I got quite a response to my rant on the ascent of graphic novels and and decline of the periodical that ran last week.

While I felt constrained not to leak to much of the BookScan reports, one commenter felt no  such compunction and posted LAST week’s top 20 (And the complete top 20 for the week before) – and this is an equally informative list:

1 VALERIAN: THE COMPLETE COLLECT
2 THE WICKED & THE DIVINE, VOLUM
3 INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US: YEAR
4 WONDER WOMAN VOL. 1: THE LIES
5 SAGA, VOLUME 7
6 WOLVERINE: OLD MAN LOGAN, VOLU
7 TOKYO GHOUL, VOLUME 1
8 TOKYO GHOUL, VOLUME 13
9 MY HERO ACADEMIA, VOLUME 8
10 MY LESBIAN EXPERIENCE WITH LON
11 BLACK PANTHER, BOOK 1: A NATIO
12 MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS V
13 MY HERO ACADEMIA, VOL. 1
14 ONE-PUNCH MAN, VOLUME 1
15 THE KILLING JOKE
16 WONDER WOMAN VOL. 2: YEAR ONE
17 DRAGON BALL SUPER, VOL. 1
18 TOKYO GHOUL, VOLUME 2
19 BORUTO, VOL. 1: NARUTO NEXT GE
20 MY HERO ACADEMIA, VOL. 2

Obviously, ots and lots of new reader/female friendly material on this list.

Of special note: the rise of Valerian, in this edition from Cinebook*:

51+GrQLUwcL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpgObviously the stunning trailer for the upcoming Luc Besson film has got people curious to read the source material. Since everything in the movie seems to look like a French SF comic, I think readers will be satisfied by the comics edition. IT’s also a rare charting for Cinebook, a publisher that puts out a stellar line up of French comics but often flies under the radar here.

* Affiliate link – so if you click on this I get 5¢ to buy a lightning cord.

ALSO, the American LIbrary Association meeting is winding down in Chicago as we speak and it was nothing if not a triumph for comics, and also, the coalition of readers, librarians and publishers that I mentioned in my last post. I think the always-ahead-of-the-curve Spike Trotman summed it up in her Tweet thread:

AND PW gets in the action with an article entitled Graphic Novels Supply Diversity at ALA 2017:

Graphic novels and comics on display at the American Library Association conference are no longer the radical transgression they once were for librarians. This year’s conference, held in Chicago, June 22-27 at the McCormick Place Convention Center, hosted more than 20 independent comics publishers on the exhibition floor, an Artist Alley with scores of individual comics artists, and even a Graphic Novel Pavilion that featured four full days of panels and presentations.

Exhibiting publishers as varied as Scholastic Press, Drawn & Quarterly, Lion Forge, and the New York Review of Books had an equally varied selection of graphic novels on display. Exhibitors also included major trade book publishers such as Abrams and Macmillan with full blown graphic novel imprints, producing comics that are tailor made for the library and bookstore market.

So yeah, sea change is in the air. In fact I have a story coming up in a little while that shows just how much of  a change.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

6 COMMENTS

  1. I’m a relative newcomer to Valerian and have only read about half of them, but I am a bit worried that the collection made for the movie also contains the worst two volumes in the series.

    Things really jump to life around volumes 4 – 6, and v6 is the one the movie is based off of. (The recently released v 16 returns to that world, as well.)

    There’s no continuity, so they could theoretically jump around.

    I know, everyone wants to start at the beginning, and I did and survived the experience. But that first volume is rough, and adding in even more pages just makes it drag out longer. I hope it doesn’t scare off newcomers…

  3. “YAY for Tokyo Ghoul and Dragon Ball Super making the Bookscan list!”

    Tokyo Ghoul is a perennial in the top 20, and Super has been doing very well since it’s release.

    I think a lot of people don’t realize that manga accounts for 50% of the graphic novels sold in the book market….

  4. As a typical American reader i wasn’t really aware of this title, but it looks and sounds amazing and i want to check out that complete collection.

  5. Here’s this week’s list. Gothic horror cthulu sex for the win!

    1 TOKYO GHOUL, VOLUME 13
    2 PROVIDENCE, ACT 2
    3 TEEN TITANS VOL. 1: DAMIAN KNO
    4 NIGHTWING VOL. 2: BACK TO BLUD
    5 TOKYO GHOUL, VOLUME 1
    6 DRAGON BALL SUPER, VOL. 1
    7 GOODNIGHT PUNPUN, VOLUME 6
    8 MY HERO ACADEMIA, VOL. 1
    9 YOUR NAME., VOLUME 1
    10 SAGA, VOLUME 7
    11 SPIDER-MAN/DEADPOOL, VOLUME 2:
    12 WONDER WOMAN VOL. 1: THE LIES
    13 MY HERO ACADEMIA, VOLUME 8
    14 TOKYO GHOUL, VOLUME 2
    15 MY FAVORITE THING IS MONSTERS
    16 ONE-PUNCH MAN, VOLUME 1
    17 THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: MAJORA’S
    17 MY HERO ACADEMIA, VOL. 2
    19 THE KILLING JOKE
    20 BORUTO, VOL. 1: NARUTO NEXT GE

  6. “I know, everyone wants to start at the beginning, and I did and survived the experience. But that first volume is rough, and adding in even more pages just makes it drag out longer. I hope it doesn’t scare off newcomers…”

    To be fair, Augie, it does have the characters’ first appearances and the chronologically essential City of Moving Waters story. And there is nothing offensive or anything there, just rough, a bit amateurish comics.

    Starting to read, say, Batman from the beginning would be equally rough, but Batman has hundreds of stories, while the Euro stuff usually doesn’t have such luck. At least things improve from the Empire of a Thousand Planets on. If someone reads the whole book, he will be ready for the others!

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