Marvel sold over $1.6 million retail worth of Amazing Spider-Man #700 to comic stores in December, the top dollar comic in recent memory.  Sell-in of over 200,000 copies was supported by an extensive variant program, including numerous "exceed orders," 1:100, 1:150, 1:200 variants, and at a $7.99 retail price, the dollars piled up fast.  Extensive publicity about the storyline helped make this a major event book.  The lead-in book, #699, appears to have unfilled demand; #698 sold more than #699 (both #698 and #699 have second printings already released).

Marvel also had a big hit with Avengers #1 at over 186,000 copies, but the scale of the dollars wasn’t even close, with less than half the dollars of the #1 book.

The books in DC's "Death of a Family" event were up and down: Batman, for example, was down around 5%, but all of the tie-in titles saw some pretty substantial bumps-- Detective Comics #15 (+31,835), Batman and Robin (+14,335), Batgirl #15 (+2127), Nightwing #15 (+23,687), Teen Titans #15 (+28,962), and Red Hood and the Outlaws #15 (+26,393).  Also of note, DC's Justice League (Part 1 of the "Throne of Atlantis" storyline crossing over with Aquaman) saw an uptick of 2% while Aquaman #15 saw orders increase over 30%.

The Walking Dead Vol. 1 mustered nearly 10,000 sales out of the direct market in December, with gifts of the first volume a great sign for the future of the franchise.


For an overview and analysis of comic sales in December, see "Spidey Tops $1.6 Million."


For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during December, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--December 2012."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during November, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--November 2012."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during November, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--November 2012."

For an overview and analysis of the best-selling comics and graphic novels in November, see "Marvel NOW! Titles Domiate November Sales."  For an analysis of the dollar trends in October, see "Comics Down in November."