compiled/edited by BK Munn

This semi-regular feature of Sequential presents a snapshot of comics sales in Canada.
Part 1 .
Intro: The bestselling graphic novels and comics collections in Canada, courtesy of BookManager. The full list by BookManager is available, with some work, here. The list is compiled by BookManager based on sales through over 400 independent bookstores, including several comic book stores and the D+Q store. Sales through most 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. (As this list is being compiled, the Scott Pilgrim boxed set and Essex County are #2 and #12 on the Amazon.ca comics list.) See here for our previous Sequential list from last week.

Sequential’s Over-All Top 30
from BookManager

1. (1) Bone: Quest for the Spark, Jeff Smith/Tom Sniegoski
2. (2) Essex County, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
3. (3) Bone 11: Tall Tales, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
4. (4) Out from Boneville: Bone #1, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
5. (8) Bone 4: Dragonslayer, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
6. (5) Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Riordan/Venditti/Attila Futaki (Hyperion)
7. (7) Naruto 50, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
8. (16) Bone Prequel: Rose, Jeff Smith and Charles Vess (Scholastic)
9. (19) Bone 3: Eyes of the Storm, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
10. (11) Bone 5: Rockjaw, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
—–
11. (7) Scott Pilgrim 1, Bryan Lee O’Malley (ONI)
12. (10) Bone 2: The Great Cow Race, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
13. (9) Bone 9: Crown of Horns, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
14. (13) Bone 7: Ghost Circles, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
15. (12) Zita the Spacegirl, Ben Hatke (First Second)
16. (21) Bone 6: Old Man’s Cave, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
17. (20) Bone 8: Treasure Hunters, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
18. (22) Scott Pilgrim 6, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
19. (14) Scott Pilgrim 3, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
20. (18) Black Bird 7, Kanoko Sakurakoji (VIZ)
—–
21. (17) Scott Pilgrim 5, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
22. (16) Scott Pilgrim 4, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
23. (24) Bone the Adventure Begin HC, Smith (Scholastic)
24. (-) Louis Riel, Chester Brown (D+Q)
25. (25) The Amulet of Samarkand (A Bartimaeus Graphic Novel), Jonathan Stroud/Andrew Donkin/Lee Sullivan (Hyperion)
26. (23) Scott Pilgrim 2, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
27. (-) Scenes from an Impending Marriage, Adrian Tomine (D+Q)
28. (-) Trickster: Native American Tales, Matt Dembicki (Fulcrum Publishing)
29. (27) Archie Marries, Uslan/Goldberg (Abrams)
30. (30) Walking Dead 1, Robert Kirkman/Tony Moore (Image)
Bone: Quest for the Spark and Essex County are #6 and #34 on Bookmanager’s overall list of books. Terry Fallis’s The Best Laid Plans, the prose book that won the Canada Reads competition against Essex County, remains in the #1 overall spot.
Part 2. Canadian Content:
You have to wade through an awful lot of translated Japanese manga, U.S. superhero fantasies, and collected editions of Sherman’s Lagoon to come up with a list of 30 bestselling books created by Canadians. In total, BookManager lists over 4000 graphic novels, trades, and strip collections, the vast majority of which are not by Canadians. On this list, a single sale in a single tiny bookstore can make all the difference. This list does not include books that are only illustrated but not written/created-by Canadians.

Sequential’s All-Canadian Top 30
from BookManager

1. (1) Essex County, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
2. (2) Scott Pilgrim 1, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
3. (6) Scott Pilgrim 6, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
4. (3) Scott Pilgrim 3, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
5. (5) Scott Pilgrim 5, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
6. (4) Scott Pilgrim 4, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
7. (12) Louis Riel, Chester Brown (D+Q)
8. (8) Scott Pilgrim 2, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
9. (13) Something Old, Something New, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
10. (10) Tangles, Sarah Leavitt (Freehand Books)
—–
11. (9) Harvey, Herve Bouchard/Janice Nadeau (Groundwood)
12. (21) Two Generals, Scott Chantler (McClelland and Stewart)
13. (11) 500 Years of Resistance, Gord Hill (Arsenal Pulp)
14. (23) Skim sc, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
15. (24) Big Foot, Graham Roumieu (Plume)
16. (-) Lost at Sea, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
17. (14) Milk Teeth, Julie Morstad (D+Q)
18. (18) Indoor Voice, Jillian Tamaki (D+Q)
19. (19) Nightschool 1, Svetlana Chmakova (Yen/Orbit)
20. (15) Red A Haida Manga, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (Douglas & McIntyre)
—–
21. (-) Sweet Tooth 1, Jeff Lemire (Vertigo/DC)
22. (25) The Great Hopeful Sunday, Elizabeth Belliveau (Conundrum)
23. (-) Sweet Tooth 2, Jeff Lemire (Vertigo/DC)
24. (26) Bigfoot, Pascal Girard (D+Q)
25. (28) The Hipless Boy, Sully (Conundrum)
26. (16) The Native Trees of Canada, Leanne Shapton (D+Q)
27. (17) Richard Stark’s Parker The Outfit, Darwyn Cooke (IDW)
28. (-) Nightschool 3, Svetlana Chmakova (Yen/Orbit)
29. (-) Wall-e 1, J Torres/Morgan Luthi (Boom-kids!)
30. (-) Nightschool 2, Svetlana Chmakova (Yen/Orbit)
Svetlana Chmakova’s current OEL manga series about teenage werewolves, Nightschool, shows that it has legs, with 3 of the current volumes squeezed into the top 30. Chmakova has put together a substantial body of work and has been a mainstay on this list for several years now, previously with her Tokyopop series, Dramacon. You can also read some of her short stories through the print-on-demand service, Bento Comics.