From Superhero Films to Anime to Instagram, Media Tie-ins Push Sales

NPD BookScan Top 20 'Superhero' Graphic Novels – May 2018 (4/30/18 - 5/27/18) Rank Title Author Publisher 1 INFINITY GAUNTLET JIM STARLIN MARVEL COMICS 2 INFINITY WAR JIM STARLIN MARVEL COMICS 3 BLACK PANTHER BOOK 1: A NATION UNDER OUR FEET TA-NEHISI COATES MARVEL COMICS 4 BATMAN VOL. 5 (REBIRTH) TOM KING DC COMICS 5 WATCHMEN ALAN MOORE DC COMICS 6 DEADPOOL KILLS THE MARVEL UNIVERSE CULLEN BUNN MARVEL COMICS 7 STAR WARS: DARTH VADER VOL. 2 CHARLES SOULE MARVEL COMICS 8 MARVEL'S AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR PRELUDE WILL CORONA PILGRIM MARVEL COMICS 9 DARK DAYS: THE ROAD TO METAL HC SCOTT SNYDER DC COMICS 10 ACTION COMICS: 80 YEARS OF SUPERMAN HC VARIOUS DC COMICS 11 MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS VOL. 5 KYLE HIGGINS BOOM! STUDIOS 12 BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE, DLX. ED.HC ALAN MOORE DC COMICS 13 BLACK PANTHER: WORLD OF WAKANDA TA-NEHISI COATES MARVEL COMICS 14 SILVER SURFER: REBIRTH OF THANOS JIM STARLIN MARVEL COMICS 15 HELLBOY OMNIBUS VOL. 1: SEED OF DESTRUCTION MIKE MIGNOLA DARK HORSE COMICS 16 OVERWATCH: ANTHOLOGY VOL. 1 HC BLIZZARD ENT. DARK HORSE COMICS 17 DEADPOOL: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION VOL. 1 DANIEL WAY MARVEL COMICS 18 DEADPOOL KILLS THE MARVEL UNIVERSE CULLEN BUNN MARVEL COMICS 19 SPIDER-MAN / DEADPOOL VOL. 1 JOE KELLY MARVEL COMICS 20 CIVIL WAR MARK MILLAR MARVEL COMICS Source: The NPD Group/BookScan

May was a big month for Marvel Comics and VIZ Media in their respective categories, and in the more diverse realm of Author graphic novels, Image Comics holds sway. We broke out the Top 20 Superhero Graphic Novels, Top 20 Manga, and Top 20 Author Graphic Novels in the book channel for May 2018 based on information provided by NPD BookScan covering the period April 30 to May 27, 2018, and here's what we saw.Marvel pretty much owns the superhero chart, but there’s an interesting amount of diversity to it, with one title from BOOM! Studios and a couple from Dark Horse Comics. DC Comics, on the other hand, is barely there, with two perennials (Watchmen and The Killing Joke), a new nostalgia title (Action Comics: 80 Years of Superman), and only two real new titles, both Batman trades: Batman Vol. 5 (Rebirth), by Tom King, and Dark Days: The Road to Metal, by Scott Snyder. On the other hand, both of those books came out in mid-May, so they managed to chart less than a month after release.Marvel takes 12 of the top 20 slots, and they are heavy on movie tie-ins: Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War, and Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos all tie-in to the Avengers: Infinity War movie, and then we have three and a half Deadpool titles (since one is shared with Spider-Man), two Black Panther trades, and a Star Wars graphic novel. The outlier is Civil War, which collects the 2006-7 crossover event.

VIZ Media is to the manga chart as Marvel is to superheroes, only more so, with 18 out of the top 20 titles in May. What’s more, 8 of those are volumes of My Hero Academia, which has really established itself as the big manga title of the moment. The series has been picking up steam since last year, but it may have gotten a boost lately because the latest season of the anime debuted in April.



Four volumes of the last Big Manga Title, Tokyo Ghoul, also chart, including volume 1. (Tokyo Ghoul has ended and the current series is a sequel, Tokyo Ghoul: re.) Most of what’s left are new volumes of long-running, popular series: One Piece, Attack on Titan, One-Punch Man, and two tie-ins to other media with strong female appeal, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Prince and RWBY: Official Manga Anthology.



Old-school manga fans with money to burn probably pushed Go Nagai’s Devilman: The Classic Collection and Hirohiko Araki’s Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure onto the chart, as both are nicely produced hardcovers and thus a little pricier than your standard paperback genre manga. The first volume of the new hardcover edition of Fullmetal Alchemist has a slightly different appeal (it’s a shonen manga that’s popular with female readers, and it’s by a woman), but again nostalgia is probably a factor as the original fan base replaces their beat-up paperbacks. (For those who are reading it for the first time, the three-in-one omnibus edition offers a better pages-to-dollars ratio.)

NPD BookScan Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels – May 2018 (4/30/18 - 5/27/18) Rank Title Author Publisher 1 MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 12 KOHEI HORIKOSHI VIZ MEDIA 2 MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 1 KOHEI HORIKOSHI VIZ MEDIA 3 RWBY: OFFICIAL MANGA ANTHOLOGY VOL. 1 VARIOUS VIZ MEDIA 4 THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS VOL. 3 AKIRA HIMEKAWA VIZ MEDIA 5 ONE PIECE VOL. 86 ODA EIICHIRO VIZ MEDIA 6 TOKYO GHOUL: RE VOL. 4 SUI ISHIDA VIZ MEDIA 7 MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 2 KOHEI HORIKOSHI VIZ MEDIA 8 MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 11 KOHEI HORIKOSHI VIZ MEDIA 9 TOKYO GHOUL VOL. 1 SUI ISHIDA VIZ MEDIA 10 MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 3 KOHEI HORIKOSHI VIZ MEDIA 11 MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 10 KOHEI HORIKOSHI VIZ MEDIA 12 MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 4 KOHEI HORIKOSHI VIZ MEDIA 13 DEVILMAN: THE CLASSIC COLLECTION VOL. 1 HC GO NAGAI SEVEN SEAS 14 JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE: PART 3 - STARDUST CRUSADERS VOL. 7 HC HIROHIKO ARAKI VIZ MEDIA 15 ATTACK ON TITAN VOL. 24 HAJIME ISAYAMA KODANSHA COMICS 16 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST: FULLMETAL EDITION VOL. 1 HC HIROMU ARAKAWA VIZ MEDIA 17 TOKYO GHOUL VOL. 2 SUI ISHIDA VIZ MEDIA 18 MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 9 KOHEI HORIKOSHI VIZ MEDIA 19 TOKYO GHOUL: RE VOL. 3 SUI ISHIDA VIZ MEDIA 20 ONE-PUNCH MAN VOL. 13 ONE VIZ MEDIA Source: The NPD Group/BookScan

The Author chart, as usual, is all over the map: We have Am I There Yet? by an Instagram star; the first volume of March, Rep. John Lewis’s graphic memoir of the Civil Rights movement; vol. 8 of Saga; The Philosophy of Snoopy; and the latest volume of The Walking Dead. Strange bedfellows indeed! This is an incredibly diverse category and patterns are much harder to find. It includes old and new titles in many different genres. That said, Image Comics is the leading publisher in the author category, and Saga is the dominant series, with five volumes on the chart; a couple of volumes of Brian K. Vaughan’s Paper Girls chart as well.

NPD BookScan Top 20 Author Graphic Novels – May 2018 (4/30/18 - 5/27/18) Rank Title Author Publisher 1 AM I THERE YET?: THE LOOP-DE-LOOP, ZIGZAGGING JOURNEY TO ADULTHOOD HC MARI ANDREW CLARKSON POTTER 2 MARCH: BOOK ONE JOHN LEWIS TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS 3 SAGA VOL. 8 BRIAN K. VAUGHAN IMAGE COMICS 4 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SNOOPY HC CHARLES M. SCHULZ RUNNING PRESS ADULT 5 THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 29 ROBERT KIRKMAN IMAGE COMICS 6 PAPER GIRLS VOL. 4 BRIAN K. VAUGHAN IMAGE COMICS 7 EVERYONE'S A ALIEBN WHEN UR A ALIEBN TOO: A BOOK HC JOMNY SUN HARPER PERENNIAL 8 SAGA VOL. 1 BRIAN K. VAUGHAN IMAGE COMICS 9 FUN HOME: A FAMILY TRAGICOMIC ALISON BECHDEL MARINER BOOKS 10 WHAT TO DO WHEN I'M GONE: A MOTHER'S WISDOM TO HER DAUGHTER HC SUZY HOPKINS BLOOMSBURY UK 11 SAGA VOL. 7 BRIAN K. VAUGHAN IMAGE COMICS 12 MONSTRESS VOL. 1 LIU MARJORIE IMAGE COMICS 13 PAPER GIRLS VOL. 1 BRIAN K. VAUGHAN IMAGE COMICS 14 TERMINAL LANCE ULTIMATE OMNIBUS HC MAXIMILIAN URIARTE LITTLE BROWN AND CO. 15 SAGA VOL. 2 BRIAN K. VAUGHAN IMAGE COMICS 16 MY FAVORITE THING IS MONSTERS EMIL FERRIS FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS 17 AMERICAN GODS VOL. 1: SHADOW HC NEIL GAIMAN DARK HORSE COMICS 18 ROCK STEADY: BRILLIANT ADVICE FROM MY BIPOLAR LIFE ELLEN FORNEY FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS 19 GOING INTO TOWN: A LOVE LETTER TO NEW YORK HC ROZ CHAST BLOOMSBURY UK 20 SAGA VOL. 3 BRIAN K. VAUGHAN IMAGE COMICS Source: The NPD Group/BookScan

For charts of May graphic novel sales from NPD BookScan:

May 2018 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels

May 2018 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels



For the charts with the actual sales numbers from NPD BookScan, see these articles on the ICv2 Pro site:

May 2018 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels with Actual Sales

May 2018 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels with Actual Sales

May 2018 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Superhero, Manga, Author Graphic Novels with Actual Sales





NPD BookScan collects weekly point-of-sale data on print books from over 16,000 locations including e-tailers, chains, mass merchandisers, independent bookstores, and more. NPD BookScan covers approximately 85% of the U.S. trade print book market. The ranks on this chart are based on piece sales. Some publishers classify titles that are primarily text, or art books, as graphic novels; we've removed those titles from the ranking above.



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