The Top 50 Graphic Novels in Canada, courtesy of BookManager. The full list is available here. The list is compiled by BookManager based on sales through over 400 independent bookstores. Sales through comic shops and larger retailers like Chapters-Indigo are not reflected in this list. For balance, you might want to try the Amazon.ca and Chapters-Indigo lists. This list has two parts, the top 50 overall and (at the bottom) the top 30 by Canadian creators. 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

Top 50 Comics and Graphic Novels in Canada

1. (1) Naruto, Vol. 28, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
2. (2) Negima! 17: Magister Negi Magi, Ken Akamatsu Toshifumi Yoshida Ikoi Hiroe (Random House)
3. (4) Naruto Vol. 27, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
4. (3) Death Note, Vol. 1, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
5. (6) Naruto Vol. 26, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
6. (9) Naruto Vol. 25, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
7. (16) Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon)
8. (14) Jellaby, Kean Soo (Hyperion)
9. (5) Bleach, Vol. 22, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
10. (7) Naruto Vol. 1, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
11. (17) Death Note 4, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
12. (8) Death Note 3, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
13. (18) Chibi Vampire 7, Kagesaki Yuna (Tokyopop)
14. (15) Death Note 13, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
15. (11) Naruto Vol. 24, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
16. (10) Death Note 2, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
17. (12) Naruto, Vol. 2, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
18. (21) Death Note 6, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
19. (33) Bleach 1, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
20. (-) xxxHOLiC 11, Clamp (Random House)
—–
21. (-) Fullmetal Alchemist 16, Hiromu Arakawa (VIZ)
22. (40) Complete Persepolis, Satrapi (Knopf)
23. (13) Tsubasa 16: Reservoir Chronicle, Clamp (Random House)
24. (23) Wild Ones 2, Kiyo Fujiwara (VIZ)
25. (-) Maus I, Art Spiegelman (Knopf)
26. (22) Death Note 5, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
27. (-) Hell Girl 1, Miyuki Eto (Random House)
28. (19) Garfield Goes Bananas, Jim Davis (Random House)
29. (20) Senior’s Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
30. (45) Authoritative Calvin And Hobbes, Bill Watterson (Andrews McMeel)
31. (48) Vampire Knight 3, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
32. (24) Black Cat, Vol. 13, Kentaro Yabuk (VIZ)
33. (31) Vampire Knight 1, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
34. (50) Dark Tower:The Gunslinger Born, Peter David (Marvel)
35. (-) Death Note 7, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
36. (25) Naruto 23, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
37. (-) Death Note 8, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
38. (35) One Piece 17, Eiichiro Oda (VIZ)
39. (-) Fruits Basket 2, Natsuki Takaya (Tokyopop)
40. (-) Fruits Basket 4, Natsuki Takaya (Tokyopop)
—–
41. (-) Star Wars Clone Wars Adventures 1, Haden Blackman, et al (Dark Horse)
42. (-) My Heavenly Hockey Club 4, Ai Morinaga (Random House)
43. (-) Mamotte! Lollipop 5, Michiyo Kikuta (Random House)
44. (39) Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography, Chester Brown (D+Q)
45. (26) Fruits Basket 18, Natsuki Takaya (Tokyopop)
46. (28) Hack Gu 1, Hamazaki Tatsuya (Tokyopop)
47. (29) Bleach 20, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
48. (27) Naruto, Official Fanbook, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
49. (-) Watchmen, Moore/Gibbons (DC)
50. (30) Vampire Knight 2, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)

I believe these numbers reflect part of March Break and an increase in youngsters buying more Naruto (Volume 28 has certainly spurred sales of closer volumes in the series) as well as Death Note (everyone’s favourite manga about a highschool-aged mass murderer). A couple newly-published manga at 42 & 43, as well.

See here for last week’s list. . 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.

The BookManager List is a wondrous, scary place, where everyone from Todd Hignite to Charles Schulz to Dan DeCarlo to Oor Willie to Avril Lavigne 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 our Canadian Top 25 comes from:

Sequential’s All-Canadian Top 30
from BookManager

1. (3) Jellaby, Kean Soo (Hyperion)
2. (1) Senior’s Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
3. (2) Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography, Chester Brown (D+Q)
4. (4) Essex County 1: Tales From the Farm, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
5. (11) Teaching is a Learning Experience!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
6. (24) The BackBench Collection, Graham Harrop (Ronsdale)
7. (23) Last Straw (1985), Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
8. (5) Essex County 2: Ghost Stories, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
9. (6) Dramacon 3, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
10. (7) Skim, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
—–
11. (8) Therefore Repent! Jim Munroe Salgood Sam (insomniac/IDW)
12. (-) Milk Teeth, Julie Morstad (D+Q)
13. (21) Degrassi Extra Credit 3: Missing You, J Torres/Eric Kim (Pocket)
14. (-) There Goes My Baby, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
15. (-) The New Frontier 2 (Paperback), Darwyn Cooke (DC)
16. (25) The New Frontier 1 (Paperback), Darwyn Cooke (DC)
17. (10) The Plain Janes, Cecil Castellucci et al (DC/Minx)
18. (9) Scott Pilgrim 4, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
19. (30) The Spirit (Hardcover), Darwyn Cooke Jeph Loeb J Bone (DC)
20. (-) Degrassi Extra Credit 4, J Torres Steve Rolston (Pocket)
—–
21. (-) What, Me Pregnant? (1991) Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
22. (12) Dramacon 1, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
23. (13) Dramacon 2, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
24. (14) She’s Turning into One of Them!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
25. (15) White Rapids, Pascal Blanchet (D+Q)
26. (16) Scott Pilgrim 3, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
27. (17) Albert and the Others, Guy Delisle (D+Q)
28. (19) Family Business, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
29. (18) Never Wink at a Worried Woman, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
30. (20) Graphic Witness: Four Wordless Graphic Novels, ed. George A Walker (Firefly)

Canadian cartoonists, do not despair! It is the case with this list that on oany given week, a 17-year-old collection of For Better or For Worse comic strips will outsell your graphic novel. It is just a fact of the universe.

I feel safe in saying that Darwyn Cooke’s New Frontier (inexplicably still available in multilpe volumes and formats) got a boost this week from the release of the dvd animated adaptation.