The Top 50 Selling Graphic Novels For June 2003
This list comes from digging through sales figures, asking too many questions and using Diamond Comics information. The snotty comments in white are mine.
1 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN VOL 6 VENOM TP $15.99 MAR 8,263
While this wasn't one of the better Ultimate Spider-Man stories, it was still far and away one of the best super-hero stories of the year. Bendis makes a villain that is pretty much played out and makes it interesting again by changing everything but the core of the character. Highly recommended.
2 ACROSS UNIVERSE DC UNIVERSE STORIES O/ALAN MOORE TP $19.95 DC 6,803
I was a bit surprised by this collection, as I was really looking forward to it, and the stories in it weren't as good as I remembered. Most of them are either backups or fillins that Moore did, and while they were usually better than what surrounded them, they still tend to be decent ideas that didn't need to be as fleshed out as they were. However, this collection does include the Best Superman Story Ever, "The Man Who Has Everything" which is a perfect antidote to those who think that Superman has to be a boring character, and the baggage of Pre-Crisis prevented good stories. Highly recommended.
3 ALAN MOORES ANOTHER SUBURBAN ROMANCE GN (MR) $7.95 AVA 4,805
Avatar is held up to be a place where creators can go wild, but I find that they have an ugly house art style where artists draw black and white books, but can't do art that works in black and white. In a lot of panels, yo0u can tell the artist needed color to differentiate textures and characters. Moore's work is still very good, but the art is cluttered, overdrawn and confusing when the stories should be clean, crisp and clear. For Moore fans only.
4 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOL 4 LIFE & DEATH O/SPIDERS TP $11.99 MAR 4,493
More of the reprinting of the Amazing Spider-Man run by JMS with the best art John Romita Jr has ever done. I recommend this book for super-hero fans, but non-superhero fans might still think of it as silly.
5 LOVE HINA VOL 11 GN $9.99 TKP 4,195
6 CHOBITS VOL 6 GN $9.99 TKP 3,983
Do you think TokyoPop is darn happy that they switched from monthly comics to manga collections? They sell much better in bookstores and are starting to do well in comic shops. This is where the future of comics is. Saying that, these two don't appeal to me, so I don't read them. And that's fine.
7 INTRON DEPOT VOL 3 BALLISTICS TP $49.95
DAR 3,671
8 League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen BOOK ONE TP $14.95 DC 3,529
Still selling and still better than the movie. Still recommended.
9 NEW TEEN TITANS TERROR O/TRIGON TP $17.95 DC 3,444
Remember when The New Teen Titans was considered one of the best books on the stands? This is George Perez's last run at the title, and while the book is still a fun super-hero read, it hasn't aged very well. Wolfman does a very good job of making a decent super-hero soap opera with well done fight scenes. The problem is that in a 75 cent comic, that's fine, but in $2.50 comics, people want more. Recommended as a nostalgia wallow.
10 STAR WARS A LONG TIME AGO VOL 6 WOOKIEE WORLD TP $29.95 DAR 3,274
Speaking of nostalgia wallows...reprinting a bunch of the Marvel Star Wars comics. They are fun, and in some ways better than the current Star Wars stuff by Dark Horse, but in the end, a bit silly and aimed at kids. For Star Wars fans only.
11 League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen ABSOLUTE ED VOL 1 OVERSIZED HC $75.00 DC 3,019
The big one with the bells and whistles. For hard core fans only.
12 EXILES VOL 4 LEGACY TP $12.99 MAR 3,019
A fun fanromp of a series that plays with alternative version of the Marvel Universe. If you aren't a long-time Marvel fan, you WILL be lost. You have been warned.
13 SPIDER-MAN LEGENDS VOL 2 TODD MCFARLANE BOOK II TP $19.99 MAR 2,934
Remember when Todd McFarlane was considered the best Spider-Man artist? Neither do I, but I do remember when a lot of people bought his Spider-Man comics, and these are some of them. And they don't suck, but that's because they had a decent writer...unless these are the ones he wrote, then they are painfully bad, but still don't hurt as much as his gawdawful Spawn scripts.
14 ALIAS VOL 3 UNDERNEATH TP $16.99 MAR 2,934
Another collection of one of Marvel's best series. A crime story told from the point of view of a former super-hero turned private investigator, and one fo the best things on the stands. I believe that if this book were being done by anyone but Marvel, people would be falling all over themselves for it. As it is now, I can only make it Highly Recommended.
15 SUPERMAN PRESIDENT LEX TP $17.95 DC 2,863
More reprints of lackluster Superman stories.
16 UNDERCOVER GENIE TP $14.95 DC 2,736
17 COWBOY BEBOP SHOOTING STARS VOL 2 GN $9.99 TKP 2,707
18 RAWHIDE KID TP $12.99 MAR 2,608
Normally, I like to buy Marvel westerns. Because it's a genre that has fallen into disuse, people tend to do much better jobs on them than they do on average run of the mill super-hero books. And this one had a bit of promise, with John Severin art and a decent "hook" of the Kid being gay. However, even some of the best art Severin's done in years can't save the simpering story that seems to have gotten all of it's ideas about what gay people are like from watching 70's TV shows. Pass.
19 GREEN LANTERN BROTHERS KEEPER TP $12.95 DC 2,594
Judd Winnick's Green Lantern was a comic that tried hard, but never quite succeeded. This is another story with good intentions but never quite grabbed me, as it tried too hard to shove character driven stuff into a story that had a super-hero component.
20 PROPOSITION PLAYER TP $14.95 DC 2,495
A miniseries by Bill Willingham before he started work on Fables. I was never able to make it through. I guess that's a bad review.
21 THUNDERCATS RECLAIMING THUNDERA TP $12.95 DC 2,381
*grabs head* MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOOOOOOOOOOP!!!!
22 GTO VOL 12 GN $9.99 TKP 2,381
23 GREEN LANTERN ROAD BACK TP $14.95 DC 2,339
Another of the Judd Winnick stories. Again, for hard core GL fans only.
24 ASTRO BOY VOL 16 TP $9.95 DAR 2,296
25 SUPERMAN ARCHIVES VOL 6 HC $49.95 DC 2,282
Reprinting very early Superman stories (these are from about the early 40's) and by this time, the crude charm of the character was gone, replaced by workmanlike effiency and quick formula stories that would keep people interested. Superman fought mostly gangsters and evil scientists in the early days, and while the stories are interesting, this is really only for comic book historians and hard-core Golden Age Fans.
26 CARDCAPTOR SAKURA MASTER O/T CLOW VOL
5 GN $9.99 TKP 2,239
27 CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL 2 EXTREMISTS TP $13.99 MAR 2,183
The second story arc of the new Captain America series, and it shows why the creative team was replaced. A messy story that has too many "twists" that shock the reader instead of being natural story progressions. I grew uninterested in the story as it went from issue to issue, and the ending is just another messy part to a bad story.
28 MARMALADE BOY VOL 7 GN $9.99 TKP 2,041
29 GROO ODYSSEY TP $12.95 DAR 2,027
Reprinting 4 issues of Groo for $13. This is why I complain about the high price of comics, because if Groo were cheaper, I would recommend it in a heartbeat. Evanier and Aragones are a perfect team, but the comic reads so quickly that you are done in mere moments, leaving you feeling like you spent more than the cost of a movie and didn't get entertained as long.
30 WARLANDS VOL 3 AGE O/ICE TP $15.95
DRE 2,013
31 MARS VOL 11 GN $9.99 TKP 2,013
32 X-TREME X-MEN VOL 4 MEKANIX TP $16.99 MAR 2,013
More Claremont X-Men. Not a lot in graphic novels this month, I take it.
33 ORIGIN TP $14.99 MAR 2,013
The origin of Wolverine, selling better because of the movie. In a way, I'm glad they waited to do his origin, because while this story isn't GREAT, it is better than the horrid mismash that was in the Wolverine comic in the 90's. A solidly done story that gives the reader something they aren't expecting and art that doesn't get in the way of the story (like most Kubert art does). Mildly recommended unless you are a Wolverine fan, then you probably have it already.
34 TRANSFORMERS SPACE PIRATES GN $19.95
TIT 1,899
35 STORMWATCH TEAM ACHILLES VOL 1 TP $14.95 DC 1,885
I keep hearing the new Stormwatch series is good, but when I tried to read the first issue, I couldn't make it all the way through, Pass.
36 ELEKTRA VOL 2 EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN TP $16.99 MAR 1,843
The Elektra series has been better than it has any right to be, and the Greg Rucka arc this reprints is one of the better books Marvel has done lately. Not a super-hero book, despite the costumes, and highly recommended.
37 ULTIMATE X-MEN VOL 5 ULTIMATE WAR TP $10.99 MAR 1,786
More sales for a book that came out the month before, the team-up between the Ultimate Avengers and Ultimate X-Men. It wasn't all that good, and I would recommend that you buy one of the other books in the list.
38 TOP SHELF ASKS BIG QUESTION (MR) $24.95 TOP 1,729
My shop still hasn't gotten it yet. Bastards.
39 LUPIN III VOL 4 GN (Of 14) $9.99 TKP
1,701
40 PUNISHER VOL 2 HC $29.99 MAR 1,687
I don't understand Marvel's method of putting out the hard cover AFTER the trade paperback. These are fun, dark stories and all, but they've already been in print twice, so I can't really recommend this unless you are a collector who wants the stuff in hardcover.
41 POP GUN WAR TP $13.95 DAR 1,672
42 INITIAL D VOL 6 GN $9.99 TKP 1,672
43 SIMPSONS BIG BAD BOOK O/BART SIMPSON TP $12.95 BON 1,630
I LOVE the Simpsons comic, but the Bart Simpson comic (which is reprinted here) just isn't quite as good. It relies more on silly stories, putting the Simpson characters in other roles (ie what if Bart were Jerry Springer) without as much in the way of satire and creativity as the main book.
44 SAMURAI DEEPER KYO VOL 1 GN $9.99 TKP
1,573
45 FABLES VOL 1 LEGENDS IN EXILE TP $9.95 DC 1,573
Also re-orders of the trade from a few months ago, showing that DC is having s few hits in its Vertigo line. This is a tired idea (fairy tale characters in the "real world", but it's done with style and has enough interesting twists that it's mildly recommended.
46 CASTLE I/T SKY VOL 1 TP $9.95 VIZ 1,559
47 GI JOE FRONTLINE VOL 1 MISSION THAT NEVER WAS TP $14.95 IMA 1,531
48 BUNKER GN $9.95 IMA 1,502
49 VIC & BLOOD TP $17.95 IBO 1,502
Reprinting the Harlan Ellison stories that were adapted for the movie "A Boy and His Dog", and some of Harlan's best work. Which is saying a lot. It tells the story in a dystopian future of a young man and his dog, when dogs are telepathic and as intelligent as humans. If you are looking for a fun read, this isn't it, but it does have a GREAT story with a twist ending to start the book, and then a story that deals with the aftermath of that twist in a fascinating way to end it all. Drawn with amazing skill by Richard Corbin, this is one of the better re-issue trades of the last year, and this is a Highly Recommended collection.
50 BRAIN POWERED VOL 1 GN $9.99 TKP 1,460