March Comics Sales: IMAGE continues to grow; everybody loves The Bat-Man

Grow, Image! Grow! Swell up, and strike at the heart of the Mighty Two. Or at least keep pumping out all the creator-owned comic books that get my geek-lit-sequential-art-nipples hard.

“Batman” maintained its spot as the #1 selling comic in America for March 2014, leading DC Comics to take four of the top five positions on Diamond’s monthly sales charts. Meanwhile, Marvel, led by “Superior Spider-Man” #29 at position #5, took five of the remaining top ten positions, with Image’s “The Walking Dead” #124 landing at #9.

But DC’s Top Ten domination didn’t translate into the publisher ruling the charts overall. Marvel commanded 34.31% of the Direct Market’s dollars, and 38.17% in units to DC’s 25.4% and 29.02%, respectively. Image Comics, meanwhile, increased significantly over March’s numbers, grabbing an 11.38% / 11.04% share of the market.

Buoying Image’s numbers was the latest collection of “The Walking Dead,” which was the best selling graphic novel of the month, followed by “Saga” volume 3.

Overall, March saw a boost over February in both Dollars and Units; though it was down significantly from March 2013. [CBR]