Anime News

BookScan's Top 20 Graphic Novels For November 2008
Date: 12/5/2008
Two Editions of ?Watchmen? in the Top 10

For the fifth straight month Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon?s Watchmen topped BookScan?s list of the Top 20 graphic novels sold in bookstores, but for the first time the traditional paperback edition was joined in the Top 10 by a new hardcover version that finished in the sixth position. Manga still mustered a majority in the Top 20 with twelve titles, but traditional graphic novels increased their presence from five in October to eight in November.



Joining the two Watchmen editions in the Top 10 were Brian Azzarello?s The Joker, the closest graphic novel equivalent to Christopher Nolan?s wildly popular film The Dark Knight, which rocketed to number 4, and Dark Horse?s Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Vol.3, which finished at number 10. Del Rey?s graphic novel based on Jim Butcher?s The Dresden Files slipped from #3 in October to #12 in November, while Alan Moore and Brian Bolland?s The Killing Joke ended up at #20. The other non-manga titles on the list were two deluxe coffee-table volumes about comics, Running Press?s The DC Vault, and DK Publishing?s Marvel Chronicle. Marvel's The Dark Tower: The Long Way Home would have been on the list, but Marvel issued the book with four variant covers (and crucially 4 different ISBNs) and BookScan tablulated the 4 volumes individually--collectively they would certainly have made the list.

Rank


Title


Author


Pub


PubDate

1


WATCHMEN TPB


ALAN MOORE


DC


4/1/95

2


FRUITS BASKET VOL. 21


NATSUKI TAKAYA


TKP


11/1/08

3


NARUTO VOL. 32


MASASHI KISHIMOTO


VIZ


12/1/08

4


THE JOKER


BRIAN AZZARELLO


DC


11/1/08

5


YU-GI-OH! GX VOL. 2


NAOYUKI KAGEYAMA


VIZ


11/1/08

6


WATCHMEN HC


ALAN MOORE


DC


11/1/08

7


NARUTO VOL. 31


MASASHI KISHIMOTO


VIZ


9/1/08

8


HELLSING VOL. 9


KOHTA HIRANO


DHC


10/1/08

9


CHIBI VAMPIRE VOL. 11


YUNA KAGESAKI


TKP


11/1/08

10


BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON 8 VOL. 3


DREW GODDARD


DHC


10/1/08

11


OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB VOL. 11


BISCO HATORI


VIZ


11/1/08

12


THE DRESDEN FILES: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE HC


JIM BUTCHER


DEL


10/1/08

13


FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST VOL. 17


HIROMU ARAKAWA


VIZ


10/1/08

14


TSUBASA VOL. 19


WILLIAM FLANAGAN


DEL


11/1/08

15


THE DC VAULT: A MUSEUM-IN-A-BOOK


MARTIN PASKO


RPB


10/1/08

16


BLEACH: SOULS OFFICIAL CHARACTER BOOK


TITE KUBO


VIZ


11/1/08

17


MARVEL CHRONICLE


BREVOORT, DEFALCO


DK


11/1/08

18


D.GRAY-MAN VOL. 11


KATSURA HOSHINO


VIZ


11/1/08

19


VAMPIRE KNIGHT VOL. 5


MATSURI HINO


VIZ


9/1/08

20


BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE SPEC. ED. HC


ALAN MOORE


DC


3/1/08

These rankings, provided by Nielsen BookScan, track the bestselling U.S. graphic novels in major book chains, mass merchants, online retailers, and some independent bookstores using POS data from November.

The top manga title in November was Natsuki Takaya?s Fruits Basket Vol. 21 from Tokyopop, which was in stores longer than Naruto Vol. 32, its closest competitor. Naruto was the only manga title with two volumes in the Top 10 (#3 and #7). Another Viz Media release Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Vol.2 did extremely well in November demonstrating that Yu-Gi-Oh! remains a potent mass market franchise. Two manga horror sagas, Dark Horse?s Hellsing Vol. 9, and Tokyopop?s Chibi Vampire also made the top ten.

Once again Viz Media was the top publisher with eight titles in the Top 20 (down from 12 in October), while DC Comics was second with four, followed by Dark Horse, Del Rey, and Tokyopop with two each and Running Press and DK Publishing with one.

For our index to our reports on the BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novels for April 2008 through the present, see "BookScan Top 20 Index."
Source: ICv2