ComiXology’s chart gets skewed by a giveaway, Kindle and Nook remain about the same as always, and zombies begin to take over the iBookstore. Here’s our weekly look at the top-selling comics and graphic novels on four different digital platforms.
1. Batman #13
2. Red Sonja #1 (digital exclusive edition)
3. Lazarus #1
4. Judge Dredd #1
5. Revival #1
6. My Little Pony: Micro Series – Twilight Sparkle #1
7. The Walking Dead #118
8. Batman #26
9. Justice League #25
10. Justice League 3000 #1
It’s an interesting week at comiXology. The top ten seems to be dominated by older comics and #1 issues (Batman #13 kicks off the Death of the Family storyline), and here’s why: ComiXology has been offering a free comic every day for the past six days, and their top six comics are those free downloads. (The promotion goes on till December 20, so go ahead and click that link.) What’s the top comic people will pay money for? The Walking Dead #118. Here, let’s try this again without the free comics:
1. The Walking Dead #118
2. Batman #26
3. Justice League #25
4. Justice League 3000 #1
5. Uncanny X-Men, vol. 3, #15.INH
6. Justice League of America #10
7. Nightcrawler #1
8. Wolverine and the X-Men #39
9. Superman/Wonder Woman #3
10. Invincible #107
Aaah, that’s a little more like it. All this week’s comics from the Big 3, except for that Nightcrawler one, which is a couple of months old… I got nothin’. It’s interesting to compare the two lists and see how much more diverse the top one is; apparently a lot of people will read a Judge Dredd comic if you give it to them for free.
1. Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files: Ghoul Goblin, vol. 1
2. The Hedge Knight
3. The Walking Dead, vol. 1
4. The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes
5. The Essential Calvin and Hobbes
6. The Sandman, vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes
7. Justice League, vol. 1: Origin
8. Batman, vol. 1: The Court of Owls
9. Iron Man: Extremis
10. Ultimate Comics Wolverine vs. Hulk
With no free comics to distort the rankings, the Kindle list looks a lot like the last couple of weeks, although the order of the books keeps changing, so someone is buying them.
1. The Sandman: Overture #1
2. Naruto, vol. 63
3. Forever Evil #3
4. Smallville #1
5. It’s a Dog’s Life, Snoopy
6. Sandman #1
7. The World According to Lucy
8. Snoopy at the Bat
9. The Walking Dead, vol. 1
10. Adventures of Superman #1
It’s the same books, in the same order, as in the last few weeks, except that Demon Love Spell is missing. So apparently everyone but shoujo manga fans was buying Nook comics this week, but it’s interesting how they always buy the same comics in the same order.
iBooks
1. The Walking Dead #118
2. Blue is the Warmest Color
3. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #12
4. The Walking Dead, vol. 19
5. The Walking Dead, vol. 1
6. The Walking Dead #117
7. The Walking Dead: Compendium Two
8. The Walking Dead, vol. 18
9. My Little Pony: Micro Series #9 – Spike
10. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #13
Six out of the top ten on iBooks are different versions of The Walking Dead, both single-issue comics, collected editions, and one volume of the Compendium, which is a deluxe collected edition. The fact that volume 1 perennially makes the best-seller list bodes well, of course, because it means new readers are coming in. It’s also true, though, that iBooks users aren’t scrambling to get this week’s new comics; the only title on the chart that came out this week is The Walking Dead #118, although it’s true that the number 11 slot is pre-orders of My Little Pony: Micro Series #10 – Luna, which is out next week.
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
