Image had a great year in graphic novels (and overall), according to information released by Diamond Comic Distributors today, which revealed that Image had nine of the top ten graphic novels in comic stores in 2014.  Two volumes of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga were at the top of the graphic novel chart, beating even the mighty Walking Dead, and all four were in the top ten.  Four Walking Dead volumes and the first volume of Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky’s Sex Criminals rounded out Image’s nine titles.  DC had #9, with a Scott Snyder Batman volume. 

This chart, and all subsequent charts, were provided by Diamond Comic Distributors and reflect sell-in to comic stores in U.S. and Canada by Diamond.   

2014 TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS

RANK

DESCRIPTION

PRICE

PUBLISHER

1

SAGA TP VOL 03 (MR)

$14.99

IMAGE COMICS

2

SAGA TP VOL 01 (MR)

$9.99

IMAGE COMICS

3

WALKING DEAD TP VOL 20 ALL OUT WAR PT 1 (MR)

$14.99

IMAGE COMICS

4

SAGA TP VOL 02 (MR)

$14.99

IMAGE COMICS

5

WALKING DEAD TP VOL 01 DAYS GONE BYE

$14.99

IMAGE COMICS

6

WALKING DEAD TP VOL 21 ALL OUT WAR PT 2 (MR)

$14.99

IMAGE COMICS

7

SEX CRIMINALS TP VOL 01 (MR)

$9.99

IMAGE COMICS

8

WALKING DEAD TP VOL 22 A NEW BEGINNING (MR)

$14.99

IMAGE COMICS

9

BATMAN TP VOL 01 THE COURT OF OWLS

$16.99

DC ENTERTAINMENT

10

SAGA TP VOL 04 (MR)

$14.99

IMAGE COMICS

The market in comic stores grew 4.39% over 2013, with graphic novels rising faster, at 5.18%, and comics still a healthy 4.03%.  The end of the year has been stronger, but a flat first half (see “First Half Direct Market Comics Flat”) held down the overall growth rate in 2014.

Image also had a strong year in market share, with a 9.23% share for the year that was rising at the end (see “Image Share Hits Double Digits”).  Image revealed yesterday that BookScan numbers indicate that it’s the #2 graphic novel publisher in the book channel (see “Image Is #2 in the Book Channel”).  Marvel maintains a 5.5% lead over DC in the top two slots, and IDW is a half point ahead of Dark Horse in the #4 and #5 slots.  Dynamite and BOOM! are in the 6th and 7th slots.

2014 TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS

PUBLISHER

DOLLAR SHARE

UNIT SHARE

MARVEL COMICS

34.38%

36.78%

DC COMICS

28.86%

32.47%

IMAGE COMICS

9.23%

10.41%

IDW PUBLISHING

5.69%

4.34%

DARK HORSE COMICS

5.07%

4.25%

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

2.57%

2.41%

BOOM! STUDIOS

2.23%

2.16%

EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS

1.30%

0.29%

AVATAR PRESS

0.97%

0.83%

RANDOM HOUSE

0.95%

0.30%

OTHER NON-TOP 10

8.75%

5.75%

Marvel’s lead over DC is reflected in the top ten comic titles, where Marvel dominated, with nine of the top ten.  Marvel took maximum advantage of those top sellers:  seven of the nine were up-priced books, at $4.99 and $5.99.  Image’s The Walking Dead #132, the only non-Marvel title in the Top 10, was the only book below $3.99, at $2.99.
 

2014 TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS

RANK

DESCRIPTION

PRICE

PUBLISHER

1

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1

$5.99

MARVEL COMICS

2

WALKING DEAD #132 (MR)

$2.99

IMAGE COMICS

3

ROCKET RACCOON #1

$3.99

MARVEL COMICS

4

DEATH OF WOLVERINE #1

$4.99

MARVEL COMICS

5

DEATH OF WOLVERINE #4

$4.99

MARVEL COMICS

6

THOR #1

$3.99

MARVEL COMICS

7

ORIGINAL SIN #1

$4.99

MARVEL COMICS

8

DEATH OF WOLVERINE #2

$4.99

MARVEL COMICS

9

DEATH OF WOLVERINE #3

$4.99

MARVEL COMICS

10

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #31

$5.99

MARVEL COMICS


Diamond also released title counts for the top publishers, with DC at the most, 1453 releases, for the year.  Marvel released over 100 fewer titles and still topped DC in dollars, a reflection of the fact that Marvel has higher prices on its periodicals, released more graphic novels than DC, and has more titles at the top of the chart.  The only other position flip was BOOM! and Dynamite; BOOM! released more titles but Dynamite has the larger market share of the two.

2014 NUMBER OF TITLES SHIPPED

PUBLISHER

COMICS

GNs

MAGS

TOTAL

DC COMICS

1107

340

6

1453

MARVEL COMICS

953

387

3

1343

IMAGE COMICS

717

151

0

868

IDW PUBLISHING

515

257

0

772

DARK HORSE COMICS

432

260

0

692

BOOM ENTERTAINMENT

354

82

0

436

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

367

57

0

424

RANDOM HOUSE

14

203

0

217

AVATAR PRESS INC

130

29

7

166