Our weekly snapshot of the comics retail scene, covering New Year’s week.
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. (4) Marvel Chronicle, Tom DeFalco (DK)
5. (5) 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. (8) Complete Persepolis, Satrapi (Knopf)
9. (8) Naruto 32, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
10. (14) Che, Spain (Verso)
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11. (12) Bleach 25, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
12. (10) DC Comics Encyclopedia, Rbt Greenburger (DK)
13. (11) Senior’s Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
14. (17) Death Note 1, Ohba/Obata (VIZ)
15. (13) Naruto 1, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
16. (16) Naruto 31, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
17. (15) Skim, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
18. (-) Vampire Knight 1, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
19. (23) Simpsons/Dollars To Donuts, Groening et al (Harpercollins)
20. (28) Negima! 20, Ken Akamatsu (Random House)
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21. (18) Persepolis 1, Satrapi (Pantheon)
22. (20) 30 Years of Laughs & Lasagna, Jim Davis (Random House)
23. (19) Marvel Encyclopedia, Tom Defalco (DK)
24. (21) What It Is, Lynda Barry (D+Q)
25. (25) Daniel X Alien Hunter, Patterson et al (Little, Brown)
26. (22) Louis Riel, Brown (D+Q)
27. (24) Asterix the Gaul, Goscinny/Uderzo (Orion)
28. (26) Big Brilliant Book Of Bart, Groening et al (Harpercollins)
29. (27) Watchmen, Moore/Gibbons (DC)
30. (29) Big Foot, Graham Roumieu (Plume)
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: Nothing new this week, just a shuffling of the deck.
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. (8) Ojingogo, Matt Forsythe (D+Q)
8. (7) I Never Liked You, Chester Brown (D+Q)
9. (11) It’s a Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken, Seth (D+Q)
10. (15) Spirit 1, Darwyn Cooke (DC)
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11. (9) The Plain Janes, Cecil Castellucci et al, (DC/Minx)
12. (12) Milk Teeth, Julie Morstad (D+Q)
13. (10) In Me Own Words/Bigfoot, Graham Roumieu (Plume)
14. (12) Essex County 1: Tales from the Farm, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
15. (14) Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea, Guy Delisle (D+Q)
16. (17) The Big 5-0, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
17. (18) Paul Goes Fishing, Michel Rabagliati (D+Q)
18. (-) Scott Pilgrim 2, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
19. (23) Strange and Stranger, Blake Bell (Fantagraphics)
20. (24) Scott Pilgrim 4, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
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21. (-) Scott Pilgrim 3, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
22. (29) Just One More Hug, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
23. (-) Last Straw, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
24. (16) Essex County 2: Ghost Stories, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
25. (20) Batman: Ego and other tales, Darwyn Cooke/Paul Grist (DC)
26. (19) Never Wink at a Worried Woman, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
27. (21) Drop-In, Dave Lapp (Conundrum)
28. (25) Keep The Home Fries Burning, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
29. (27) Zombies Calling, Faith Erin Hicks (Slave Labor)
30. (-) It’s the Thought That Counts, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
Not much new here. Lynn Johnston is still the Queen of Canada. The Spirit may have got a bump from the Frank Miller movie. And I’m beginning to suspect that the D+Q bookstore may be a Bookmanager client.
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Please feel free to comment or email about these lists.