October 2023 Circana BookScan – Top 20 Author, Manga, Superhero Graphic Novels

Variety is the name of the game for the top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero Graphic Novels in the book channel, based on Circana (formerly NPD) BookScan data for October (10/1/23 – 10/28/23) provided to ICv2.

Topping the Superhero list for the second month in a row is Disney Manga: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas – The Battle for the Pumpkin King, which is not actually a manga; a second, older volume is at number 16.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin is in second place for the second month in a row.

In third place is one of the few new titles on the chart, the second volume of Batman: Wayne Family Adventures, which was serialized first on the Webtoon platform; the first volume of Zatanna & The Ripper, another Webtoon DC title, is in 12th place.

Two different editions of Watchmen are in the October Top 20, with the deluxe hardcover released in 2013 placing higher, at number 7; the 2019 paperback is at number 10.

Blue Beetle: Graduation Day is on the chart for the third month in a row.

A couple of the October titles have fairly hefty price tags; the deluxe Watchmen has an MSRP of $39.99, Moon Knight by Lemire & Smallwood is priced at $34.99, the Bloodborne box set is $49.99, and the Penguin Classics edition of The Amazing Spider-Man is a cool $50.  These four older properties appear to be deeply discounted at Amazon, so shoppers may be snapping up bargains online.

The newest volume of Chainsaw Man tops the Manga chart, followed by new volumes of Spy x Family and Kaiju No. 8.  The future looks good for Chainsaw Man, as both the first volume of that series and the box set of the first 11 volumes are also on the chart.

Four volumes of Jujutsu Kaisen make the top 20, with Vols. 1 and 0 placing higher than the most recent release, Vol. 20.  Vol. 103 of One Piece is on the chart for the fourth month in a row; watch for it to be knocked off in November, when Vol. 104 comes out.

And there’s a new Junji Ito title in the Top 20, although the author is listed as Hirokatsu Kihara; Mimi’s Tales of Terror is Ito’s adaptation of a collection of urban legends by Kihara and co-author Ichiro Nakayama.  The cover is unmistakably Ito, though.

The least surprising news about the Author chart is that the new volume of Lore Olympus is on it. The most surprising news is that it’s not at number one.  However, the three editions of Vol. 5 (hardcover, B&N exclusive, paperback) line up neatly at numbers 2, 3, and 4, and the fourth and first volumes show up lower down.  This franchise may not be the blockbuster it once was, but it’s still an Author stalwart.

The top title, of course, is Bill Watterson’s The Mysteries, and the first volume of The Calvin and Hobbes Portable Compendium shows up at number 18, so he places twice with two very different books, one new and one old (but perennially popular).

Three interesting October releases debut on the chart: Roz Chast’s I Must Be Dreaming, the graphic adaptation of Richard Adams’ Watership Down, and the first volume of 7Fates: Chakho, the webtoon about the K-pop band BTS.  Vol. 3 of the manhua (Chinese graphic novel) Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi is at number 20, making the chart for the second month in a row.

Two frequently challenged graphic novels, Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation and Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer, also make the list.

For charts of October 2023 graphic novel sales from Circana:
October 2023 Circana – Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels
October 2023 Circana – Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels

For the charts with the actual sales numbers from Circana, see these articles on the ICv2 Pro site:
October 2023 Circana – Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
October 2023 Circana – Top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
October 2023 Circana – Top 20 Kids Graphic Novels with Actual Sales

Circana collects weekly point-of-sale data on print books from over 16,000 locations including e-tailers, chains, mass merchandisers, independent bookstores, and more.  Circana covers approximately 85% of the U.S. trade print book market.  The ranks on this chart are based on piece sales.  Some publishers classify titles that are primarily text, or art books, as graphic novels; we’ve removed those titles from the ranking above.

For past Top 20 Graphic Novel lists, see the “Top 20 GN Index.”

Source: ICv2