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. 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.
Top 50 Comics and Graphic Novels in Canada
1. (1) Naruto 28, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
2. (2) Fruits Basket 19, Natsuki Takay (Tokyopop)
3. (3) Vampire Knight 4, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
4. (4) Home Sweat Home, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
5. (13) Death Note 2, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
6. (5) Naruto 27, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
7. (8) Skim, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
8. (7) Dark Wraith of Shannara, Terry Brooks et al (Random House)
9. (14) Death Note 4, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
10. (9) Naruto 1, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
—–
11. (10) Death Note 1, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
12. (12) Senior’s Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
13. (6) Fullmetal Alchemist 16, Hiromu Arakawa (VIZ)
14. (47) Vampire Knight 1, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
15. (28) Death Note 3, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
16. (11) Negima! 17: Magister Negi Magi, Toshifumi/Hiroe (Random House)
17. (26) Naruto 3, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
18. (17) Naruto 4, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
19. (-) Death Note 5, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
20. (27) Louis Riel, Chester Brown (D+Q)
—–
21. (-) Simpsons Comics Dollars to Donuts, Groening et al (Harpercollins)
22. (16) Naruto 9, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
23. (35) Naruto 6, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
24. (-) Death Note 12, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
25. (19) Bleach 2, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
26. (23) Complete Persepolis, Satrapi (Knopf)
27. (42) Death Note 7, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
28. (22) Naruto 10, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
29. (20) Garfield Goes Bananas, Jim Davis (Random House)
30. (15) Naruto 2, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
—–
31. (-) Hobbit Graphic Novel, Tolkien et al (Harpercollins)
32. (41) Fairy Tail 1, Hiro Mashima (Random House)
33. (40) Death Note 13, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
34. (31) Bleach 1, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
35. (-) Watchmen, Moore/Gibbons (DC)
36. (21) Persepolis 1, Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon)
37. (25) Vampire Knight 2, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
38. (18) Jellaby, Kean Soo (Hyperion)
39. (-) Fullmetal Alchemist 1, Hiromu Arakawa (VIZ)
40. (-) Fullmetal Alchemist 2, Hiromu Arakawa (VIZ)
—–
41. (37) High School Debut 2, Kazune Kawahara (VIZ)
42. (-) Vampire Knight 3, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
43. (-) People’s History Of American Empire, Zinn/Konopacki/Buhle (Henry Holt)
44. (-) Naruto 15, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
45. (43) Naruto 20, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
46. (29) One Piece 17, Eiichiro Oda (VIZ)
47. (24) Bleach 22, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
48. (30) Naruto 26, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
49. (46) Best of Pokemon Adventures: Red:Red, Hidenori Kusaka Mato (VIZ)
50. (-) Macbeth (No Fear Shakespeare), Ken Hoshine (Spark)
36 of the 50 are translated Japanese manga. Of the remaining 14, 5 are Canadian, 1 is French-Iranian, 1 is British, and 5 are by U.S./UK authors best known outside comics.
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.
In total, BookManager lists over 4000 graphic novels, trades, and strip collections. It is a wondrous, scary place, where everyone from David Hajdu 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. (1) Home Sweat Home, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
2. (2) Skim, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
3. (4) Senior’s Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
4. (5) Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography, Chester Brown (D+Q)
5. (3) Jellaby, Kean Soo (Hyperion)
6. (8) Essex County 1: Tales From the Farm, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
7. (-) Plain Janes, Rugg/Castellucci (DC/Minx)
8. (24) Dramacon 3, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
9. (6) Zombies Calling!, Faith Erins Hicks (Slave Labor)
10. (12) Teaching is a Learning Experience!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
—–
11. (7) The Spirit (Hardcover), Darwyn Cooke Jeph Loeb J Bone (DC)
12. (10) Paul Goes Fishing, Michel Rabagliati (D+Q)
13. (14) I Never Liked You, Chester Brown (D+Q)
14. (15) She’s Turning into One of Them!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
15. (27) Scott Pilgrim 4, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
16. (9) The New Frontier 2 (Paperback), Darwyn Cooke (DC)
17. (-) Essex County 2: Ghost Stories, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
18. (-) Dramacon 2, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
19. (-) Dramacon 1, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
20. (11) Extraction!: a comix reportage, Tessier/Dubois (Cumulous)
—–
21. (-) The New Frontier 1, Darwyn Cooke (DC)
22. (16) Keep the Home Fries Burning, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
23. (19) Just One More Hug, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
24. (20) Middle Aged Spread, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
25. (17) Milk Teeth, Julie Morstad (D+Q)
26. (21) Invaders from the North: How Canada Conquered the Comic Book Universe, John Bell (Dundurn)
27. (23) White Rapids, Pascal Blanchet (D+Q)
28. (25) Graphic Witness, George F Walker (Firefly)
29. (26) Therefore Repent! Jim Munroe Salgood Sam (NMK/IDW)
30. (28) Never Wink at a Worried Woman, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
Cecil Castellucci’s Plain Janes makes a return to the list this week. I’m honestly not sure if it dropped from the list last week because I thought Castellucci was American (she is not) or if sales were just lower (honestly!). This week’s curious fact: For the record, Omega Flight: Alpha to Omega by Michael Avon Oeming and Scott Kolins would rank at #16 if it was actually created by Canadians and not just about fictional Canadian characters owned by Marvel Comics.