November brings a newcomer to the list of the Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels in the book channel, based on NPD BookScan data for October (11/3/19-11/30/19) provided to ICv2.

The top selling adult graphic novel was Nathan Pyle’s Strange Planet, based on the Instagram comic, which has over 2 million followers (see "Nathan W. Pyle’s ‘Strange Planet’ Comes to Print").  The comic is a four-panel gag strip featuring alien-type characters speaking about ordinary things (getting a sunburn, climbing a mountain, kissing) in oddly literal terms.  Pyle’s simple figures and quirky dialogue make this comic a sort of verbal uncanny valley, and the strips are shared widely on social media.

Last month’s top 20 had four new titles, and three of them have already dropped off the chart: Open Borders, False Knees, and Doomsday Clock.  The one that persists is Critical Role: Vox Machina: Origins, showing once more the power of gamer dollars.  (That’s also why The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited! is still hovering mid-chart, four months after its debut.)

One series worth watching is Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.  Last month, Vol. 8 made the top 20, its second month on the chart; this month, both Vol. 9 and Vol. 1 are on the chart.  The manga series seems to be getting a boost from the anime, and VIZ Media announced at AnimeNYC that they are going to speed up the release schedule, going from an every-other-month schedule to monthly releases (see "Anime NYC: VIZ Announces Junji Ito, Splatoon Manga").  

On the other hand, this is the first month without a volume of Komi Can’t Communicate on the chart since the series’ debut in June.  A new volume is due out next week, so we can expect to see it on next month’s chart.

As usual, the chart is dominated by manga, but DC Comics has managed to get a book into the top 20 that isn’t Watchmen: Tom Taylor’s DCeased, the collected edition of his six-issue series about a virus wreaking havoc in the DC Universe (see "A Pandemic Hits the DCU in ‘DCeased’").

NPD BookScan Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels – November 2019 (11/3/19 - 11/30/19)

Rank

Title

Author

Publisher

1

STRANGE PLANET HC

NATHAN W. PYLE

MORROW GIFT

2

WATCHMEN (2019 EDITION)

ALAN MOORE

DC COMICS

3

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 1

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

4

BERSERK DELUXE VOL. 3 HC

KENTARO MIURA

DARK HORSE COMICS

5

THEY CALLED US ENEMY

GEORGE TAKEI

TOP SHELF PROD.

6

MAKING COMICS

LYNDA BARRY

DRAWN & QUARTERLY

7

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 2

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

8

DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA VOL. 9

KOYOHARU GOTOUGE

VIZ MEDIA

9

THE WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM VOL. 4

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

10

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 21

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

11

UZUMAKI HC

JUNJI ITO

VIZ MEDIA

12

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 3

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

13

THE ADVENTURE ZONE: MURDER ON THE ROCKPORT LIMITED!

CLINT MCELROY

FIRST SECOND BOOKS

14

WATCHMEN: THE DLX. ED. HC

ALAN MOORE

DC COMICS

15

ONE PIECE VOL. 92

EIICHIRO ODA

VIZ MEDIA

16

DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA VOL. 1

KOYOHARU GOTOUGE

VIZ MEDIA

17

JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE: PART 4--DIAMOND IS UNBREAKABLE VOL. 3 HC

HIROHIKO ARAKI

VIZ MEDIA

18

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 4

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

19

CRITICAL ROLE VOX MACHINA: ORIGINS VOL. 1

MATTHEW MERCER

DARK HORSE COMICS

20

DCEASED

TOM TAYLOR

DC COMICS

Source: The NPD Group/BookScan

For charts of November graphic novel sales from NPD BookScan:
November 2019 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero Graphic Novels
November 2019 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:
November 2019 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
November 2019 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
November 2019 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Kids 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."