Diamond Comic Distributors, the biggest comics distributor in the world, released figures this week detailing 2013’s comics sales – and it turns out 2013 was a great year for comics! Sales were up 9.04% with a rise in both comics and graphic novels up from 2012.
Marvel continued to lead the field with a dollar share of 33.50% with rivals DC coming in at 30.33% though DC were able to close the gap with gimmicks like Villains Month which undercut Marvel’s usual monthly lead. While the Big 2 remained untouchable, last year Image overtook IDW to become the third biggest comics publisher in the world thanks to the popularity of comics like The Walking Dead and Saga, both bestsellers and critically acclaimed titles.
The biggest selling comic of 2013 was Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard’s The Walking Dead #115, the celebratory 10thanniversary issue for the title, and the biggest selling graphic novel of 2013 was Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga Volume 1 – both published by Image.
Six of the top ten bestselling comics were published by Marvel, with the Event comics Infinity #1 and Age of Ultron #1 taking the sixth and eighth spots, and surprisingly Guardians of the Galaxy #1 took the fourth spot – the relatively unknown series helped no doubt by the forthcoming summer movie from Marvel Studios.
In the year of Superman’s 75th Anniversary, it was good to see two Superman comics – Scott Snyder and Jim Lee’s Superman Unchained #1 and #2 – take the third and tenth places in the top ten. Justice League of America #1 was the second biggest selling comic of 2013.
But if the Big 2 dominated the comics chart, they were crushed by Image in the bestselling graphic novels of the year - Saga Volumes 1 and 2 took the first and third places, and five Walking Dead books were in the top ten! It’s been a great year for Saga which also took home a number of awards at this year’s Eisners.
Matt Fraction and David Aja’s Hawkeye Volume 1 was the only Marvel graphic novel to make the top ten graphic novel chart, with Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman, Volume 1: The Court of Owls taking eighth position. The Batman classic The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland continued to prove it’s enduring appeal, being the ninth bestselling graphic novel of 2013.
Full list below:
TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS
PUBLISHER DOLLAR SHARE
MARVEL COMICS 33.50%
DC COMICS 30.33%
IMAGE COMICS 8.00%
IDW PUBLISHING 6.47%
DARK HORSE COMICS 5.17%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 2.72%
BOOM! STUDIOS 1.99%
EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS 1.25%
VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT 0.98%
AVATAR PRESS 0.89%
OTHER NON-TOP 10 8.70%
PUBLISHER UNIT SHARE
MARVEL COMICS 36.97%
DC COMICS 33.35%
IMAGE COMICS 8.49%
IDW PUBLISHING 5.10%
DARK HORSE COMICS 4.50%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 2.59%
BOOM! STUDIOS 1.92%
VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT 1.06%
ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT INC 0.76%
AVATAR PRESS 0.74%
OTHER NON-TOP 10 4.52%
TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS
1 THE WALKING DEAD #115 (IMAGE)
2 JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1 (DC)
3 SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #1 (DC)
4 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #1 (MARVEL)
5 SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #1 (MARVEL)
6 INFINITY #1 (MARVEL)
7 X-MEN #1 (MARVEL)
8 AGE OF ULTRON #1 (MARVEL)
9 UNCANNY X-MEN #1 (MARVEL)
10 SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #2 (DC)
TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS AND TRADE PAPERBACKS
1 SAGA VOLUME 1 TP (MR) (IMAGE)
2 THE WALKING DEAD VOLUME 1: DAYS GONE BYE TP (IMAGE)
3 SAGA VOLUME 2 TP (IMAGE)
4 THE WALKING DEAD VOLUME 18: WHAT COMES AFTER TP (IMAGE)
5 THE WALKING DEAD VOLUME 2: MILES BEHIND US TP (IMAGE)
6 THE WALKING DEAD VOLUME 19: MARCH TO WAR TP (IMAGE)
7 HAWKEYE VOLUME 1: MY LIFE AS WEAPON TP (MARVEL)
8 BATMAN VOLUME 1: THE COURT OF OWLS TP (DC)
9 BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE SPECIAL EDITION HC (DC)
10 THE WALKING DEAD VOLUME 3: SAFETY BEHIND BARS TP (IMAGE)
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