People Still like Comics, but…. Top 20 Graphic Novel Sales for April 2021

Updated on May 10, 2021 By Ken Begg 21 Comments

It’s subtle, but see if you can find the commonality on the top 20 graphic novels sold in this country in April.

Per the ICv2 website: “NPD BookScan collects weekly point-of-sale data on print books from over 16,000 locations including e-tailers, chains, mass merchandisers, independent bookstores, and more. NPD BookScan 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.”

I should note that while many of the above have wildly successful animes to promote sales, several (Chainsaw Man, Spy X Family) have not had yet, and Tokyo Ghoul’s anime ran in 2014.

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  • Hmmm….. I can’t quite put my finger on it.

  • zombiewhacker

    Umm… they’re all about toxic bishōnens being lectured by strong bishōjos?

  • Eric Hinkle

    Given what I’ve seen of recent American comics, this is no surprise.

  • Ken_Begg

    I think it’s American culture in general. Have movies and even TV ever been less relevant to the American public. There’s a reason I myself has turned to anime in recent years, and it’s half great programming from Japan, half horrifingly bad programming from America. Hollywood has been operating under the assumption that they can shovel anything at us because, you know, where are we going to go. Unfortunately for them, it turns out there are many, many places for people to go. American comics as we’ve know them is a small market–and they have worked diligently in recent years to make themselves very, very much smaller–so they will fall first. However, theatrical filmgoing itself is nearly there (only partly because of Covid, although that will be the excuse), and we’ve yet to establish whether an array of streaming services are sustainable. My shelves and shelves of physical media are looking better all the time.

  • I never got into anime – except for watching Speed Racer as a kid (HEY, IT COUNTS).

    I am totally clueless when it comes to anything anime-related.

    And I’m fine with that.

  • Gamera977

    Same here, though ‘Chainsaw Man’ sounds interesting!

  • Ken_Begg

    I completely get that, but I do like the idea that youngsters will seek out good entertainment from other sources if our homegrown industries refuse to provide it.

  • I’ve been buying the Bass Reeves comics you can get at Walmart, just because BASS REEVES!!!!

    They aren’t anything world-shattering but they aren’t anti-everything-good-and-decent in the world either, so I want to support the publisher. I also plan to pick up the new Barbarella run, since they got Sarah Hoyt on board to write it and it looks like actual *FUN* (also not by one of the big two, naturally).

  • Ken_Begg

    Sarah Hoyt is a great choice!

  • Ken_Begg

    Also, even if you aren’t interested in anime (or manga), this article is really at least as much about the failure of the American entertainment industries, in this case specifically comics, but really all of them. I am kind of hoping Japanese media forces shitty American entertainment to get better, like how Japanese cars forced the American auto industry to ramp their game way up back in the ’80s.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Maybe, but I doubt it. I read that DC and Marvel make so much money from movies, animated and live, that they only need to produce comics to make sure they keep the copyright active. They don’t need to actually sell.

  • Ken_Begg

    Disney and Warners do; Marvel and DC do not. They really don’t need to keep Marvel and DC alive at this point. The copyright thing is real, but copyright lasts a long time now, and you could have a book put out once in a while by one of your publishing companies without selling monthly floppies.

    The point is that you could make real money in mainstream comics–again, look at manga in Japan, where anime exists basically to service manga sales–but both comics companies have let the lunatics take over the asylums. Hence my delight that so many young people here are refusing to be force fed the garbage they are attempting to force down people’s throat, and are just taking their eyes and dollars elsewhere. In case people haven’t twigged to it over the years, I’m basically a fan of letting the Market decide.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    I’ve come to the conclusion that a person producing something for the marketplace has two, mutually-exclusive audiences to aim for. 1 – the public. Here you can make money with a well-made product. 2 – the New York Times. Here you won’t make money, but you’ll get glowing reviews for your “bravery” and you might win some awards.

  • Gamera977

    Yeah, I think a lot of those awards are like the Hugos- I avoid like the plague anything that’s won in the last twenty years.

  • Me, too. I can’t count the times of late I’ve gone, “Now that sounds interest– oh, Hugo finalist. Nevermind.”

  • Ken_Begg

    They’re not awarded for you.

  • But that’s the problem, isn’t it? They should be. I have such great taste!

    Now excuse me as I go see if I can’t get Ghosthouse on Blu Ray…

  • GamerFromJump

    Also, notice that the animated DC hews much closer to the “ethic” of the older comics than the comics themselves. In them, heroism isn’t blown off with cynicism.

  • Ken_Begg

    They would do well to remember how successful those shows were. Especially following the catastrophic failure of The Suicide Squad.

  • Which really floors me, as that flicks got a ton of Comic vibe to it.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Some of the films got nastier than I could stand, but those aside you are right. A lot of them are fun in all the good ways.