He's kicking ass as one of the breakout characters of the world's top movie right now, and he's providing a jolt of electricity to what up through June was a year of static growth for Direct Market comic book sales. Yes, Marvel's Rocket Raccoon #1 was the bestselling comic book title of July 2014, helping comic book sales to rise over 32% over June sales and over 19% over July 2013 sales, also helping drag overall 2014 sales out of its first half doldrums and into positive growth territory for the year.

Rocket Raccoon #1 (with pre-orders reportedly exceeding 300k, but a third of that to one outlet) was the highest of six Marvel titles on the list of the Top 10 comic books of July, which also included the debuts of Spider-Man 2099 (5th place) and Star-Lord ongoing series (9th place), plus two issues of their event series Original Sin.

DC's bestselling title was of course Batman #33 and their four Top 10 titles included a strong debut for the Grayson ongoing series.