MARKETS
IMAGE GAINS, DC AND MARVEL SLIP
In Q2 Market Shares
Posted by Brigid Alverson on July 15, 2026 @ 3:44 pm CT
DC Comics continues to be the biggest publisher in the direct market, as measured by actual retail sales through ComicHub, but its market share slipped from Q1 to Q2, going from 34.7% to 31.9%. Despite the decrease, strong sales of DC’s Absolute line and Compact Comics continue to give it the edge in the direct market, although its edge over Marvel Comics was down in Q2 from its Q1 lead of over five share points (see “Q1 2026 Market Shares”).Marvel also lost ground, going from 29.4% to 28.3% in the same period, but Image increased its share from 11.8% to 15.3%. Image Comics has continued to expand its existing franchises, including Spawn and Invincible, and it launched a new M.A.S.K. series in June.The other top ten publishers either stayed the same or lost ground, but the “all others” category increased from 8.5% of the total to 9.2%, suggesting that the market is getting broader. One example of this is Dungeon Crawler Carl, from Vault Comics, which was the top selling graphic novel through ComicHub in May (see “Top 20 Graphic Novels – May 2026”) and the number three title in June. However, this is a fluid category, as it shrank from Q4 2025 to Q1 2026.
| Comic Store Market Share (Dollars) – Q2 2026 [ComicHub Data, via ICv2] | ||
| Rank | Publishing | Market Share |
| 1 | DC Comics | 31.9% |
| 2 | Marvel Comics | 28.3% |
| 3 | Image Comics | 15.3% |
| 4 | IDW Publishing | 3.5% |
| 5 | Dark Horse Comics | 2.9% |
| 6 | Dynamite Entertainment | 2.5% |
| 7 | VIZ Media | 2.3% |
| 8 | BOOM! Studios | 1.9% |
| 9 | Kodansha Comics | 1.3% |
| 10 | Oni Press | 1.0% |
| All Others | 9.2% |
The data on which these market share percentages are based is from sales tracked at point-of-sale by the ComicHub system at stores selling American comics and graphic novels around the world. During the period for which these reports were generated, there were over 125 stores using the ComicHub system. As this is a small, non-random sample of over 3,000 stores selling American comics worldwide, these rankings may not be typical for all stores, but do represent a variety of locations and store emphases.For monthly sales rankings based on ComicHub POS data, see “Comics and Graphic Novel Sales Rankings Based on Comic Store POS Data Index.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brigid Alverson
Contributing Editor. Alverson has been writing about comics since she launched MangaBlog in 2005. She wrote the Comics A.M. column for Robot 6 (now part of CBR), and currently edits the Good Comics for Kids blog at School Library Journal. In her earlier life, she had roles at magazine and book publishers.
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