Marvel Comics Named 2018's Top Publisher But DC Comics Ended Up With The Year's Best-Selling Comic
Sales numbers are in for 2018 and while Marvel Comics can boast about being the most successful comics publisher last year, they didn't manage to land the single highest-selling comic issue. Check it out!
Given how many movies they had in theaters during 2018, it probably won't surprise you to learn that Marvel Comics ended up being the year's most successful comic publisher.
Overall sales from the comic book speciality market were up 3.3% over 2017 but graphic novel sales dipped 6.6% as digital comic sales continue to grow (why pay $20 for a trade paperback in a comic store when you can pick it up for a few bucks in a sale on Comixology?).
Regardless, while Marvel was the most successful publisher of 2018 with a might 40.4% share of the market, it was Action Comics #1000 which ended up being the year's best-selling single issue. Aside from that, though, DC Comics had only two titles in the top ten: Batman #50 and The Batman Who Laughs #1. There was no sign of Doomsday Clock!
DC Comics has tried a number of things over the years to boost sales, including rebooting its universe...and then undoing it!
Some of those strategies have worked better than others and they're not that far behind Marvel in the grand scheme of things. However, it will be interesting seeing how they respond to this throughout 2019. As always, stay tuned for further updates.
About The Author:
A lifelong comic book fan who grew up on Spider-Man: The Animated Series in the '90s, Josh Wilding has been contributing to ComicBookMovie.com since 2009.
While he's also written for websites like Batman-News, HeyUGuys, and WhatCulture, Josh is CBM's Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic and the site's #1 contributor with nearly two decades of experience covering film and TV news (including interviews with Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Gary Oldman, Halle Berry, Jon Bernthal, Tom Welling, and hundreds more).
Based in the UK with his wife, Josh is also an avid WWE and Formula 1 fan and writes about those passions on CBM's sister sites, TheRingReport.com and FullThrottleHQ.com. Favourite superhero? Spider-Man. Favourite pro wrestler? CM Punk. Favourite F1 driver? Max Verstappen.