The release of Christopher Nolan’s final Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises on July 20th had a major impact on sales of graphic novels sold in bookstores during August according to numbers released to ICv2 by Nielsen BookScan reporting service.  Led by Frank Miller’s classic Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Geoff John’s recently published Batman: Earth One, Batbooks took the top four spots on the August list and six of the top eight titles.  Altogether there were eight Batman-related books (including Insight Editions’ The Dark Knight Manual) in the Nielsen Top 20 for August.

Sales of DC graphic novels (including Batman books) were also undoubtedly aided somewhat by a Barnes & Noble "Buy 2, Get 1 Free" promotion on DC books that began on August 21st.  DC managed to place ten titles in the Top 20, its best performance since ICv2 began charting bookstore graphic novel sales.  Alan Moore’s Watchmen and V for Vendetta, both perennial strong sellers, and Grant Morrison’s first "New 52" Action Comics HC collection were the other DC titles in the Top 20.

BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novels in August 2012
Rank	Title	Author	Publisher
1	BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS	FRANK MILLER	DC COMICS
2	BATMAN: EARTH ONE HC	GEOFF JOHNS	DC COMICS
3	BATMAN: KNIGHTFALL VOL. 1	VARIOUS	DC COMICS
4	BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE HC	ALAN MOORE	DC COMICS
5	WATCHMEN	ALAN MOORE	DC COMICS
6	BATMAN THE LONG HALLOWEEN	JEPH LOEB	DC COMICS
7	THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 16	ROBERT KIRKMAN	IMAGE COMICS
8	BATMAN VOL. 1: THE COURT OF OWLS HC	SCOTT SNYDER	DC COMICS
9	NARUTO VOL. 57	MASASHI KISHIMOTO	VIZ MEDIA
10	AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER: THE PROMISE PART 2	GENE YANG	DARK HORSE
11	BATMAN: HUSH	JEPH LOEB	DC COMICS
12	AMERICAN BORN CHINESE	GENE LUEN YANG	SQUARE FISH
13	THE WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM ONE	ROBERT KIRKMAN	IMAGE COMICS
14	ACTION COMICS VOL. 1 HC	GRANT MORRISON	DC COMICS
15	V FOR VENDETTA	ALAN MOORE	VERTIGO
16	THE DARK KNIGHT MANUAL HC	BRANDON T. SNIDER	INSIGHT EDITIONS
17	SAILOR MOON VOL. 6	NAOKO TAKEUCHI	KODANSHA COMICS
18	AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER: THE PROMISE PART 1	GENE YANG	DARK HORSE
19	BLEACH VOL. 44	TITE KUBO	VIZ MEDIA
20	BLEACH VOL. 45	TITE KUBO	VIZ MEDIA

Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead continued its slow fade with two titles in the Top 20, down from 3 in July and 4 in June.  Look for the number of TWD books on the list to start growing again after the debut of Season 3 on October 14th.  Meanwhile Dark Horse Comics’ Avatar series written by Gene Luen Yang remains unstoppable with both volumes in the Top 20 once again where they were joined Yang’s perennial indie bestseller American Born Chinese.

The number of manga titles in the Top 20 was down to four in August (from five in July).  Viz Media’s Naruto Vol. 57 was the highest ranked manga at #9, followed by Kodansha’s Sailor Moon Vol. 6 at #17 and Viz Media’s Bleach Vol. 44 at #19 and Bleach Vol. 45 at #20.

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