Let’s start with the Author chart, where something interesting happened in January: fully half the graphic novels on the chart have at least one female creator. That includes the three volumes of Marjorie Liu and Sana Takesa’s Monstress, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, Emil Ferris’s My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Mari Andrew’s Am I There Yet?, and Brenna Thummler’s Sheets. The two graphic novel adaptations are both of books by women, To Kill a Mockingbird and Anne Frank’s Diary, and then there’s Saga, co-created by Fiona Staples.
The chart itself is incredibly diverse, with no particular genre dominating this month. The top seller is the gamer comedy The Adventure Zone, followed by the adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, the Man Booker Prize-nominated Sabrina, and the stylish space opera Saga. There’s horror (Hellboy, Hungry Ghosts), self-help (Am I There Yet?) and even a superhero title, Black Hammer.
While the other categories are dominated by a few publishers and characters, the Author category doesn’t really have a center, especially with the waning popularity of The Walking Dead. Even when the chart is Image-heavy, the stories are pretty diverse, but in a month like this, when people are presumably using their holiday gift cards to pick up the books they’ve been hearing about, the chart demonstrates the breadth of the medium.
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NPD BookScan Top 20 Author Graphic Novels – January 2019 (12/3018 - 2/1/19) |
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|
Rank |
Title |
Author |
Publisher |
|
1 |
THE ADVENTURE ZONE: HERE THERE BE GERBLINS |
CLINT MCELROY |
FIRST SECOND BOOKS |
|
2 |
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: A GRAPHIC NOVEL HC |
HARPER LEE |
HARPER |
|
3 |
SABRINA HC |
NICK DRNASO |
DRAWN & QUARTERLY |
|
4 |
SAGA VOL. 9 |
BRIAN K. VAUGHAN |
IMAGE COMICS |
|
5 |
FUN HOME: A FAMILY TRAGICOMIC |
ALISON BECHDEL |
MARINER BOOKS |
|
6 |
ANNE FRANK'S DIARY THE GRAPHIC ADAPTATION HC |
ANNE FRANK |
PANTHEON BOOKS |
|
7 |
MARCH: BOOK ONE |
JOHN LEWIS |
TOP SHELF PROD. |
|
8 |
MONSTRESS VOL. 1 |
MARJORIE LIU |
IMAGE COMICS |
|
9 |
AM I THERE YET?: THE LOOP-DE-LOOP, ZIGZAGGING JOURNEY TO ADULTHOOD HC |
MARI ANDREW |
CLARKSON POTTER PUB. |
|
10 |
SHEETS |
BRENNA THUMMLER |
LION FORGE |
|
11 |
THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 30 |
ROBERT KIRKMAN |
IMAGE COMICS |
|
12 |
HELLBOY OMNIBUS VOL. 1: SEED OF DESTRUCTION |
MIKE MIGNOLA |
DARK HORSE COMICS |
|
13 |
DEADLY CLASS VOL. 1 |
RICK REMENDER |
IMAGE COMICS |
|
14 |
EVERYONE'S A ALIEBN WHEN UR A ALIEBN TOO: A BOOK HC |
JOMNY SUN |
HARPER PERENNIAL |
|
15 |
MONSTRESS VOL. 3 |
MARJORIE LIU |
IMAGE COMICS |
|
16 |
ANTHONY BOURDAIN'S HUNGRY GHOST HC |
ANTHONY BOURDAIN |
BERGER BOOKS |
|
17 |
THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY VOL. 1 |
GERARD WAY |
DARK HORSE COMICS |
|
18 |
BLACK HAMMER VOL. 3 |
JEFF LEMIRE |
DARK HORSE COMICS |
|
19 |
MONSTRESS VOL. 2 |
MARJORIE LIU |
IMAGE COMICS |
|
20 |
MY FAVORITE THING IS MONSTERS |
EMIL FERRIS |
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS |
|
Source: The NPD Group/BookScan |
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The Manga chart goes to the other extreme: 18 of the 20 slots are held by Viz, and 13 of those are volumes of My Hero Academia or My Hero Academia: Vigilantes. What’s more, those titles and Dragon Ball Super are Shonen Jump series, so they share a similar editorial bent. Let’s just say there’s a lot of punching on that manga chart.
That’s what makes the Marie Kondo manga so interesting. It’s not from a traditional manga publisher, and the topic is unusual for imported manga, yet it has done very well. The manga is a quicker read than Kondo’s prose books, and she uses a goofball rom-con storyline (messy girl with a hot but tidy neighbor) to illustrate her points. It’s a good example of a book that people pick up because of the subject matter, not because it’s a comic; that’s something that happens a lot in the Author category but less frequently with Manga.
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NPD BookScan Top 20 Manga Graphic Novels – January 2019 (12/30/18 - 2/1/19) |
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|
Rank |
Title |
Author |
Publisher |
|
1 |
DRAGON BALL SUPER VOL. 4 |
AKIRA TORIYAMA |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
2 |
THE LIFE-CHANGING MANGA OF TIDYING UP: A MAGICAL STORY |
MARIE KONDO |
TEN SPEED PRESS |
|
3 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 1 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
4 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA: VIGILANTES VOL. 3 |
HIDEYUKI FURUHASHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
5 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 16 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
6 |
ONE-PUNCH MAN VOL. 15 |
ONE |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
7 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 2 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
8 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 15 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
9 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 3 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
10 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 14 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
11 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 4 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
12 |
TOKYO GHOUL VOL. 1 |
SUI ISHIDA |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
13 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 5 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
14 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA: VIGILANTES VOL. 2 |
HIDEYUKI FURUHASHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
15 |
MONSTER MUSUME VOL. 14 |
OKAYADO |
SEVEN SEAS ENT. |
|
16 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA: VIGILANTES VOL. 1 |
HIDEYUKI FURUHASHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
17 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 6 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
18 |
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS VOL. 4 |
AKIRA HIMEKAWA |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
19 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 10 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
20 |
DRAGON BALL SUPER VOL. 1 |
AKIRA TORIYAMA |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
Source: The NPD Group/BookScan |
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The Superhero Top 20 sits somewhere between these two extremes. DC takes up half the chart, with 10 titles, and of those 10, three are Alan Moore titles, six are Batman stories, and the seventh is the fourth volume of Injustice: Gods Among Us, a group title that centers on Batman’s conflict with Superman and the Justice League. Marvel has eight titles on the chart, with a lot more variety: Infinity Gauntlet, both Spider-Men (Peter Parker and Miles Morales), Ms. Marvel, two Star Wars titles, and two Spider-Gwen titles. The two outliers were Dark Horse Comics’ latest Avatar: The Last Airbender release and BOOM! Studios’ Saban’s Power Rangers: Soul of the Dragon, both original graphic novels.
DC Comics’ situation, in the book channel anyway, seems to be that readers can’t get enough of Batman, but they can live without pretty much everyone else (except Alan Moore, but Watchmen and V for Vendetta are perennials). Marvel has fewer best-sellers, but the books that do make the chart are a more diverse array.
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NPD BookScan Top 20 'Superhero' Graphic Novels – January 2019 (12/30/18 - 2/1/19) |
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|
Rank |
Title |
Author |
Publisher |
|
1 |
WATCHMEN |
ALAN MOORE |
DC COMICS |
|
2 |
BATMAN: WHITE KNIGHT |
SEAN MURPHY |
DC BLACK LABEL |
|
3 |
INFINITY GAUNTLET |
JIM STARLIN |
MARVEL COMICS |
|
4 |
V FOR VENDETTA |
ALAN MOORE |
VERTIGO |
|
5 |
INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US YEAR FOUR - THE COMPLETE COLLECTION |
BRIAN BUCCELLATO |
DC COMICS |
|
6 |
BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE DLX. ED. HC |
ALAN MOORE |
DC COMICS |
|
7 |
DARK NIGHTS: METAL DLX. ED. HC |
SCOTT SNYDER |
DC COMICS |
|
8 |
MILES MORALES: ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN ULTIMATE COLL. BOOK 1 |
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS |
MARVEL COMICS |
|
9 |
AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER-IMBALANCE PART ONE |
FAITH ERIN HICKS |
DARK HORSE COMICS |
|
10 |
SPIDER-GWEN VOL. 1 |
JASON LATOUR |
MARVEL COMICS |
|
11 |
DARK NIGHTS: METAL: DARK KNIGHTS RISING HC |
PETER TOMASI |
DC COMICS |
|
12 |
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN BY NICK SPENCER VOL. 1 |
NICK SPENCER |
MARVEL COMICS |
|
13 |
STAR WARS: DARTH VADER - DARK LORD OF THE SITH VOL. 3 |
CHARLES SOULE |
MARVEL COMICS |
|
14 |
BATMAN VOL. 8 (REBIRTH) |
TOM KING |
DC COMICS |
|
15 |
BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS |
FRANK MILLER |
DC COMICS |
|
16 |
STAR WARS: DOCTOR APHRA VOL. 4 |
SI SPURRIER |
MARVEL COMICS |
|
17 |
SABAN'S POWER RANGERS: SOUL OF THE DRAGON |
KYLE HIGGINS |
BOOM! STUDIOS |
|
18 |
SPIDER-GWEN, VOLUME 1: GREATER POWER |
LATOUR, JASON |
MARVEL COMICS |
|
19 |
WATCHMEN: THE DELUXE EDITION HC |
ALAN MOORE |
DC COMICS |
|
20 |
MS. MARVEL VOL. 1 |
G. WILLOW WILSON |
MARVEL COMICS |
|
Source: The NPD Group/BookScan |
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For charts of January graphic novel sales from NPD BookScan:
January 2018 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels
January 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:
January 2018 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
January 2018 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
January 2019 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Manga, Superhero, 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."