Diamond Comic Distributors has released its annual sales figures, reporting that in 2006 Diamond Comic Distributors as a whole (including Alliance and Diamond UK) had gross sales of over $350 million -- and Diamond estimates that the 3,500 comic specialty stores it services had retail sales of over $650 million last year.

Comics and graphic novels represented the majority of Diamond's sales with the distributor estimating that Diamond accounts sold more than 100 million comics and graphic novels in 2006, an increase of 18% over 2005 as overall comic and graphic novel sales increased for the fourth consecutive year.  Diamond also estimates that direct market graphic novel sales were up 10%, which represents the continuation of a long-running trend.