Graphic novel sales have been pretty good this year.
In Publishers Weekly’s sales chart for January 6, 2025, three of the top five books were graphic novels.
The latest installment in the Wings of Fire series, Escape: A Graphic Novel, by Tui T Sutherland and Mike Holmes, was the No. 1 best-selling book in the U.S. that week Books, with sales of 88,000 copies. Dav Pilkey’s “Dog Man: Big Jim Begins” ranked second, selling 75,760 copies for the week and 624,174 total copies sold. Wimpy Kid #19 is #5, I know it’s not a real comic, but it is Honor comics.
I actually wanted to write this last week, but…I didn’t. At the top of this week’s chart is a vocabulary book, Mel Robbins’s Let Them Theorize: The Life-Changing Tool Millions Can’t Stop Talking About. Self-help is always important this time of year…or any time of year. “Escape Peril” came in at No. 9 with over 22,290 copies sold, but “Dog Man” came in second with 40,742 copies sold!
On this week’s kids’ list we have:
- #1 Dogman: Big Jim Begins: A Graphic Novel (Dogman #13) – 664,916 total copies sold
- #2 Escape: A Graphic Novel (Wings of Fire Graphic Novel #8) – Total sales 111,021 copies
- #11 Hot Mess (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 19) by Jeff Kinney – Total Sales 765,498
- #7 Dogman: The Scarlet Molt: A Graphic Novel (Dogman #12) – Total sales 1,273,926 copies
- #22 Christie and the Walking Catastrophe: A Graphic Novel (The Baby-Sitters Club #16) by Ellen T Crenshaw – 125,856 total copies sold
- #25 Warrior Graphic Novel: The Prophecy Begins #1 by Erin Hunter, Natalie Riess, and Sara Goetter – 99,511 total copies sold.
Warriors is a fantasy novel series starring cats that has been a best-selling prose series for some time. TokyoPop launched a series of manga-style graphic novels that sold well back in the ’00s and were only recently reprinted, but HarperCollins is relaunching the series from the ground up. The first volume is published this summer and the second volume will be published in April. Fantasy cat. This should be a genre all its own.
Regardless, here’s what’s particularly shocking: the best-selling author keeps selling! But it’s nice to see they’re still rock solid, and any graphic novel that tops the overall charts is pretty impressive.
