Bong-Joon Ho’s Academy Award-winning movie Parasite gets the graphic novel treatment in Parasite: A Graphic Novel in Storyboards (see "Hachette to Publish Parasite Graphic Novel"). The book was released in mid-May.
The other three non-Japanese titles are hardy perennials: Strange Planet, Watchmen, and They Called Us Enemy.
Turning to manga, as usual, My Hero Academia dominates the list, but the top-selling manga volume in May 2020 was the newest volume of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. That’s because there was no new volume of My Hero Academia; VIZ Media has slowed down releases to one every four months, with the next one due out in June. Kohei Horikoshi’s superhero ensemble action/comedy still has plenty of readers, though; the first volume was the number three seller in May, with volume 2 right behind it, and altogether eight volumes made the list.
Demon Slayer is a rising star that is gaining more readers; the first volume was the number 5 seller, and volume 2 made the list as well. And keep your eye on Beastars, a shonen story set in a high school where all the students are anthropomorphized animals, some of whom are natural predators of others. The first volume and the latest volume make the top 20, and the first volume was just nominated for an Eisner Award.
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NPD BookScan Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels – May 2020 (5/3/20 - 5/30/20) |
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Rank |
Title |
Author |
Publisher |
|
1 |
STRANGE PLANET HC |
NATHAN W. PYLE |
MORROW GIFT |
|
2 |
DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA VOL. 12 |
KOYOHARU GOTOUGE |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
3 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 1 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
4 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 2 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
5 |
DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA VOL. 1 |
KOYOHARU GOTOUGE |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
6 |
UZUMAKI HC |
JUNJI ITO |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
7 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 23 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
8 |
BEASTARS VOL. 6 |
PARU ITAGAKI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
9 |
PARASITE: A GRAPHIC NOVEL IN STORYBOARDS |
BONG JOON HO |
HACHETTE BOOK GROUP |
|
10 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 22 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
11 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 3 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
12 |
WATCHMEN (2019 EDITION) |
ALAN MOORE |
DC COMICS |
|
13 |
SPLATOON VOL. 9 |
SANKISHI HINODEYA |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
14 |
DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA VOL. 2 |
KOYOHARU GOTOUGE |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
15 |
THEY CALLED US ENEMY |
GEORGE TAKEI |
TOP SHELF PROD. |
|
16 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 4 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
17 |
BEASTARS VOL. 1 |
PARU ITAGAKI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
18 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 5 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
19 |
MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 21 |
KOHEI HORIKOSHI |
VIZ MEDIA |
|
20 |
JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE: PART 4--DIAMOND IS UNBREAKABLE VOL. 5 |
HIROHIKO ARAKI |
VIZ MEDIA |
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Source: The NPD Group/BookScan |
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For charts of May graphic novel sales from NPD BookScan:
May 2020 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero Graphic Novels
May 2020 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:
May 2020 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
May 2020 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
May 2020 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."