clipped from pwbeat.publishersweekly.com

Any signs yet of the financial crisis affecting the periodical direct market in October? No, not really. Thanks to several high-profile books that weren’t published in September coming out again, DC Comics’ average periodical sales jumped back up, as expected. The publisher’s DC Universe line continued to be dominated by the blockbuster events Final Crisis and “Batman RIP” and their numerous spin-off and tie-in titles. In other news, Pa Kent died, Supergirl got another new creative team and Superman kicked off the “New Krypton” crossover, with modest results. In terms of new launches, there were Terror Titans, Vixen and, um, Superman & Batman vs. Vampires & Werewolves, none of which charted very highly, unsurprisingly. Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo’s original Joker hardcover book led the Graphic Novel chart with a very respectable 17,296 units, meanwhile.

clipped from pwbeat.publishersweekly.com

It’s a quiet October. SECRET INVASION continues into its seventh month. Just think, when the crossover began, Hillary Clinton was still campaigning for President…

The biggest new title of the month was ASTONISHING X-MEN: GHOST BOXES, and there’s also the “Original Sin” crossover between X-MEN: LEGACY and WOLVERINE: ORIGINS. And, er, that’s pretty much it - there are some new miniseries further down the charts, but otherwise, it’s a month of business as usual.

clipped from pwbeat.publishersweekly.com

So, did the financial meltdown have an effect on the periodical comics market in September? Probably not. DC Comics’ periodical business did take a massive hit, mind you, but that had more to do with Final Crisis than with the financial crisis. DC’s big blockbuster event failed to come out in September, and so did spin-off titles Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds and Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge. Batman, Justice League of America and Justice Society of America didn’t make it out, either, meaning that none of the publisher’s four top-selling titles on the August chart came out in September. The fact that DC’s average sales crashed to their lowest level in years didn’t come as a great surprise, consequently.

clipped from pwbeat.publishersweekly.com

The eight-month SECRET INVASION crossover continued to dominate Marvel’s output in September, sprawling across a whole load of tie-in books. Marvel are saving most of their new launches until after the event, but this month did see the launch of a new solo DEADPOOL series, as well as a second Stephen King adaptation, THE STAND.

As usual, Marvel had the largest market share in the direct market - the surprise is just how big it was. In dollar share, Marvel led DC by 45% to 27%. In unit share, the lead was a staggering 51% to 28%.

clipped from pwbeat.publishersweekly.com

With Final Crisis and Batman both showing up on shelves and spawning more crossover books, August was the strongest month for DC Comics’ periodical business in quite a while. Thanks to the new high-profile spin-off titles Final Crisis: Revelations, Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds, DC Universe: Last Will and Testament and Final Crisis: Superman Beyond, and to a persistently spectacular performance of the “Batman RIP” tie-ins, average sales of the publisher’s DC Universe line rose to their highest level to date in 2008.

The average periodical numbers of DC’s Vertigo and WildStorm sublabels, meanwhile, appear to be making some small progress towards climbing out of their respective all-time lows, although you wouldn’t guess it from looking at any individual titles.