Having displaced Fruits Basket from the top spot last week, Naruto Vol. 7 remained at the top of the BookScan list of graphic novels for the second consecutive week, but the biggest surprise for the week ending August 21st was the return of Frank Miller's Sin City Vol. 1, which vaulted back into the top ten thanks to the release of the Sin City DVD on August 16th.  Sin City has been the major movie-aided graphic novel success story of 2005, with Dark Horse having shipped over 400,000 copies of the various Sin City books.  Sin City Vol.1 is now the third best-selling graphic novel of the year in the bookstores, trailing only Full Metal Alchemist Vol. 1 and Dark Horse's adaptation of Star Wars Episode III.  While producers of movie tie-in merchandise have often talked about a 'second trip to the trough' thanks to the release of a popular film on DVD, this is certainly the most pronounced effect ever registered in the graphic novel bookstore market.

Manga still claims the vast majority of bookstore graphic novels -- Sin City Vol. #1 was the only non-manga title in the top 25.  Tokyopop's Fruits Basket titles  (#2 and #10) remained strong and Viz's Hana-Kimi Vol. 7 (at #4) and Bleach Vol. 8 (at #6) scored their highest rankings ever, while Dark Horse's Trigun Maximum Vol. 6 zoomed to number 11 in its first full week of release.  Two ADV titles Chrono Crusade Vol. 6 (#14) and Yotsubato Vol. 2 (#16) continued to grow in popularity and Viz's Zatch Bell Vol. 2 (#17) appears to be benefiting from its TV exposure.

Joann Sfar's The Rabbi's Cat from Random House debuted at #43 and Alan Moore's V for Vendetta came in at #44.