Top 500 Comics: Year 2021

Image Comics’ King Spawn #1, from Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, Sean Lewis, and Javier Fernandez, was the best-selling comic book of 2021 through Diamond Comic Distributors.

Image Comics had two books among Diamond’s top shipping comics for the year, both spin-offs from Todd McFarlane’s Spawn that launched “Spawn’s Universe.” In addition to King Spawn, McFarlane, Ales Kot, and Brett Booth’s Gunslinger Spawn #1, featuring a Spawn from the Wild West resurrected in the present day, ranked #3 for the year.

BOOM! Studios also had two books among the top ten. James Tynion IV, Tate Brombal, Chris Shehan, and Werther Dell’Edera’s The House of Slaughter #1 was their top book for the year, and BRZKRR #1 from Keanu Reeves, Matt Kindt, Ron Garney, and Bill Crabtree ranked #4.

Marvel Comics placed six titles in Diamond’s top ten for the year. Their top shipped book, Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman’s Venom #35, was the two-hundredth published issue of Venom and ranked #5 for the year. Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Salvador Larroca’s Alien #1, based on the film series, ranked #6; Jed MacKay and Alessandro Cappuccio’s Moon Knight #1 ranked #7; Gerry Duggan and Pepe Larraz’s X-Men #1 ranked #8; Charles Soule and Steve McNiven’s Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters Alpha #1, the first chapter of a crossover across Marvel’s Star Wars titles, ranked #9; and Cavan Scott and Ario Anindito’s Star Wars: The High Republic #1, the comics launch of the Lucasfilm multimedia event set 200 years before the Skywalker Saga, ranked #10.

Among the other premier publishers, Kevin Eastman’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin #2, the second chapter of his future Turtles tale, was IDW Publishing’s top book for 2021 at #26; Dynamite Entertainment’s top book, Christopher Priest and Ergun Gunduz’s Vampirella #25, ranked #213; and Dark Horse Comics’ Masters of the Universe: Revelation #1, a prequel to Kevin Smith’s Netflix animated series, ranked #273.

TOP 500 COMIC BOOKS
Based on Total Unit Sales of Products Invoiced in Calendar Year 2021

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 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.