Marvel, Star Wars, Saga Dominate Bestsellers Of 2015 Amid Overall Comics Market Growth

Star Wars #1 is the best-selling comic of 2015, according to Diamond Comic Distributors. Written by Jason Aaron and drawn by John Cassaday, Star Wars #1 kicked off the new era of Marvel-published Star Wars comics, which have been consistent top-sellers throughout the year. Star Wars: Vader Down #1 (#6), Darth Vader #1 (#9), and Princess Leia #1 (#10) also made it into the top 10 bestselling comics of the year list.

The year saw overall sales increasing 7.17% over 2014 in the direct market. Comic book sales were up 8.99%, while graphic novel sales rose by 3.14%. Over 98 million comic books were sold to comic book stores, an increase of 6 million units over 2014, with just over 8 million graphic novels units shipped.

Marvel Comics is the year’s top publisher, leading in both Dollar and Unit Market Shares, with a 38.74% Dollar Market Share and a 41.82% Unit Market Share.Marvel also had seven of the year’s top ten comics. In addition to the four Star Wars titles, Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic’s Secret Wars #1, Spider-Gwen #1, and Invincible Iron Man #1 were among the top ten Marvel had 78 titles placed in the top 100 best-selling comics.

DC Entertainment was number two publisher in 2015 with a 25.75% Dollar Market Share and a 27.35% Unit Market Share. DC Entertainment’s top comic book, Dark Knight III: The Master Race #1 by Frank Miller, Brian Azzarello, Andy Kubert, and Klaus Janson was the fifth highest selling comic of the year, while perennial graphic novel bestseller, Batman: The Killing Joke HC, came in fifth in graphic novels for the year. Several issues of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman run and the Convergence main issues from Jeff King rank among the top 100 comics for the year.

Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga from Image Comics dominated the top ten graphic novels chart and helped make Image Comics as the year’s third largest comic book publisher, with a 9.93% Dollar Market Share and a 10.70% Unit Market Share. Image Comics took seven of the top ten graphic novel spots, including all five collections of Saga as well as two volumes from Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead series. The best-selling comic book for the year from Image was another Brian K. Vaughn title, We Stand on Guard #1, at #124 for the year.

IDW Publishing’s was the fourth largest publisher, elevated by its licensed titles such as My Little Pony, Star Trek, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, among others. The company’s Dollar Market Share was 5.59% for the year. Based upon the hit BBC America show, Orphan Black #1 was IDW’s top-selling comic book landing at #4 for the year.

Dark Horse Comics is the fifth leading comic book publisher to the comic book specialty market in 2015 with a 3.79% Dollar Market Share. Dark Horse’s top comic book for the year was Fight Club 2 #1 at #129, a sequel to the cult-classic movie penned by writer Chuck Palahniuk.

2015 TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS

2015 TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS

2015 TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS

2015 NUMBER OF TITLES SHIPPED