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Top Selling Comics & Publisher Market Share: January 2014

What was hot for January 2014?

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The numbers from the first month of the new year are in! Diamond Comic Distributors has compiled the data from January and placed into awesome tables for math nerds, like us, to stare and enjoy. Let's get right down to the numbers.

Marvel takes the top spot for January.

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Even though Marvel had the top spot, last month, DC had the top two spots for individual comics. Both Marvel and DC split the past month's top 10 comic books with BATMAN #27, DETECTIVE COMICS #27, and AVENGERS WORLD #1 leading the way.

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This past month, with trades, Image claimed the top two spots with SAGA and THE WALKING DEAD, followed by the first volume of ALL-NEW X-MEN.

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In total, if you were wondering how many books these companies shipped out, over the past month, there's a table for that too, and notice that DC & Marvel both shipped out the same total number of books.

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How do they calculate this information? It all starts at the comic book shop.

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 dollars sales are calculated based upon orders invoiced and shipped to Diamond accounts during January to December 2013, which comprises initial pre-orders, advance reorders, and reorders, minus any copies that are received back from a title marked as returnable.

What are your thoughts on all these numbers? What's your predictions for this month?

60 Comments

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TheFirstLantern

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Glad to see saga is selling well. More people should read Invincible. Best comic of the month

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Jonny_Anonymous

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DAMN IT PEOPLE WHY ARE YOU NOT BUYING VALIANT?????

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Fastestmanalive

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Aw man. I know that Marvel is usually ahead of DC but for awhile there they were pretty close. Oh well.

Batman is not a surprise cuz its Batman. Justice league I'm a little surprised at. Even though its not unusual for it to be on the top ten its been filler recently.

But the real surprise is JLA. I know it was really popular when it just came out but the hype has definitely gone down and the last few issues were barely mediocre.

I'm sure unchained would"ve been up there if it would have actually came out this month. "sigh".

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owie

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owie  Moderator

I'm surprised that Harley Quinn was so popular. And I'm glad to see the Saga trades did so well.

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Billy Batson

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The Unwritten as #8? Cool.

BB

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inferiorego

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inferiorego  Staff

DAMN IT PEOPLE WHY ARE YOU NOT BUYING VALIANT?????

That's what I was thinking when I saw the numbers.

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Jonny_Anonymous

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@jonny_anonymous said:

DAMN IT PEOPLE WHY ARE YOU NOT BUYING VALIANT?????

That's what I was thinking when I saw the numbers.

It's clear that the comic buying public secretly hate comics

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Overlander

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Only one book I buy appears on these charts. I feel good about that.
Make mine Marvel!

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TommytheHitman

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Ostyo

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Edited By Ostyo

Dark Horse sure has lost a step or two.

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2chimcha3

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@inferiorego said:

@jonny_anonymous said:

DAMN IT PEOPLE WHY ARE YOU NOT BUYING VALIANT?????

That's what I was thinking when I saw the numbers.

It's clear that the comic buying public secretly hate comics

That is the only possible reason. How can something so good and perfect, not even get 1%?

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Transformers1024

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Edited By Transformers1024

It's good to see that Saga is doing as well as it is, it definitely deserves all of the attention it's been getting. Probably one of my favorite series of all time. Also good to see The Walking Dead is still selling strong after 10 years, that's truly an impressive feat.

Surprised to see Valiant not up there considering it's been putting out great stories month after month. Eh, oh well. As long as Image is still up there I'm happy!

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CheeseSticks

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Yes, Marvel is kicking DC's ass even more than last month.

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Jonny_Anonymous

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It's good to see that Saga is doing as well as it is, it definitely deserves all of the attention it's been getting. Probably one of my favorite series of all time. Also good to see The Walking Dead is still selling strong after 10 years, that's truly an impressive feat.

Surprised to see Valiant not up there considering it's been putting out great stories month after month. Eh, oh well. As long as Image is still up there I'm happy!

Yea it was up there last time

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EnigmaLantern

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Income-wise, I'm not that surprised that Marvel is ahead, after all they do have more 3.99 titles than DC do with DC still keeping most of their original 2.99 titles at the same price (which is a fair amount of titles).

I am starting to feel like Forever Evil and Zero Year are dragging along at the moment, that's the only criticism I have of DC, at the moment.

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Hassun

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Edited By Hassun

All New X-Men at #6 and at #3 AND Battle of the Atom at #7

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jwalser3

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@owie said:

I'm surprised that Harley Quinn was so popular.

The fact that Dynamite isn't even in the top 10 concerns me.

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2cool4fun

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Edited By 2cool4fun

@jwalser3: Same here.

Btw is this how many comics which company sold or is it how much money they have? Cause Marvel does have more 4.99 titles.

Btw why do all comics end with 99? we all know it's either 4 or 5$ 1 penny wont make a difference.

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Transformers1024

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BeaconofStrength

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Disappointing that smaller companies like Valiant are thrown into the wind. Valiant deserves a lot more credit than they get.

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the_stegman

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Edited By the_stegman  Moderator

I'm just glad Image is up there. Currently the best publisher

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manwithoutshame

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Batman is still number 1!

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mak13131313

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jwalser3

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Edited By jwalser3

Because I enjoy their titles. They're the same company that is publishing all the Noir, Diesel Punk stuff. A majority of their work is all adventure and mystery stuff. I know they aren't super popular, but not even 8th or 9th place? It's crazy. Avatar Press is on the list, and all they publish is "Edgy" hardcore, 2cool4school, crap. Things like, Uber, and The Crossed, same art style and nothing but gore with C-List stories.

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kidchipotle

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There are so many other comics that deserve that #1 spot over Batman #27. Like Green Arrow, Action Comics, Deadpool, Superior Foes, and that's just naming some from the Big 2, don't get me start on Image.

@jonny_anonymous said:

@inferiorego said:

@jonny_anonymous said:

DAMN IT PEOPLE WHY ARE YOU NOT BUYING VALIANT?????

That's what I was thinking when I saw the numbers.

It's clear that the comic buying public secretly hate comics

I read about half of Valiants titles (X-O, Unity, Harbinger, Eternal Warrior) now because I feel the quality of the stories have gone down. I dropped Quantum and Woody (though that was for money purposes) as well as Bloodshot & H.A.R.D. Corps + Shadowman because I didn't like the new direction Valiant took these titles. They had a great start but the steam is slowly evening out in my opinion like Harbinger. Plus people don't like trying out unknown things.

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deactivated-5c901e667a76c

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@jonny_anonymous said:

@inferiorego said:

@jonny_anonymous said:

DAMN IT PEOPLE WHY ARE YOU NOT BUYING VALIANT?????

That's what I was thinking when I saw the numbers.

It's clear that the comic buying public secretly hate comics

That is the only possible reason. How can something so good and perfect, not even get 1%?

It's more likely that people are stupid and don't know there are more than two publishers.

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RulerOfThisUniverse

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Yay, Batman!

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J_HickmanIsGod

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Snyder's Batman has been rocking the top 3 consecutively since Jan. 2013.

says a lot about the creative team's initiative to be the best out there.

and they truly are.

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J_HickmanIsGod

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@the_stegman: i totally agree1

as far as quality across all their series running, best ideas/comics are coming out of Image right now.

but you can never go wrong with the classic superhero stories though, and thats what sells high volumes.

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Cavemold

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Edited By Cavemold

@inferiorego: it doesn't help they only have 10 comics so there market share is going be small

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CantDance93

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@fastestmanalive: I hear ya, ever since Geoff Johns left JLA it's been pretty bad, probably sold so much just because Clayface was in it XD

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timelord

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Edited By timelord

I'm always amazed how Batman always manages to sell so well congrats to Snyder and co they have earned it.

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MadeinBangladesh

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WOAH! Halrey Quinn selling that well!?!? That's awesome! Nice to see Batman @ #1 even though I'm not liking ZY at all.

@inferiorego said:

@jonny_anonymous said:

DAMN IT PEOPLE WHY ARE YOU NOT BUYING VALIANT?????

That's what I was thinking when I saw the numbers.

It's clear that the comic buying public secretly hate comics

Valiant is so underrated.

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Transformers1024

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@jwalser3: I don't mean to ask a ton of questions, but Diesel Punk really caught my attention, what titles fall into that category? Definitely seems like something I may be interested in checking out.

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Why TF was Detective Comics 27 8$?!?!?!

Glad to see Harley doing well. Love her in that.

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CantDance93

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@pokeysteve: it was a mega sized issue, featured many different writers.

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MasterBelmont

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Love how people hate SSM, yet it's constantly in the top 10 each month. Personally, I love it since it's such a good concept done so well.

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jwalser3

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@transformers1024: It's a kind of post WW1 and pre WW2 art style. If you've seen movies like Iron Sky, it's kind of like that.

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Pokeysteve

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Edited By Experio

Surprised to see Harley on the list.

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Wow again no Valiant , Dynamite or Fantagraphics in top 10

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Fallschirmjager

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@deadgod said:

Wow again no Valiant , Dynamite or Fantagraphics in top 10

Unity is Valiant's best selling title...at like 18,000 units.

If that was a marvel/dc title they would cancel it immediately.

number of sales does not reflect quality unfortunately (Green Arrow isn't even breaking 25k, wtf)

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Deadgod

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Edited By Deadgod

@deadgod said:

Wow again no Valiant , Dynamite or Fantagraphics in top 10

Unity is Valiant's best selling title...at like 18,000 units.

If that was a marvel/dc title they would cancel it immediately.

number of sales does not reflect quality unfortunately (Green Arrow isn't even breaking 25k, wtf)

Yeh its baffling how good quality comics or companies which constantly push put good comics struggle to reach even decent sales. Makes me wonder will comic book readers ever look outside of Batman ,SSM , Avengers or Marvel or DC to know there are good comics or publishers in the world too.

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