There’s plenty of variety in the Top 20 Manga, Author, and Superhero Graphic Novels in the book channel, based on NPD BookScan data for January (12/30/18-2/2/19) provided to ICv2.

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.

NPD BookScan Top 20 Author Graphic Novels – January 2019 (12/3018 - 2/1/19)

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

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.

NPD BookScan Top 20 Manga Graphic Novels – January 2019 (12/30/18 - 2/1/19)

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

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.

NPD BookScan Top 20 'Superhero' Graphic Novels – January 2019 (12/30/18 - 2/1/19)

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

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."