And in advance of the release of the larger lists for 2011, Diamond has released the Top 10 Comic Books and Trade Paperbacks of the year, plus the market shares.
The Top 10 Comics for the year are not surprisingly dominated by the DC relaunch:
| RANK | DESCRIPTION | PRICE | PUBLISHER |
| 1 | Justice League #1 | $3.99 | DC |
| 2 | Batman #1 | $2.99 | DC |
| 3 | Action Comics #1 | $3.99 | DC |
| 4 | Justice League #2 | $3.99 | DC |
| 5 | Batman #2 | $2.99 | DC |
| 6 | Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #160 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 7 | Green Lantern #1 | $2.99 | DC |
| 8 | Justice League #3 | $3.99 | DC |
| 9 | Action Comics #2 | $3.99 | DC |
| 10 | Detective Comics #1 | $2.99 | DC |
And here are the top trade paperbacks, led by the second repeat leader in four years, Walking Dead Vol. 1:
| RANK | DESCRIPTION | PRICE | PUB. | |
| 1 | Walking Dead Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye | $9.99 |   |
Image |
| 2 | Walking Dead Vol. 14: No Way Out | $14.99 |   |
Image |
| 3 | League of Extraordinary Gentlemen III: Century #2 1969 | $9.95 |   |
Top Shelf |
| 4 | Walking Dead Vol. 15: We Find Ourselves | $14.99 |   |
Image |
| 5 | Walking Dead Vol. 2: Miles Behind Us | $14.99 |   |
Image |
| 6 | Fables Vol. 16: Rose Red | $17.99 |   |
DC |
| 7 | Batman: Noel Deluxe Edition | $22.99 |   |
DC |
| 8 | Walking Dead Vol. 3: Safety Behind Bars | $14.99 |   |
Image |
| 9 | Walking Dead Vol. 13: Too Far Gone | $14.99 |   |
Image |
| 10 | Morning Glories Vol. 1: For a Better Future | $9.99 |   |
Image |
Marvel topped DC by several points in both units and dollars this year, although DC made up a great deal of ground in the second half of the year.
| PUBLISHER | DOLLAR MARKET SHARE |
UNIT MARKET SHARE |
| Marvel | 37.29% | 40.93% |
| DC | 31.41% | 36.77% |
| Image | 5.27% | 4.71% |
| IDW | 4.73% | 3.78% |
| Dark Horse | 4.71% | 3.35% |
| Dynamic Forces | 3.06% | 2.85% |
| Boom | 1.73% | 1.43% |
| Viz | 1.09% | 0.47% |
| Eaglemoss | 0.96% | 0.23% |
| Avatar | 0.79% | 0.54% |
| Other | 8.95% | 4.93% |
A reminder that these calculations include not just comics and trade paperbacks, but also magazines: that’s where Eaglemoss comes in. Eaglemoss sells magazines with action figures, which explains why its unit share is so much less than its dollar share — the price points are higher than the average price point on the list.
As discussed yesterday in the end-of-year report, retailers paid Diamond close to $188 million for the $417 million or so items represented above. You can apply the publishers’ shares to these figures to guesstimate their own revenue — remember that Diamond would keep several percentage points from what it received.
Full top-sellers lists from the year coming soon.
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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