2006 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 $395.55 Million

(up 12% year-over-year)

Infinite Crisis #4 helped 2006 get off to a big start in January with a double-digit increase in overall January sales. Infinite Crisis did not come out in February, but the first quarter closed out strong, thanks to the title topping 200,000 copies in initial orders in March. The series continued leading the charts in April.

May was the real winner, though, as the first issues of Civil War and 52 and the last issue of Infinite Crisis produced a monster month for new comics sales. Civil War #2 had orders of more than a quarter million copies in June, and was the best-selling single issue of the year, topping even the first issue; retailers had not bet heavily enough on #1, explaining why it wound up being outsold by #2 and #3 in their first months. 

In July, it was the top trade paperbacks that surged ahead the most — but even so, 14 comics had sales over 100,000 copies. JL A's new #1 (this time as Justice League of America) and a five-week month for 52 drove strong sales for August. The third quarter finished up 14% overall in September.

October was another very strong month for trades with two big hardcovers topping the 10,000-copy initial order mark. A massive jump for new comics orders in November made an up year a certainty. There was no Civil War issue in December, but it didn't matter; 2006 closed up across all categories — with Top 300 Comics sales jumping more than Top 100 Trade Paperbacks did, in a reversal of previous experience.

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 has all items on Diamond's end-of-year chart. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.
Diamond did not release dollar rankings for items after 100th place; "999" is entered for sorting purposes.
The links lead to listings for each issue on eBay. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

2006 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.

With a hit movie out, an older graphic novel, V for Vendetta, returned to top the charts in a year that saw dollar sales of the Top 100 graphic novels each month up 6%.

Diamond did not release dollar rankings for items after 100th place; "999" is entered for sorting purposes.

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