Exclusive: August's Top 100 Graphic Novels

Darth Vader puts down a rebellion against the Empire's rule in Kieron Gillen, Leinil Francis Yu, and Salvador Larroca's Star Wars: Darth Vader Volume 3: The Shu-Torun War from Marvel Comics, the best-selling graphic novel for August.

In total, Marvel Comics had four titles in the top ten including Ta-Nahesi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze's Black Panther Book 1: Nation Under Our Feet at #3, Spider-Man/Deadpool Volume 1: Isn't It Bromantic? at #4, and Star Wars Volume 3: Rebel Jail at #5.

DC Entertainment had five titles in the top ten, led by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's Batman: The Killing Joke Special Edition at #2, followed by James Tynion IV and Freddie Williams' Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (copublished by IDW Publishing) at #5, Teen Titans: Earth One Volume 2 at #8, the Harley Quinn Book and Mask Set at #9, and Harley Quinn and the Suicide Squad: An Adult Coloring Book at #10.

Also in the top ten was Image Comics; Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples' Saga Volume 6 ranked #7 for the month.

Among the premier publishers, IDW Publishing's Garbage Pail Kids, based on the classic trading cards from the 1980s, was the publisher's best-selling book in August at #28. Finally, Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson, and Ben Stenbeck's Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1953 was Dark Horse Comics' top book for August at #36.

TOP 100 GRAPHIC NOVELS
Based on Total Unit Sales of Products Invoiced in August 2016

This information may not be reproduced in any format without the express permission of Diamond Comic Distributors.

For retailers, Diamond offers the Top 300 Comics and Top 300 Graphic Novels sales charts on the Diamond Tools page of the Diamond Retailer Services website to provide more information about the industry's top selling publications.

How does Diamond calculate the charts? It all starts at the comic book shop.

Data for Diamond’s sales charts — which includes the monthly market shares and all top product charts — are compiled by Diamond Comic Distributors from sales made to thousands of comic book specialty shops located in North America and around the world.  Additional sales made to online merchants and other specialty stores may be included as well.

Unit and dollar market shares are calculated based upon orders for comic books, graphic novels, and magazines invoiced and shipped to Diamond customers during any given month, which comprises pre-orders, advance reorders, and reorders, minus any copies that are received back from a title marked as returnable. Please note that comics marked with an asterisk (*) have had their reported quantities reduced due to retailer returnability, and thus may rank lower on the charts than their actual sales would reflect.

About the Diamond Sales Index: The Sales Index of selected monthly Best Seller Charts is presented as a comparative tool for retailers and publishers. It presents Diamond’s monthly sales for individual titles in relation to Diamond’s total sales for the issue of DC Comics' monthly Batman comic book. (Batman is used as the control title – with a value of 100 – because sales of Batman usually remain relatively stable.) This allows for easy comparison to other titles and helps retailers gauge their orders for all other titles. This formula is only a guide, other factors may impact a titles’ ability to sell in certain locations and clientele.