Diamond Comic Book Distributors announced its 2010 numbers yesterday, and the results were mixed: Sales of comics, graphic novels, and magazines in comics stores were down 3.5% for the year, but they moved up a bit in the last three months of the year, which is a hopeful sign.

In terms of market share, Marvel won the year with 38% of the dollar share and 43% of units sold (I'm rounding here). DC was second with 30 and 34%, respectively, and tagging along after them were Dark Horse, Image, IDW, Dynamite, and Boom! Studios. Viz, the top manga publisher, had 1.4% of the dollars and less than 1% of the unit share, which is about where they have been in previous years.

And what comics were we reading this year? Well, we weren't exactly breaking new ground. Individual volumes of Scott Pilgrim and The Walking Dead dominated the graphic novel list, which is not surprising given that both had strong media tie-ins. The comics list had a bit more variety, and it's interesting that the last two issues of Blackest Night outsold the first two issues of Brightest Day.

Here's the list of the top ten periodical comics for the year:

1. Avengers #1
2. X-Men #1
3. Blackest Night #8
4. Siege #1
5. Blackest Night #7
6. New Avengers #1
7. Brightest Day #0
8. Brightest Day #1
9. Siege #2
10. Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne #1

And here's the top ten graphic novels:

1. The Walking Dead Vol. 1
2. Kick-Ass Premium HC
3. Walking Dead Vol. 11
4. Scott Pilgrim Vol. 6
5. Superman: Earth One HC
6. Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1
7. The Walking Dead Vol. 12
8. The Walking Dead Vol. 2
9. The Walking Dead Vol. 13
10. Scott Pilgrim Vol. 2