compiled/edited by BK Munn

This semi-regular feature of Sequential presents a snapshot of comics sales in Canada.
This is the first list of April. Deep breath.
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. See here for our previous Sequential list from last time.
Guide: numbers in parentheses indicate previous rank; (n) indicates a new book making its debut on the list; (r) indicates a book making a return to the list after an absence.

Sequential’s Over-All Top 30
from BookManager

1. (4) Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Riordan/Venditti/Attila Futaki (Hyperion)
2. (2) Out from Boneville: Bone #1, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
3. (3) Bone 11: Tall Tales, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
4. (1) Essex County, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
5. (11) Bone 6: Old Man’s Cave, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
6. (5) Bone 4: Dragonslayer, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
7. (7) Bone 5: Rockjaw, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
8. (12) Bone 7: Ghost Circles, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
9. (10) Bone 9: Crown of Horns, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
10. (8) Bone Prequel: Rose, Jeff Smith and Charles Vess (Scholastic)
—–
11. (6) Bone 2: The Great Cow Race, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
12. (n) Rosario + Vampire II 4, Akihisa Ikeda (VIZ)
13. (15) Scott Pilgrim 1, Bryan Lee O’Malley (ONI)
14. (14) Bone 3: Eyes of the Storm, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
15. (19) Scott Pilgrim 2, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
16. (9) Bone 8: Treasure Hunters, Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
17. (13) Naruto 50, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
18. (26) Walking Dead 1, Kirkman/Moore (Image)
19. (n) Pearls Blow Up, Stephen Pastis (Andrews McMeel)
20. (30) Anne Frank, Jacobson/Colan (FSG)
—–
21. (20) Scott Pilgrim 3, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
22. (23) Scott Pilgrim 5, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
23. (17) Watchmen, Moore/Gibbons (DC)
24. (n) Black Bird 7, Kanoko Sakurakoji (VIZ)
25. (25) Zita the Spacegirl, Ben Hatke (First Second)
26. (r) Scenes From an Impending Marriage (D+Q)
27. (21) Bleach, Vol. 34, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
28. (n) Walking Dead 13, Kirkman et al (Image)
29. (r) The Amulet of Samarkand, Jonathan Stroud/Andrew Donkin/Lee Sullivan (Disney)
30. (r) Louis Riel, Chester Brown (D+Q)
New manga is the only thing really shaking things up here since last time.
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. (4) Scott Pilgrim 2, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
4. (5) Scott Pilgrim 3, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
5. (6) Scott Pilgrim 5, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
6. (8) Louis Riel, Chester Brown (D+Q)
7. (7) Scott Pilgrim 6, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
8. (3) Scott Pilgrim 4, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
9. (19) The Never Weres, Fiona Smyth (Annick)
10. (16) 500 Years of Resistance, Gord Hill (Arsenal Pulp)
—–
11. (12) Harvey, Herve Bouchard/Janice Nadeau (Groundwood)
12. (10) Two Generals, Scott Chantler (McClelland and Stewart)
13. (11) Bigfoot, Pascal Girard (D+Q)
14. (9) Kill Shakespeare 1, Mccreery/Del Col/Belanger (IDW)
15. (20) Mid-Life, Joe Ollman (D+Q)
16. (14) Nightschool 1, Svetlana Chmakova (Yen/Orbit)
17. (13) Tangles, Sarah Leavitt (Freehand Books)
18. (22) Big Foot, Graham Roumieu (Plume)
19. (r) Lost at Sea, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
20. (29) The Hipless Boy, Sully (Conundrum)
—–
21. (n) Bitter Medicine: A Graphic Memoir of Mental Illness, Clem Martini/Olivier Martini (Freehand Books)
22. (26) Scott Pilgrim Box, Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni)
23. (r) Senior’s Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
24. (18) Skim sc, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
25. (r) The Hollow Planet, Scott Thompson | Stephan Nilson | Kyle Morton (IDW)
26. (r) DC The New Frontier, Darwyn Cooke et al (DC)
27. (17) Something Old, Something New,Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
28. (n) Chimo, David Collier (Condundrum)
29. (n) Nightschool 4, Svetlana Chmakova (Yen/Orbit)
30. (30) Indoor Voice, Jillian Tamaki (D+Q)
Published in March by Tangles publisher Freehand Books (Broadview Publishing), Bitter Medicine is one of the wave of post-Chester Brown explorations of mental illness memoirs. You can read a review here. The book has already been shortlisted for the Wilfred Eggleston Award for Nonfiction as a part of the 2011 Alberta Literary Awards.
From the publisher:
“In 1976, Ben Martini was diagnosed with schizophrenia. A decade later, his brother Olivier was told he had the same disease. For the past thirty years the Martini family has struggled to comprehend and cope with a devastating illness, frustrated by a health care system lacking in resources and empathy, the imperfect science of medication, and the strain of mental illness on familial relationships.
Throughout it all, Olivier, an accomplished visual artist, drew. His sketches, comic strips, and portraits document his experience with, and capture the essence of, this all too frequently misunderstood disease. In Bitter Medicine, Olivier’s poignant graphic narrative runs alongside and communicates with a written account of the past three decades by his younger brother, award-winning author and playwright Clem Martini. The result is a layered family memoir that faces head-on the stigma attached to mental illness.
Shot through with wry humour and unapologetic in its politics, Bitter Medicine is the story of the Martini family, a polemical and poetic portrait of illness, and a vital and timely call for action.”