Diamond released some sales stats today, and it isn’t pretty, ICV2 always provides some great analysis.

As feared, January 2011 saw a huge drop in new product sales ordered through Diamond Distribution. Compared to January 2010 units ordered are down a whopping 23% and dollars earned on new comics are down a comparable 22%. Even more surprising was the nearly 20% drop in graphic novel sales (19% units and 16.5% dollars)….

I had a bad feeling about January and February based on a look through the Previews offerings, so I’m not shocked at these results. There weren’t a lot of great new comics and graphic novels offered in January and February.

The Top 100 Comics
Notables:
– The #1 spot went to Johnny Storm’s flame-out in Fantastic Four #587
– You know there’s a problem when Brightest Day #18 and #19 took #2 and #3 spots respectively. Not to knock the book by any means, or it’s great covers by Canadian superstar David Finch, but it’s not a hot book by any stretch of the imagination and speaks volumes about the January offerings from the mainstream publishers.
– However, the lacklustre offerings from the big 2 did create a big void for Todd McFarlane‘s Spawn to return to the top 10 as #200 and it’s multiple covers took the #4 spot. Overall January was a great month for Image Comics who reclaimed the #3 spot in total for offerings like Spawn #200 and The Walking Dead #48 (just coming off of the initial run of the tv show). Spawn #201 was #82.
– X-Men #7 with art and variant cover by Chris Bachalo was #6
– Age of X: Alpha #1 kicking off the big X-Men event with a cover by Chris Bachalo is #18
– Did Darwyn Cooke‘s variant cover help put Batman Beyond #1 into the #28 spot?
– Action Comics #897 with a David Finch cover comes in at #36
– Red Robin #19, drawn by Marcus To places at #43.
– The Jeff Lemire written Superboy #3 places at #47.
– X-23 #5 featuring a cover by Kalman Andrasofszky came in at #51
– X-Factor #213 at #56 featured art by Valentine DeLandro and Pat Davidson.
– Chaos War #5 which kept Alpha Flight alive for a revamp was at #59
– Leonard Kirk did the art for New Mutants #21 which was #62.
– Wolverine and Jubilee #1 written by Kathryn Immonen with a variant cover by Namit Malavia scores the #70 position.
– Chaos War: Dead Avengers #3 drawn by Tom Grummett was at #93.
– X-Men: To Serve and Protect with a cover by Nick Bradshaw place at #100.

No Stuart Immonen art on New Avengers on January as he’s moved off to do the Fear Itself crossover. No Francis Manapul Flash issues shipped in January. Nor did David Finch‘s Batman: The Dark Knight or the Yanick Paquette/Michel Lacombe illustrated Batman, Incorporated.

The Top 100 Graphic Novels
Graphic Novels with work by Canadians?
#13 – Hulk: The End TP features work by Dale Keown
#20 – New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis Vol.1 HC features art by Stuart Immonen
#24 – Siege: New Avengers TP features art by Stuart Immonen
#45 – Scott Pilgrim Vol.1 is a reissue
#47 – Steve Rogers, Super Soldier HC features art by Dale Eaglesham
#59 – Captain America: War and Remembrance HC features art by John Byrne
#83 – MMW Uncanny X-Men TP also features art by John Byrne
#84 – X-Men Forever 2 TP features some cover art by Tom Grummett
#85 – Brightest Day Vol.1 HC (a reorder) features cover art by David Finch