Anime News

Naruto?s Back on Top In Bookstores in February
Date: 3/5/2010
The release of the latest volume of Naruto, Volume 47, brought the #1 manga property back to the top of the charts in February, its customary spot when a new volume ships. Vampire Knight, the biggest manga title since Naruto, was #2.



Among newer properties, Tokyopop?s Alice in the Country of Hearts, the only new property in the Top 20 Graphic Novels, debuted at #8. Yen?s Black Butler moved up from #7 in its debut month to #4 in February, an unusual sign of strength, indicating good word of mouth.



BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novels in February 2010

Rank


Title


Author


Publisher

1


NARUTO VOL. 47


MASASHI KISHIMOTO


VIZ MEDIA

2


VAMPIRE KNIGHT VOL. 8


MATSURI HINO


VIZ MEDIA

3


BLACK BIRD VOL. 3


KANOKO SAKURAKOJI


VIZ MEDIA

4


BLACK BUTLER VOL. 1


YANA TOBOSO


YEN PRESS

5


FABLES VOL. 13: THE GREAT FABLES CROSSOVER


BILL WILLINGHAM


VERTIGO

6


DARK TOWER: FALL OF GILEAD HC


ROBIN FURTH


MARVEL COMICS

7


THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 11: FEAR THE HUNTERS


ROBERT KIRKMAN


IMAGE COMICS

8


ALICE IN THE COUNTRY OF HEARTS VOL. 1


QUINROSE


TOKYOPOP

9


THE BOOK OF GENESIS ILLUS. BY R. CRUMB HC


ROBERT CRUMB


W. W. NORTON

10


YU-GI-OH! GX VOL. 4


NAOYUKI KAGEYAMA


VIZ MEDIA

11


FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST VOL. 22


ARAKAWA HIROMU


VIZ MEDIA

12


YU-GI-OH! R VOL. 3


AKIRA ITO


VIZ MEDIA

13


NEGIMA! VOL. 25


KEN AKAMATSU


DEL REY

14


D.GRAY-MAN VOL. 16


KATSURA HOSHINO


VIZ MEDIA

15


WATCHMEN TP


ALAN MOORE


DC COMICS

16


THE ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE: RECORDED ATTACKS


MAX BROOKS


THREE RIVERS

17


MAXIMUM RIDE: THE MANGA VOL. 2


JAMES PATTERSON


YEN PRESS

18


ONE PIECE VOL. 29


EIICHIRO ODA


VIZ MEDIA

19


ONE PIECE VOL. 30


EIICHIRO ODA


VIZ MEDIA

20


ONE PIECE VOL. 31


EIICHIRO ODA


VIZ MEDIA



The speed-up of One Piece releases appears to be losing some steam. The three volumes released in February came in at #18-#20; the top volume of One Piece on the chart in January held #8.



Viz had ten titles of the Top 20 in February; two titles each were from Yen Press and DC; and Marvel, Image, Del Rey, W.W. Norton, Image, and Tokyopop each had one.



The rankings, provided by Nielsen BookScan, track the bestselling U.S. adult graphic novels in major book chains, mass merchants, online retailers, and some independent retailers using POS data from February 1st to February 28th. Titles racked in the Kids or YA sections do not appear in this list.



For charts from other months, see the "BookScan Top 20 GNs Index".
Source: ICv2