ICv2 has the February Diamond sales numbers, and the news is good: graphic novel sales are up 9% over February 2006. As Diamond distributes mainly to comics shops, manga tends to make a poor showing on their graphic novel sales charts. So when vol. 17 of Bleach hits number 11, that’s really pretty good. Here’s the top ten manga, with their ranking on the GN chart following their ranking as manga:
1 (11) Bleach, vol. 17
2 (12) Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, vol. 2
3 (14) Berserk, vol. 15
4 (21) Negima, vol. 13
5 (25) Path of the Assassin, vol. 5
6 (27) Loveless, vol. 4
7 (30) Graviation EX
8 (35) NGE Angelic Days, vol. 4
9 (37) Oh My Goddess, vol. 25
10 (53) My Hime, vol. 2
Just a few quick observations: Bleach and Negima do well in bookstores, so I’m not surprised to see them at the top, but I am a little surprised Kingdom Hearts is doing so well in comics stores, where presumably the audience skews older. With their slim output, I’m impressed that ADV had a title on the charts. Hopefully this bodes well for the future. And what is it about Oh My Goddess that it’s still kicking butt 25 volumes in?
I really wonder why comic shops aren’t embracing manga more. It would let them move beyond their shrinking core market and bring in those near mythical “new readers” they always claim to want (as long as those new readers only want the same old American titles.)
I don’t read any spandex books or indy comics, but I make a point these days to buy my manga from a comic shop called Comicopia in Boston. They have a staff that seems to know and like manga and their selection is better than almost any B&N/Borders. They keep full series in stock ( a constant frustration with chains) and their store is clean and organized.
I work in a comic shop, and while Oh My Goddess is no longer a big seller for us, I think the reason it does well in comic shops is that it’s been kicking around comic shops since way before the big boxes had manga. So the customers that buy it are more likely to be either mainstream comics fans who branched out back in the day or old school manga fans who have loyalty to the local comics shop who sold them stuff back when manga was published unflipped and issue-size.