Amit Malaviya
Two weeks into the new year seems like the perfect time to look back into the past and see what the trends of the last year were. Rightfully – and perhaps unsurprisingly – DC Comics had the highest-selling comic issue of the year, none other than the much-anticipated Action Comics #1000, the first series from a comics publisher to hit that specific landmark. Interestingly enough, though DC had the highest-selling issue of the year, they weren’t the top publisher of the year when it comes to sales – that specific honor goes to Marvel Comics. Out of the top ten sellers of the year, only three of DC’s books made the list, compared to seven of Marvel’s.
While it’s long been said amongst comics fans that external superhero media – movies, animated series, video games – don’t really bring new readers to comics, 2018 showed a 3.3% uptick in sales in the comic book specialty market.
Notably, Image Comics was the third most successful comic book publisher of the year, in large part thanks to the incredible work done by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples on their award-winning Saga, which led sales in the trade paperback market.
A full list of sales figures is below, to show what else sold well in 2018.
