There’s a mix of old favorites and new releases on the chart of the top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero graphic novels in the book channel, based on NPD BookScan data for February 2022 (1/30/22-2/26/22) provided to ICv2.

There are four February 2022 releases on the Superhero chart: Moon Knight: The Complete Collection at number 2, Moon Knight: The Midnight Mission at number 4, Batman: The Imposter at number 7, and the Milestone Compendium at number 20. Two from DC Comics, two from Marvel Comics. Two are new (Moon Knight: The Midnight Mission and Batman: The Impostor) while the other two are collections of older material.

Volume 1 of Amazing Spider-Man: Beyond, a mid-January release, also makes the Top 20, although it wasn’t on the January chart.

Looking at the chart as a whole, there’s a pretty even mix of older titles and newer ones that were published in the last two years. DC has 14 books on the chart, Marvel has five, and Dark Horse Comics has one.

NPD BookScan Top 20 'Superheroes' Graphic Novels – February 2022 (1/30/22 - 2/26/22)

Rank

Title

Author

Publisher

1

WATCHMEN (2019 EDITION)

ALAN MOORE

DC COMICS

2

MOON KNIGHT BY BENDIS & MALEEV: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION

BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS

MARVEL COMICS

3

BATMAN: YEAR ONE

FRANK MILLER

DC COMICS

4

MOON KNIGHT VOL. 1: THE MIDNIGHT MISSION

JED MACKAY

MARVEL COMICS

5

BATMAN/FORTNITE: ZERO POINT HC

CHRISTOS GAGE

DC COMICS

6

THE SANDMAN VOL. 1: PRELUDES & NOCTURNES 30TH ANN. ED.

NEIL GAIMAN

DC COMICS

7

BATMAN: THE IMPOSTER HC

MATTSON TOMLIN

DC COMICS

8

BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN

JEPH LOEB

DC COMICS

9

V FOR VENDETTA

ALAN MOORE

DC COMICS

10

BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE DLX. ED. HC (NEW EDITION)

ALAN MOORE

DC COMICS

11

THE BATMAN WHO LAUGHS

SCOTT SNYDER

DC COMICS

12

WATCHMEN: THE DLX. ED.

ALAN MOORE

DC COMICS

13

BATMAN: THREE JOKERS HC

GEOFF JOHNS

DC COMICS

14

STAR WARS: WAR OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS

CHARLES SOULE

MARVEL COMICS

15

HARLEEN HC

STJEPAN SEJIC

DC COMICS

16

BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS

FRANK MILLER

DC COMICS

17

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: BEYOND VOL. 1

KELLY THOMPSON

MARVEL COMICS

18

BATMAN: HUSH (NEW EDITION)

JEPH LOEB

DC COMICS

19

THE WITCHER OMNIBUS

PAUL TOBIN

DARK HORSE COMICS

20

MILESTONE COMPENDIUM ONE

DWAYNE MCDUFFIE

DC COMICS

Source: The NPD Group/BookScan

The Author chart has a lot of older titles as well, but something interesting is happening here: Five of the books on the chart are Korean (the three volumes of Solo Leveling, plus Volume 1 of The Abandoned Empress and Volume 1 of The Hellbound). It’s actually quite an interesting mix this month, with three volumes of Critical Role, two of Invincible, both the hardcover and paperback versions of Lore Olympus, and a couple of the perennials: They Called US Enemy, 1984, Sapiens.

It's not surprising to see Fun Home on this chart, but Gender Queer occurs less frequently. Its presence in February thus gives some credence to the notion that attempts to ban a book lead to an increase in sales; Gender Queer is probably the most challenged book in the country right now. It should be noted that Maus does not appear on the graphic novel charts because it’s technically classified as a memoir; if it were counted as a graphic novel, it might very well show up here as well.

NPD BookScan Top 20 Author Graphic Novels – February 2022 (1/30/22 - 2/26/22)

Rank

Title

Author

Publisher

1

CRITICAL ROLE: THE MIGHTY NEIN ORIGINS--CALEB WIDOGAST HC

JODY HOUSER

DARK HORSE COMICS

2

THEY CALLED US ENEMY

GEORGE TAKEI

TOP SHELF PROD.

3

SOLO LEVELING VOL. 1

CHUGONG

YEN PRESS

4

LORE OLYMPUS: VOLUME ONE

RACHEL SMYTHE

DEL REY

5

SOLO LEVELING VOL. 2

CHUGONG

YEN PRESS

6

LORE OLYMPUS: VOLUME ONE HC

RACHEL SMYTHE

DEL REY

7

IN LOVE & PAJAMAS: A COLLECTION OF COMICS ABOUT BEING YOURSELF TOGETHER HC

CATANA CHETWYND

ANDREWS MCMEEL

8

SOLO LEVELING VOL. 3

CHUGONG

YEN PRESS

9

MARCH: BOOK ONE

JOHEN LEWIS

TOP SHELF PROD.

10

THE ABANDONED EMPRESS VOL. 1

INA

YEN PRESS

11

GENDER QUEER: A MEMOIR

MAIA KOBABE

ONI PRESS

12

CRITICAL ROLE: THE MIGHTY NEIN ORIGINS--JESTER LAVORRE HC

SAM MAGGS

DARK HORSE COMICS

13

CRITICAL ROLE: VOX MACHINA ORIGINS LIBRARY ED. HC: SERIES I & II COLLECTION

CRITICAL ROLE

DARK HORSE COMICS

14

INVINCIBLE COMPENDIUM VOL. 1

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

15

1984: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL

GEORGE ORWELL

MARINER BOOKS

16

SAPIENS: A GRAPHIC HISTORY VOL. 1: THE BIRTH OF HUMANKIND

YUVAL NOAH HARARI

HARPER PERENNIAL

17

THE HELLBOUND VOL. 1

YEON SANG-HO

DARK HORSE COMICS

18

FUN HOME: A FAMILY TRAGICOMIC

ALISON BECHDEL

MARINER BOOKS

19

INVINCIBLE COMPENDIUM VOL. 2

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

20

SAPIENS: A GRAPHIC HISTORY VOL. 2: THE PILLARS OF CIVILIZATION

YUVAL NOAH HARARI

HARPER PERENNIAL

Source: The NPD Group/BookScan

Once again, the February 2022 Top 20 Manga chart is identical to the Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels chart, so check out our earlier coverage for a discussion of February’s manga trends (see “February 2022 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels”).

NPD BookScan Top 20 Manga Graphic Novels – February 2022 (1/30/22 - 2/26/22)

Rank

Title

Author

Publisher

1

CHAINSAW MAN VOL. 9

TATSUKI FUJIMOTO

VIZ MEDIA

2

JUJUTSU KAISEN VOL. 14

GEGE AKUTAMI

VIZ MEDIA

3

DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA VOL. 1

KOYOHARU GOTOUGE

VIZ MEDIA

4

DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA--STORIES OF WATER AND FLAME

 RYOJI HIRANO

VIZ MEDIA

5

CHAINSAW MAN VOL. 1

TATSUKI FUJIMOTO

VIZ MEDIA

6

CHAINSAW MAN VOL. 2

TATSUKI FUJIMOTO

VIZ MEDIA

7

DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA VOL. 2

KOYOHARU GOTOUGE

VIZ MEDIA

8

DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA VOL. 3

KOYOHARU GOTOUGE

VIZ MEDIA

9

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 1

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

10

JUJUTSU KAISEN VOL. 1

GEGE AKUTAMI

VIZ MEDIA

11

CHAINSAW MAN VOL. 4

TATSUKI FUJIMOTO

VIZ MEDIA

12

CHAINSAW MAN VOL. 3

TATSUKI FUJIMOTO

VIZ MEDIA

13

CHAINSAW MAN VOL. 5

TATSUKI FUJIMOTO

VIZ MEDIA

14

KAIJU NO. 8 VOL. 1

NAOYA MATSUMOTO

VIZ MEDIA

15

MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 2

KOHEI HORIKOSHI

VIZ MEDIA

16

KOMI CAN'T COMMUNICATE VOL. 17

TOMOHITO ODA

VIZ MEDIA

17

JUJUTSU KAISEN VOL. 0

GEGE AKUTAMI

VIZ MEDIA

18

SPY X FAMILY VOL. 1

TATSUYA ENDO

VIZ MEDIA

19

ATTACK ON TITAN VOL. 34

HAJIME ISAYAMA

KODANSHA COMICS

20

CHAINSAW MAN VOL. 6

TATSUKI FUJIMOTO

VIZ MEDIA

Source: The NPD Group/BookScan


For charts of February 2022 graphic novel sales from NPD BookScan:
February 2022 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels
February 2022 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:
February 2022 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
February 2022 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
February 2022 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."