Exclusive: Top 100 Best-Selling Comics of 2017

Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic's Marvel Legacy #1, the oversized one-shot that set the Marvel Universe's new direction in the aftermath of Secret Empire, was the best-selling comic book of 2017.

In total, Marvel Comics had five books in the top ten. In addition to Marvel Legacy #1, Chip Zdarsky, Adam Kubert, and Goran Parlov's Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #1 ranked #3; Nick Spencer, Daniel Acuñe, and Rod Ries' Secret Empire #0, the beginning of Marvel's summer event, ranked #4; Spencer, Steve McNiven, and Jay Leisten's Secret Empire #1 ranked #5; and Matthew Rosenberg and Leinil Francis Yu's Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey #1 ranked #10.

DC Entertainment had had five titles among the year's top ten — Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Dark Nights: Metal #1, the first chapter of DC's crossover event, ranked #2, followed by issue #3 at #6, issue #2 at #7, and issue #9 at #9; and Doomsday Clock #2, the second chapter of Geoff Johns and Gary Frank's series merging the worlds of Watchmen and the DC Universe, ranked #8.

Among the premier publishers, Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead #164 was Image Comics' top book for 2017 at #82. Neil Gaiman's American Gods: Shadows #1, an adaptation of the award-winning novel by P. Craig Russell and Scott Hampton, was Dark Horse Comics' top book at #292. Finally, Star Wars Adventures #1, an all-ages comic set in the Star Wars universe, was IDW Publishing's top book for the year at #381.

TOP 100 COMIC BOOKS
Based on Total Unit Sales of Products Invoiced in Calendar Year 2017

This information may not be reproduced in any format without the express permission of Diamond Comic Distributors.

How does Diamond calculate the charts? It all starts at the comic book shop.

Data for Diamond’s sales charts — which includes the monthly market shares and all top product charts — are compiled by Diamond Comic Distributors from sales made to thousands of comic book specialty shops located in North America and around the world.  Additional sales made to online merchants and other specialty stores may be included as well.

Unit and dollar market shares are calculated based upon orders for comic books, graphic novels, and magazines invoiced and shipped to Diamond customers during any given month, which comprises pre-orders, advance reorders, and reorders, minus any copies that are received back from a title marked as returnable. Please note that comics marked with an asterisk (*) have had their reported quantities reduced due to retailer returnability, and thus may rank lower on the charts than their actual sales would reflect.

About the Diamond Sales Index: The Sales Index of selected monthly Best Seller Charts is presented as a comparative tool for retailers and publishers. It presents Diamond’s monthly sales for individual titles in relation to Diamond’s total sales for the issue of DC Comics' monthly Batman comic book. (Batman is used as the control title – with a value of 100 – because sales of Batman usually remain relatively stable. This month, as Batman did not ship, Convergence #8 from DC Entertainment was used as the control index.) This allows for easy comparison to other titles and helps retailers gauge their orders for all other titles. This formula is only a guide, other factors may impact a titles’ ability to sell in certain locations and clientele.