Marvel's Captain America: Winter Soldier Ultimate Collection TP made the "Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels" sold in the bookstore channel in April, based on this chart provided exclusively to ICv2.com by Nielsen BookScan.  This was the first Marvel or DC title in the Top 20 since January; the Big Two failed to place a title in the top 20 in February or March, the first times that’s happened since we began publishing these charts back in 2008.

Marvel’s Winter Soldier collection was the perfect tie-in to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which was based on the storyline in the book (see "Brubaker Lauds 'Winter Soldier' Publishing").  There were two DK Publishing titles featuring Marvel characters in the Top 20.

Image Comics had another amazing month in bookstores in April, with nine of the top 20 titles, including all three Saga volumes and six The Walking Dead volumes.  Saga Vol. 3, which shipped in March, slipped only one rank to #3, down from #2 in its debut month.

The other big hit was Kodansha's Attack on Titan manga, which placed four volumes in the Top 20, the same number as in March.  There were seven manga titles in all, down one from March; the others were VIZ's Bleach and Naruto and Yen Press's Sword Art Online, which hit the Top 20 for the first time.

BOOM! Studios rounded out the Top 20 with its latest Adventure Time volume, under its KaBOOM! imprint.

BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novels in April 2014

Rank

Title

Author

Publisher

1

NARUTO VOL. 65

MASASHI KISHIMOTO

VIZ MEDIA

2

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 20

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

3

SAGA VOL. 3

BRIAN K VAUGHAN

IMAGE COMICS

4

THE WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM VOL. 1

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

5

MARVEL ENCYCLOPEDIA UPDATED AND EXPANDED HC

MIKE FORBACK

DK PUBLISHING

6

THE WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM VOL. 2

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

7

ATTACK ON TITAN VOL. 1

HAJIME ISAYAMA

KODANSHA COMICS

8

ATTACK ON TITAN VOL. 2

HAJIME ISAYAMA

KODANSHA COMICS

9

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 1

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

10

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 19

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

11

MARVEL AVENGERS: THE ULTIMATE CHARACTER GUIDE HC

ALAN COWSILL

DK PUBLISHING

12

SAGA VOL. 1

BRIAN K VAUGHAN

IMAGE COMICS

13

BLEACH VOL. 60

TITE KUBO

VIZ MEDIA

14

ATTACK ON TITAN VOL. 3

HAJIME ISAYAMA

KODANSHA COMICS

15

SWORD ART ONLINE: AINCRAD

REKI KAWAHARA REKI

YEN PRESS

16

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER ULTIMATE COLLECTION

ED BRUBAKER

MARVEL COMICS

17

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 18

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

18

SAGA VOL. 2

BRIAN K VAUGHAN

IMAGE COMICS

19

ADVENTURE TIME VOL. 4

RYAN NORTH

BOOM! STUDIOS

20

ATTACK ON TITAN VOL. 9

HAJIME ISAYAMA

KODANSHA COMICS


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