2009 about the same, slightly lower in sales

www.newsarama.com/comics/Diamond-2009-Year-Sales-100112.html


Diamond Announces Full 2009 Year-End Data




Diamond Comics Distributors has released their final 2009 sales report for comic books and graphic novels in the direct market. As previously reported, Amazing Spider-Man #583, the "Obama issue" was the best selling single issue in the direct market (Comic book specialty shops) in 2009.

Interestingly, in Unit Market Share, Marvel and DC remained almost entirely unchanged, when compared to 2008's figures. Marvel lost .19% of their overall marketshare from 2008 to 2009, while DC gained .55% in Unit Share. Dollar share told a similar, almost unchanged story, with both Marvel and DC losing a fraction of a percent overall.

For smaller publishers, those single percentage points and even fractions of a percent can make a much more significant difference. Dark Horse Comics stayed in the third position, mimicking 2008, even while losing a percent of Market Share. IDW Publishing, with an increase of .6%, moved into fourth place overall, surpassing the frequently regarded as "third" publisher Image Comics. IDW's dollar share went up by a full percent, marking the largest positive change for a publisher in that category. Image, Dynamite Entertainment/Dynamic Forces (listed as Dynamic Entertainment), and BOOM! Studios rounded out the named publishers on the Market Share/Dollar Share list for 2009. With this redistribution, and BOOM! and Dynamite being listed individually in 2009, it appears the "other" category of publishers is down by about 3.3%. When you add them in, however, it's virtually identical year-to-year.

With Marvel's increased output, but lack of a major event comic, and the highly publicized chart-dominating Blackest Night from DC, it seems a strange balance was reached between the companies. However, the lack of Hollywood-dominating comic movies in 2009 (compared to 2008's Iron Man and The Dark Knight) doesn't seem to have affected the publishers at all, showing that if there is any "halo" effect to be found from comic book movies to comic books themselves, it has not been discovered yet.

John Jackson Miller will be back later with his full Comichron year-end report for 2009, showing more comparisons with years past. Diamond's charts are reprinted below.


2009 TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS

UNIT MARKET SHARE


--------------------------MARKET SHARE RETAIL DOLLAR

MARVEL COMICS...................45.63%......40.47%

DC COMICS...........................32.22%......29.28%

DARK HORSE COMICS.............4.05%......5.16%

IDW PUBLISHING...................3.49%......4.17%

IMAGE COMICS.......................3.25%......3.67%

DYNAMIC ENTERTAINMENT......2.16%......2.17%

BOOM ENTERTAINMENT..........1.22%......1.31%

OTHER..................................7.98%......13.76%


2009 TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS

Rank

1 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #583 OBAMA $3.99 MARVEL COMICS

2 BLACKEST NIGHT #1 (OF 8) $3.99 DC COMICS

3 CAPTAIN AMERICA REBORN #1 (OF 6) $3.99 MARVEL COMICS

4 BATMAN AND ROBIN #1 $2.99 DC COMICS

5 BLACKEST NIGHT #2 (OF 8) $3.99 DC COMICS

6 BLACKEST NIGHT #5 (OF 8) $3.99 DC COMICS

7 BLACKEST NIGHT #3 (OF 8) $3.99 DC COMICS

8 BLACKEST NIGHT #4 (OF 8) $3.99 DC COMICS

9 CAPTAIN AMERICA #600 $4.99 MARVEL COMICS

10 DARK AVENGERS #1 $3.99 MARVEL COMICS


2009 TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS

Rank

1 WATCHMEN TP $19.99 DC COMICS

2 LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN III: CENTURY #1 1910 $7.95 TOPSHELF PRODUCTIONS

3 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 09: HERE WE REMAIN $14.99 IMAGE COMICS

4 WALKING DEAD TP VOL: 10 WHAT WE BECOME $14.99 IMAGE COMICS

5 WALKING DEAD TP VOL 01: DAYS GONE BYE $9.99 IMAGE COMICS

6 WATCHMEN TP INTERNATIONAL EDITION $19.99 DC COMICS

7 SECRET INVASION TP $29.99 MARVEL COMICS

8 BATMAN RIP DELUXE EDITION HC $24.99 DC COMICS

9 FABLES TP VOL 12: THE DARK AGES $17.99 DC COMICS

10 FABLES TP VOL 01: LEGENDS IN EXILE $9.99 DC COMICS