Despite continuing concerns over DC's reboot and The New 52 (which I'm personally still giving the evil eye), the company continues to perform very well. In fact, the best-selling single issue of the month was DC's Batman #27. However, Marvel came out as top publisher with 34.09% dollar share compared with DC's 28.06%. Unit-wise, Marvel wins again with 37.39% to DC's 30.77%. Not to be forgotten, Image Comics garnered 10.1% of unit share for comics and graphic novels.
The top ten single books sold for January was evenly split between Marvel and their "Distinguished Competition," with five each making the list (see chart below to see who got what spot).
The best-selling graphic novel for the month was Brian K. Vaughan's Saga, Volume 1 (with volume 2 also making the top ten).
Dark Horse Comics had a strong sales of Serenity: Leaves on the Wind #1, the official follow-up to Whedon's film Serenity, charting at #29 in single issue sales.
With The Walking Dead returning this month, it's only fitting that Monopoly: The Walking Dead Survival Edition, with custom rules and locations based on the best-selling comic, was January's best-selling games product.
The rest of the official breakdown, in much easier to read and understand charts, appears thus:
The fine print:
Data for Diamond’s sales charts—which include the monthly market shares and all top product charts—are compiled by Diamond Comic Distributors from a universe of over 3,500 comic book specialty shops located in North America and around the world. The account base includes brick-and-mortar comic book specialty shops, Internet merchants, and other specialty stores.
Unit and dollar market shares are calculated based upon orders for comic books, graphic novels, and magazines invoiced and shipped to Diamond accounts during any given month, which comprises initial preorders, advance reorders, and reorders, minus any copies that are received back from a title marked as returnable.
Please note that comics marked with an asterisk have had their reported quantities reduced due to retailer returnability and thus may rank lower on the charts than their actual sales would reflect.
The count of new titles shipped includes all titles that were invoiced by Diamond to retailers for the first time during the month and is not the official solicited title count for the month. Variant edition comic books and graphic novels at the same price point count as a single SKU. Variant edition comic books, lenticular covers, digital combo packs, and graphic novels at different price points count as separate SKUs for each edition.
So? Any surprises? Does it feel like The Big Two really have any competition on the way?
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