BLACKEST NIGHT, BUFFY & MARVEL Are Diamond's Sept. Stars

DC Comics is the majority shareholder of September 2009's Top 10 comic books sold in the comic book Direct Market, but industry-wide retailers are still most bullish on Marvel Comics' stock as the publisher again came out atop of the monthly Market Share charts.

According to Diamond Comic Distributors, who released their preliminary sales figures for September on Thursday, DC's Blackest Night #3 was the month's bestselling comic book, followed by Captain America: Reborn #3, in a carbon copy of last month's #1 and 2 comics.

Mainly off the strength of Blackest Night, DC charted six of the Top 10 titles of the month, with Marvel charting the other four of course. .

Dark Horse both won and placed on the September graphic novel/trade paperback chart, with the latest volume of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 (#5, "Predator and Prey") winning the month with the second volume of Umbrella Academy ("Dallas") appropriately coming in second place.

The Market Share charts remained a Marvel strong suit, however, with publisher taking a robust 47.58% of the Unit Share to DC's 32.74%, and 40.72% Dollar Share, to DC's 30.47%

The three preliminary charts follow below. Look for updates with more comprehensive information, including sales indexes and in-depth analysis, here on Newsarama soon.