Exclusive: Top 50 Comics and Graphic Novels of December 2016

The Justice League discovers the existence of the Suicide Squad and is determined to bring them to justice in DC Entertainment's Justice League vs. Suicide Squad #1 from Joshua Williamson and Jason Fabok, the first crossover event of DC Rebirth and the best-selling comic book of December 2016.

DC Entertainment had five titles in the top ten. In addition to Justice League vs. Suicide Squad, Frank Miller, Brian Azzarello, Andy Kubert, and Klaus Janson's Dark Knight III: The Master Race #7 ranked #3; Tom King, Mikel Janin, and Hugo Petrus' Batman #12 ranked #4; King and Janin's Batman #13 ranked #5, and Scott Snyder, John Romita, Jr., and Danny Miki's All-Star Batman #5 ranked #10.

Marvel Comics also had five titles in the top ten: Charles Soule, Jeff Lemire, and Leinil Francis Yu's Inhumans vs. X-Men #1 ranked #2; Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez's Civil War II #8, the final chapter of Marvel's 2016 event, ranked #6; Jason Aaron and Salvador Larroca's Star Wars #26 ranked #7; Kieron Gillen, Kev Walker, and Salvador Larroca's Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #1, a new ongoing series spinning out of Star Wars: Darth Vader, ranked #8; and Mariko Tamaki and Nico Leon's Hulk #1, a new series starring Jennifer Walters, ranked #9.

Among the premier publishers, Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead #161 was Image Comics' top book in December at #11. IDW Publishing's top book was Batman/TMNT Adventures #2 at #65. Finally, Dark Horse Comics' Serenity: No Power in the 'Verse #3, based on Joss Whedon's film Serenity, was their top book of the month at #112.

IDW Publishing's Love is Love, an anthology from an all-star line-up of writers and artists celebrating the lives lost in Orlando's Pulse nightclub shooting and co-produced with DC Entertainment, was December's best-selling graphic novel.

DC Entertainment had two titles in the top ten: Batman Volume 9: Bloom at #2 and Batman Volume 10: Epilogue at #9.

Image Comics had three titles in the top ten: Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen's Descender Volume 3: Singularities at #3, Skottie Young's I Hate Fairyland Volume 2: Fluff My Life at #5, and Black Science Volume 5 at #10.

Marvel Comics rounded out the top ten with four titles: Mark Millar and Steve McNiven's Wolverine: Old Man Logan at #4, Invincible Iron Man Volume 1: Reboot at #6, Star Wars: Poe Dameron Volume 1: Black Squadron at #7, and Doctor Strange Volume 1: The Way of the Weird at #8.

TOP 50 COMIC BOOKS
Based on Total Unit Sales of Products Invoiced in December 2016

TOP 50 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS
Based on Total Unit Sales of Products Invoiced in December 2016

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.