Although Naruto remains the strongest property on the Bookscan Top 20 Graphic Novels for May, with both of the top two spots, Viz’s Vampire Knight also had three volumes in the top 20.  The 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 April 28th to June 1st.  It’s becoming clear that Vampire Knight is a top tier property that’s growing rapidly in popularity.

Just as Naruto was slightly less dominating this month, with only three volumes in the top 20 vs. four in April, (see “Bookscan’s Top 20 Graphic Novels for April”), Viz lost a few slots to its competitors, with 12 of the top 20 compared to 16 in April.  Tokyopop, Del Rey, and Dark Horse all picked up slots. 

The latest volume of Kingdom Hearts came in at #3, demonstrating once again the power of videogames in selling graphic novels. 

The new hardcover edition of Batman: The Killing Joke was once again the top American book on the list, slipping slightly to #6 from #4.  Watchmen moved up, to #8 from #13.  Dark Horse actually placed an American title that was written in the last twenty years with its adaptation of the new Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, at #17.  American titles had three of the top twenty volumes in May, up one from April. 

Over-all, nine volumes repeated from April, eleven were new to the list.