Year-over-year sales of comics and graphic novels to comic shops were down 5.09% in January vs. the previous year according to numbers released today by Diamond Comic Distributors.  Sales of periodical comics were nearly flat when compared with January of 2013, declining just .42%, but graphic novels tumbled 14.28%.
 
Marvel maintained its dominant dollars market share with 34.09% (down slightly from 35.42%), while second place DC Comics inched up from 27.2% in December to 28.06% in January.  Image Comics was a solid #3 in dollars with 8.78%, followed by IDW with 5.71%, Dark Horse Comics with 4.74%, and Dynamite/Dynamic with 2.81%.
 
No surprise, Batman #27 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo was the bestselling comic followed by another Batman title--Detective Comics #27.   The top Marvel was Avengers World #1, which came it at #3.
 
The Top Ten Comics for January 2014

1. Batman #27 (DC)
2. Detective Comics #27 (DC)
3. Avengers World #1 (Marvel)
4. Justice League #27 (DC)
5. Superior Spider-Man #25 (Marvel)
6. All New X-Men #22 (Marvel)
7. Superior Spider-Man #26 (Marvel)
8. Harley Quinn #2 (DC)
9. Avengers #25 (Marvel)
10. Justice League of America #11 (DC)

The weakness on the graphic novel side is evident in the number of backlist titles in the Top 10.  Certainly they are great sellers, but in comparison with January of 2013, which had a potent new #1 title in Fables Vol. 18, this past month’s Top 10 is dominated by perennial bestsellers like the initial volumes of Saga and The Walking Dead and by trade paperback editions of books that were previously released in hardcover like All-New X-Men Vol.1.
 
The Top Ten Graphic Novels for January 2014

1. Saga Vol. 1 (Image)
2. The Walking Dead Vol.1 (Image)
3. All-New X-Men Vol.1 TPB (Marvel)
4. Superior Spider-Man Vol. 4 TPB (Marvel)
5. Batman 66: The TV Stories TPB (DC)
6. Saga Vol.2 (Image)
7. X-Men: Battle of the Atom HC (Marvel)
8. The Unwritten Vol.8 (DC/Vertigo)
9. Batman: The Dark Knight Vol. 2 (DC)
10. Thor: God of Thunder Vol. 1 (Marvel)

Both DC and Marvel shipped 106 releases in January.  DC was down from 118 in December, while Marvel was up slightly from 102.  Image was #3 in market share and #3 with titles shipped with 64.
 
Licensed games dominated games sales through Diamond with The Walking Dead edition of Monopoly taking the top spot, while Enterplay’s My Little Pony CCG grabbed two spots in the Top Ten as did WizKids with two of its licensed HeroClix releases.

For an overview and analysis of comic sales in January, see "Only One Comic Above 100K."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during January, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--January 2014."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels shipped during January, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--January 2014."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during December, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--December 2013."

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 2013."

For an overview and analysis of the best-selling comics and graphic novels in December, see "Only Three Titles Over 100K."  For an analysis of the dollar trends in December, see "December Direct Market Up 5.93%."