All six of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, published by Oni Press, made the top ten in Nielsen’s BookScan list of the bestselling graphic novels in bookstores in July.  The final volume in the series, Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, which wasn’t released until July 20th, topped the charts followed by Dark Horse’s Troublemaker by Janet and Alex Evanovich, which also didn’t hit stores until the 20th, but whose appearance on this list was expected given the popularity of the authors and news about the number of copies ordered (see “Troublemaker Over 80K”).

 

Geoff Johns’ flagship Blackest Night hardcover debuted on at number 3 for July and four other Blackest Night hardcovers all made the “Top 20” in a very impressive mainstream showing for a comic book crossover event.

BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novels in July 2010

Rank

Title

Author

Publisher

1

SCOTT PILGRIM VOL. 6

BRYAN LEE O'MALLEY

ONI PRESS

2

TROUBLEMAKER BOOK 1 HC

JANET EVANOVICH

DARK HORSE

3

BLACKEST NIGHT HC

GEOFF JOHNS

DC COMICS

4

SCOTT PILGRIM VOL. 1

BRYAN LEE O'MALLEY

ONI PRESS

5

NARUTO VOL. 48

MASASHI KISHIMOTO

VIZ MEDIA

6

SCOTT PILGRIM VOL. 4

BRYAN LEE O'MALLEY

ONI PRESS

7

SCOTT PILGRIM VOL. 2

BRYAN LEE O'MALLEY

ONI PRESS

8

SCOTT PILGRIM VOL. 5

BRYAN LEE O'MALLEY

ONI PRESS

9

SCOTT PILGRIM VOL. 3

BRYAN LEE O'MALLEY

ONI PRESS

10

BLACKEST NIGHT: GREEN LANTERN HC

GEOFF JOHNS

DC COMICS

11

FULL METAL ALCHEMIST VOL. 23

HIROMU ARALAWA

VIZ MEDIA

12

BLACKEST NIGHT: GREEN LANTERN CORPS HC

PETER J. TOMASI

DC COMICS

13

VAMPIRE KNIGHT VOL. 10

MATSURI HINO

VIZ MEDIA

14

OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB VOL. 14

BISCO HATORI

VIZ MEDIA

15

THE LAST AIRBENDER

DAVE ROMAN

DEL REY BOOKS

16

BLACKEST NIGHT: BLACK LANTERN CORPS VOL. 1 HC

PETER J. TOMASI

DC COMICS

17

NEGIMA! VOL. 27

KEN AKAMATSU

DEL REY BOOKS

18

BLACK BUTLER VOL. 2

YANA TOBOSO

YEN PRESS

19

BLACKEST NIGHT: BLACK LANTERN CORPS VOL. 2 HC

GEOFF JOHNS

DC COMICS

20

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER VOL. 1

MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO

DEL REY BOOKS


Predictably Naruto Vol. 48, which topped the list last month, was the highest ranking manga for July, but the fact that it was the only manga in the top ten was unprecedented as was the fact that only six manga titles made the “Top 20” for the month.  Viz Media had four titles including the perennially strong Full Metal Alchemist (Vol. 23), and two popular shojo series, Vampire Knight (Vol.10) and the Ouran High School Host Club.  Yen Press’s popular new series Black Butler remained in the “Top 20” for the third straight month and Del Rey popular harem comedy Negima! (Vol. 27) made its usual appearance on the list.  Del Rey also had two tie-in volumes for The Last Airbender movie make the “Top 20,” proving once again that a film doesn’t necessarily have to be a critical and box office success to spur graphic novel sales.

 

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 June 6th to July 4th. Titles racked in the Kids or YA sections do not appear in this list.

For charts from previous months, see the "BookScan Top 20 GNs Index."