Exclusive: May's Top 100 Best-Selling Comics

The United States is dominated by Hydra, with Captain America at its head, in Nick Spencer, Steve McNiven, and Jay Leisten's Secret Empire #1 from Marvel Comics, May's best-selling comic book.

Marvel Comics had six titles in May’s top ten. In addition to Secret Empire #1, Mike Costa and Tradd Moore's Venom #150 ranked #2; Christopher Hastings, Edgar Salazar, and Allen Martinez's Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout #1 ranked #5; Nick Spencer, Andrea Sorrentino, and Rod Reis' Secret Empire #2 ranked #6; Spencer, Sorrentino, and Reis' Secret Empire #3 ranked 8; and Gerry Duggan and Aaron Kuder's All-New Guardians of the Galaxy #1 ranked #9.

DC Entertainment had three titles in the top ten: the lenticular edition of Batman #22, the third chapter of "The Button" by Tom King, Joshua Williamson, and Jason Fabok, ranked #3; the lenticular edition of The Flash #22, the final chapter of "The Button" by Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter, ranked #4; and King and Mitch Gerads' Batman #23 ranked #7.

Image Comics' The Walking Dead #167 by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Stefano Gaudino, and Cliff Rathburn was the publisher's best-selling book at #10.

Among the premier publishers, P. Craig Russell and Scott Hampton's Neil Gaiman's American Gods: Shadows #3 was Dark Horse Comics’ top book at #95, while IDW Publishing's top-ranked book was Batman/TMNT Adventures #6, the final chapter of their crossover with DC Entertainment, at #114.

TOP 100 COMIC BOOKS
Based on Total Unit Sales of Products Invoiced in May 2017

This information may not be reproduced in any format without the express permission of Diamond Comic Distributors.

How does Diamond calculate the charts? It all starts at the comic book shop.

Data for Diamond’s sales charts — which includes the monthly market shares and all top product charts — are compiled by Diamond Comic Distributors from sales made to thousands of comic book specialty shops located in North America and around the world.  Additional sales made to online merchants and other specialty stores may be included as well.

Unit and dollar market shares are calculated based upon orders for comic books, graphic novels, and magazines invoiced and shipped to Diamond customers during any given month, which comprises pre-orders, advance reorders, and reorders, minus any copies that are received back from a title marked as returnable. Please note that comics marked with an asterisk (*) have had their reported quantities reduced due to retailer returnability, and thus may rank lower on the charts than their actual sales would reflect.

About the Diamond Sales Index: The Sales Index of selected monthly Best Seller Charts is presented as a comparative tool for retailers and publishers. It presents Diamond’s monthly sales for individual titles in relation to Diamond’s total sales for the issue of DC Comics' monthly Batman comic book. (Batman is used as the control title – with a value of 100 – because sales of Batman usually remain relatively stable. This month, as Batman did not ship, Convergence #8 from DC Entertainment was used as the control index.) This allows for easy comparison to other titles and helps retailers gauge their orders for all other titles. This formula is only a guide, other factors may impact a titles’ ability to sell in certain locations and clientele.