Avatar: The Last Airbender titles from Dark Horse Comics surged in March, according to the "Top 20 Graphic Novels" sold in the book channel, provided exclusively to ICv2 by Nielsen BookScan.  Avatar: The Last Airbender--The Search, Part 1 premiered at #4, and Avatar: The Last Airbender--The Promise HC ranked #18.

The Walking Dead renewed its dominance with the top two ranks at the top of the charts for the final month of its third season, and seven out of the top 20 graphic novels in bookstores over-all.

Seven of the top 20 titles were manga, up from five in February (see "Manga Tops in Bookstores").

Only two traditional superhero titles from the Big Two made the top 20.  Batman Vol. 2:  The City of Owls HC launched at #6, and the first collection of Matt Fraction and David Aja's Hawkeye Vol. 1: My Life As A Weapon TP (which got five Eisner nominations, see "2013 Eisner Nominations") premiered at #9.

The first Saga collection remained in the Top 20 for the sixth consecutive month, and Kick-Ass 2 Prelude: Hit-Girl HC filled out the top 20 in the 20th position.

BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novels in March 2013

Rank

Title

Author

Publisher

1

THE WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM VOL. 1

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

2

THE WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM VOL. 2

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

3

NARUTO VOL. 60

MASASHI KISHIMOTO

VIZ MEDIA

4

AVATAR: LAST AIRBENDER--THE SEARCH PT. 1

GENE LUEN YANG

DARK HORSE

5

SAILOR MOON VOL. 1O

NAOKO TAKEUCHI

KODANSHA COMICS

6

BATMAN VOL. 2: THE CITY OF OWLS HC

SCOTT SNYDER

DC COMICS

7

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 1

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

8

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 17

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

9

HAWKEYE VOL. 1

MATT FRACTION

MARVEL COMICS

10

ROSARIO+VAMPIRE: SESAON II VOL. 11

AKIHISA IKEDA

VIZ MEDIA

11

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 2

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

12

SAILOR MOON VOL. 9

NAOKO TAKEUCHI

KODANSHA COMICS

13

VAMPIRE KNIGHT VOL. 16

MATSURI HINO

VIZ MEDIA

14

ALICE IN THE COUNTRY OF COVER: CHESHIRE CAT WALTZ VOL. 4

QUINROSE

SEVEN SEAS

15

THE WALKING DEAD BOOK 1 HC

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

16

SAGA VOL. 1

BRIAN K. VAUGHAN

IMAGE COMICS

17

ONE PIECE VOL. 66

EIICHIRO ODA

VIZ MEDIA

18

AVATAR: LAST AIRBENDER--THE PROMISE HC

GENE LUEN YANG

DARK HORSE

19

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 3

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

20

KICK-ASS 2 PRELUDE: HIT-GIRL HC

MARK MILLAR

MARVEL COMICS


For past BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novel lists, see the "BookScan Top 20 GNs Index."