Led by titles like Secret Invasion and Final Crisis that went AWOL in November, sales of periodical comics rose by 12% in December.  The December gain was enough to overcome November’s 11% loss and push comic sales up to +3% for the fourth quarter, and pull the second half of 2008 roughly even with the last six months of 2007.  However the rough parity in the second half was not enough to overcome sales declines earlier years and sales of periodical comics were down 3% for the year.  Still posting a sales increase in Q4 of 2008, even if part of it was fueled by higher cover prices for some key titles, was an achievement that few industries in the developed world could match.

Sales of the top 100 graphic novel sales for December were up 4% after a flat November and a 5% increase in October.  The Q4 gain in the top 100 graphic novel sales was 3%, which, along with the Watchmen phenomenon from mid July onward, helped push sales of the top 100 graphic novels for the second half of the year up 7%.  Sales of the top 100 graphic novels were up 4% for the year, which brought the overall total for comics and graphic novels sold during 2008 just 1% below the combined total for 2007.  Of course, there may be effects from less visible areas of sales, such as sales of graphic novels below the top 100 that have impacts on these over-all numbers in a broader analysis.