The Big Two had another rough month in bookstores in August, with no Marvel titles in the Top 20 and three DCs, but nothing published in the last 20 years.  Meanwhile something big is happening to Kodansha’s Attack on Titan, which placed the first volume at #2 and the second volume at #10, according to the August list of the "Top 20 Graphic Novels" sold in bookstore channel provided exclusively to ICv2.com by Nielsen BookScan.

The Big Two situation can actually be seen as an improvement, as their three titles in the Top 20 is better than their performance in either July (two) or June (one), but their inability to capitalize, at least at the top of the chart, on the great exposure their properties are getting in other media continues to surprise and disappoint.  Perhaps most notable by its absence was Kick-Ass, which had a run of five months in the Top 20 in 2010, around the release of the first movie, but managed only one appearance on the chart this year, at #20 in March.  Among house IPs, the biggest absence was Wolverine; the movie released in late July, but the new edition of the Claremont/Miller story on which it’s based couldn’t crack the Top 20.

Attack on Titan Vol. 1 is at #2 in August, behind only the mighty Naruto (Vol. 62), with Vol. 2 at #10.  The title started its move at the beginning of the summer.  Volume 1 was at #19 in June and moved up to #12 in July.  In perhaps the most bullish indicator for the future of this series, there are now six volumes out, but Vol. 1 is charting the best, indicating that most purchasers are just beginning to buy the series.  August was the first monthly release, with Vol. 6 (see "'Attack on Titan' Goes Monthly").

There’s a huge disparity on Attack on Titan sales between the bookstore and comic store channels, most likely due to differences in breadth of distribution (i.e., comic stores aren’t ordering it).  Compare the Top 20 run of the title through the summer in bookstores with the sales in the comic store market, where Vol. 5 was #297 in June with only 330 copies sold, barely making the Top 300 list (see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--June 2013").

Saga continues its powerhouse ways, holding exactly the same ranks in August as it did in July (Vol. 2 is #3 and Vol. 1 is #8).

Manga held a relatively strong (for the times) eight of the Top 20 slots, with the new volume of Naruto at #1 and the previous volume at #12, the latest Sailor Moon at #4, a new Quinrose Alice title from Seven Seas at #11, and Yen’s Black Butler at #16 and Viz’s Bakuman Vol. 20 at #19 (in addition to the two volumes of Attack on Titan noted above).

Four The Walking Dead volumes, the same number as July’s chart, reflects the between-seasons doldrums for this title, although it’s strong by any other standard.
 

BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novels in August 2013
Rank	Title	Author	Publisher
1	NARUTO VOL. 62	MASASHI KISHIMOTO	VIZ MEDIA
2	ATTACK ON TITAN VOL. 1	HAJIME ISAYAMA	KODANSHA COMICS
3	SAGA VOL. 2	BRIAN K. VAUGHAN	IMAGE COMICS
4	SAILOR MOON VOL. 12	NAOKO TAKEUCHI	KODANSHA COMICS
5	THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 18	ROBERT KIRKMAN	IMAGE COMICS
6	THE WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM VOL. 1	ROBERT KIRKMAN	IMAGE COMICS
7	BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS	FRANK MILLER	DC COMICS
8	SAGA VOL. 1	BRIAN K. VAUGHAN	IMAGE COMICS
9	DC COMICS: THE ULTIMATE CHARACTER GUIDE HC	BRANDON T. SNIDER	DK PUBLISHING
10	ATTACK ON TITAN VOL. 2	HAJIME ISAYAMA	KODANSHA COMICS
11	ALICE IN THE COUNTRY OF HEARTS: CLOCKMAKER'S STORY	QUINROSE	SEVEN SEAS
12	NARUTO VOL. 61	MASASHI KISHIMOTO	VIZ MEDIA
13	WATCHMEN	ALAN MOORE	DC COMICS
14	BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE DLX ED HC	ALAN MOORE	DC COMICS
15	AMERICAN BORN CHINESE	GENE LUEN YANG	SQUARE FISH
16	BLACK BUTLER VOL. 14	YANA TOBOSO	YEN PRESS
17	V FOR VENDETTA	ALAN MOORE	VERTIGO
18	THE WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM VOL. 2	ROBERT KIRKMAN	IMAGE COMICS
19	BAKUMAN VOL. 20	TSUGUMI OHBA	VIZ MEDIA
20	THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 1	ROBERT KIRKMAN	IMAGE COMICS

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