Top 10 Selling Comics for the Week of June 24-30 - Ash Avenue Comics

Top 10 Selling Comics for the Week of June 24-30

Top 10 Selling Comics for the Week of June 24-30 - Ash Avenue Comics

It’s new comic book day, so here’s our look back at the week that was in comic book sales at Ash Avenue Comics. As always, we stack up our sales in the shop, and then compare our top sellers to a selection of sales from the industry at large. Comic news site Bleeding Cool runs a weekly article that captures sales data from the hundreds of brick and mortar comic book shops that use the ComicHub point of sale system, of which we are one such store, and we occasionally share how our customers buying habits stack up against the larger sales trends in comics.

There’s not a lot of head turning disparities this week, other than the third issue of the never before published Swamp Thing 1989 #3 making it to the sixth spot on our top 10. What’s more remarkable, is that we were shorted a stack of our copies by our distributor, so it seems likely that this one could have ranked in the 5th spot, without problem, had all of our copies arrived. Of note: the swan song of Marvel’s Ultimate line hit the shelves with some customer and reader enthusiasm, but with a decidedly different exit than entry.

There’s a huge slate of new titles out this week, so swing by the shop to grab some good reads to start July off right.

Weekly Shout-Out: July 5, 2023 - Ash Avenue Comics

Weekly Shout-Out: July 5, 2023

by Paul

Brethren, as the wet maltipoo barks at the blow dryer, so shall we bark at THIS WEEK’S COMICS! ARF ARF ARF ARF ARF

SPOTLIGHT TITLES

Barnstormers #1 (Dark Horse) by Tula Lotay and Scott Snyder: After 128 years of near-misses, the elusive four-quadrant Paul comic book has been achieved, casting the wide net that captures my four favorite things and combines them into a Pinnacle of Comics. Until now, no one comic could contain between its covers:

  • Robots
  • Neon
  • Old-timey Preston Sturges-style Americana
  • Tula Lotay

It also has biplanes, Pinkertons, and Fabergé eggs. And it’s double-sized for only $4.99. I really loved Barnstormers. I wish the second issue came out tomorrow. Strong, strong recommend.

Also available: Barnstormers #1 Cover B Dave Johnson | Barnstormers #1 Cover C Tula Lotay | Barnstormers #1 Cover D Massimo Carnevale | Barnstormers #1 Cover E Foil Tula Lotay

Knight Terrors: The Joker #1 [Of 2] (DC) by Stefano Raffaele and Matthew Rosenberg: Ever since The Dark Knight, you can practically see writers of Joker stories rolling up their sleeves and saying “Okay! Time to make my mark!” before hunkering down at the keyboard to deliver 22 pages of sphincter-tightening torture porn and graphic Harley Quinn abuse that aim to shine a light on the dark heart of a rotting social order but read like some incel paid a professional cartoonist to illustrate his collected Facebook status updates. Happily, for me, Matthew Rosenberg steers clear of this sort of thing in Knight Terrors: The Joker #1, sparing us the Joker’s hoary break-your-one-rule shtick by letting him dispatch with Batman on page 3 and then seek fulfillment by leaping feet-first into the true mouth of modern madness: the office. There’s some good bits with the Joker getting pushed to the edge by his chirpy colleagues in his busywork Wayne Enterprises department (“What is our office even called?” he asks in disbelief). I would have been happy starting in media res with the Joker already established at his desk, but there’s still enough of it for my taste, and Stefano Raffaele wrings as much comedy out of it as a DC artist can.

Also available: Joker The Man Who Stopped Laughing #9.1 Knight Terrors #1 Cover B Francesco Mattina Card Stock Variant (Of 2) | Joker The Man Who Stopped Laughing #9.1 Knight Terrors #1 Cover C Simone Bianchi Card Stock Variant (Of 2)

Delphinium, Part One (Strangers Publishing) by Pat Aulisio: This is a boutique sort of zine concerning an astronaut who finds himself marooned on an uninhabited planet called Delphinium. He strolls around, meets a space bug, eats an alien mushroom, and that’s about it. Look, not everything has to be pulse-pounding, okay? You’ll wear out the edge of your seat sitting on it like that all the time. This comic is soothing and agreeable, and I enjoyed exploring Aulisio’s dense alien landscape alongside my new astronaut buddy. Aulisio draws in a scratchy, primitive style that brings to mind Gary Panter, and the black-and-white astronaut really pops against the blue and purple surface of the planet. This is a nice graphic package all around. Delphinium isn’t a book for everyone, but if you’re a fan of comix-with-an-x, you should check it out.

AT A GLANCE

In the spirit of our age, here are some books I haven’t yet read but on which I will offer some opinions nevertheless.

Weird Work #1 (Image) by Shaky Kane and Jordan Thomas: I’ve always wanted to check out Shaky Kane’s work but, what with all the hurlyburly of modern life, have never quite managed it, so I’m looking forward to this chance. Weird Work bills itself as cross between L.A. Confidential and Futurama.

eJunky #1 (Scout) by Kyle Faehnrich and Nicholas Tana: If you like hardcore dystopian sci-fi with weird drugs, sinister corporations, and a hell of a lot of jargon, this book has your name on it. If your name is Nicholas Tana or Kyle Faenhrich, anyway. This is one of these Nonstop books Scout puts out now where they publish a first issue and then publish the whole series in one volume a few months later, sparing retailers the headache of having to analyze another sales trend. Good looking out, Scout Comics. This one has a nice Darick Robertson cover, too.

Gene Simmons’ Dominatrix #1 (Opus) by S.L. Gallant, Gene Simmons, and Holly Interlandi: Yes, this is a real comic. Yes, we did order it, and yes, we do have it in stock for purchase. Indeed, it turns out, this is actually a revival of an old series, as I was bowled over to discover recently while generating inventory for our ComicHub store. “When one of her sessions is interrupted by mysterious agents who seem to have hyper-strength,” reads the solicitation for this new series, “Dom’s narrow escape leads her down the rabbit hole of a global conspiracy.” I scoffed at this at first. How could Dominatrix’s skill set lend itself to unmasking and toppling a global conspiracy? I wondered. But then I remembered all the Garth Ennis comics I’ve read and thought, I guess there probably is always some demand for a good dominatrix amongst the secret chiefs of the global order. I’ll tell you this, though: Gene Simmons’ Dominatrix is going to have to network like no superheroine has networked before. Build that brand, girl.

Weekly Shout-Out: June 28, 2023

by Paul

My friends, amid this week’s torrential downpour of new comics, think of me as your umbrella.

SPOTLIGHT TITLES

The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #1 (Dark Horse) by Isaac Goodhart, James Tynion IV, and Tate Brombal: The inside front cover of this book informs us that Tynion’s contribution here is that it’s “based on an idea by James Tynion IV.” One imagines him sitting at the great oaken desk in the library of his grand estate, flickering candles illuminating the darkness, as, with widening eyes, he exclaims, “Great Scott! What if… Scott Pilgrim lived in the world of Something Is Killing the Children?” while the eyes of intricately-carved busts of James Tynions I-III seem to gaze upon him approvingly.

And well they should. This comic is delightful, with an appealing, well-designed protagonist trying to manage his undiagnosed mental issues in a way that rang true for me. He also meets a werewolf. Isaac Goodhart’s storytelling and linework bring back warm memories of 90s Duncan Fegredo and Peter Milligan books like Enigma and Girl. Off to a strong start.

Creed: The Next Round #1 (Boom!) by Wilson Santos, LaToya Morgan, and Jai Jamison: Set in the year 2033 (as the book mentions once and then wisely never brings up again), Adonis Creed’s daughter Amara is now a headstrong teen pugilist who feels too reined in by her protective father. Considering the casual, wanton violence superheroes resort to at the drop of a hat, it’s strange that there isn’t a thriving genre of boxing comics, which seem like they would be pretty fun to draw. A really cool thing about this book is that, as Creed film fans know but I had forgotten (I only saw the first one), Amara is completely deaf and her mother, Bianca, is mostly deaf, so they communicate using Black American Sign Language, something I had never heard of and appreciated learning a little bit about. Wilson Santos and letterer Andworld Design do a great job depicting this visually, and Santos takes care in staging the characters so that they only speak out loud when they know that Amara or Bianca can see their faces to lip-read. He’s also good at making the boxing suitably kinetic, and mostly stays on the right side of making the characters resemble their real-life actors without being distracting. Deserves a look.

Brynmore #1 by Damien Worm and Steve Niles (IDW): Underneath the cover image of the ghoulish visage of a character I’ve come think of as Count Not Appearing in This Comic is a nicely atmospheric story of a man returning to his hometown to re-build his shattered life by rehabbing a disused church into a house for himself. You don’t need me to tell you that rehabbing a disused church into a house for yourself is always a terrible idea and that you’re probably going to find something in the basement you’ll wish you hadn’t, as this guy does. Great work by Damien Worm, marred only by colors that are maybe a little too dark for their own good. Either he forgot that not everyone was going to read this on a tablet, or he was coloring with a different paper stock in mind and IDW switched it late in the process. There’s also a semi-transparent marble texture laid over the artwork for some reason. It’s distracting at first, but you get used to it. Steve Niles’ script is tasteful, restrained, and doesn’t cover up the nice artwork with unnecessary balloons so thank you for that, Steve.

The Exiled #5 (Massive/Whatnot) by Gabriel “Eskivo” Santos, Wesley Snipes, Adam Lawson, and Keith Arem: There’s a scene early in this comic where the main character (I think he’s the main character) wistfully regards what I take to be an old flame and says, “You always looked nice in a bulletproof vest.” Later on, the main villain (I think he’s the main villain) says to his lackey, “Quit petting that goddamn dog before I CUT ITS HEAD OFF!” It’s hard to tell if these scenes are meant to be funny because Eskivo draws them with the same gravity and import with which John Byrne drew the death of Phoenix. All I know is, they made me laugh. If, like me, you haven’t read The Exiled #1-4, The Exiled #5 probably isn’t the place to start. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t help much anyway. If you have warm memories of Extreme Studios books full of heroes with muscles so rippling they show through even the least binding fabric, The Exiled #5 will feel like a warm bath. It’s dumb, but it has a strange kind of power. For the life of me, I cannot imagine which of these roles Wesley Snipes thinks he would play in a movie version of this.

AT A GLANCE

Starfinder: Angels of the Drift #1 (Dynamite) by Edu Menna and James L. Sutter: If you’re in the market for a hot take, you can have this one for free: In 15-20 years, the dominant genre of comics will be gaming tie-ins. Speaking of which, here’s one. Also, one or more major companies will be publishing a significant number of Americanized adaptations of manga and anime. Take that to the bank. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, ya bank-tanking pipe-smoker.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin—The Lost Years #4 (IDW) by Ben Bishop, Kevin Eastman, and Tom Waltz: These Last Ronin books are good fun, but it does feel a bit like a sign of the times, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it feel like they had to lay off three of the Turtles due to budget cuts? “Sorry, Raphael, but with recent advances in AI we’re now able to thwart the Foot Clan with 75% more efficiency. We wish you luck in your future endeavors.”

Nudism Comes to Connecticut (Fantagraphics) by Susan Schade and Jon Buller: That’s a good title. That’s a title that makes you want to find out what happens. I bet those stuffy prep-mongers at Vineyard Vines didn’t take it lying down, that’s for sure.

Weekly Shout-Out: June 21, 2023 - Ash Avenue Comics

Weekly Shout-Out: June 21, 2023

by Drew

SPOTLIGHT TITLES

Ultimate Invasion #1 (Marvel) from Jonathan Hickman and Bryan Hitch: That is all. Ok, that’s not all. This is the event book of the summer from Marvel, and they’ve brought back some heavyweight talent to reintroduce the characters from the Ultimate universe, including the Maker, the diabolically evil alternate universe Reed Richards.

Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons #1 by Inaki Miranda and Frank Tieri (IDW): Here there be Kaiju! Godzilla on the high seas, battling many a mariner, and sinking many a ship. First appearance of the 16th century sub-mariner (only after the ship sinks, of course).

Incredible Hulk #1 by Nic Klein and Phillip Kennedy Johnson (Marvel) brings the latest iteration of the Hulk to readers, this time from writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson, hot off his run on DC’s Action Comics and Superman War World stories. Who is the Mother of Horrors, and what is her plan for the Hulk? Find out in this mother of issues 1s.

AT A GLANCE

Bone Orchard: Tenement #1 (Image): Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino’s horror series is back with the third storyline in this new shared universe. Tenement can be read without having read any of the other series released thus far, so if you are craving a healthy dose of cosmic nihilism and haven’t gotten around to the other stories, this is a fine place to dig in.

Wonder Woman #800 (DC): Cloonan and Walsh’s run comes to an end, and Tom King’s new storyline begins. An extra oversized 800th issue celebrating the world’s most famous woman of wonder!

Weekly Shout-Out: June 21, 2023 - Ash Avenue Comics
Batman: One Bad Day—The Riddler

Batman: One Bad Day—The Riddler HC by Mitch Gerads and Tom King (DC): One of the best Batman stories of the decade, and the best Riddler comic… ever? This Eisner-nominated one-shot is back in print, and in a spiffy hardcover. Perfect for those readers who like their comics in a bookshelf ready format.

Scarlet Witch Annual #1 by Carlos Nieto and Steve Orlando (Marvel): This fall’s Contest of Chaos kicks off with this issue, this is a great jumping in point for one of Marvel’s most acclaimed monthly series.

Weekly Shout-Out: June 14, 2023

by Paul

Last week we said Drew would be back. He’s not. But while the cat’s away, the mice will play, eh? Eh? Let’s you and I throw off the shackles of the humdrum roles society has cast us in and bloom to our fullest potential amidst the landscape of this week’s comics. What do you say? Take my hand, and together we’ll drive right off this week’s new release cliff, Thelma & Louise-style.

SPOTLIGHT TITLES

Santos Sisters #4 by Greg & Fake and Marc Koprinarov (Floating World): Your Pick of the Week is Santos Sisters today, Santos Sisters tomorrow, Santos Sisters forever. This loving send-up of classic Archie comics never disappoints, and is genuinely witty and funny in an era when the humor in comics usually makes me kind of squirm and wish I was elsewhere. My favorite series in a long time. Santos Sisters, long may you run.

By now you’ve probably heard that the brand-new characters debuting in Lorenzo de Felici and Robert Kirkman’s Void Rivals #1 (Image) rub elbows with the Autobot Jetfire about halfway through the issue (and if I hadn’t spoiled that for you, the giant Void-Rivals-meeting-Jetfire poster stuck to the glass on our front door would have), establishing them as part of Skybound’s new Energon Universe alongside the Transformers and G.I. Joe. Putting that to one side, Void Rivals is still worth a look on its own merits, starting off as a Moebius type of lonely-spaceman-on-an alien-world story before becoming what looks to me like a romantic comedy crossed with the plot of the 80s movie Enemy Mine. But don’t take my word for it; see what Robert Kirkman himself has to say about it in this video he made just for us!

AT A GLANCE

If, like me, you’ve anxiously awaited Joe Madureira’s triumphant return to monthly (-ish) comic art, get ready to keep on waiting because he’s only credited as the writer on Battle Chasers #10 (Image). Instead, Ludo Lullabi, Slumberland’s hottest artist, takes the storytelling reins on this long-anticipated return to the world of Battle Chasers that will leave readers asking, “How much do I really care about Red Monika?”

Anansi, the fan-favorite Ghanaian superhero from the Static Shock cartoon, makes his DC Universe debut this week in Static Team-Up: Anansi #1 by Charles Stewart III and Evan Narcisse (DC). Based on our web traffic, I think this one will be a sleeper hit, so don’t dawdle if you’re thinking about buying it because it’s going to sell out before you know it.

Writer Kelly Thompson, who somehow got top creative billing over artists Gurihiru on comic-of-the-year contender It’s Jeff! #1 despite it being an entirely wordless book, wraps up her long and well-regarded run on Captain Marvel with this week’s Captain Marvel #50 (Marvel), drawn by Javier Pina Marvel. If you stopped reading at issue #49, I bet you must be feeling pret-ty silly right now.