In fact, the number of Big Two graphic novels on the Adult Top 20 has been dwindling for some time; last month, the only title to chart was DC’s deluxe edition hardcover of Detective Comics #1000 (see "June 2019 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels").
Instead, the BookScan chart is filled with strong sellers that appeal to a variety of clearly defined fandoms: A Dungeons & Dragons podcast, video games, manga/anime franchises, and of course, George Takei.
The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited! takes up two slots. The paperback is in the top slot and the hardcover is at number 3. The first volume of the series, The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins, is at number 10. Both are based on the gaming podcast The Adventure Zone, which is hugely popular in D&D circles.
With no new volume out in July, the manga series My Hero Academia doesn’t take the top slot, but nine volumes, plus the latest volume of the spinoff series My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, make the chart.
The number 2 title is George Takei’s They Called Us Enemy, a memoir of the actor’s childhood in an internment camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II. Takei, who played Lieutenant Sulu in the original Star Trek, has drawn a huge following on social media, and this book comes at a time when internment camps are back in the news. Takei, in fact, has pointedly compared those camps with the camps holding asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Everything else on the chart is a solid seller as well: Top Shelf Productions other politically inflected memoir of a public figure, March; the newest volume of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess; Jody Houser’s Stranger Things adaptation (for the third month in a row); two deluxe hardcover volumes of Berserk; and the first volume of Komi Can’t Communicate, which isn’t associated with an anime but somehow has found its audience and is still on the chart in its second month of release (unlike more established series such as One Piece and Attack on Titan, which only make the top 20 for their first month).
The BookScan chart stands in stark contrast to the July Diamond chart (see "Top 500 Graphic Novels—July 2019"), which is topped by DC’s latest Joker trade. Only two titles make both top 20s: They Called Us Enemy is at number 4 on the Diamond chart, and The Adventure Zone trade paperback shows up at number 5. The Legend of Zelda doesn’t show up till number 23 on the Diamond chart, and volume 5 of My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, the top seller of that franchise, is at number 29.
In terms of publishers, the BookScan Top 20 is dominated by VIZ Media, with 12 titles; First Second Books and Dark Horse Comics have three each, and Top Shelf Productions has two.
The Diamond top 20 is very different: DC Comics has 5 titles, Image Comics has 6, Marvel Comics has 7, and First Second Books and Top Shelf Productions (IDW) have one each.
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NPD BookScan Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels – July 2019 (7/7/19 -8/3/19) |
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|
Rank |
Title |
Author |
Publisher |
|
1 |
THE ADVENTURE ZONE: MURDER ON THE ROCKPORT LIMITED! |
CLINT MCELROY |
FIRST SECOND BOOKS |
|
2 |
THEY CALLED US ENEMY |
GEORGE TAKEI |
TOP SHELF PROD. |
|
3 |
THE ADVENTURE ZONE: MURDER ON THE ROCKPORT LIMITED! HC |
CLINT MCELROY |
FIRST SECOND BOOKS |
|
4 |
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS VOL. 5 |
AKIRA HIMEKAWA |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
5 |
BERSERK DELUXE VOL, 2 HC |
KENTARO MIURA |
DARK HORSE COMICS |
|
6 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 1 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
7 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA, VOL. 2 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
8 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 19 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
9 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 3 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
10 |
THE ADVENTURE ZONE: HERE THERE BE GERBLINS |
CLINT MCELROY |
FIRST SECOND BOOKS |
|
11 |
STRANGER THINGS: THE OTHER SIDE VOL. 1 |
JODY HOUSER |
DARK HORSE COMICS |
|
12 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 4 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
13 |
KOMI CAN'T COMMUNICATE VOL. 1 |
TOMOHITO ODA |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
14 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA: VIGILANTES VOL. 5 |
HIDEYUKI FURUHASHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
15 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 16 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
16 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 18 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
17 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 17 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
18 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 5 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
19 |
MARCH: BOOK ONE |
JOHN LEWIS |
TOP SHELF PROD. |
|
20 |
BERSERK DELUXE VOL. 1 HC |
KENTARO MIURA |
DARK HORSE COMICS |
|
Source: The NPD Group/BookScan |
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For charts of July graphic novel sales from NPD BookScan:
July 2019 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels
July 2019 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Superhero, Manga, and Author Graphic Novels
For the charts with the actual sales numbers from NPD BookScan, see these articles on the ICv2 Pro site:
July 2019 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
July 2019 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
July 2019 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Superhero, Manga, and Author Graphic Novels with Actua 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."