While The Walking Dead’s dominance of bookstore graphic novel sales is an old (and continuing) story, both volumes of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga made the Top Ten in the July list of the "Top 20 Graphic Novels" sold in bookstore channel provided exclusively to ICv2.com by Nielsen BookScan.  Saga, which has been gaining steam as a breakout hit in the comic market for the past year, has clearly made major inroads in the bookstore market as well.  Along with no fewer than four volumes of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, the two Saga volumes gave Image Comics six out of the top ten titles sold in bookstores during July, a rare and amazing feat for an American publisher.
 
After getting just one book in the Top 20 in June, the big two U.S. comic book publishers Marvel & DC had two in July, Matt Fraction’s popular Hawkeye Vol. 2: Little Hits from Marvel at #18 and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ perennial Watchmen from DC Comics at #19.  DK Publishing’s illustrated books about Marvel and DC’s heroes both made the list.  Whether they should even be on the "graphic novel" list or not, the fact is that neither book was published by the big two.
 
The number of manga titles in the Top 20 declined from 10 in June to 8 in July, but Naoko Takeuchi’s Sailor Moon Vol. 12 from Kodansha took the top spot this month, while Viz Media’s Naruto Vol. 61 just slipped a bit from #2 in June to #4 in July.  Mention should be made of Kodansha’s Attack on Titan Vol.1, which appeared on the BookScan list in June at #19 and moved up to #12 in July.  This is a very hot new manga that was an immediate hit in Japan when it debuted in Japan in 2010, and with Kodansha planning to publish a new volume every month, it appears that Attack on Titan will be a fixture on BookScan lists in the coming months (see "'Attack on Titan' Goes Monthly").  Comic book retailers who only carry the manga "hits" might want to give this series a try based on its popularity in the book channel.
 
Mention should also be made of a couple of movie-driven titles that made the July BookScan list.  Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim has been criticized as a box office underperformer, but there is little doubt that it helped drive sales of Travis Beacham’s Pacific Rim graphic novel from Legendary Comics, which came in at #6 in July.   And there is little doubt that the World War Z movie helped boost sales of Max Brooks’ Zombie Survival Guide, which reached #12 in June and slipped to #20 in July as World War Z, which was based on a novel by Brooks, slipped out of the box office Top Ten.

BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novels in July 2013
Rank	Title	Author	Publisher
1	SAILOR MOON VOL. 12	NAOKO TAKEUCHI	KODANSHA COMICS
2	THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 18	ROBERT KIRKMAN	IMAGE COMICS
3	SAGA VOL. 2	BRIAN K. VAUGHAN	IMAGE COMICS
4	NARUTO VOL. 61	MASASHI KISHIMOTO	VIZ MEDIA
5	THE WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM VOL. 1	ROBERT KIRKMAN	IMAGE COMICS
6	PACIFIC RIM: TALES FROM YEAR ZERO HC	TRAVIS BEACHAM	LEGENDARY COMICS
7	DC COMICS: THE ULTIMATE CHARACTER GUIDE HC	BRANDON T. SNIDER	DK PUBLISHING
8	SAGA VOL. 1	BRIAN K. VAUGHAN	IMAGE COMICS
9	THE WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM VOL. 2	ROBERT KIRKMAN	IMAGE COMICS
10	BLUE EXORCIST VOL. 10	KAZUE KATO	VIZ MEDIA
11	MARVEL AVENGERS: THE ULTIMATE CHARACTER GUIDE HC	ALAN COWSILL	DK PUBLISHING
12	ATTACK ON TITAN VOL. 1	HAJIME ISAYAMA	KODANSHA COMICS
13	ALICE IN THE COUNTRY OF COVER: CHESHIRE CAT WALTZ VOL. 5	QUINROSE	SEVEN SEAS
14	BLEACH VOL. 57	TITE KUBO	VIZ MEDIA
15	BLACK BUTLER VOL. 14	YANA TOBOSO	YEN PRESS
16	THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 1	ROBERT KIRKMAN	IMAGE COMICS
17	SAILOR MOON VOL. 11	NAOKO TAKEUCHI	KODANSHA COMICS
18	HAWKEYE VOL. 2: LITTLE HITS	MATT FRACTION	MARVEL COMICS
19	WATCHMEN	ALAN MOORE	DC COMICS
20	THE ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE: RECORDED ATTACKS	MAX BROOKS	BROADWAY BOOKS

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