New Shonen Jump Manga and Graphic Memoir Show Promise

NPD BookScan Top 20 Manga Graphic Novels – September 2018 (9/2/18 - 9/29/18) Rank Title Author Publisher 1 THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS VOL. 4 AKIRA HIMEKAWA VIZ MEDIA 2 MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 14 KOHEI HORIKOSHI VIZ MEDIA 3 MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 1 KOHEI HORIKOSHI VIZ MEDIA 4 MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 2 KOHEI HORIKOSHI VIZ MEDIA 5 BORUTO VOL. 4 UKYO KODACHI VIZ MEDIA 6 SPLATOON VOL. 4 SANKICHI HINODEYA VIZ MEDIA 7 SAILOR MOON ETERNAL EDITION VOL. 1 NAOKO TAKEUCHI KODANSHA COMICS 8 MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 3 KOHEI HORIKOSHI VIZ MEDIA 9 MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 13 KOHEI HORIKOSHI VIZ MEDIA 10 MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 4 KOHEI HORIKOSHI VIZ MEDIA 11 RWBY: OFFICIAL MANGA ANTHOLOGY VOL. 2 VARIOUS VIZ MEDIA 12 MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 5 KOHEI HORIKOSHI VIZ MEDIA 13 TOKYO GHOUL RE VOL. 6 SUI ISHIDA VIZ MEDIA 14 MY HERO ACADEMIA VIGILANTES VOL. 1 HIDEYUKI FURUHASHI VIZ MEDIA 15 DRAGON BALL SUPER VOL. 3 AKIRA TORIYAMA VIZ MEDIA 16 TOKYO GHOUL VOL. 1 SUI ISHIDA VIZ MEDIA 17 MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 6 KOHEI HORIKOSHI VIZ MEDIA 18 DR STONE VOL. 1 RIICHIRO INAGAKI VIZ MEDIA 19 MY HERO ACADEMIA VOL. 12 KOHEI HORIKOSHI VIZ MEDIA 20 SKIP-BEAT VOL. 41 YOSHIKI NAKAMURA VIZ MEDIA Source: The NPD Group/BookScan

The fourth volume of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was the top selling manga in September 2018, according to NPD BookScan data for September (9/2/18-9/29/18) provided to ICv2.While there was no new volume of My Hero Academia in September, the property still did well, with 10 volumes of the original series and the spinoff, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, making the Top 20. The first volume of VIZ Media’s new Shonen Jump series, Dr. Stone, sold enough copies in its debut month to make #18. Dr. Stone features a super-smart high school student who must recreate all of technology from the Stone Age onward, in order to restore modern life after everyone on earth is turned to stone for thousands of years. It’s McGyver writ large, with shonen action, goofy humor, and cute girls thrown in to spice it up.As usual, VIZ dominates the chart, with 19 out of 20 titles; the lone exception is the first volume of the Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, a deluxe edition of the classic shojo manga. There’s another shojo title on the list as well: volume 41 of Skip-Beat, a tale about an independent-minded girl that has been running for 12 years and still has enough steam to make the top 20.

The superhero chart for September is all over the place, with Star Wars, Batman, Hellboy, Power Rangers, and Prince Valiant all finding spots in the top 20. The top seller is the third volume of Charles Soule’s Star Wars: Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith, and Jody Houser’s Star Wars: Thrawn checks in at number 3. In between is Infinity Gauntlet, still near the top of the chart months after the movie came out. Perennial best-seller Watchmen is next, and perhaps the DC folks should be worried to see that their big "Batman/Catwoman" event book didn’t sell as many copies as something that’s been around since 1986. Still, DC dominates the chart, with 11 titles (including one from the Vertigo imprint), while Marvel has just five.

NPD BookScan Top 20 'Superhero' Graphic Novels – September 2018 (9/2/18 - 9/29/18) Rank Title Author Publisher 1 STAR WARS: DARTH VADER - DARK LORD OF THE SITH VOL. 3 CHARLES SOULE MARVEL COMICS 2 INFINITY GAUNTLET JIM STARLIN MARVEL COMICS 3 STAR WARS: THRAWN JODY HOUSER MARVEL COMICS 4 WATCHMEN ALAN MOORE DC COMICS 5 BATMAN/CATWOMAN: THE WEDDING ALBUM DLX. ED. HC TOM KING DC COMICS 6 DARK NIGHTS: METAL: DLX. ED. HC SCOTT SNYDER DC COMICS 7 BATMAN: PRELUDES TO THE WEDDING TIM SEELEY DC COMICS 8 DARK NIGHTS: METAL: DARK KNIGHTS RISING HC PETER TOMASI DC COMICS 9 V FOR VENDETTA ALAN MOORE VERTIGO 10 BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE DLX. ED. HC ALAN MOORE DC COMICS 11 PRINCE VALIANT VOL. 17 (1969-1970) HC HAL FOSTER FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS 12 HELLBOY OMNIBUS VOL. 4 MIKE MIGNOLA DARK HORSE BOOKS 13 MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS VOL. 6 KYLE HIGGINS BOOM! STUDIOS 14 OVERWATCH: ANTHOLOGY VOL. 1 HC VARIOUS DARK HORSE BOOKS 15 BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT - MASTER RACE FRANK MILLER DC COMICS 16 BLACK PANTHER BOOK 1: A NATION UNDER OUR FEET TA-NEHISI COATES MARVEL COMICS 17 MS. MARVEL VOL. 1 G. WILLOW WILSON MARVEL 18 BATMAN VOL. 6 (REBIRTH) TOM KING DC COMICS 19 BATMAN DETECTIVE COMICS VOL. 7 (REBIRTH) JAMES TYNION IV DC COMICS 20 BATMAN HUSH JEPH LOEB DC COMICS Source: The NPD Group/BookScan

The author chart is usually diverse, and this month is no exception! Topping the list is the latest volume of television/comics behemoth The Walking Dead, followed by geek-gamer fave The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins, the newest volume of the exquisite fantasy/action tale Monstress, and Nick Drnaso’s Sabrina, which made the Man Booker Prize longlist. Instagram star Mari Andrew’s Am I There Yet? is still hanging in, six months after it debuted at number 2 on the adult chart. Perhaps a few of her 770,000 Instagram followers still haven’t picked up the book. There’s another graphic novel with an Instagram hook debuting on this month’s chart: Aminder Dhaliwal’s Woman World, a humor comic about a world without men, originally ran as a webcomic on Instagram.



Also worth noting is Passing for Human, a graphic memoir by New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck, who examines in detail why she felt alienated and different from everyone else. This is the sort of book that can do quite well over time, assuming it finds its audience.

NPD BookScan Top 20 Author Graphic Novels – September 2018 (9/2/18 - 9/29/18) Rank Title Author Publisher 1 THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 30 ROBERT KIRKMAN IMAGE COMICS 2 THE ADVENTURE ZONE: HERE THERE BE GERBLINS CLINT MCELROY FIRST SECOND BOOKS 3 MONSTRESS VOL. 3 MARJORIE LIU IMAGE COMICS 4 SABRINA HC NICK DRNASO DRAWN & QUARTERLY 5 SHEETS BRENNA THUMMLER LION FORGE 6 MARCH BOOK 1 JOHN LEWIS TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS 7 FUN HOME: A FAMILY TRAGICOMIC ALISON BECHDEL MARINER BOOKS 8 WALT DISNEY'S DONALD DUCK: THE BLACK PEALS OF TABU YAMA HC CARL BARKS FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS 9 I HATE FAIRYLAND V04 SADLY NEV YOUNG, SKOTTIE IMAGE COMICS 10 MONSTRESS VOL. 1 MARJORIE LIU IMAGE COMICS 11 DESCENDER VOL. 6 JEFF LEMIRE IMAGE COMICS 12 OBLIVION SONG BY KIRKMAN & DE FELICI VOL. 1 ROBERT KIRKMAN IMAGE COMICS 13 WOMAN WORLD AMINDER DHALIWAL DRAWN & QUARTERLY 14 AM I THERE YET?: THE LOOP-DE-LOOP, ZIGZAGGING JOURNEY TO ADULTHOOD HC MARI ANDREW CLARKSON POTTER PUB. 15 PASSING FOR HUMAN HC LIANA FINCK RANDOM HOUSE 16 MARCH BOOK 3 JOHN LEWIS TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS 17 SAGA VOL. 1 BRIAN K. VAUGHAN IMAGE COMICS 18 SAGA VOL. 7 BRIAN K. VAUGHAN IMAGE COMICS 19 MARCH (TRILOGY SLIPCASE SET) LEWIS, JOHN TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS 20 THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 29 ROBERT KIRKMAN IMAGE COMICS Source: The NPD Group/BookScan

For charts of September graphic novel sales from NPD BookScan:

September 2018 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels

September 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:

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

September 2018 NPD BookScan – Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels with Actual Sales

September 2018 NPD BookScan - Top 20 Manga, Superhero, and 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."