'Mission in a Bottle' tops hardcover graphic books best-sellers list

Back in early August, I started writing a regular Sunday feature called “Comic Book of the Week” in which I spotlight an old comic book from my extensive collection. I’m running this feature on the same day that I’ve run my weekly breakdown of the Publishers Weekly best-seller lists for the past several years.

This past Sunday, I began researching best-seller lists for comic books and graphic novels so that I can do a similar feature each week on those, just like I’ve been doing for years for regular books. I couldn’t find a good best-seller list for comic books - If you know of one, let me know - but I did learn that The New York Times publishes weekly best-seller lists for hardcover and paperback graphic books.

The New York Times began publishing these weekly lists in March 2009 and these lists reflect graphic novels sales for the previous week at thousands of venues across the United States. These venues include independent book retailers; national, regional and local chainstores; online and multimedia entertainment retailers; university, gift, supermarket, discount department stores, newsstands; and comic book stores.

Today, I’m posting the two most recent best-seller lists, but next week, I’ll make a note of the books that are new to the list as well as the changes at the top of each list. As a reminder, I’ll be posting these lists each Tuesday because they, as a whole, represent a great, contemporary recommended reading list. These lists are initially released each week on Thursday, and if you’re interested in reading them then, visit The New York Times’ Web site at www.nytimes.com. Below you’ll find both of this week’s best-seller lists, which reflect sales through Sept. 14.

HARDCOVER GRAPHIC BOOKS:
1. Mission in a Bottle by Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff, illustrations by Sungyoon Choi
2. Amazing Spider-man Omnibus, Vol. 1 by Stan Lee and others
3. Pacific Rim: Tales from Year Zero by Travis Beacham and Sean Chen
4. Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland
5. The Flash, Vol. 2 by Francis Manapul, Brian Buccellato and Marcus To
6. Once Upon a Time by Daniel T. Thomsen and Corinna Bechko
7. The Walking Dead, Book 1 by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard
8. Fables: The Deluxe Edition, Book Seven by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham
9. The Sandman Omnibus, Vol. 1 by Neil Gaiman and others.
10. Building Stories by Chris Ware

PAPERBACK GRAPHIC BOOKS:

1. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

2. March: Book One by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, artwork by Nate Powell

3. Animal Man, Vol. 3 by Jeff Lemire and others

4. Boxers by Gene Lune Yang

5. Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
6. Saints by Gene Luen Yang

7. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

8. Chew, Vol. 7 by John Layman and Rob Guillory

9. Smile by Raina Telgemeier

10. Saga, Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

In the end, let me know if you’ve had a chance to read any of these books. What did you think about them? Which would you recommend? Let us know in the comments section below.