2002 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Comics Shipped to North American Comics Shops
Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

Dollar Preorders for Diamond's Top 300 Comics and
Top 50 Graphic Novels from each and every month of the year

around $229.29 Million

(up 10% year-over-year)

Covers and issue links on this page lead to current eBay listings. This site may be compensated if you make a purchase.

The first real recovery year after a near-decade-long dowturn, 2002 was marked by a revival of interest in 1980s toy- and animation-related titles, such as Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Thundercats. While Ultimates #1 was never the #1 title in any month during the year (it was third in January), reorders put it in the top slot for the year overall.

The year got off to a strong start in January with Wolverine: The Origin and Dark Knight Strikes Again #2 topping the charts (not counting Batman: The Ten Cent Adventure, which had preorders of 700,000 copies and started a mini-wave of stunt pricing). The final issue of the Dark Knight sequel helped February leap past its 2001 performance. There were no major releases in March, but the quarter still finished strongly ahead.

In April, Dreamwave's Transformers: Generation One #1 kicked off the toy nostalgia wave and gave a non-Marvel/DC publisher the top slot for the first time in many years. May saw the first Free Comic Book Day, coinciding with the release of the first Spider-Man movie. June closed out the first half of the year strongly with the debut of the Kevin Smith Black Cat limited series, which would eventually be fraught with long delays.

July saw a second series for Transformers launch and another cut-price promo edition, this time for Gen 13. The 1980s revival continued in August with a launch for Thundercats— and Marvel one-upped DC's 10-cent Batman with a nine-cent Fantastic Four. No major series launches in the Top 20 led to a month up only slightly in September.

In an otherwise down October, Jim Lee's Batman story, "Hush," began, a storyline which would heat up into some of 2003's best sales. The last major chart-topper of the 1980s revival wave, Masters of the Universe led a November that was off slightly overall. A double dose of new Ultimate series launches from Marvel in December rounded out a positive year for the business.

The final rankings for all comics and trade paperbacks during the year appear below. Diamond Comic Distributors reported these issues without indexes allowing actual sales estimates to be calculated. You can find the first-month preorders for these issues in the monthly charts; click one of the months above or use the search tool at the top of the page to find the specific issue. But note that those monthly numbers do not include reorders for the entire year; the rankings below do take the entire year's sales into account.

Click to skip to the Top Graphic Novels for the month.

—John Jackson Miller

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 300 charts, plus any post-#300 items from its Top Independent Publisher charts.
If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.
Click to read the methodology for this table's estimates.
Distributor charts are regional commodity reports, not measures of a work's total reach. Read our FAQ.
Title links below lead to current listings for the issues on eBay. As an eBay Partner, this site may be compensated if you make a purchase.

2002 Graphic Novel Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks Shipped to North American Comics Shops Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top Graphic Novel charts. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.

The links lead to title details on Amazon (paid links). You can also find the books at your comics shop.

DC and Dark Horse's September 11 benefit titles were the top sellers in 2002.

My analyses of preorders from Diamond Comic Distributors for individual months can be found here: