Is The New 52 the Rising Tide That Has Lifted All Boats?

Earlier this week, DC Comics announced that Animal Man #1, arguably the most critically-acclaimed of their 52 new #1 launch titles, had gone back to presses for a third print, indicating that even after almost a full month of second issues some of the #1s were still selling briskly. That’s a  bit surprising since collectors, who typically comprise a lot of the folks buying #1 issues, won’t usually pick up the second printings and so one assumes that much of the current traffic is from readers–people who could just as easily have bought a digital copy if they weren’t in it for an eventual return on investment. Still, it’s far from the only big sales announcement this week and one has to wonder: Has increased foot traffic from DC’s big initiative (and accompanying massive media push) lifted sales on non-DC books as well?