Image Comics had an unbelievable nine titles in the chart of the "Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels" sold in the bookstore channel in December, provided exclusively to ICv2.com by Nielsen BookScan.  Eight of those were The Walking Dead, powered by the exposure of the first half of the fourth season on AMC and holiday sales, with the two Compendia volumes in the top two slots for the month, we assume because of their popularity as gift items.  The Walking Dead took the four top slots, and six of the Top Ten.  The other Image title in the Top 20 was the first volume of Saga, also probably helped by gift sales. 

DC also had a strong month, with three Scott Snyder Batman volumes and three classics in the Top 20.  Among the classics was the first volume of The Sandman, pulled into prominence by Sandman Overture, the new Neil Gaiman Sandman series that launched in October.

Only three manga titles appeared in the Top 20 for December:  the first two Attack on Titan volumes and the newest Naruto volume.

Dark Horse’s latest Avatar volume held in the Top 20 in its third month, and a new entrant, Chronicle’s Super Graphic: A Visual Guide (an "about" book rather than a true graphic novel) rounded out the Top 20.
 

BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novels in December 2013

Rank

Title

Author

Publisher

1

THE WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM VOL. 1

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

2

THE WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM VOL. 2

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

3

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 19

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

4

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 1

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

5

BATMAN: THE COURT OF OWLS

SCOTT SNYDER

DC COMICS

6

BATMAN VOL.3: DEATH OF THE FAMILY HC

SCOTT SNYDER

DC COMICS

7

THE WALKING DEAD BOOK 1 HC

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

8

ATTACK ON TITAN VOL. 1

HAJIME ISAYAMA

KODANSHA COMICS

9

NARUTO VOL. 63

MASASHI KISHIMOTO

VIZ MEDIA

10

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 2

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

11

BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS

FRANK MILLER

DC COMICS

12

BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE DLX ED HC

ALAN MOORE

DC COMICS

13

THE SANDMAN VOL. 1

NEIL GAINMAN

VERTIGO

14

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER--THE SEARCH PT. 3

GENE LUEN YANK

DARK HORSE COMICS

15

SUPER GRAPHIC: A VISUAL GUIDE TO THE COMIC BOOK UNIVERSE

TIM LEONG

CHRONICLE BOOKS

16

THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 18

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS

17

BATMAN VOL 2: THE CITY OF OWLS

SCOTT SNYDER

DC COMICS

18

SAGA VOL. 1

BRIAN K VAUGHAN

IMAGE COMICS

19

ATTACK ON TITAN VOL. 2

HAJIME ISAYAMA

KODANSHA COMICS

20

THE WALKING DEAD BOOK 9 HC

ROBERT KIRKMAN

IMAGE COMICS


For past BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novel lists, see the "BookScan Top 20 GNs Index."