gods Among Us #1
2. Superman #1
3. The Walking Dead (collected edition), vol. 1
4. Injustice: Gods Among Us #3
5. The Walking Dead, vol. 2
6. Injustice: Gods Among Us #2
7. Cable & Deadpool, vol. 1: If Looks Could Kill
8. Injustice: Gods Among Us #6
9. Injustice: Gods Among Us #5
10. Injustice: Gods Among Us #4
We’re seeing the long tail here, with lots of people picking up first issues and first volumes of comics that have been out for a while. This list suggests that Kindle comics readers are not the Wednesday fanatics, but more casual readers who are sampling things their friends, or the blogs they read, have been talking about. That Cable & Deadpool book makes me wonder a bit. It’s not new—it came out last December—and they aren’t the most popular characters, so there can’t be that many people reading this book. For it to chart two weeks in a row suggests that the raw numbers might not be very high—that comics may not be selling that well on Kindle, so a few purchases will push a book up into the top ten. Since nobody releases raw numbers on digital comics, of course, there’s no way to check that. It’s just a guess.
1. Injustice: Gods Among Us #23
2. Injustice: Gods Among Us #25
3. Bleach, vol. 57
4. Injustice: Gods Among Us #26
5. Interview with the Vampire (free preview)
6. Superman: The Man of Steel #1
7. Superman (by John Byrne) #1
8. Batman: Earth One (free preview)
9. Fathom: Dawn of War Beginnings
10. Neozoic #1
Well, here’s something: Nook readers are starting to spend a little money. Last week, the Nook list was dominated by freebies; this week it’s … less dominated by freebies, with four paid comics instead of just two. And the one that should stand out is Bleach, which is making its first appearance in the Nook top ten. In fact, it’s the first manga to show up in any digital top ten list in the past few weeks. Aside from that, all the paid comics, even past the top ten, are issues of Injustice: Gods Among Us and collected editions of The Walking Dead.
iBooks
1. Injustice: Gods Among Us #26
2. My Little Pony: Micro Series #6: Apple Jack
3. The Walking Dead #112
4. The Walking Dead, vol. 18 (collected edition)
5. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #9
6. Injustice: Gods Among Us #25
7. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #1
8. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #8
9. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #7
10. Saga, vol. 1
The ponies are strong in this one. One is tempted to make snarky comments about Bronies, but knowing how many kids mess around on their parents’ iPads, I’m guessing that a lot of kids are reading these. Overall, this list is an interesting mix of new releases and older comics. It’s like it’s halfway between comiXology and Amazon, only with My Little Ponies all over the place.
It’s interesting to see, after a couple of weeks of doing these lists, how consistent they are. Clearly the digital comics most people are buying, across all platforms, are Injustice: Gods Among Us and The Walking Dead. Not coincidentally, both are tied to other media, a game and a television show, respectively, and they may be drawing in new readers via those media rather than from the traditional comics-shop crowd.
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