There weren’t many surprises on the Top 100 Comic Book chart (below). As expected, all 100 of the 100 best-selling titles of the year were from either Marvel or DC, led by DC’s All Star Batman & Robin and Boy Wonder #1.

Marvel’s House of M #1 was the year’s #2 book, with DC’s Infinite Crisis also scoring in the Top 10.

DC held the advantage in the Top 10, with 8 of the year’s bestselling books, though Marvel reversed that advantage in the next 10, making it an 11-9 DC/Marvel split among the Top 20. Marvel also dominated much of the remainder of the Top 50, charting 27 book in positions 11 through 50, to DC’s 13.

Overall, Marvel held a slight advantage, 54/46 in the Top 100.

The Top 100 Graphic Novels/Trade Paperbacks chart is much more diverse by comparison, with in fact, Dark Horse Comics having the best showing among publishers in the Top 10, in large because of the strength of Sin City last year, of course due to the release of the theatrical film and DVD.

Image also cracked the Top 10 with the first Walking Dead volume.

Eight different publishers are represented in the Top 100 overall, though ultimately DC dominates the chart with 47 of the Top 100, followed by 19 by Marvel and 13 by Dark Horse.

As to how that all translates in the big picture, as expected Marvel Comics held the overall 2005 advantage in both Dollar and Unit Market Share, 36.97% and 42.62% respectively, to DC’s 32.96% and 35.46%.

DC gained some ground on Marvel as compared to 2004, when Marvel led them 36.54% to 30.63% in Dollar Share and 43.19% to 32.23% in Unit Share. However, the real story as it was throughout the year was the “Big Two” publisher’s growing combined market shares. Their combined 2005 Dollar Share of 69.93% and Unit Share of 78.08% represent 2.76% and 2.13% respective increases over 2004.

Those combined figures were just 63.13% and 70.28% in 2003.

All three charts follow below, and for more analysis of the year that was 2005, see last week’s wrap-up of December 2005, which includes more 2005 year-end analysis by our partners at Comic Buyer’s Guide.

Diamond's Top 100 Comic Books for the Year 2005

Diamond's Top 100 Graphic Novel for the Year 2005