Although Naruto, with four volumes on the list including the top two spots, continued to dominate the BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novels chart during June, movie and television-aided titles made decided inroads as Top Cow’s edition of Mark Millar and J.G. Jones’ Wanted joined Dark Horse’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull adaptation and DC Comics’ Dark Knight-driven The Killing Joke and Watchmen.  Also the second volume of Dark Horse’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 (Brian K. Vaughan’s No Future for You) made its first appearance on the list.

Del Rey, which had two books in the Top 20 in May (see “Bookscan’s Top 20 Graphic Novels for May”), managed to get two different titles on the list this time--Ken Akamatsu’s perennially popular Negima, and an OEL (original English language) manga based on Dean Koontz’ popular Odd Thomas character.  Since In Odd We Trust debuted late in the month, it did most of its damage in just one week--will it keep selling with anything like this velocity?

For the second month in a row Viz Media earned twelve spots in the top 20 (down from 16 in April, see “Bookscan’s Top 20 Graphic Novels for April”).  Tite Kubo’s Bleach Vol. 23 came in third and gave Viz Media a sweep of the top three spots, while the new Shonen Jump title Rosario + Vampire had a very strong debut at number eight.  Viz Media’s Death Note continues (like Bleach and Naruto) to benefit from airings of the anime on the Cartoon Network.  Note that Death Note Vol. 1 was the bestselling “non-debut” first volume, a sure sign that new readers are jumping on board the series--and Death Note Vol. 2 actually outsold Naruto Vol. 1, which had dominated “non-debut initial volume sales for two years until it was overtaken by Death Note Vol.1 last December.  Another good sign for Viz Media was the presence of One Piece Vol. 18 in the top 20--with FUNimation doing justice to the One Piece anime, this property, which is arguably the most popular anime/manga powerhouse in Japan, appears to be undergoing a definite revival here in North America.

DC’s Watchmen was the bestselling non-manga American title, a testimony to the growing interest in this property as the release of the Watchmen movie in the first quarter of 2009 grows closer.  Dark Horse’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull adaptation held up well in June, and it should be interesting to see if Top Cow’s Wanted will do the same in July.  DC’s Batman: The Killing Joke continues its strong performance and is likely to stay in the Top 20 through the summer, especially if Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight performs as expected.  Overall media-aided American titles managed to secure 5 spots in the top 20 (6 if you count the manga-style In Odd We Trust) up from three in May and one in April.

Ten volumes remained on the list from May, while ten titles were new.