Comichron: 1991 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops

The boom of the 1990s was fully underway as 1991 began. Easy terms from the many competing distributors led to a ballooning number of comics shops, which in turn resulted in enormous orders.

In June, X-Force #1, with several editions bagged with different trading cards, posted numbers not seen in the business in decades. But August brought the release of X-Men Vol. 2, #1 -- what would prove to be the best-selling comic book in the history of publishing, at least in terms of retailer orders. A different variant cover shipped every week of the month, combining to make a larger image. More than 8 million copies were sold to direct market retailers. It was far more than the collector market could absorb, but that didn't slow down momentum for future collectible-driven marketing efforts.

Other publishers were coming on the scene -- Voyager would become Valiant, and Malibu was growing. But Marvel had 90 out of the Top 100 best-selling issues at Diamond Comic Distributors in 1991.

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. Diamond also used titles that went on sale from February 1991 to January 1992 in the below list, so the real list would be slightly different. Punisher War Zone wouldn't be on the list, but Spider-Man #6 would be. Diamond listed the different covers of X-Men Vol. 2 #1 separately, but there's no doubt that it, and not X-Force #1, was the best-selling comic-book of the year when orders are combined. Diamond did not release market shares; Capital's appear in the left column. Diamond and Capital's top sellers by month appear further below.

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