The COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t seem to have changed the composition of the top 20 adult graphic novels in the book channel, based on NPD BookScan data for April (4/5/20-5/2/20) provided to ICv2.

As in March, the top seller is Nathan Pyle’s Strange Planet, which is based on his online comic.  In March, 15 of the top 20 were manga; in April, it’s 14.  Watchmen is on both lists.  Snug: A Collection of Comics About Dating Your Best Friend is on both lists.

The differences are interesting, though, as they include titles that were distributed in the book channel but not in comic stores due to the Diamond Comic Distributors shutdown: Batman: Last Knight on Earth, the collected edition of the miniseries by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, and Jonathan Glapion (see "‘Batman: Last Knight on Earth’ Collected"), and Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club 3, which collects a 12-issues series that’s a sequel to the original book and movie and his previous graphic novel, Fight Club 2 (see "Dark Horse to Publish ‘Fight Club’ Sequel Comic").  Given the popularity of these two franchises, neither is a huge surprise.

There’s also one big omission: Although April is an even-numbered month, VIZ Media did not publish a new volume of My Hero Academia.  Volume 23 came out in February, but volume 24 is not scheduled till June and volume 25 till October.  The interval between volumes has stretched from two months to four, possibly because VIZ’s releases are catching up with Japan.  Nonetheless, eight volumes made the top 20, including the first two volumes, meaning new readers are still discovering the series.  And we can see the cohort of other manga that are turning up frequently on the top 20: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Komi Can’t Communicate, Beastars, and that old perennial, One Piece, now up to volume 93 of its run.

NPD BookScan Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels – April 2020 (4/5/20 - 5/2/20)

Rank

Title

Author

Publisher

1

STRANGE PLANET HC

NATHAN W. PYLE

MORROW GIFT

2

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 2

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

3

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 1

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

4

BATMAN: LAST KNIGHT ON EARTH HC

SCOTT SNYDER

DC COMICS

5

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 22

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

6

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 23

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

7

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 3

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

8

FIGHT CLUB 3 HC

CHUCK PALAHNIUK

DARK HORSE COMICS

9

ONE PIECE VOL. 93

EIICHIRO ODA

VIZ MEDIA

10

KOMI CAN'T COMMUNICATE VOL. 6

TOMOHITO ODA

VIZ MEDIA

11

BEASTARS VOL. 1

PARU ITAGAKI

VIZ MEDIA

12

ATTACK ON TITAN VOL. 30

HAJIME ISAYAMA

KODANSHA COMICS

13

WATCHMEN (2019 EDITION)

ALAN MOORE

DC COMICS

14

UZUMAKI HC

JUNJI ITO

VIZ MEDIA

15

DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA VOL. 1

KOYOHARU GOTOUGE

VIZ MEDIA

16

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 4

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

17

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 21

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

18

NOISE: A GRAPHIC NOVEL BASED ON A TRUE STORY

KATHLEEN RAYMUNDO

LIGHTNING SOURCE

19

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 5

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

20

SNUG: A COLLECTION OF COMICS ABOUT DATING YOUR BEST FRIEND

CATANA CHETWYND

ANDREWS MCMEEL

Source: The NPD Group/BookScan

For charts of April graphic novel sales from NPD BookScan:
April 2020 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero Graphic Novels
April 2020 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:
April 2020 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
April 2020 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
April 2020 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Kids 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."