Diamond’s Top Ten for 2008

Interesting to compare this with Brian Hibbs’ list where Buffy was the Skrull slayer.
Having watched BN.com’s graphic novel sales since The Dark Knight opened, there is some discrepancy. Anita Blake, Dark Tower, and Marvel Chronicle all sold well. Naruto and Fruit Baskets remain popular, as do the various Bone paperbacks. The deluxe $150 Comic Book Tattoo sold out as soon as word spread from San Diego. All Batman canon titles enjoyed continual success from theatrical release to DVD release. The revised DC Encyclopedia, DC Vault, and Absolute Sandman Volume Four were pricier items which sold as well as less expensive fare. The Watchmen hardcover and Absolute edition both sell nicely, even as the trade paperback tops the B&N bestseller list.
So, as the medium diversifies, are comicbook shops becoming the eqivalent of a gated community? Or worse, a backwater town where everyone is related to everone else?

Well, half of Marvel Books have the $3.99 price tag with ONLY 22 of material.

I will give DC some credit, at least with their books with a $3.99 price tag, you get more pages.

I had no idea that IDW was the fifth largest DM publisher — they’ve certainly been chugging away with a lot of great material. Good for them!

Greg, I’d guess their two Joss Whedon-related titles (Angel and Spike) probably make up a huge chunk of that.

IDW picked up a full share point over its Diamond shares for last year — a market share increase of 48%. Not always helpful to look at those comparisons when we don’t know what the sizes of the pies being sliced up are yet — but they should be pretty close, so clearly that’s a significant move.

Wow… that’s kind of messed up that Marvel all but owned the floppies but didn’t even rank in the GNs. Bizarre.

It’s not bizarre at all. This is a DM-oriented Top 10 list, and Marvel does better leaning heavily on its event-driven monthlies than DC does. Now if it was a “comics sold period, not just the DM” the list would likely look different (though perhaps not radically so in the top 10).

Looks like this Alan Moore guy has got himself a future with DC.

$3.99 for just a single Marvel comic – that just makes me wretch.

~

Coat

“Marvel Comics’ Secret Invasion #1 was the best-selling comic book title for 2008 based on total unit sales to comic book specialty shops, according to Diamond Comic Distributors, the world’s largest distributor of comics, graphic novels, and pop-culture products. ”

How is this a remotely correct statement?

First off it only looks at one sales channel, it’s like saying the #1 DVD at Blockbuster is therefore the #1 DVD in the world.

Second how can Diamond be the “world’s largest distributor of comics, graphic novels, and pop-culture products” when in Japan comics sell millions of copies a month?

Third is Diamond even the largest GN and pop culture distributer in the US? Larger than any of the trade book distributors? I’m not even sure that part is right.