The Comic Industry Just Had The Best Sales Month In Recorded History. You Can Thank Rocket Raccoon.

I’ve talked often about how successful comic book movies don’t necessarily get new readers into comic shops (and don’t really try to) but it seems that just this once, it’s happened. People freaking love a potty-mouthed raccoon a whole lot.

Blastr reports on recent sales data from Diamond Comic Distributors explaining Marvel Comics’ Rocket Raccoon #1 from Skottie Young was the best-selling comic of July. Exact figures have not been released but Blastr says it’s looking around the 300,000 mark. Comichron, however, cites July 2014 as the best sales month for comics since Diamond started keeping track of the information.

July in recent years has tended to be a month where things really get going for comics; sales did indeed, reaching their highest dollar value in the Diamond Exclusive Era which began in 1997. Comics shops in North America ordered more than $53.6 million in comics, graphic novels, and magazines, topping $50 million for the second time and besting October’s previous Diamond-Era record of $50.3 million.

Granted, that’s what comic shops purchased, not what they sold, but I think it’s safe to say Guardians of the Galaxy’s promotional efforts got folks excited for the characters in advance of the film’s release. The Legendary Star-Lord #1 was also a top selling landing at #9 on the charts. Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman #33 took #2 in July for single issue sales while Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead Volume 21: All Out War Part 2 was the top-selling graphic novel.

Blastr writes, “The July numbers beat the previous high of $50.32 million set in October 2013, with a month led by The Walking Dead 115, Batman 24, Infinity 4, Forever Evil 2 and Infinity 5. The top trade paperback collection that month was Batman Volume 3: Death of the Family.”

What are your thoughts on the numbers? Are they all because of our weekly comics recommendation series, Pull it Together?

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Jill Pantozzi

Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."

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