The fourth volume of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was the top selling manga in September 2018, according to NPD BookScan data for September (9/2/18-9/29/18) provided to ICv2.

While there was no new volume of My Hero Academia in September, the property still did well, with 10 volumes of the original series and the spinoff, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, making the Top 20.  The first volume of VIZ Media’s new Shonen Jump series, Dr. Stone, sold enough copies in its debut month to make #18.  Dr. Stone features a super-smart high school student who must recreate all of technology from the Stone Age onward, in order to restore modern life after everyone on earth is turned to stone for thousands of years.  It’s McGyver writ large, with shonen action, goofy humor, and cute girls thrown in to spice it up.

As usual, VIZ dominates the chart, with 19 out of 20 titles; the lone exception is the first volume of the Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, a deluxe edition of the classic shojo manga.  There’s another shojo title on the list as well: volume 41 of Skip-Beat, a tale about an independent-minded girl that has been running for 12 years and still has enough steam to make the top 20.

NPD BookScan Top 20 Manga Graphic Novels – September 2018 (9/2/18 - 9/29/18)

Rank

Title

Author

Publisher

1

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS VOL. 4

AKIRA HIMEKAWA

VIZ MEDIA

2

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 14

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

3

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 1

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

4

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 2

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

5

BORUTO VOL. 4

UKYO KODACHI

VIZ MEDIA

6

SPLATOON VOL. 4

SANKICHI HINODEYA

VIZ MEDIA

7

SAILOR MOON ETERNAL EDITION VOL. 1

NAOKO TAKEUCHI

KODANSHA COMICS

8

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 3

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

9

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 13

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

10

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 4

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

11

RWBY: OFFICIAL MANGA ANTHOLOGY VOL. 2

VARIOUS

VIZ MEDIA

12

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 5

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

13

TOKYO GHOUL RE VOL. 6

SUI ISHIDA

VIZ MEDIA

14

MY HERO ACADEMIA VIGILANTES VOL. 1

HIDEYUKI FURUHASHI

VIZ MEDIA

15

DRAGON BALL SUPER VOL. 3

AKIRA TORIYAMA

VIZ MEDIA

16

TOKYO GHOUL VOL. 1

SUI ISHIDA

VIZ MEDIA

17

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 6

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

18

DR STONE VOL. 1

RIICHIRO INAGAKI

VIZ MEDIA

19

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 12

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

20

SKIP-BEAT VOL. 41

YOSHIKI NAKAMURA

VIZ MEDIA

Source: The NPD Group/BookScan

The superhero chart for September is all over the place, with Star Wars, Batman, Hellboy, Power Rangers, and Prince Valiant all finding spots in the top 20.  The top seller is the third volume of Charles Soule’s Star Wars: Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith, and Jody Houser’s Star Wars: Thrawn checks in at number 3.  In between is Infinity Gauntlet, still near the top of the chart months after the movie came out.  Perennial best-seller Watchmen is next, and perhaps the DC folks should be worried to see that their big "Batman/Catwoman" event book didn’t sell as many copies as something that’s been around since 1986.  Still, DC dominates the chart, with 11 titles (including one from the Vertigo imprint), while Marvel has just five.

NPD BookScan Top 20 'Superhero' Graphic Novels – September 2018 (9/2/18 - 9/29/18)

Rank

Title

Author

Publisher

1

STAR WARS: DARTH VADER - DARK LORD OF THE SITH VOL. 3

CHARLES SOULE

MARVEL COMICS

2

INFINITY GAUNTLET

JIM STARLIN

MARVEL COMICS

3

STAR WARS: THRAWN

JODY HOUSER

MARVEL COMICS

4

WATCHMEN

ALAN MOORE

DC COMICS

5

BATMAN/CATWOMAN: THE WEDDING ALBUM DLX. ED. HC

TOM KING

DC COMICS

6

DARK NIGHTS: METAL: DLX. ED. HC

SCOTT SNYDER

DC COMICS

7

BATMAN: PRELUDES TO THE WEDDING

TIM SEELEY

DC COMICS

8

DARK NIGHTS: METAL: DARK KNIGHTS RISING HC

PETER TOMASI

DC COMICS

9

V FOR VENDETTA

ALAN MOORE

VERTIGO

10

BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE DLX. ED. HC

ALAN MOORE

DC COMICS

11

PRINCE VALIANT VOL. 17 (1969-1970) HC

HAL FOSTER

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

12

HELLBOY OMNIBUS VOL. 4

MIKE MIGNOLA

DARK HORSE BOOKS

13

MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS VOL. 6

KYLE HIGGINS

BOOM! STUDIOS

14

OVERWATCH: ANTHOLOGY VOL. 1 HC

VARIOUS

DARK HORSE BOOKS

15

BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT - MASTER RACE

FRANK MILLER

DC COMICS

16

BLACK PANTHER BOOK 1: A NATION UNDER OUR FEET

TA-NEHISI COATES

MARVEL COMICS

17

MS. MARVEL VOL. 1

G. WILLOW WILSON

MARVEL

18

BATMAN VOL. 6 (REBIRTH)

TOM KING

DC COMICS

19

BATMAN DETECTIVE COMICS VOL. 7 (REBIRTH)

JAMES TYNION IV

DC COMICS

20

BATMAN HUSH

JEPH LOEB

DC COMICS

Source: The NPD Group/BookScan

The author chart is usually diverse, and this month is no exception!  Topping the list is the latest volume of television/comics behemoth The Walking Dead, followed by geek-gamer fave The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins, the newest volume of the exquisite fantasy/action tale Monstress, and Nick Drnaso’s Sabrina, which made the Man Booker Prize longlist. Instagram star Mari Andrew’s Am I There Yet? is still hanging in, six months after it debuted at number 2 on the adult chart.  Perhaps a few of her 770,000 Instagram followers still haven’t picked up the book.  There’s another graphic novel with an Instagram hook debuting on this month’s chart: Aminder Dhaliwal’s Woman World, a humor comic about a world without men, originally ran as a webcomic on Instagram.

Also worth noting is Passing for Human, a graphic memoir by New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck, who examines in detail why she felt alienated and different from everyone else.  This is the sort of book that can do quite well over time, assuming it finds its audience.

NPD BookScan Top 20 Author Graphic Novels – September 2018 (9/2/18 - 9/29/18)

Rank

Title

Author

Publisher

1

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 30

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

2

THE ADVENTURE ZONE: HERE THERE BE GERBLINS

CLINT MCELROY

FIRST SECOND BOOKS

3

MONSTRESS VOL. 3

MARJORIE LIU

IMAGE COMICS

4

SABRINA HC

NICK DRNASO

DRAWN & QUARTERLY

5

SHEETS

BRENNA THUMMLER

LION FORGE

6

MARCH BOOK 1

JOHN LEWIS

TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS

7

FUN HOME: A FAMILY TRAGICOMIC

ALISON BECHDEL

MARINER BOOKS

8

WALT DISNEY'S DONALD DUCK: THE BLACK PEALS OF TABU YAMA HC

CARL BARKS

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

9

I HATE FAIRYLAND V04 SADLY NEV

YOUNG, SKOTTIE

IMAGE COMICS

10

MONSTRESS VOL. 1

MARJORIE LIU

IMAGE COMICS

11

DESCENDER VOL. 6

JEFF LEMIRE

IMAGE COMICS

12

OBLIVION SONG BY KIRKMAN & DE FELICI VOL. 1

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

13

WOMAN WORLD

AMINDER DHALIWAL

DRAWN & QUARTERLY

14

AM I THERE YET?: THE LOOP-DE-LOOP, ZIGZAGGING JOURNEY TO ADULTHOOD HC

MARI ANDREW

CLARKSON POTTER PUB.

15

PASSING FOR HUMAN HC

LIANA FINCK

RANDOM HOUSE

16

MARCH BOOK 3

JOHN LEWIS

TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS

17

SAGA VOL. 1

BRIAN K. VAUGHAN

IMAGE COMICS

18

SAGA VOL. 7

BRIAN K. VAUGHAN

IMAGE COMICS

19

MARCH (TRILOGY SLIPCASE SET)

LEWIS, JOHN

TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS

20

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 29

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

Source: The NPD Group/BookScan

For charts of September graphic novel sales from NPD BookScan:
September 2018 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels
September 2018 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels

For the charts with the actual sales numbers from NPD BookScan, see these articles on the ICv2 Pro site:
September 2018 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
September 2018 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
September 2018 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Manga, Superhero, and Author Graphic Novels with Actual Sales


NPD BookScan collects weekly point-of-sale data on print books from over 16,000 locations including e-tailers, chains, mass merchandisers, independent bookstores, and more.  NPD BookScan covers approximately 85% of the U.S. trade print book market.  The ranks on this chart are based on piece sales. Some publishers classify titles that are primarily text, or art books, as graphic novels; we've removed those titles from the ranking above.

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