Oh yeah, speaking of Amazon, we’re been awfully inconsistent about posting the weekly Amazon sales rankings compiled by Dave Carter, but here’s last Friday’s
1 (-). Hard Luck (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 8) *
2 (-). Hard Luck (Diary of a Wimpy Kid 8) (Kindle) *
3 (R). Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
4 (R). The Complete Calvin and Hobbes (paperback)
5 (-1). Dork Diaries 6 (Kindle)
6 (N). Injustice: Gods Among Us #33 (Kindle)
7 (-). March Book One
8 (-3). Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History
9 (+1). The Complete Persepolis
10 (-4). Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
11 (-2). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
12 (-1). Hyperbole and a Half *
13 (+3). American Born Chinese
14 (-6). Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
15 (-3). Dork Diaries 6: Tales from a Not-So-Happy Heartbreaker
16 (-13). Injustice: Gods Among Us #32 (Kindle)
17 (-4). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
18 (-3). Watchmen
19 (-2). Vader’s Little Princess
20 (-6). The Walking Dead, Book 9 *
And Carter’s commentary:
• For the fourth week in a row the upcoming Wimpy Kid book is on the top of the comics chart. It is currently #50 on the overall Amazon book chart. It once again is joined in the #2 slot by the Kindle edition.
• Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, the first volume in the series, was mysteriously absent from the chart last week (though The Complete Persepolis did appear), but returns this week in the #3 slot, as would be expected this time of year when college students are buying their books. One could speculate (and I will) that for a period of time past week Amazon had sold out of the first Persepolis but has since restocked.
• I don’t know why The Complete Calvin and Hobbes returns at such a high position. Yes the price (about $53) is pretty good, but it’s been at that level for a few weeks now. And that doesn’t explain the re-appearance of the hardcover edition on the chart either. All I can figure is that it must have been all of the attention that Gavin Aung Than’s recent Zen Pencil strip illustrating Watterson’s speech to college graduates received in various media outlets.
• All of the new titles on the chart this week are Kindle editions: The customary newInjustice digital comic, the first issue of the New 52 Justice League (on sale this week for 99¢), and John Lewis & Nate Powell’s March Book One.
• I had previously excluding Jeffrey Brown’s Star Wars: Jedi Academy from the chart as I was under the impression that it was a prose novel for young readers. It turns out that it is a hybrid prose/comic in the same vein as the Wimpy Kid series and thus likely should be on the chart under the criteria that I use. So this week it makes its first appearance on my weekly snapshot, though it should have appeared several times in the past as well.
• Diary Watch: The Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries franchises between them take up nine of the slots on the chart this week, down four last week.
• Kindle Watch: Only eight of the chart positions this week are taken up by Kindle editions, down six from last week and the lowest level that we’ve seen in quite some time.
Heidi’s commentary: When did they start listing Kindle editions with print! So basically some Kindle comics are selling more than print comics, including the amazing Injustice: Gods Among Us. I’m not surprised to see Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries doing so well in Kindle format, but clearly “kidgital” is still growing.
Finally, as long as we’re rounding up the news and notes, if you have an old fashioned thing like a feed reader, you can actually get a feed of the Amazon best sellers lists.
Is injustice actually good?
Jedi Academy is more comics than prose. It’s a good story:
“Roan’s one dream is to leave home and attend Pilot Academy like his older brother, father, and grandfather. But just as Roan is mysteriously denied entrance to Pilot School, he is invited to attend Jedi Academy–a school that he didn’t apply to and only recruits children when they are just a few years old. That is, until now…”
Amazon have had Kindle editions on their comics & graphic novels chart at least as far back as my first Amazon Top 50 compilation on January 16, 2009, when the Kindle edition of The Complete Persepolis charted at #36 (the print edition charted at #13 that week…)
Jeske: Injustice is *that* good. It certainly is an original ( and quite bloody) take on the relationship between Bruce and Clark that would get a NC-17 rating if it was filmed as one of the DCU animated and I’m saying this as one who thought the Flashpoint animated film was cringe worthy in places.
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