By Paul O’Brien — It’s the column you’ve been waiting for! The September sales – for Marvel!

Hello? Hello? Is this thing on?

Okay, so September was DC’s month. And understandably, most publishers got out of the way, rather than trying to launch any new titles against the New 52 onslaught. Marvel had the second month of the Ultimate relaunch, and there are a couple of new Icon books in the form of BRILLIANT and the returning CASANOVA, but that’s really about it where new launches are concerned. Of course, there’s also the continuing crossovers of “Fear Itself”, “Spider-Island” and “Schism”, and Marvel’s standard practice these days would be to launch the new books after those events, not during.

For the first time in quite a while, DC had the biggest share of the market, leading Marvel by 43% to 38% in units, and a razor-thin 36% to 35% in dollars. (Incidentally, those market share figures apparently don’t apply the retainability discount which Diamond factored into the sales of individual issues.) If that seems closer than you expected, bear in mind that with 52 superhero comics, DC were actually cutting their line back. Marvel solicited almost 80 Marvel Universe superhero books for the same month – though that may not last, given that lower selling titles are now apparently being culled.