Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen graphic novel dominated BookScan’s list of the Top 20 graphic novels sold in bookstores for the sixth straight month, and for the second month in a row it was joined in the Top 10 by a new hardcover edition of the most popular graphic novel of all time, which moved up from #6 in November to #3 in December.  Manga only managed a bare majority of the Top 20 with 11 titles in December, down from 12 in November and 15 in October.

Accompanying the two editions of Watchmen in the Top Ten were Brian Azzarello’s The Joker, the closest graphic novel equivalent to Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight movie, DK Publishing’s innovative Marvel Chronicle and Marvel’s Dark Tower: The Long Road Home.  Other non-manga titles in the Top 20 include Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s The Killing Joke at #13, Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns at #15, Wildstorm’s Heroes Vol. 2 at #16, and Dark Horse’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 Vol. 3: Wolves at the Gate at #20.  The reappearance of The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns, neither of which made the list in November, was undoubtedly due to the release of The Dark Knight on DVD during December.

These rankings, provided by Nielsen BookScan, track the bestselling U.S. graphic novels in major book chains, mass merchants, online retailers, and some independent bookstores using POS data from December.

The top two manga titles in December were the two most recent releases of Viz Media’s Naruto  (Vol. 33 and 32 respectively), which finished at #2 and # 5 followed by Bleach Vol. 25 at #6 and last month’s top manga, Tokyopop’s Fruits Basket Vol. 21, at #7.  The first volume of Del Rey’s anime-based Bakugan Battle Brawlers enjoyed a strong debut at #9, a testament to the popularity of the Bakugan toys (see “Bakugan Makes Hot Toys List”) and anime among the younger male set.

Manga in the second 10 include a third volume of Naruto at #11, Del Rey’s Negima Vol. 20 at #12, Viz Media’s new hit shonen series Rosario + Vampire at #14, the Bleach Souls Official Character Book at #17, the hit shojo series Gentleman’s Alliance at #18 and Death Note Vol. 1 at #20.  The presence of the first volume of Viz Media’s Death Note manga series, the final volume of which was published in July of 2007, testifies to the staying power of this series—something that has been greatly aided by the airing of the high concept Death Note anime on the Cartoon Network.

Viz Media remains the top publisher with 8 titles in the top 20 (the same number it had in November) with DC Comics in second place with 6 volumes (up from four in November), followed by Del Rey with 2, and Marvel, DK Publishing, Dark Horse and Tokyopop with one each.

For our index to our reports on the BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novels for April 2008 through the present, see "BookScan Top 20 Index."