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."