Diamond's Top 500 Comics for Calendar Year 2012

Media Release -- Image Comics' The Walking Dead #100 was the bestselling comic book published in 2012. Published in July, The Walking Dead #100 from Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, and Cliff Rathburn saw a shocking turn of events in the long-running zombie apocalypse series and featured covers from all-star creators including Bryan Hitch, Todd McFarlane, Ryan Ottley, Sean Phillips, Frank Quitely, and Marc Silvestri.

Marvel Comics published nine of the year's top ten comic titles and seventeen of the top twenty. The publisher's top titles for 2012 included October's Uncanny Avengers #1 from Rick Remender and John Cassaday which debuted a combined team of Avengers and X-Men to combat the world's greatest threats, followed by March's Avengers Vs. X-Men #1 from Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita, Jr. which saw the two teams contend over the fate of Hope, the mutant messiah, with the fate of the Earth in the balance.

DC Comics' top books for the year were November's Batman #13, the prelude to Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's "Death of the Family" storyline, at #17 and Geoff Johns and Jim Lee's Justice League #12 at #20.

Among the Premier Publishers, Dark Horse Comics' top-selling comic book for 2012 was Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 #5 at #866 for the year. IDW Publishing's top book for 2012 was November's My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #1 at #90.

Data for Diamond's sales charts – which include the monthly market shares and all top product charts – are compiled by Diamond Comic Distributors from a universe of over 3,500 accounts, comprised of comic book specialty shops and other merchant stores and buyers. The shops are primarily located in North America, with a percentage of sales also to international stores and buyers located throughout the world. The account base includes not only brick-and-mortar comic book specialty shops, but also Internet stores, chain stores, and other specialty stores.

Unit and dollars sales are calculated based upon orders invoiced and shipped to Diamond accounts during any given month, which comprises initial pre-orders, advance reorders, and reorders, minus any copies that are received back from a title marked as returnable.

About the Diamond Sales Index: The Sales Index of selected monthly Best Seller Charts is presented as a comparative tool for retailers and publishers. It presents Diamond's monthly sales for individual titles in relation to Diamond's total sales for the issue of DC Comics' monthly Batman comic book. (Batman is used as the control title – with a value of 100 – because sales of Batman usually remain relatively stable.) This allows for easy comparison to other titles and helps retailers gauge their orders for all other titles. This formula is only a guide, other factors may impact a titles' ability to sell in certain locations and clientele.