Legendary Comics' Godzilla: Awakening OGN was the #3 title and the first volume of Sex Criminals cracked the top ten of the "Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels" sold in the bookstore channel in May, based on this chart provided exclusively to ICv2.com by Nielsen BookScan.  The Godzilla film tie-in compared favorably to Legendary's Pacific Rim title from last summer:  #3 this year versus #6 last year.

The first trade paperback collection of Sex Criminals charted at #9 in the book channel for May, a month after it hit the comic store charts at #1 in April (see "Top 300 Graphic Novels--April 2014").  That was an intentional strategy on Image Comics' part; the comic store release was April 16th, and the book channel release was April 29th (see "’Sex Criminals’ Vol. 1 TP").

Sex Criminals was one of seven Image titles, a nicely diverse group that also included three Saga and three The Walking Dead volumes.

Attack on Titan (Kodansha Comics) took the top two slots in an especially impressive way, with the most recent volume at #1 and the first volume at #2.  There were six Attack on Titan volumes in the Top 20, of eight manga titles (the most recent Naruto and Monster Musume volumes were the other two).

DC Comics charted two Scott Snyder Batman titles, and DK Publishing, which continues to get the BISAC graphic novel codes for its Encyclopedias, also charted two.

One notable absence was Marvel, which with three movies released in close proximity might have been expected to have some titles in the Top 20.  Captain America: The Winter Soldier Ultimate Collection charted in April; Amazing Spider-Man Family Business was #5 in comic stores in April, and X-Men: Days of Future Past was a direct connection to the film.

The reasons for the absence of any of Marvel titles from the Top 20, we suspect, was Amazon's targeting of Marvel as a Hachette distribution client in early May (see "Marvel, Yen Caught in Amazon-Hachette Crossfire").  Both the Captain America and X-Men titles were being offered by Amazon with two to five week delays when we checked.  Although Marvel was eventually exempted from Amazon's anti-Hachette tactics (see "Amazon-Marvel Truce?"), the weeks the titles were largely unavailable through the online giant may have been enough to drop them out of the Top 20.
 

BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novels in May 2014
Rank	Title	Author	Publisher
1	ATTACK ON TITAN VOL. 12	HAJIME ISAYAMA	KODANSHA COMICS
2	ATTACK ON TITAN VOL. 1	HAJIME ISAYAMA	KODANSHA COMICS
3	GODZILLA: AWAKENING HC	MAX BORENSTEIN	LEGENDARY COMICS
4	NARUTO VOL. 65	MASASHI KISHIMOTO	VIZ MEDIA
5	MARVEL ENCYCLOPEDIA UPDATED AND EXPANDED HC	MATT FORBECK	DK PUBLISHING
6	THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 20	ROBERT KIRKMAN	IMAGE COMICS
7	SAGA VOL. 3	BRIAN K VAUGHAN	IMAGE COMICS
8	SEX CRIMINALS VOL. 1	MATT FRACTION	IMAGE COMICS
9	MONSTER MASUME VOL. 3	OKAYADO	SEVEN SEAS
10	BATMAN VOL. 4: ZERO-YEAR--SECRET CITY HC	SCOTT SNYDER	DC COMICS
11	ATTACK ON TITAN VOL. 2	HAJIME ISAYAMA	KODANSHA COMICS
12	THE WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM VOL. 1	ROBERT KIRKMAN	IMAGE COMICS
13	SAGA VOL. 1	BRIAN K VAUGHAN	IMAGE COMICS
14	ATTACK ON TITAN VOL. 3	HAJIME ISAYAMA	KODANSHA COMICS
15	THE WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM VOL. 2	ROBERT KIRKMAN	IMAGE COMICS
16	MARVEL AVENGERS: THE ULTIMATE CHARACTER GUIDE HC	ALAN COWSILL	DK PUBLISHING
17	ATTACK ON TITAN VOL. 4	HAJIME ISAYAMA	KODANSHA COMICS
18	BATMAN VOL. 3: DEATH OF THE FAMILY	SCOTT SNYDER	DC COMICS
19	ATTACK ON TITAN VOL. 9	HAJIME ISAYAMA	KODANSHA COMICS
20	SAGA VOL. 2	BRIAN K VAUGHAN	IMAGE COMICS

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