Graphic novel sales are up by 10% in the first half of this year as The Walking Dead series takes a huge bite with over a million copies sold in the past 18 months.
Figures from Nielsen show the books by Robert Kirkman occupying four of the top five places in the graphic novel best-selling list.
The top two Walking Dead compendiums have sold a combined 100,000 copies and are very highly priced at list prices of $59.99 each, although Amazon.com is selling them at $32.82 for the first compendium and $36.95 for the second. Both books are well over 1,000 pages each.
The Walking Dead: Compendium One got a sales lift of almost 50% in the week of the season finale of the hit AMC series in late March, which drew in almost 16 million viewers.
Other graphic novel best-sellers include Naoko Takeuchi, with the Sailor Moon manga series which has sold 80,000 copies, and Masashi Kishimoto’s ninja manga series Naruto which has sold almost 100,000.
Superhero best-sellers in the top 25 include Watchmen, Marvel Avengers, Batman, and The DC Comics Ultimate Character Guide.
Top 10 best-selling adult fiction graphic novels, first half 2013
The Walking Dead Compendium One, Robert Kirkman, Image Comics, 54,000
The Walking Dead Compendium Two, Robert Kirkman, Image Comics, 46,000
The Walking Dead, Volume 1, Robert Kirkman, Image Comics, 26,000
Naruto, Volume 60, Masahi Kishimoto, Viz Media, 25,000
The Walking Dead, Volume 17, Robert Kirkman, Image Comics, 25,000
Naruto, Volume 61, Masahi Kishimoto, Viz Media, 19,000
The Walking Dead, Volume 18, Robert Kirkman, Image Comics, 18,000
Sailor Moon, Volume 9, Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha Comics, 17,000
Sailor Moon, Volume 10, Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha Comics, 15,000
Saga, Volume 1, Brian K Vaughan, Image Comics, 15,000
Source: Nielsen