Comic Book Industry: The Two Ring Circus

I've always known that the comic book industry was a two company business - DC and Marvel. But I guess I expected that to have changed in recent times because of the excellent product being put out by Dark Horse, IDW, and Image. Well, if the top 100 sellers listed in the January are to believed, that just simply isn't the case. In fact, of the top 100 comics only THREE aren't published by Marvel or DC. Ready? Here they are:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 comes in at 64 (yes, that's right - no non-DC/Marvel publisher breaks the top 50)

The Walking Dead comes in at 68

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comes in at 97.

That's it! Number 99 is Mr. Terrific by DC and #100 is X-23 by Marvel. So X-23 outsells every non-Marvel/DC comic on the racks except three! That's unbelievable!

How can this be good for the industry? How can this be good for the FANS? Bottom line - it can't be. And to make things worse, I wonder if these two companies are in an actual competition with one another. Fans are notoriously loyal. I know I'm that way. I don't care WHAT DC publishes or how good it is - I'll never read Batman or Superman monthly.

It's amazing that companies like Dark Horse can hang in there month to month. Keep pluggin' away, "underground" comic companies. Your efforts are appreciated!