The release of Christopher Nolan’s final
Batman film,
The Dark Knight Rises on July 20th had a major impact on sales of graphic novels sold in bookstores during August according to numbers released to ICv2 by Nielsen BookScan reporting service. Led by Frank Miller’s classic
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Geoff John’s recently published
Batman: Earth One, Batbooks took the top four spots on the August list and six of the top eight titles. Altogether there were eight
Batman-related books (including Insight Editions’
The Dark Knight Manual) in the Nielsen Top 20 for August.
Sales of DC graphic novels (including
Batman books) were also undoubtedly aided somewhat by a Barnes & Noble "Buy 2, Get 1 Free" promotion on DC books that began on August 21st. DC managed to place ten titles in the Top 20, its best performance since ICv2 began charting bookstore graphic novel sales. Alan Moore’s
Watchmen and
V for Vendetta, both perennial strong sellers, and Grant Morrison’s first "New 52"
Action Comics HC collection were the other DC titles in the Top 20.
|
BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novels in August 2012
|
|
Rank
|
Title
|
Author
|
Publisher
|
|
1
|
BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS
|
FRANK MILLER
|
DC COMICS
|
|
2
|
BATMAN: EARTH ONE HC
|
GEOFF JOHNS
|
DC COMICS
|
|
3
|
BATMAN: KNIGHTFALL VOL. 1
|
VARIOUS
|
DC COMICS
|
|
4
|
BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE HC
|
ALAN MOORE
|
DC COMICS
|
|
5
|
WATCHMEN
|
ALAN MOORE
|
DC COMICS
|
|
6
|
BATMAN THE LONG HALLOWEEN
|
JEPH LOEB
|
DC COMICS
|
|
7
|
THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 16
|
ROBERT KIRKMAN
|
IMAGE COMICS
|
|
8
|
BATMAN VOL. 1: THE COURT OF OWLS HC
|
SCOTT SNYDER
|
DC COMICS
|
|
9
|
NARUTO VOL. 57
|
MASASHI KISHIMOTO
|
VIZ MEDIA
|
|
10
|
AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER: THE PROMISE PART 2
|
GENE YANG
|
DARK HORSE
|
|
11
|
BATMAN: HUSH
|
JEPH LOEB
|
DC COMICS
|
|
12
|
AMERICAN BORN CHINESE
|
GENE LUEN YANG
|
SQUARE FISH
|
|
13
|
THE WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM ONE
|
ROBERT KIRKMAN
|
IMAGE COMICS
|
|
14
|
ACTION COMICS VOL. 1 HC
|
GRANT MORRISON
|
DC COMICS
|
|
15
|
V FOR VENDETTA
|
ALAN MOORE
|
VERTIGO
|
|
16
|
THE DARK KNIGHT MANUAL HC
|
BRANDON T. SNIDER
|
INSIGHT EDITIONS
|
|
17
|
SAILOR MOON VOL. 6
|
NAOKO TAKEUCHI
|
KODANSHA COMICS
|
|
18
|
AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER: THE PROMISE PART 1
|
GENE YANG
|
DARK HORSE
|
|
19
|
BLEACH VOL. 44
|
TITE KUBO
|
VIZ MEDIA
|
|
20
|
BLEACH VOL. 45
|
TITE KUBO
|
VIZ MEDIA
|
Robert Kirkman’s
The Walking Dead continued its slow fade with two titles in the Top 20, down from 3 in July and 4 in June. Look for the number of
TWD books on the list to start growing again after the debut of Season 3 on October 14th. Meanwhile Dark Horse Comics’
Avatar series written by Gene Luen Yang remains unstoppable with both volumes in the Top 20 once again where they were joined Yang’s perennial indie bestseller
American Born Chinese.
The number of manga titles in the Top 20 was down to four in August (from five in July). Viz Media’s
Naruto Vol. 57 was the highest ranked manga at #9, followed by Kodansha’s
Sailor Moon Vol. 6 at #17 and Viz Media’s
Bleach Vol. 44 at #19 and
Bleach Vol. 45 at #20.
For past BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novel lists, see the "
BookScan Top 20 GNs Index."
