Graphic novels are doing quite well this year in sales.
For Publishers Weekly’s 1/06/25 sales chart, THREE of the top five books OVERALL were graphic novels.
Escaping Peril: A Graphic Novel, the latest in the Wings of Fire series by Tui T Sutherland and Mike holmes was the #1 book in the US that week, selling 88,000 copies. Dog Man: Big Jim Begins by Dav Pilkey was #2, with 75,760 sold that week and 624,174 overall. Wimpy Kid #19 was at #5 and I know it’s not really a comic but it’s an honorary comic.
I actually meant to write this last week but…..I didn’t. This week’s chart has a words book at the top, The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking about by Mel Robbins. Self help is always big this time of year…or any time of year. Escaping Peril comes in at #9 with 22.290 more copies sold but Dog Man is hanging in there at #2 with 40,742 more copies sold!
Over on this week’s Children’s Frontlist chart we have:
- #1 Dog Man: Big Jim Begins: A Graphic Novel (Dog Man #13) – 664,916 total sold
- #2 Escaping Peril: A Graphic Novel (Wings of Fire Graphic Novel #8) – 111,021 total sold
- # 11 Hot Mess (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 19) by Jeff Kinney – 765,498 total sold
- #7 Dog Man: The Scarlet Shedder: A Graphic Novel (Dog Man #12) – 1,273,926 total sold
- #22 Kristy and the Walking Disaster: A Graphic Novel (the Baby-Sitters Club #16) by Ellen T Crenshaw – 125,856 total sold
- #25 Warriors Graphic Novel: The Prophecies Begin #1 by Erin Hunter, Natalie Riess, and Sara Goetter – 99,511 total sold.
Warriors, a fantasy series starring cats, has been a best-selling prose series for some time. TokyoPop put out a series of manga-style graphic novels that sold quite well back in the ’00s and reprinted it up until recently, but HarperCollins is relaunching the comics series from scratch. The first volume came out this summer and #2 is due in April. Fantasy cats. That should be a genre all to itself.
Anyway, noting particularly shocking about all this: best-selling authors continue to sell! But it’s good to see that they are still rock solid, and any graphic novel topping the overall charts is impressive.
