Underrated: Comics Not In Diamond’s Top 100 For March ’19
This is a column that focuses on something or some things from the comic book sphere of influence that may not get the credit and recognition it deserves. Whether that’s a list of comic book movies, ongoing comics, or a set of stories featuring a certain character. The columns may take the form of a bullet pointed list, or a slightly longer thinkpiece – there’s really no formula for this other than whether the things being covered are Underrated in some way. This week: Comics not in Diamond’s top 100 sellers for March 2019
It has been a a while since we’ve looked back at the previous month’s sales numbers in Underrated, so this week we’re going to be jumping back to March. April will follow once the numbers are available on Comichron.
This week we’re going to be looking at a list of comics that are all pretty good, but don’t get the attention that they deserve. Now I’m not even going to pretend to have a definitively exhaustive list of underrated comics here, because we’re hoping that you decide to check at least one of these series out next time you’re looking for something new either online or at your LCS, and giving you a huge list to check out would be counter productive to that. Instead, you’ll find four to six comics that are worth your attention that failed to crack the top 100 in sales. The only hard stipulation for this week: not one of the comics made it into the top 100 for March’s comic sales, according to Comichron, which is why they’re Underrated.
Disney Comics and Stories #4 (IDW)
Sales Rank/Units Sold: 319/2,027*
Why You Should Read It: You could easily write this comic off as a kids comic that isn’t worth your time, but at the end of the day this is an enjoyable diversion that more of us could do with in our lives.
Black Badge #8 (Boom)
Sales Rank/Units Sold: 279/3,293
Why You Should Read It: Boy scouts trained as assassins. That’s what sold me on the comic (and I think I started with the sixth issue before circling back), although finding out Matt Kindt wrote it would have had the same effect. As with any Matt Kindt book, there’s more layers to this than a tiramisu, and part of the excellence here is that you get to slowly unpack all of the details on multiple readings.
Incursion #2 (Valiant)
Sales Rank/Units Sold: 221/5,634
Why You Should Read It: One of my favourite miniseries being published right now, with the third issue already on the shelves, this is a story that is FAR better than the traction it’s getting in the sales charts.
Black Hammer: Age Of Doom #9 (Dark Horse)
Sales Rank/Units Sold: 166/10,080
Why You Should Read It: Jeff Lemire has created some of the most interesting stories with his creator owned superhero universe. While this may not be the best place to start reading, it is a great reminder to go back and pick up the first trade.
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Unless the comics industry ceases any and all publication look for a future installment of Underrated to cover more comics that aren’t cracking the top 100.
