Legion sales data, November 2019 (LSH v8 #1)

A month ago, I said “There's no sales data yet on the new series, but expect it to be high because (a) multiple covers and (b) flight rings. I'll go out on a limb and be optimistic and say LSH #1 will hit 65k sales.” I was wrong: it hit over 75k. That was going to be my original call, but I thought I was being optimistic and so dialed it back a little.

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (volume 8) #1 - November 6, 2019
Issue 1 had four variants sold in the stores, three different covers plus a blank sketch cover (which was the standard Superboy cover inside).

LSH volume 8 #1 Standard cover Art by Ryan Sook	LSH volume 8 #1 Sook cardstock variant Art by Ryan Sook
LSH volume 8 #1 Cheung cardstock variant Art by Jim Cheung and Romulo Fajardo Jr	LSH volume 8 #1 Blank sketch variant Art by N/A (Sook Superboy cover inside)

Well, sales figures are out now, and I was significantly underestimating the sales. Via Comichron:

• Combining all four covers, LSH #1 was the #10 book for November, with total sales of 75,611. It was the #3 book for DC (behind Batman #82 and #83, each with all cover variants combined). The #1 book of the month was New Mutants #1 at 138,484.
• Note that the 11/23/19 Local Comic Shop Day variant would add another 600 copies, but I’m not including those because it was a limited promotional thing and not part of the regular 11/6/19 on-sale date supply.
• The two $3.99 cover variants (regular version with Superboy, and the blank sketch cover) combined to make LSH #1 the #21 book for November 2019, with sales of 51,835. It was the #5 DC book, behind three issues of Batman and a Justice League.
• The two $4.99 cover variants (Sook and Cheung cardstock variants) by themselves combined to make it the #36 DC book and the #87 overall book for November, with sales of 23,776. 

Historical analysis:

• From my earlier post, the combined sales for LSH #1 make it the second-best selling title in the last 20 years, just beating out Legion of 3 Worlds #1 at 73,914 copies sold but coming up short of Adventure Comics v3 #4 at 85,145 copies (inflated because it came with a promo Blackest Night ring). See the table below.
• There’s no 100% reliable data to the public for the period of roughly 1989-1994 due to the direct market distributor wars, but there’s anecdotal and estimated data. Given that, you have to go all the way back to about early 1992 to find another sale higher than 75,611.
• And unrelatedly but interestingly, LSH v8 #1 sold roughly as well as what we are now covering from v4 in summer 1991 on the podcast (about 78K for issue 20 which we just did last week). 
• Of course, it’s still early, and there were 4 covers. No telling what sales we’ll see when it’s just two covers and where the bottom of the sales curve is (recall the historic base of about 15-20k).

Top 20 selling Legion books, 2004-2019

• Green = Threeboot
• Yellow = Retroboot
• White = Rebirth

1	Jan 2010	85,145	Adventure Comics v3	4
2	Nov 2019	75,611	LSH v8	1
3	Oct 2008	73,914	Legion of Three Worlds	1
4	Dec 2008	64,412	Legion of Three Worlds	2
5	Apr 2009	61,358	Legion of Three Worlds	3
6	Oct 2004	61,047	Teen Titans/The Legion Special	1
7	Feb 2005	59,944	LSH v5	1
8	Feb 2010	59,876	Adventure Comics v3	5
9	Jun 2009	56,888	Legion of Three Worlds	4
10	Oct 2009	56,706	Adventure Comics v3	1
11	Sep 2009	55,970	Legion of Three Worlds	5
12	May 2006	54,826	Supergirl & the LSH	16
13	Mar 2010	53,721	Adventure Comics v3	7
14	Nov 2011	53,285	LSH v7	1
15	Jul 2010	50,106	LSH v6	1
16	Nov 2011	49,952	Legion Lost v2	1
17	Mar 2005	48,584	LSH v5	2
18	Sep 2019	48,389	LSH: Millennium	1
19	Sep 2019	47,857	Superman	15
20	Aug 2019	47,777	Superman	14