Kazue Kato’s Blue Exorcist Vol. 3 published by Viz Media topped the Nielsen BookScan chart of adult graphic novels sold in bookstores during the month of August.  The Blue Exorcist manga, which just debuted in April, has already been identified by ICv2 as another hit for Viz (see “The Walking Dead Tops Bookstores in July”), and release of Volume 3 was enough to keep the first volume in the series on the list where it's been a fixture since it debuted. Another Viz Media Shonen manga, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Vol. 7 finished in second place and yet another Viz title Bakuman Vol. 6, by Death Note writer Tsugumi Ohba, ended up in fourth.  But while there were 13 manga titles in the top 20 in July, there were only 7 in August.
 
The three most recent volumes in Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead series all made the top 20 in August.  The most recent volume No Way Out debuted in July and stimulated sales of the previous books in the series—and excitement is starting to build for the start of the second season of AMC TV adaptation in October (see “'The Walking Dead' Bows with 90-Minute Episode”).

BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novels in August 2011

Rank

Title

Author

Publisher

1

BLUE EXORCIST VOL. 3

KATO KAZUE

VIZ MEDIA

2

YU-GI-OH! GX VOL. 7

MASAHIRO HIKOKUBO

VIZ MEDIA

3

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 14

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

4

BAKUMAN VOL. 6

TSUGUMI OHBA

VIZ MEDIA

5

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 13

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

6

WATCHMEN

ALAN MOORE

DC COMICS

7

SCOTT PILGRIM VOL. 1

BRYAN LEE O'MALLEY

ONI PRESS

8

BLACK BUTLER VOL. 6

YANA TOBOSO

YEN PRESS

9

DC COMICS: THE ULTIMATE CHARACTER GUIDE HC

BRANDON T. SNIDER

DK PUBLISHING

10

NARUTO VOL. 51

MASASHI KISHIMOTO

VIZ MEDIA

11

BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS

FRANK MILLER

DC COMICS

12

SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE HC

J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

DC COMICS

13

BLUE EXORCIST VOL. 1

KATO KAZUE

VIZ MEDIA

14

V FOR VENDETTA

ALAN MOORE

VERTIGO

15

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 12

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

16

AMERICAN BORN CHINESE

GENE LUEN YANG

SQUARE FISH

17

THE GRIFF: A GRAPHIC NOVEL

CHRISTOPHER MOORE

WILLIAM MORROW

18

SCOTT PILGRIM VOL. 2

BRYAN LEE O'MALLEY

ONI PRESS

19

BATMAN: YEAR ONE

FRANK MILLER

DC COMICS

20

NEGIMA! MAGISTER NEGI MAGI VOL. 30

KEN AKAMATSU

KODANSHA COMICS
 
Bookstore graphic novel sales tend to emphasize evergreen catalog titles and lag somewhat behind what’s hot in the direct market.  Thus it’s no surprise that two volumes of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim remain in the top 20 a full year after the Scott Pilgrim movie debuted in theaters.  Nor is it surprising that new printings of such tried and true hits as Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One and American Born Chinese all made the list in August.
 
It should also be noted that The Griff: A Graphic Novel written by bestselling author Christopher Moore and screenwriter Ian Corson, which hasn't made a huge splash in the direct market, remained on the bookstore list for the second month in a row.
 
DC Comics and Viz Media each placed five titles on the list in August, followed by Image Comics with three, Oni Press with two, while Yen Press, DK Publishing, Kodansha Comics, William Morrow, and First Second each had one.

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