Things changed dramatically in bookstores in July, according to the BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novels chart for the month, with a 20 year old title, Watchmen, taking over the #1 slot and American titles taking a majority of the top 20 positions.  Watchmen has been doing well all year, but with the release of the Watchmen movie trailer in conjunction with the huge hit The Dark Knight, sales have gone through the roof, prompting a huge new printing by DC (see “DC Orders 300,000 Watchmen”).

	Top 20 Graphic Novels 7/6 - 8/3/08
Rank	Title	Author	Pub	PubDate
1	WATCHMEN	ALAN MOORE	DC	4/1/95
2	NARUTO VOL. 30	MASASHI KISHIMOTO	VIZ	7/1/08
3	FRUITS BASKET VOL. 20	NATSUKI TAKAYA	TKP	7/1/08
4	BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE	ALAN MOORE	DC	3/1/08
5	NARUTO VOL. 29	MASASHI KISHIMOTO	VIZ	5/1/08
6	Y: THE LAST MAN VOL. 10	BRIAN VAUGHAN	DC	7/1/08
7	IN ODD WE TRUST	DEAN R. KOONTZ	DEL	6/1/08
8	BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN	JEPH LOEB	DC	11/1/99
9	NARUTO VOL. 28	MASASHI KISHIMOTO	VIZ	3/1/08
10	WANTED	MARK MILLAR	IMA	5/1/05
11	BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURN	FRANK MILLER	DC	5/1/97
12	CHIBI VAMPIRE VOL. 9	YUNA KAGESAKI	TKP	7/1/08
13	BATMAN: YEAR ONE	FRANK MILLER	DC	4/1/07
14	BLEACH VOL. 23	TITE KUBO	VIZ	6/1/08
15	DEATH NOTE VOL. 1	TSUGUMI OHBA	VIZ	10/1/05
16	ALL-STAR BATMAN & ROBIN, THE BOY WONDER VOL. 1	FRANK MILLER	DC	7/1/08
17	THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 8	ROBERT KIRKMAN	IMA	4/1/08
18	KINGDOM HEARTS II  VOL. 2	SHIRO AMANO	TKP	5/1/08
19	DEATH NOTE VOL. 2	TSUGUMI OHBA	VIZ	11/1/05
20	MARVEL ZOMBIES 2	ROBERT KIRKMAN	MAR	6/1/08

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 July 6 to August 3.

 

Watchmen wasn’t the only title that got a sales boost from the release of The Dark Knight, five Batman titles made the top 20, the first time that an American character has had that kind of presence in the top ranks of bookstore sales for years. 

 

Wanted, on the Top 20 chart for a second month (see “Bookscan’s Top 20 Graphic Novels for June”), rounded out the seven American titles with movie pedigrees on the chart this month. 

 

Y:  The Last Man Vol. 10, Del Rey’s In Odd We Trust (Dean Koontz and Queenie Chan), Image’s The Walking Dead Vol. 8:  Made to Suffer (Robert Kirkman), and Marvel Zombies 2 made up the rest of the 11 American titles in the top 20. 

 

Naruto remained the top manga property, placing all three Shippuden volumes in the list.  Other Viz titles included the perennial Bleach, with one volume, and Death Note, with two. 

 

The new volume of Tokyopop’s Fruits Basket made a strong showing at #3.  Tokyopop’s Chibi Vampire and Kingdom Hearts II made up the rest of its three manga titles in the top 20.  

 

DC was the top publisher in the Top 20 in July, with seven slots.  Most of that came out of Viz’s slots; Viz dropped from 12 of the top 20 titles in June to six in July.  Tokyopop was third with three titles, Image had two (including Wanted, from Top Cow), and Del Rey and Marvel each had one.

 

For comparisons, see also “Bookscan Top 20 Graphic Novels for May” and “Bookscan Top 20 Graphic Novels for April.”

For 2013