ICv2, as always, gives us the top 100 graphic novels in October. As this list comes from Diamond, it mostly reflects sales in comics stores. Here are the top manga from the list; as always, the ranking on the top 100 list is in parentheses after the manga rank, and total sales are in parentheses after the title.
1. (22) Hellsing, vol. 9 (3,742)
2. (50) Legend of Zelda, vol. 1 (2,359)
3. (57) Gantz, vol. 2 (2,131)
4. (82) Fate/Stay Night, vol. 1 (1,705)
5. (86) Street Fighter Tribute (1,621)
6. (87) Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 17 (1,611)
Manga got clobbered in the direct market last month, and it’s not hard to see why: the Joker graphic novel sold 17,296 copies, almost twice as many as the number two comic on the list, which was Marvel Zombies. This was one of those winners-and-losers months, with the Joker as the clear winner; only the titles in the top ten sold over 5,000 copies apiece, and it looks like nobody was buying manga.
I could pretty much sum up the list above as “violence and video games,” but here’s something interesting: Vol. 5 of the cute and deceptively complex Owly checked in at number 36, above all but one of the manga titles. Sonic the Hedgehog and two Minx titles, Token and Emiko Superstar, made respectable showings as well, at number 59, 65, and 69, respectively.
It’s hard to say what all this means, but it suggests that manga sales may be dipping. It’s always possible that everyone just went to the bookstore instead, because manga did much better on the October Bookscan chart, but as that chart doesn’t give sales numbers, it’s hard to know for sure. ICv2 analyzes sales numbers and dollars for the month, but it’s a bit confusing; it looks like the number of copies sold is down a bit but dollar sales are up over last October, but it also looks like this October had five shipping dates instead of four, which might account for the increase.