Almost every website concerned with things that are new and interesting does some kind of big year-end wrap-up at the end of December, saying what they thought was best/worst/most cromulent or what-have-you about new products in their field from the preceding year. I purposefully waited til 2010 for ours, because I've got something maybe a little more interesting than just opinions: sales data! Thanks to the nifty new POS we got in mid-February, our computer has been keeping track of every sale we've made throughout the year and I thought it would be cool to include some actual hard facts in my personal "Best of '09" list. Please note these sales reflect only OUR store, and as such they are a SUPREMELY USEFUL gauge of what comic fans around Lansing, IL enjoy. SUPREMELY USEFUL. Also please note that this data doesn't include any sales made in January or the first two weeks of February.
After the hard sales data is the usual slough of opinions from yours truly.
FROM THE STAND-UP COMICS POS:
Top single issues of 2009:
1. Captain America Reborn #1
2. Blackest Night #1
3. TIE: Blackest Night #2/Blackest Night #3
4. Amazing Spider-Man #600
5. Blackest Night #4
Top ongoing series of 2009 by average sales:
1. Batman & Robin
2. New Avengers
3. Green Lantern
4. Dark Avengers
5. Justice League of America
Top graphic novels/trade paperbacks of 2009, including CBC:
1. Scott Pilgrim vol. 1: Precious Little Life
2. We3
3. Fun Home
4. Arkham Asylum
5. Watchmen
Top graphic novels/trade paperbacks of 2009, not including CBC:
**note: once you get past the books that got a bump from being CBC books, there's a humongous tie, so I'm just going to alphabetically list all the books that are tied for first**
-Batman: The Killing Joke
-Batman: The Man Who Laughs
-Irredeemable vol. 1
-Sandman vol. 5: A Game of You
-Walking Dead vol. 1: Days Gone Bye
-Y the Last man. vol. 1: Unmanned
FROM THE MIND OF ERIC GARNEAU
Top ongoing series of 2009:
1. Batman & Robin
2. Adventure Comics
3. Dark Avengers
4. Detective Comics
5. Unwritten
Top events/miniseries of 2009:
1. Blackest Night
2. Wednesday Comics
3. Strange Tales
4. Superman: Secret Origins
5. Transformers: All Hail Megatron
Top graphic novels/trade paperbacks of 2009:
1. Masterpiece Comics by R. Sikoryak
2. Pride & Prejudice & Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
3. I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly
4. Sulk vol. 3 by Jeffrey Brown
5. Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi
Top writers of 2009, superhero:
1. Geoff Johns (Blackest Night, Adventure Comics, Green Lantern)
2. Grant Morrison (Batman & Robin)
3. Brian Michael Bendis (Dark Avengers, New Avengers, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man)
4. Greg Rucka (Detective Comics)
5. Fred van Lente (Incredible Hercules, Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men Noir, Marvel Zombies)
Top writers of 2009, other:
1. Jeffrey Brown (Sulk, Funny Misshapen Body)
2. Fred van Lente (Comic Book Comics, Action Philosophers)
3. Mike Carey (Unwritten)
4. Joe Kelly (I Kill Giants)
5. Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Essex County)
Top artists of 2009:
1. JH Williams III (Detective Comics)
2. Frank Quietly (Batman & Robin)
3. Doug Mahnke (Green Lantern)
4. Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Essex County)
5. Scott Kolins (Solomon Grundy, Superman/Batman, Blackest Night: Flash)
And finally, because I'm a music nerd... top albums of 2009:
1. Def Leppard/Taylor Swift: CMT Crossroads
2. Neko Case: Middle Cyclone
3. Art Brut: Art Brut vs. Satan
4. The Mountain Goats: The Life of the World to Come
5. Pearl Jam: Backspacer
So there you have it: a two-pronged look at the top comics of 2009. I have some reflections on the data above, which will probably be the topic of my next blog post. Until then... maybe go listen to one of the albums I listed at the end there? You won't be disappointed. (And yes, I'm serious about Def Leppard/Taylor Swift being #1).
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