Zombies drama and a sci-fi saga were the top dogs in the comics industry in 2013. Overall, 2013 was a standout year for comics. Annual sales increased 9.04% over 2012’s numbers, with single-issue comic sales up 10.22%.
Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard’s The Walking Dead No. 115 — celebrating the 10th anniversary of the hit title — was the best-selling comic of the year, according to Diamond Comics Distributors, and the first collected volume of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga topped the list of graphic novels and trade paperbacks. The Walking Dead also had the top comic of last year with its 100th issue.
Marvel Comics continued its dominance as the industry’s top publisher over rival DC Comics in both dollar market share (33.5% to 30.33%) and unit market share (36.97% to 33.35%), though DC did have No. 2 (Justice League of America No. 1), 3 (Superman Unchained No. 1) and 10 (Superman Unchained No. 2) on the best-selling comic list. Marvel filled out the rest of the top 10 with a bunch of first issues: Guardians of the Galaxy was the publisher’s top comic at No. 3 followed by Superior Spider-Man, Infinity, X-Men, Age of Ultron and Uncanny X-Men.
Image Comics, the industry’s No. 3 publisher, took seven spots in the list of best-selling graphic novels — two Saga books and four Walking Dead trades. Also faring well were Marvel’s Hawkeye Volume 1: My Life as Weapon and DC’s Batman Volume 1: The Court of Owls and Batman: The Killing Joke Special Edition.
