Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass HC, from Marvel, was the #1 adult graphic novel in bookstores in April behind interest generated by the release of the movie at mid-month.  The title was also #3 in March (see “Kick-Ass #3”) in the run-up to the movie, over-all a very strong performance for a title tied to a relatively modest movie by superhero standards.

Kick-Ass easily bested The Losers, the other movie tie-in title in April, which was on the list at #15.  The Losers movie opened with about half the box office of Kick-Ass, and the graphic novel couldn’t even muster enough sales to top Watchmen, tied to a movie that released a year ago.

A third movie-related title, the first Scott Pilgrim volume, hit the charts at #10 in the run-up to the August release of the movie.  This is a very early point for sales this strong, indicating that Scott Pilgrim may be another movie that moves a lot of graphic novels.

Viz had the top manga with Rosario+Vampire at #2, and held the most slots of any publisher in April, with nine.  Yen Press was second, with four of the top twenty titles.  DC had three, and four companies, Marvel, Abrams, Dark Horse, and Oni Press, had one each. 

American titles had an unusually strong month in April, with five of the top ten titles. 

The rankings, provided by Nielsen BookScan, track the bestselling U.S. adult graphic novels in major book chains, mass merchants, online retailers, and some independent retailers using POS data from April 4th to May 2nd.  Titles racked in the Kids or YA sections do not appear in this list.

For charts from other months, see the "BookScan Top 20 GNs Index."