The top of the chart (three of the top four slots, including #1) was held by a historical memoir written by a revered civil rights leader; the #7 slot by a Marvel superhero story written by a best-selling African-American author; the #9 slot by the now-classic story of an Asian-American boy in school, created by a writer/artist of the same background who just won a MacArthur Genius Grant; the #12 slot by another new classic, a lesbian coming-of-age memoir (written by another Genius Grant winner) that’s been made into a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical; the #14 slot by a hot new steampunk story set in Asia and created by a multi-national female team; and the #18 slot by a new science fiction story by a famed female author and essayist.
That’s a pretty incredible roster for a medium that until fairly recently was dominated by stories by and about white males.
And that’s really only the high points of a chart that shows the growing, and increasingly realized, opportunity to expand the audience for comics and graphic novels to include everyone who can read (now over 86% of the world’s population, we’re told by UNESCO). The top authors from the text world who are now sharing their talents in the comics medium as well (in five of the Top 20) are one reflection of that increasingly realized opportunity.
For over eight years we’ve been publishing these monthly charts as a way to show another part of the market than the one displayed in the month Top 300 charts of what’s been selling in comic stores. The lessons that can be learned are often profound, but perhaps never more so than from the Top 20 chart for September 2016.
|
BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novels in September 2016 |
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|
Rank |
Title |
Author |
Publisher |
|
1 |
MARCH: BOOK ONE |
JOHN LEWIS |
TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS |
|
2 |
THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 26 |
ROBERT KIRKMAN |
IMAGE COMICS |
|
3 |
MARCH: BOOK TWO |
JOHN LEWIS |
TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS |
|
4 |
MARCH: BOOK THREE |
JOHN LEWIS |
TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS |
|
5 |
ONE-PUNCH MAN VOL. 8 |
YUSUKE MURATA |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
6 |
BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE DLX ED |
ALAN MOORE |
DC COMICS |
|
7 |
BLACK PANTHER BOOK 1 |
TA-NEHISI |
MARVEL COMICS |
|
8 |
MONSTER MUSUME VOL. 9 |
OKAYADO |
SEVEN SEAS |
|
9 |
AMERICAN BORN CHINESE |
GENE LUEN YANG |
MACMILLAN |
|
10 |
SAGA VOL. 6 |
BRIAN K. VAUGHAN |
IMAGE COMICS |
|
11 |
TOKYO GHOUL VOL. 8 |
SUI ISHIDA |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
12 |
FUN HOME: A FAMILY TRAGICOMIC |
ALISON BECHDEL |
MARINER BOOKS |
|
13 |
HARLEY QUINN VOL. 1 TP (N52) |
AMANDA CONNER |
DC COMICS |
|
14 |
MONSTRESS VOL. 1 |
MARJORIE LIU |
IMAGE COMICS |
|
15 |
TOKYO GHOUL VOL. 1 |
SUI ISHIDA |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
16 |
OMEGA MEN: THE END IS HERE |
TOM KING |
DC COMICS |
|
17 |
WATCHMEN |
ALAN MOORE |
DC COMICS |
|
18 |
ANGEL CATBIRD VOL. 1 HC |
MARGARET ATWOOD |
DARK HORSE COMICS |
|
19 |
BATMAN/TMNT VOL. 1 HC |
JAMES TYNION |
DC COMICS |
|
20 |
ONE-PUNCH MAN VOL. 1 |
YUSUKE MURATA |
VIZ MEDIA |
For past BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novel lists, see the "BookScan Top 20 GN Index."
