DC Claims Absolute Batman #1 is 2024's Best-Selling Comic, But Is It?

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Posted in: Batman, Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, DC Comics | Tagged: Absolute Batman, DogMan

DC Claims Absolute Batman #1 is 2024's Best-Selling Comic, But Is It?

DC Comics Claims Absolute Batman #1 is 2024's Best-Selling Comic, But Is It Really? No, no it is not. And here's why.

Published Tue, 19 Nov 2024 12:03:08 -0600
by Rich Johnston
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Article Summary

  • DC claims Absolute Batman #1 is 2024's top comic, but it trails behind Dog Man's massive sales.
  • Absolute Batman achieved 400,000 sales, a fraction of Dog Man's multi-million print run.
  • Kids' comics like Bunny Vs Monkey outsell Batman despite limited sales data.
  • Rising kids' comic readers may boost future Batman sales against manga's popularity.

In a new press release, DC Comics states that "As Absolute Batman #1 from creators Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, Frank Martin and Clayton Cowles tops the charts at retail after a successful launch and multiple additional printings, the new DC comic book series is undisputedly the bestselling comic of 2024." Undistputeably? Bleeding Cool reported that the first issue of Absolute Batman had a print run of around a quarter of a million, and sales reports of subsequent second, third and black-and-white printings have taken that up to around 400,000, all in. But that pales in comparison to Dog Man And The Scarlet Shedder, which had a five million copy print run in 2024 and, between March and June of this year, sold 880,000 in the USA and sold 103,000 in the UK alone up to August. It's well over a million copies at this stage, coming up to two.

That shouldn't in any way tarnish Absolute Batman's success, and the odds are that it will indeed top the comic book direct market charts in-store at the end of next month, as its rival Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 relies heavily on retailer-exclusive variants that don't get picked up by more general market surveys.

But it may also be worth looking at the success of Bunny Vs. Monkey, Heartstopper, Investi-Gators, The Baby-Sitters Club, Big Nate, Cat Kid, Wings Of Fire, and many more comic books aimed at children, which are sold in bookstores, at book fairs, and into libraries with print runs and sales many times that of Absolute Batman, even if the sales figures are harder to come by.

Of course, such large audiences for comic books from kids may well lead to increased sales for the likes of Batman in the future. Anyone fancy The Dark Dogman Returns in five years? Jokestoppers? Watchmonkey? It could well happen… that is, if manga doesn't hoover them all up.

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