Diamond’s Top 50 Manga Graphic Novels and TPs for February 2012

Media Release — The Soul Reapers make a desperate stand against the forces of Aizen in Bleach Volume 38, the latest volume of VIZ Media’s popular series and the best-selling manga sold to comics retailers in February.

In total VIZ Media had five of the top ten manga titles in February, including Yu-Gi-Oh 5DS Volume 2 at #4, Bakuman Volume 9 at #5, Blue Exorcist Volume 6 at #8, and Naoki Urasawa’s 20th-Century Boys Volume 19 at #10.

Also in the top ten were Dark Horse Comics (two titles, led by Gantz Volume 21 at #3), Del Rey Manga (xxxHolic Volume 19 at #9), Kodansha Comics (Negima! Volume 33 at #2), and Yen Press (Soul Eater Volume 8 at #6).

Data for Diamond’s sales charts – which include the monthly market shares and all top product charts – are compiled by Diamond Comic Distributors from a universe of over 3,500 accounts, comprised of comic book specialty shops and other merchant stores and buyers. The shops are primarily located in North America, with a percentage of sales also to international stores and buyers located throughout the world. The account base includes not only brick-and-mortar comic book specialty shops, but also Internet stores, chain stores, and other specialty stores.

Unit and dollars sales are calculated based upon orders invoiced and shipped to Diamond accounts during any given month, which comprises initial pre-orders, advance reorders, and reorders, minus any copies that are received back from a title marked as returnable.

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.