Diamond’s December sales rankings are out, and The Flash #4 is ranked the month’s #8 comic by units sold. Four issues in a row in the top 10 is, as far as I know, a first for The Flash (at least in recent memory). Volume three spent most of its time in the 10-20 range, and even Flash: Rebirth dropped to #14 in the fourth issue. Only Flashpoint held in the top 10 longer…for all five issues of the miniseries, in fact, including both August issues.

Detailed estimates will likely be available sometime next week.

Diamond has released its November sales rankings, placing The Flash #3 in the #9 spot for units sold. ICv2’s November 2011 sales estimates have it selling roughly* 90,417 comics during the month.

Three issues in, it’s still well ahead of all but the first issues of The Flash vol.3 and Flash: Rebirth. It’s the sixth-highest selling Flash comic book in over a decade, or eighth if you include Flashpoint. And it’s still a Top 10 book.

On the other hand, it’s also a 20% drop from the previous issue. That’s awfully steep for anything but the second issue of a series.

Then again, the normal patterns may not apply here. By releasing 52 first issues in one month, DC managed to get a lot of people to try out more comics than they would have otherwise. The sales boost on the early issues was probably higher than it would have been for a more traditional relaunch, so the sharper drop may be less of a concern than it would be otherwise. And it’s still way above the 55K mark that I suggested might be the ultimate test of the relaunch.

Lastly, there’s been a lot of discussion in the comics blog scene the last few weeks over whether these sales estimates are even accurate enough to be worth analyzing. If they have as little to do with reality as Ivan Brandon and Steve Wacker suggest, then neither the drop nor the comparisons to other issues mean much of anything.

A few key articles covering past sales (with lots of numbers):

• Flash Sales 1996-2002
• Flash Sales 2001-2008
• Flash: Rebirth & Blackest Night Sales
• Flash vol.3 Sales

*What these numbers measure: US-only sales, wholesale from Diamond to comics retailers. They don’t count sales through bookstores, they don’t count international sales, and they don’t count how many copies were actually bought and read…but they do measure the same thing every month, which means they can be used to spot trends.

Diamond’s sales rankings for October are up, along with ICv2’s sales estimates*. Flash #2 was ranked the #5 comic book, selling an estimated 114,137 copies, and the Flashpoint hardcover was the top graphic novel selling 5,646 copies to comic stores.

That represents am 11.17% drop from issue #1, which sounds like a lot…but for a #2 issue, it’s phenomenal. You expect a lot of people to pick up a #1 out of curiosity, or speculation, or just because they collect #1s. Add in the line-wide relaunch and people who bought every single New 52 first issue (without intending to keep going), and you’d expect this to be a lot higher.

For comparison, Flash vol.3 dropped 24% from issue #1 to #2. Flash: TFMA dropped a staggering 35% between the first two issues.

Also: Look down that list a ways, and you’ll find the Flash #1 second printing at 18,558 copies. That’s more copies of a reprint than the latest new issue of the highest-selling Vertigo book.

*What these numbers measure: US-only sales, wholesale from Diamond to comics retailers. They don’t count sales through bookstores, they don’t count international sales, and they don’t count how many copies were actually bought and read…but they do measure the same thing every month, which means they can be used to spot trends.