'Watchmen' Dethroned!

BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novels for June 2009

For the first time since June of 2008 Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen graphic novel did not top the monthly BookScan list of the bestselling graphic novels in bookstores for June 2009.  Tite Kubo’s Bleach ended eleven straight months of domination by Watchmen as it topped the charts the first time since ICv2 has been tracking monthly bookstore graphic novel sales from Nielsen BookScan.  Bleach has undoubtedly benefited from near-continual exposure on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, which is currently showing two new episodes of the Bleach anime to lead off its Saturday night anime block.

Overall manga dominated unit sales in June taking 17 of the top 20 spots on the BookScan chart.  Although the second Naruto blitz ended in March, seven Naruto volumes remained in the top 20, the same number that made the list in May (though the top Naruto volume was down from #2 in May to #4 in June). 

Six of the seven new titles on the June list were manga releases led by Viz Media’s Rosario + Vampire Vol. 7, which came in at #3, solidifying its position as the hottest new shonen title on the block.  Other manga titles making the June list that didn’t make the top 20 in May include two Viz Media shojo series, Bisco Hatori’s Ouran High School Host Club Vol. 12 and Kiyo Fujiwara’s Wild Ones Vol. 7; two Viz Media shonen series, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Vol. 3 and One Piece Vol. 21; and Del Rey’s Tsubasa Vol. 21 from Clamp.  Interestingly One Piece, which came in at #15 on the June list here in the States, is the manga property that has sold the most volumes in Japan during the recent six-month period from November of 2008 through May of 2009.  The One Piece manga is doing better here, but it still has a long way to go to match the sort of popularity it enjoys in Japan.

Look for Watchmen’s sales to rebound later this month (and in August) due to release of the DVD of the Watchmen movie, but it will face stiff competition from the last volume of Fruits Basket, which is due out on July 6th.  The one new non-manga title on the list in June was Grant Morrison’s Final Crisis Hardcover from DC Comics, which debuted strongly at #6.  Dark Horse’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight, Vol. 4 remained on the list for the second straight month, though it dropped from #8 in May to #18 in June.

Viz Media dominated the top 20 with 14 titles (up from 12 in May), followed by DC Comics and Del Rey with 2, while Dark Horse and Tokyopop had one each.

The rankings, provided by Nielsen BookScan, track the bestselling U.S. graphic novels in major book chains, mass merchants, online retailers, and some independent retailers using POS data from June 7th to June 28th.  Titles racked in the Kids or YA sections do not appear in this list.

For charts from other months, see “Bookscan Top 20 GNs Index.”