In advance of the larger releases of its December and 2013 year-end sales tables, Diamond Comic Distributors has released a sneak peek at the topline figures for the year.
Comic shop orders for comic books and graphic novels in North America reportedly
increased by 9.04% over 2012. It’s a smaller increase than last year’s 14.72% boost. It would bring the year in at more than
$518 million — in line with previous estimates here at Comichron
— and an increase of around $43 million for the year. Note that this
figure does not include comics and graphic novels sold through
bookstore and newsstand channels, which adds another $200 million or so —
nor does it include digital sales, which were reported to be in excess
of $75 million in 2012 and would likely have been more in 2013.
Orders for comic books were up by 10.22% in dollars, while graphic novel orders were up by 6.5%. October’s The Walking Dead #115 was the best-selling comic book of the year, with sales in excess of 300,000 copies — and, perhaps not coincidentally, it cost at least a dollar less than anything else on the top-ten list.
TOP-SELLING COMICS OF 2013
| TITLE | PRICE | VENDOR | |
| 1 | The Walking Dead #115 | $2.99 | Image |
| 2 | Justice League Of America #1 | $3.99 | DC |
| 3 | Superman Unchained #1 | $4.99 | DC |
| 4 | Guardians of the Galaxy #1 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 5 | Superior Spider-Man #1 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 6 | Infinity #1 | $4.99 | Marvel |
| 7 | X-Men #1 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 8 | Age Of Ultron #1 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 9 | Uncanny X-Men #1 | $3.99 | Marvel |
| 10 | Superman Unchained #2 | $3.99 | DC |
Image also had the top-selling graphic novel in Saga Vol. 1 — again, priced quite a bit less than anything else in the Top 10. It unseated Walking Dead Vol. 1, which had led the list for three years running; that book still placed second. Image had seven out of ten entries on the list.
TOP-SELLING GRAPHIC NOVELS OF 2013
| TITLE | PRICE | VENDOR | |
| 1 | Saga Volume 1 | $9.99 | Image |
| 2 | The Walking Dead Volume 1: Days Gone Bye | $14.99 | Image |
| 3 | Saga Volume 2 | $14.99 | Image |
| 4 | The Walking Dead Volume 18: What Comes After | $14.99 | Image |
| 5 | The Walking Dead Volume 2: Miles Behind Us | $14.99 | Image |
| 6 | The Walking Dead Volume 19: March To War | $14.99 | Image |
| 7 | Hawkeye Volume 1: My Life As Weapon | $16.99 | Marvel |
| 8 | Batman Volume 1: The Court Of Owls | $16.99 | DC |
| 9 | Batman: The Killing Joke Special Edition HC | $17.99 | DC |
| 10 | The Walking Dead Volume 3: Safety Behind Bars | $14.99 | Image |
Marvel led the publishers list in both dollar and market shares, and the dollar rankings were identical to 2012’s list, with the exception of Valiant replacing Viz at ninth:
| UNIT SHARE | DOLLAR SHARE | |
| Marvel Comics | 36.97% | 33.50% |
| DC Entertainment | 33.35% | 30.33% |
| Image Comics | 8.49% | 8.00% |
| IDW Publishing | 5.10% | 6.47% |
| Dark Horse Comics | 4.50% | 5.17% |
| Dynamite Entertainment | 2.59% | 2.72% |
| Boom! Studios | 1.92% | 1.99% |
| Eaglemoss Publications | 0.26% | 1.25% |
| Valiant Entertainment | 1.06% | 0.98% |
| Avatar Press | 0.74% | 0.89% |
| Other Non-Top 10 | 5.02% | 8.70% |
The monthly reports for 2013 can be found here, and previous years for comparison can be found here.
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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