ComicsAlliance Now the #1 Most Visited Comics Website in the US!

The word just came down from the AOL traffic elves: ComicsAlliance is now the #1 most visited comics website in the United States! We've always been silently chanting "we're #1" in our hearts, but it's amazing to hear it objectively confirmed.

And so we'd like to pause for a moment and say thank you. The growth we've experienced in only a little over a year and a half on the internet has been incredible, and our success is due entirely to you, the readers. Thank you for reading our site, and for caring enough to come back again and again and share our posts with your friends. We set out to make the kind of comics website that we wanted to read, and it's been incredibly gratifying to find out how many other people felt the same way. Basically, you have made all of our dreams come true, and we will do our best to make the site even more awesome in 2011. The official press release is after the jump.

New York, NY, - February 7, 2011 - Following several months of increased growth, AOL's comic book industry blog ComicsAlliance has passed its nearest competitor to become the most visited comic book website in the United States, according to comScore Media Metrix, January 2011 data.

In under two years in operation, ComicsAlliance has distinguished itself with consistently entertaining and engaging material that reflects the vivacious culture, humor and artistry of comic book readership and creators. Edited by an experienced team of professional bloggers, ComicsAlliance articles have been featured on websites and news sources including The Huffington Post, The Maddow Blog, NPR, Google News and The New York Times, and are particularly popular among users of social networking tools and aggregators including Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, BoingBoing and StumbleUpon. As such, ComicsAlliance shares only 11% or less of its audience with its leading competitors, making the AOL (NYSE: AOL) site the premier source for readers far beyond scope of normal comic book coverage. Additionally, ComicsAlliance earned a 2010 nomination for the Eisner Award -- the comics industry's most prestigious honor -- for Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism.

"I am so proud of what my entire team has accomplished over the last year and a half," said ComicsAlliance Editor-in-Chief Laura Hudson. "We've worked incredibly hard to make ComicsAlliance the sort of website that we always wanted to read, with a smart, funny approach to comics culture that's appealing to both casual and devoted fans of comics. We're offering something different, and we've been hugely gratified and appreciative that it has found such a large audience."

"We're breaking away from the news and review model of comic book coverage by focusing on art, op-eds and humor," said ComicsAlliance Site Operations Manager Brian Childs. "And our readers have responded by sharing our content regularly with their friends via social media."

In the past year, ComicsAlliance has received major coverage in the mainstream media. The site's coverage of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church's protest at Comic-Con International in San Diego remains the most shared AOL article on Facebook; Editor-in-Chief Laura Hudson's editorial about a comics retailer's violent remarks about Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords resulted in a police raid of his home and the confiscation of weapons; Associate Editor Andy Khouri's series of articles on comics-related racial and religious prejudice inspired coverage on MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" and in the Arabic media; and Senior Blogger Chris Sims was approached by Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" about media reaction to a comic book story featuring a Muslim Batman.

About AOL

AOL Inc. (NYSE:AOL) is a leading global Web services company with an extensive suite of brands and offerings and a substantial worldwide audience. AOL's business spans online content, products and services that the company offers to consumers, publishers and advertisers. AOL is focused on attracting and engaging consumers and providing valuable online advertising services on both AOL's owned and operated properties and third-party websites. In addition, AOL operates one of the largest Internet subscription access services in the United States, which serves as a valuable distribution channel for AOL's consumer offerings.

About ComicsAlliance

ComicsAlliance is a weblog dedicated to celebrating the community and creativity of the comic book industry. In addition to covering the latest industry news and publishing developments, ComicsAlliance creates original commentary, humor, artwork and video content that both professionals and fans have come to rely on to reflect and advocate for this most important of graphic mediums that continues to drive all of popular culture in the new decade.