The numbers are in for September, and DC has been crowing about how well they've been doing with the New 52. Rumor has it that digital sales have been blockbuster, and reportedly, September saw the best sales for DC Comics since 1991. That's good news for everyone who loves comic books.

According to Comichron.com, Action Comics #1, Volume 2 sold about as well in 2011 as Action Comics #1, Volume 1 in 1938. An impressive feat, indeed. Justice League International #1 didn't do quite as well, but still sold approximately 61,079 issues. That's a good number for a 21st-century comic book! It's certainly better than the 53,685 issues that Booster Gold, Volume 2, #1 sold in 2007.

But how does that stand up against Booster Gold, Volume 1? DC never releases sales numbers directly, so I asked an expert: Dan Jurgens.

Boosterrific.com: I was wondering if you had any knowledge/memory of sales figures for BOOSTER GOLD v1 from the late 1980s that you could share with Boosterrific.com?

Dan Jurgens: Whew-- I really don't have those numbers. I do know that BG did relatively well in the direct market, less well on the newsstand, from what I recall. I also know the last couple of issues did around 125,000.

Thank you, Mr. Jurgens. That's certainly more than we knew before. The final issues of Booster Gold were crossover issues with the Millennium mini-series, which probably gave a significant sales boost. But that still means that Booster Gold, Volume 1, #25 in 1988 would have sold far more issues than anything Booster-related in recent years (including the 57,096 estimated sales of Blackest Night tie-in Booster Gold #26 in 2010).

Hopefully this "New 52" thing will catch on, and Booster can reach new heights in sales.

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Yesterday, I mentioned that DC was selling out of all of their new releases. I think that bears a little more investigation, especially in the context of whether DC is getting what they want out of this reboot.

Yes, the comics are selling well. Phenomenally well. If each of the new 52 has sold out at a print run averaging 50,000 (a very conservative estimate: Justice League reportedly sold over 170,000 copies alone, but some of the later, more esoteric titles no doubt received substantially smaller orders). All but Justice League are $2.99 each, so we'll run with the $2.99 price point and figure that's $2.99 * (50,000 x 52) = $7,774,000 gross profit for the month on DCnU North American first prints alone. (DC takes in somewhat less -- probably considerably less -- than half of that number in net profit.) That seems pretty good. But is it?

In July, DC's gross sales came to about $6,742,665. The conservative estimate therefore represents a 15% increase in sales. More importantly, back when this reboot was announced in the month of April, DC grossed only $5,814,418, making this sales bump a comparative 33% increase in sales! If this can be sustained, the reboot was totally worth it to DC Comics.

Sustainability is now the big question, though, isn't it? How many of these issues being sold are to new readers and how many are being sold to old readers who have decided to pick up a few extra comics this month to see what changes are in store for their favored characters? Will these "new" readers stick around for the long haul? How well is the new "day and date" initiative going with digital sales? Or does this all represent merely a brief bump in sales as always accompanies a new slate of number one issues?

Time will tell; all we can do at this point is speculate. Real sales figures will come out sometime in the next three weeks, and no doubt everyone will be relatively happy with what they reveal. In the meantime we have to be content knowing that whether or not this reboot is the answer that DC is seeking to combat a shrinking market, at least it is successful in the short term.

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Now that the final numbers are in, let's take a look at the roller coaster ride that was the monthly sales report for Booster Gold, Volume 2.

What can this graph tell us? Obviously those spikes are tie-ins to the crossover events Blackest Night and Flashpoint, respectively. That makes it pretty clear that whatever DC says about re-inventing the DC universe with this "New 52" reboot, mega-events sold books and will be returning sooner rather than later. Also, fears about fans abandoning books as the reboot loomed may have been appropriate: Booster Gold #47 did not sell as well as Booster Gold #46 did.

On the bright side, that chart represents sales of 1,345,643 individual comic books starring Booster Gold! If each of those issues averaged 2.0 ounces in weight, that's 168,205 pounds (76,296 kilograms) of comics. Since those comics are solid gold -- Booster Gold -- they should be worth $4,475,904,840 at current market price! But of course they are priceless to us Booster Gold fans, right?

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According to Bleeding Cool, this week's Justice League International #1 has already sold out, and it hasn't even hit stands yet! That means that retailers, expecting whopping sales after Justice League flew off the shelves last week, are expecting boffo demand for the book.

As leader of the team, Booster Gold naturally deserves full credit for this good news. Good job, Booster! Keep up the good work.

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What a long, strange trip it's been.

Above is the sales graph for the entire Booster Gold Volume 2 series to date, including the recently sold-out first printing of Booster Gold #44. Even without figuring in the second printing or the digital sales, that's a pretty good bump from Flashpoint tie-in sales.

I'm not going to pretend that I understand how sales bumps from Flashpoint tie-ins are supposed to transfer to entirely new series, but if even a few new readers discover the golden goodness of Booster Gold during this transition, at least some good will come of it.

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