**Note: This post marks the return of the Sequential Bestseller lists after an absence of 6 months. No promises, but I hope this can become a weekly event again, although when you compare the list below with the list for April 17, you may notice that not much has really changed –a handful of manga series continue to dominate the charts. You may also note that there haven’t been that many new Canadian titles published in the intervening months.**

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.

Top 40 Comics and Graphic Novels in Canada

1. Watchmen, Moore/Gibbons (DC)
2. Naruto 32, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
3. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown , Schulz (Perseus)
4. Naruto 31, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
5. Simpsons Treehouse Horror, Groening et al (HarperCollins)
6. Fullmetal Alchemist 17, Hiromu Arakawa (VIZ)
7. Garfield Spills the Beans, Jim Davis (Random House)
8. Louis Riel, Chester Brown (D+Q)
9. Bleach 24, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
10. The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle, Butcher/Syaf (Random House)
—–
11. Naruto 30, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
12. The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home, King et al (Marvel)
13. Vampire Knight 5, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
14. Complete Persepolis, Satrapi (Knopf)
15. Vampire Knight 1, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
16. Pokemon: Diamond and Pearl Adventure 2, Shigekatsu Ihara (VIZ)
17. What It Is, Lynda Barry (D+Q)
18. Death Note 1, Ohba/Obata (VIZ)
19. Che, Rodriguez/Buhle (Verso)
20. Vampire Knight 4, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
—–
21. Persepolis 1, Satrapi (Pantheon)
22. Bionicle: Challenge of the Rahkshi, Elliott/Farshtey (St. Martin’s)
23. Naruto 1, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
24. Big Foot, Graham Roumieu (Plume)
25. DC Comics Encyclopedia Updated, Greenburger et al (DK)
26. Ouran High School Host Club 11, Bisco Hatori (VIZ)
27. Vampire Knight 3, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
28. Home Sweat Home, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
29. One Piece 19, Eiichiro Oda (VIZ)
30. Vampire Knight 2, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
—–
31. Marvel Chronicle, DeFaco et al (DK)
32. Rosario+Vampire 1, Akihisa Ikeda (VIZ)
33. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Miller et al (DC)
34. Kitchen Princess 8, Ando/Kobayashi (Random House)
35. Batman: Year One, Miller/Mazzucchelli (DC)
36. Get Fuzzy: Take Our Cat, Please, Darby Conley (Andrews McMeel)
37. Naruto 4, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
38. Cartoons From The New Yorker: 2009 Calendar (Andrews McMeel)
39. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Ito/Tsugano/Tanigawa (Yen)
40. Negima! 19, Akamatsu/Yoshida/Hiroe (Random House)

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 Heatley to Oor Willie 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 30 comes from:

Sequential’s All-Canadian Top 30
from BookManager

1. Louis Riel, Chester Brown (D+Q)
2. Big Foot 2, Graham Roumieu (Plume)
3. Home Sweat Home, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
4. Skim, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
5. The Burma Chronicles, Guy Delisle (D+Q)
6. Senior’s Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
7. Emiko Superstar, Mariko Tamako Steve Rolston (DC/Minx)
8. Milk Teeth, Julie Morstad (D+Q)
9. Dramacon Ultimate Edition, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
10. FBOFW 2009 Calendar, Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
—–
11. the great hopeful someday, Elisabeth Belliveau (Conundrum Press)
12. Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea, Guy Delisle (D+Q)
13. Essex County 1: Tales from the Farm, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
14. The Plain Janes, Cecil Castellucci et al, (DC/Minx)
15. Scott Pilgrim 4, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
16. The New Frontier 2, Darwyn Cooke (DC)
17. The New Frontier 1, Darwyn Cooke (DC)
18. Essex County 2: Ghost Stories, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
19. Middle Age Spread, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
20. Never Wink at a Worried Woman, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
—–
21. Graduation: A Time For Change, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
22. Paul Goes Fishing, Michel Rabagliati (D+Q)
23. The Big 5-0, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
24. She’s Turning into One of Them, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
25. Dramacon 3, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
26. It’s a Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken, Seth (D+Q)
27. In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot, Graham Roumieu (Manic)
28. Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China, Guy Delisle (D+Q)
29. I Never Liked You, Chester Brown (D+Q)
30. White Rapids, Pascal Blanchet (D+Q)