1995 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Comics Shipped to North American Comics Shops
Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

Covers and issue links on this page lead to current eBay listings. This site may be compensated if you make a purchase.

After a dismal 1994, the industry went through wrenching spasms as Marvel sought to eliminate the middleman with its purchase of a direct market distributor, Heroes World. Marvel made Heroes World its exclusive distributor to comics shops, and at the same time, Heroes World stopped distributing others' products. The resulting "Distribution Wars" had the effect of shuttering many distributors; by the end of the year, only Heroes World, Diamond Comic Distributors, and a much smaller Capital City Distribution remained.

Sales-wise, publishers managed to slow the descent some with clever editorial events in generally slow times of the year: "The Age of Apocalypse" and Marvel vs. DC. But nothing could arrest the collapse that was already underway, and being amplified by the distribution changes.

Beginning in July 1995, Diamond was no longer distributing Marvel's comics. The sales rankings reflect this; Marvel is absent from Diamond's market shares published in this period. Capital City, through a legal settlement, delayed Marvel's departure until October 1995. But Diamond signed first DC Comics, and then Image, Dark Horse, Acclaim, and other publishers to exclusive distribution arrangements — and so we see Capital's slate shrinking by the end of the year.

A result of this period of tumultuous change in the market is that no two distributors' monthly rankings look remotely alike as the year goes on, and it becomes difficult to reconcile the various charts to figure out what the real market leader was. Each distributor has its own #1, in some cases. Comichron lists each of the distributor sales charts separately.

Heroes World did publish Top 100 lists during the first half of the year when it was independent; once Marvel bought it, no further sales charts were published. (Capital City ran projections of Marvel and DC comics rankings for a time after they were gone, explaining why Marvel titles still top its charts after June. After October, Capital only published dollar rankings for those titles it still had left.)

Diamond's final rankings for all comics and trade paperbacks during the year appear below. Diamond reported these issues without indexes allowing actual sales estimates to be calculated. You can find the first-month preorders for these issues in the monthly charts; click one of the months above or use the search tool at the top of the page to find the specific issue. But note that those monthly numbers do not include reorders for the entire year; the rankings below do take the entire year's sales into account.

Further, note that since Diamond wasn't carrying Marvel in the second half of 1995 — and was carrying the enture industry's share of DC, Image, and Dark Horse books toward the end of the year — the figures seen below are distorted by a great degree. Many Marvel books simply aren't on the list, while many of the Diamond exclusives rank better against non-exclusives than was really the case. 

Click to skip to the Top Graphic Novels for the year.

—John Jackson Miller

This list includes all items on Diamond's End of Year chart.
If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.
Distributor charts are regional commodity reports, not measures of a work's total reach. Read our FAQ.
Title links below lead to current listings for the issues on eBay. As an eBay Partner, this site may be compensated if you make a purchase.

1995 Graphic Novel Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks Shipped to North American Comics Shops Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top Graphic Novel charts. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.

The links lead to title details on Amazon (paid links). You can also find the books at your comics shop.

Sandman Midnight Theatre was the top graphic novel for the year at Diamond, but only Marvel items from the first half of the year appeared on Diamond's charts.

My analyses of preorders from Diamond Comic Distributors for individual months can be found here:

My analyses of preorders from Capital City Distribution for individual months can be found here: