After a very strong performance in 2006 in which both comics and graphic novels registered substantial gains, the sales momentum continued unabated in January with periodical comics soaring 26% and graphic novels posting a 13% rise.  The total gain in January for both comics and graphic novels was a potent 23%.

A fifth week of DC's popular weekly 52 comic book and the cumulative effect of a fifth shipping week certainly contributed to the stellar comic books total as did a number of event comics, especially Marvel's Civil War titles.

Graphic novel sales were boosted by a couple of stellar backlist performers including the Marvel Zombies hardcover, previously released in the summer of 2006 and Frank Miller's 300, a 1998 release from Dark Horse that has been boosted by the pending release of a movie adaptation in March.

We are estimating actual sales by Diamond U.S. (primarily to North American comic stores), using Diamond's published sales indexes and publisher sales data to estimate a sales number for Batman (the anchor title Diamond uses in its calculations), and using that number and the indexes to estimate Diamond's sales on the remaining titles.  We can check the accuracy of our numbers by comparing the Batman number that we calculate using multiple data points; our numbers for Batman are within 1/10 of 1% of each other, ensuring a high degree of accuracy.

For the top 300 comics in January, see 'Top 300 Comics Actual--January 2007.'

For the top 100 graphics novels in January, see 'Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--January 2007.'

For an overview and analysis of the best-selling comics and graphic novels in January, see ''Civil War' Dominates.'

For the top 300 comics in December, see 'Top 300 Comics Actual--December 2006.'