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

Penguin did Marvel Comics better than Marvel did on the superhero chart, Invincible took off, and Shonen Jump titles topped the manga chart, based on Circana (formerly NPD) BookScan data for December 2023 (11/26/23 – 12/30/23) provided to ICv2.

Penguin’s hardcover Amazing Spider-Man outsold both of the actual Marvel Spider-Man titles on the chart.  December wasn’t a good month for Marvel graphic novels.  On the rest of the chart, three different properties appear twice in the Superhero Top 20: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, both the regular edition and the Director’s Cut; two different editions of Watchmen; and both the hardcover and the paperback versions of the Penguin Classics collection of The Amazing Spider-Man.

There are no December releases on the Superhero chart, but two November titles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin—Lost Years and Jeffrey Brown’s The Mandalorian and Child, are back in the top 20 for a second month, and Vol. 1 of Rick and Morty: The Manga (which is not, in fact, a manga) marks its third month on the chart.

All three volumes of the Invincible Compendium are on the chart, as are five volumes of Lore Olympus (in a mix of hardcovers and paperbacks) and three of Solo Leveling.  And Roz Chast’s I Must Be Dreaming is back for its third month.

The Invincible Compendium volumes likely got a boost from the second season of the series, which began streaming at the beginning of November (see “‘Invincible’ S2 Trailers“).  It’s interesting that these hefty and fairly expensive volumes (MSRP: $64.99) made the chart while the new edition of the regular trade paperback (MSRP: $12.99) did not; presumably readers picking up the series at this point were ready to binge.

Bill Watterson and John Kascht’s The Mysteries tops the Author chart for the third month in a row, and Vol. 1 of The Calvin and Hobbes Portable Compendium stays in the Top 20 for a fourth month.  Vol. 11 of Saga is in second place.

Three new Asian titles debut on the chart: the first volumes of Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint and Dark Moon: The Blood Altar, both manhwa from Ize Press, and the fourth volume of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi, a Chinese series that is doing quite well for Seven Seas in both novel and manhua form.  Another new title is Vol. 1 of Lumine, which runs on the Webtoon platform, and the other Webtoon title, Vol. 1 of Boyfriends, is back for a second month.

Two December Shonen Jump releases crowd the top of the chart: Vol. 13 of Chainsaw Man at number one and Vol. 36 of My Hero Academia in fourth place. In between is Vol. 21 of Jujutsu Kaisen, which came out in November and placed second for the second month in a row.  One other new release worth noting is Vol. 1 of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu Academy, a comedy spinoff of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.

The vast majority of the titles in the Top 20, 17 in all, are not just VIZ Media but Shonen Jump, with readers picking up both new and older volumes (and in the case of Chainsaw Man, the box set), meaning that new readers are still coming to these series.

For charts of December 2023 graphic novel sales from Circana:
December 2023 Circana – Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels
December 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:
December 2023 Circana – Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
December 2023 Circana – Top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero Graphic Novels with Actual Sales
December 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.”