January 2012 Comic Book Sales - a DC/Marvel Split Decision
Powered by a rare clean sweep of the industry's Top 10 in comic book sales, DC Comics and their New 52 intitiative s back on top after a month off of the comic book Direct Market Unit Market Share chart for comic book and graphic novel sales in January 2012, but Marvel Comics for the second month in the row is the industry leader in Dollar Market Share.
Led of course by Justice League #5 and Batman #5, DC had the ten bestselling comics of the month, a feat that according to DC Comics hasn't been pulled off by one publisher since January 2005, when Marvel had the Top 13 sellers of that month.
DC also had the bestselling graphic novel of the month, the Batman: Through the Looking Glass Hardcover.
DC's Unit Share for January was 39.86%, with Marvel trailing just a few percentage points behind at 37.51%. Marvel, whose average cover price for comic book is higher than DC, flipped the script on Dollar Sales, however, leading the industry with 35.17% of sales to DC's 33.55%.
As always, Diamond's reported sales are for products ordered by comic book retailers, and not sales made to consumers in-store.
Perhaps the best overall news is while January sales were down by single digits compared to December 2011, 2012 got off to a strong start compared to last year, with January comic book sales up 33.56% over January 2011 and graphic novel sales up 8.45%, for a total +31.38% jump on Year-to-Year sales.
Look for much more analysis of January 2012 sales from our content partner Comichron in the upcoming hours and days.
January 2012's Market Share chart, Comparative Sales Data, and Top 10 Comic Book and Graphic Novel charts follow below. Look for the Top 100 charts with sales indexes later today.
TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS
PUBLISHER
DOLLAR
SHARE
UNIT
SHARE
MARVEL COMICS
35.17%
37.51%
DC COMICS
33.55%
39.86%
IMAGE COMICS
5.48%
4.83%
DARK HORSE COMICS
4.89%
3.55%
IDW PUBLISHING
4.35%
3.78%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT
3.46%
3.66%
BOOM! STUDIOS
1.66%
1.35%
EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS LTD
1.47%
0.30%
VIZ MEDIA
0.92%
0.42%
RANDOM HOUSE
0.79%
0.18%
OTHER NON-TOP 10
8.26%
4.57%
COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS
DOLLARS
UNITS
JANUARY 2012 VS. DECEMBER 2011
COMICS
-7.01%
-8.93%
GRAPHIC NOVELS
-4.51%
-4.86%
TOTAL COMICS/GN
-6.25%
-8.65%
JANUARY 2012 VS. JANUARY 2011
COMICS
32.05%
33.56%
GRAPHIC NOVELS
18.38%
8.46%
TOTAL COMICS/GN
27.47%
31.38%
TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS
RANK
DESCRIPTION
PRICE
VENDOR
1
JUSTICE LEAGUE #5
$3.99
DC
2
BATMAN #5
$2.99
DC
3
ACTION COMICS #5
$3.99
DC
4
DETECTIVE COMICS #5
$2.99
DC
5
GREEN LANTERN #5
$2.99
DC
6
BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT #5
$2.99
DC
7
SUPERMAN #5
$2.99
DC
8
THE FLASH #5
$2.99
DC
9
BATMAN AND ROBIN #5
$2.99
DC
10
AQUAMAN #5
$2.99
DC
TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS
RANK
DESCRIPTION
PRICE
VENDOR
1
BATMAN: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS HC
$22.99
DC
2
INVINCIBLE VOLUME 15: GET SMART TP
$16.99
IMA
3
THE WALKING DEAD VOLUME 1: DAYS GONE BYE
$9.99
IMA
4
FEAR ITSELF PREMIERE HC
$34.99
MAR
5
THE UNWRITTEN VOLUME 5: ON TO GENESIS (MR)
$14.99
DC
6
BATMAN: THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE TP
$19.99
DC
7
THE WALKING DEAD VOLUME 15 TP (MR)
$14.99
IMA
8
B.P.R.D.: HELL ON EARTH VOLUME 2: GODS AND MONSTERS TP
$19.99
DAR
9
SWEET TOOTH VOL. 4: ENDANGERED SPECIES TP(MR)
$16.99
DC
10
BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT VOLUME 1: GOLDEN DAWN DELUXE EDITION HC
$24.99
DC
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Original Story: January 2012 Comic Book Sales - a DC/Marvel Split Decision
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