As in past years, Diamond has released Year-in-Review charts for sales in 2008 — this time, in advance of the December 2008 data. Comics, trade paperback and graphic novel, and market share charts are in the release.
2008 TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS (Dollar Share)
Marvel: 40.81%
DC: 29.94%
Dark Horse: 6.49%
Image: 3.73%
IDW: 3.08%
Others: 15.95%
In 2007, Marvel stood at 40.22%, DC 31.92%, Dark Horse 5.61%, Image 3.82%, and IDW 2.08%. So IDW picks up a full point.
2008 TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS (Unit Share)
Marvel: 45.82%
DC: 31.67%
Dark Horse: 5.05%
Image: 3.32%
IDW: 2.92%
Others: 11.22%
2008 TOP COMICS (Unit Sales)
1) Secret Invasion #1 • $3.99 • Marvel
2) Secret Invasion #2 • $3.99 • Marvel
3) Secret Invasion #3 • $3.99 • Marvel
4) Secret Invasion #4 • $3.99 • Marvel
5) Secret Invasion #5• $3.99 • Marvel
6) Secret Invasion #6 • $3.99 • Marvel
7) Uncanny X-Men #500 • $3.99 • Marvel
8) Secret Invasion #7 • $3.99 • Marvel
9) Final Crisis #1 • $3.99 • DC
10) Secret Invasion #8 • $3.99 • Marvel
A real pattern there… and note every one at $3.99. Looks from this like the December list will lead off, not unexpectedly, with Secret Invasion #8, and at some figure less than 156,000 (which is #7’s estimated initial orders in October, plus the highest figure that reorders for it could be from November).
2008 TOP TRADE PAPERBACKS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS (Unit Sales)
1) Watchmen • $19.99 • DC
2) Batman: The Killing Joke Special Ed. • $17.99 • DC
3) Joker HC • $19.99 • DC Comics
4) Y: The Last Man Vol. 10: Whys and Wherefores • $14.99 • DC
5) Walking Dead Vol. 8: Made to Suffer • $14.99 • Image Comics
6) Batman: The Dark Knight Returns • $14.99 • DC
7) Fables Vol. 10: The Good Prince • $17.99 • DC
8) Wanted • $19.99 • Image
9) Buffy the Vampire Slaver Season 8 Vol. 2: No Future for You • $15.95 • Dark Horse
10) Y: The Last Man Vol. 1: Unmanned • $12.99 •DC Comics
“Comic book and graphic novel sales through comic book specialty shops remained strong in 2008, with graphic novel sales increasing five-percent over 2007” said Diamond CEO Steve Geppi. My tracking of the Top 100 trades for the first 11 months of the year reads as up 4% over the same grouping in 2007; so the “long tail” is overperforming last year, kicking in an additional percent. The news is making the P.R. rounds, and has already gone up on USA Today.
Also as in past years, the charts are not indexed, meaning that no copy counts can be derived from the lists; it’s one reason these particular charts, while informative, may not get the kind of traffic as some others. I do have all of them somewhere, and will try to get them online at some point.
Once the December roll-out of data is complete, I’ll be able to see how my “overall” estimates for the year squares with what’s reported above; if magazines are counted in one calculation and not the other, that might be a source of some variance. Stay tuned…
Comichron founder John Jackson Miller has tracked the comics industry for more than 25 years, including a decade editing the industry’s retail trade magazine; he is the author of several guides to comics, as well as more than a hundred comic books for various franchises.
He is the author of novels including Star Wars: Kenobi, Star Wars: A New Dawn, Star Trek: Discovery – The Enterprise War, and his upcoming release, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – The High Country. Read more about them at his fiction site.
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