2003 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops

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

OVERALL North American Dollar Sales for
Diamond's Comics, Graphic Novels, and Magazines for the year

around $310.6 Million

Jim Lee's Batman led the way in a January that started off 2003 weakly in comparison with 2002. Diamond began reporting final order sales figures in February, rather than preorders. The first quarter of the year finished down in March; the 1980s nostalgia revival of 2002 seemed to have peaked.

Comic book unit sales continued to struggle in April, but Jim Lee's Batman sales began to really catch fire, pointing the way to better numbers in the summer. The relaunched Wolverine helped the market move into positive territory for the year in May. But in June the first half of the year ended basically flat versus the first half of 2002.

Fantastic Four was restored to its original numbering in a slightly up July. Comics and trade paperback sales lagged behind a year earlier in August but a number of new title launches set up the fall for improvement. Jim Lee's Batman continued to help DC top the charts in September — and the long-awaited JLA/Avengers crossover finally came out.

October was way up above 2002; Marvel restored the numbering for Amazing Spider-Man, not coincidentally just in time for #500. Marvel took a massive 21 out of the Top 25 slots in November. December's sales meant 2003 closed out only slightly better than 2002 in the wider categories, but the industry kept its string of growth years going nonetheless.

The final rankings for all comics and trade paperbacks during the year appear below. Diamond Comic Distributors reported these issues without indexes, so no sales estimates are calculated. You can find the first-month sales for these issues in the monthly charts; click one of the months at the bottom 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.

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.
The links lead to current listings for each item on eBay. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

2003 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.

The Sandman: Endless Nights hardcover was the top dollar volume of the year.

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