Light publisher offerings in January led to one of the weakest months to date in the direct-market era. One of the top books of the month didn't come out in January anyway: Darkness #11, with its eleven covers, shipped the last week of December. A lackluster February did little to dispel the reputation for winter as comics' "dead quarter." But in February, Diamond began reporting indexed sales figures for trade paperbacks for the first time, setting the stage for things to come. Danger Girl launched in March, a month that lagged well behind the previous year.

    April and May continued to be weak, but June's sales drops were down to single digits, generating (premature) hopes for industry recovery. In July, Image's Fathom provided one of the strongest launches for an non-Big Two title in many months. Holographic covers on both X-Men titles helped provide some punch to August's dollar sales.

    September 1998 was unique in that DC ran its "DC One Million" promotion, in which the supposed millionth issues of each series appeared. But any hopes for a recovery were dashed by October's weak sales. November was notable for the restarting of Amazing Spider-Man with Vol. 2, #1 — a numbering change that was later undone. In December, Witchblade/Tomb Raider finally broke Uncanny X-Men's hold on the top spot in a year that closed down considerably.