The Top 50 Graphic Novels in Canada, courtesy of BookManager (copyright TBM BookManager). This list is accurate for the week ending December 24. The full list is available here. The list is compiled by BookManager based on sales through over 250 independent bookstores (including at least one comics shop). Sales through the majority of comic shops and larger retailers like Chapters-Indigo and Walmart are not reflected in this list. For balance, you might want to try the Amazon.ca and Chapters-Indigo lists.
Top 50 Comics and Graphic Novels in Canada
1. (2) Senior’s Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
2. (4) Garfield Goes Bananas, Jim Davis (Random House)
3. (1) The Far Side 2008 Desk Calendar, Gary Larson (Andrews McMeel)
4. (3) Naruto Vol. 27, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
5. (5) Naruto Vol. 26, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
6. (7) Dark Tower:The Gunslinger Born, Peter David/Robin Furth (Marvel)
7. (10) Naruto Vol. 24, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
8. (12) Herman: Living With Animals, Jim Unger (ECW Press)
9. (6) Naruto Vol. 25, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
10. (19) Dilbert: Cubes and Punishment, Scott Adams (Andrews McMeel)
11. (8) Fullmetal Alchemist Vol. 15, Hiromu Arakawa (VIZ)
12. (22) Death Note, Volume 1, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
13. (17) Naruto Vol. 23, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
14. (16) The Authoritative Calvin And Hobbes, Bill Watterson (Andrews McMeel)
15. (40) Death Note, Volume 2, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
16. (18) Alternative Zits, Jim Borgman Jerry Scott (Andrews McMeel)
17. (28) Bumper Book of Bunny Suicides, Andy Riley (Hodder)
18. (-) Attack Of The Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons, Bill Watterson (Andrews McMeel)
19. (-) I’m Ready for My Movie Contract: A Get Fuzzy Collection, Darby Conley (Andrews McMeel)
20. (-) Asterix and the Falling Sky, Albert Uderzo (Orion)
21. (9) Teaching Is a Learning Experience!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
22. (14) Naruto Vol. 1, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
23. (31) Naruto Vol. 19, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
24. (-) Days Are Just Packed: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection, Bill Watterson (Andrews McMeel)
25. (11) Fruits Basket 18, Natsuki Takaya (Tokyopop)
26. (50) Trivial Simpsons 2008 366 Day Calendar, Matt Groening (Harpercollins)
27. (24) Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat, Bill Watterson (Andrews McMeel)
28. (13) Naruto Vol. 22, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
29. (29) Spy vs. Spy 2: The Joke and Dagger Files, Shayne & Abrams (Watson-Guptill)
30. (35) Naruto Vol. 21, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
31. (-) Scientific Progress Goes Boink: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection, Bill Watterson (Andrews McMeel)
32. (-) Vampire Knight Vol. 2, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
33. (25) The Calvin & Hobbes Lazy Sunday Book, Bill Watterson (Andrews McMeel)
34. (41) Vampire Knight Vol. 3, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
35. (-) Bleach, Vol. 1, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
36. (20) Naruto, Volume 3: Vol. 3, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
37. (-) Dilbert: Positive Attitude, Scott Adams (Andrews McMeel)
38. (-) Big Beastly Book of Bart Simpson, Matt Groening (HarperCollins)
39. (15) The Essential Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson (Andrews McMeel)
40. (-) Death Note, Volume 3, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
41. (-) Naruto Vol. 7, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
42. (27) And When She Opened the Closet, All the Clothes Were Polyest: A FoxTrot Collection, Bill Amend (Andrews McMeel)
43. (-) Naruto, Vol. 6, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
44. (-) Bleach, Vol. 21, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
45. (45) Naruto Vol. 20, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
46. (-) Naruto Vol. 17, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
47. (21) Calvin and Hobbes 10th Anniversary, Bill Watterson (Andrews McMeel)
48. (-) Death Note, Volume 12, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
49. (-) Naruto Vol. 16, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
50. (-) The Revenge of the Baby-Sat, Bill Watterson (Andrews McMeel)
See here for last week’s list. I’ve added last week’s ranking in parentheses, with a (-) indicating an absence from the top 50 last week –although books that were not in the top 50 last week were most likely in the top 100, with the possible exception of a few newly published hits. The pattern that emerges from looking at these lists over a period of weeks is that certain books, especially manga series, continuously jostle with each other, sliding up and down the longer list on the strength of a new volume or a spate of purchases for the kiddies. No surprises this week: gift books and Naruto. Happy Holidays!
The Top 1000 is a wondrous, scary place, where everyone from Todd Hignite to Charles Schulz to the Transformers to Jerry Siegel to Linda Medley duke it out and where one sale in one tiny bookstore can move a book from #999 to #200. This is also the place where you find books by Canadian creators and where the Canadian Top 20 comes from:
Sequential’s All-Canadian Top 20
from BookManager’s Top 1000
1. (1) Senior’s Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
2. (2) Teaching is a Learning Experience!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
3. (4) Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography, Chester Brown (D+Q)
4. (3) Dramacon 3, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
5. (6) She’s Turning into One of Them!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
6. (5) White Rapids, Pascal Blanchet (D+Q)
7. (9) Never Wink at a Worried Woman, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
8. (8) Scott Pilgrim 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
9. (11) Suddenly Silver, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
10. (10) Graphic Witness: Four Wordless Graphic Novels, George A Walker (Firefly)
11. (12) The Plain Janes, Cecil Castellucci et al (DC/Minx)
12. (14) Portfoolio 22 [political cartoons], Guy Badeaux, et al (Mcarthur & Company)
13. (16) Extraction!: a comix reportage, Marc Tessier Fredric Dubois (Cumulus Press)
14. (18) Northwest Passage: Annotated Collection, Scott Chantler (Oni)
15. (13) The Big 5-0, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
16. (-) With This Ring, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
17. (-) FAmily Business, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
18. (-) Remembering Farley, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
19. (-) Dramacon 1, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
20. (-) It’s the Thought That Counts, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
More Lynn Johnston than ever, it seems!
Tune in next week for the final week of 2007!