Star Trek: Countdown from IDW cracked the top five in the Nielsen BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novel chart for May 2009, moving up from its debut slot at #9 last month.  The movie release was early in May, so this will probably be as high as this volume gets.

Watchmen remained #1 for the 11th consecutive month.




Rank

Title

Author

Pub

1

WATCHMEN TP

ALAN MOORE

DC

2

NARUTO VOL. 43

MASASHI KISHIMOTO

VIZ

3

NARUTO VOL. 44

MASASHI KISHIMOTO

VIZ

4

FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST VOL. 18

ARAKAWA HIROMU

VIZ

5

STAR TREK: COUNTDOWN

ROBERT ORCI

IDW

6

NARUTO VOL. 42

MASASHI KISHIMOTO

VIZ

7

NEGIMA! VOL. 22

KEN AKAMATSU

DEL

8

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON 8 VOL. 4

JOSS WHEDON

DHP

9

DARK TOWER: TREACHERY HC

ROBIN FURTH

MAR

10

NARUTO VOL. 41

MASASHI KISHIMOTO

VIZ

11

POKEMON: GIRATINA & THE SKY WARRIOR!

MAKOTO HIJIOKA

VIZ

12

NARUTO VOL. 40

MASASHI KISHIMOTO

VIZ

13

D.GRAY-MAN VOL. 13

KATSURA HOSHINO

VIZ

14

FRUITS BASKET VOL. 22

NATSUKI TAKAYA

TKP

15

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN CENTURY: 1910 BK 1

ALAN MOORE

TOP

16

NARUTO VOL. 39

MASASHI KISHIMOTO

VIZ

17

NARUTO VOL. 38

MASASHI KISHIMOTO

VIZ

18

VAMPIRE KNIGHT VOL. 6

HINO MATSURI

VIZ

19

RETURN TO LABYRINTH VOL. 3

JAKE T. FORBES

TKP

20

OTOMEN VOL. 2

AYA KANNO

VIZ

 

The surge in Naruto releases over, the number of Naruto volumes in the Top 20 dropped to seven from 12 in April and nine in March.  Volumes 43 and 44 continued to hold the #2 and #3 ranks.   

 

Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 18 came in strong at #4. 

 

Negima! Volume 21 crept up the chart to #7 (from #12 in April and #19 in March) in its third month in the Top 20, an unusual phenomenon reserved for only the strongest titles. 

 

The latest volume of Dark Horse's Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Season 8) hit the chart at #8.

 

Other new titles on the list included Stephen King’s Dark Tower: Treachery HC from Marvel at #9, Viz’s Giratina & the Sky Warrior at #11, and Top Shelf’s first published volume of Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen at #15.

 

There were seven publishers with titles in the Top 20 in May, an unusually high number.

 

The rankings, provided by Nielsen BookScan, track the bestselling U.S. graphic novels in major book chains, mass merchants, online retailers, and some independent retailers using POS data from May 4th to May 31st.  Titles racked in the Kids or YA sections do not appear in this list.

 

For charts from other months, see “Bookscan Top 20 GNs Index.”