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One more kick at the can for 2008. I’m pretty sure these lists represent sales through Dec. 27, so next week’s list will be the “last” list of 2008 even though it will be dated 2009.

The Top 30 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 30 overall and (at the bottom) the top 30 by Canadian creators. See here for last week’s list.

Top 30 Comics and Graphic Novels in Canada

1. (1) Watchmen, Moore/Gibbons (DC)
2. (2) Naruto 33, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
3. (3) Garfield Spills the Beans, Jim Davis (Random House)
4. (5) Marvel Chronicle, Tom DeFalco (DK)
5. (4) Home Sweat Home, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
6. (6) Fruits Basket 21, Takaya Natsuki (Tokyopop)
7. (7) Simpsons Treehouse Horror, Groening et al (HarperCollins)
8. (12) Complete Persepolis, Satrapi (Knopf)
9. (8) Naruto 32, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
10. (11) DC Comics Encyclopedia, Rbt Greenburger (DK)
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11. (24) Senior’s Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
12. (9) Bleach 25, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
13. (18) Naruto 1, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
14. (-) Che, Spain (Verso)
15. (15) Skim, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
16. (10) Naruto 31, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
17. (13) Death Note 1, Ohba/Obata (VIZ)
18. (-) Persepolis 1, Satrapi (Pantheon)
19. (29) Marvel Encyclopedia, Tom Defalco (DK)
20. (14) 30 Years of Laughs & Lasagna, Jim Davis (Random House)
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21. (19) What It Is, Lynda Barry (D+Q)
22. (21) Louis Riel, Brown (D+Q)
23. (17) Simpsons Comics Dollars To Donuts, Groening et al (Harpercollins)
24. (-) Asterix the Gaul, Goscinny/Uderzo (Orion)
25. (-) Daniel X Alien Hunter, Patterson et al (Little, Brown)
26. (-) Big Brilliant Book Of Bart, Groening et al (Harpercollins)
27. (-) Watchmen, Moore/Gibbons (DC)
28. (16) Negima! 20, Ken Akamatsu (Random House)
29. (-) Big Foot, Graham Roumieu (Plume)
30. (-) The Potpourrific Great Big Grab Bag of Get Fuzzy, Darby Conley (Andrews McMeel)


Standard explanation:
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. This week: The just-released graphic novel adaption of thriller writer James Patterson’s popular Daniel X kids series makes a strong showing. As well, there are five books by Canadian creators but only 2 books from a Canadian publisher.

In total, BookManager lists over 4000 graphic novels, trades, and strip collections. It is a wondrous, scary place, where everyone from Frank Miller to JRR Tolkien battle for supremacy, and where one sale in one tiny bookstore can move a book from #999 to #200 (and into the top 30). 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. (1) Home Sweat Home, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
2. (2) Skim, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
3. (3) Louis Riel, Chester Brown (D+Q)
4. (5) Senior’s Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
5. (4) Big Foot, Graham Roumieu (Plume)
6. (6) The Burma Chronicles, Guy Delisle (D+Q)
7. (-) I Never Liked You, Chester Brown (D+Q)
8. (8) Ojingogo, Matt Forsythe (D+Q)
9. (7) The Plain Janes, Cecil Castellucci et al, (DC/Minx)
10. (-) In Me Own Words/Bigfoot, Graham Roumieu (Plume)
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11. (22) It’s a Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken, Seth (D+Q)
12. (9) Milk Teeth, Julie Morstad (D+Q)
13. (12) Essex County 1: Tales from the Farm, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
14. (11) Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea, Guy Delisle (D+Q)
15. (15) Spirit 1, Darwyn Cooke (DC)
16. (17) Essex County 2: Ghost Stories, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
17. (10) The Big 5-0, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
18. (19) Paul Goes Fishing, Michel Rabagliati (D+Q)
19. (13) Never Wink at a Worried Woman, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
20. (24) Batman: Ego and other tales, Darwyn Cooke/Paul Grist (DC)
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21. (16) Drop-In, Dave Lapp (Conundrum)
22. (14) Scott Pilgrim 1, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
23. (-) Strange and Stranger, Blake Bell (Fantagraphics)
24. (-) Scott Pilgrim 4, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
25. (-) Keep The Home Fries Burning, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
26. (20) Middle Age Spread, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
27. (21) Zombies Calling, Faith Erin Hicks (Slave Labor)
28. (23) It’s the Thought That Counts, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
29. (25) Just One More Hug, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
30. (26) Dramacon Ultimate Edition, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)

High-ranking books that don’t qualify as sufficiently Canadian (but would otherwise be in the Top 30 Canadian): Y The Last Man, the KRAZY! catalog, JSA Volume 1, and many others. Something else that I find utterly fascinating: POWR MSTRS #2 outsold the bottom 13 (ie, #s 18-30) Canadian books this week. It also outsold Garfield Dishes it Out, Y: The Last Man Vol 3, The Hardy Boys Sea You Sea Me, Aya, Chobits, Gary Larson’s Last Chapter and Worse, Bleach Vol 9, Jimmy Corrigan, Bleach Vol 17, Inuyasha, The Evil Dead, Love and Rockets: New Stories Vol 1 and thousands of other comics. Congrats to C.F. and publisher Dan Nadel.

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