“Dog Man,” manga dominate the July 2021 New York Times graphic novel best seller list

Manga volumes on bookcase

Last updated on December 10th, 2021

Time for a look at July‘s New York Times graphic novel best seller list.

The top five best sellers

  1. “Mothering Heights,” by Dav Pilkey (AmazonBookshopKobo)
  2. “My Hero Academia,” vol. 28, by Kohei Horikoshi (Amazon, Kobo)
  3. “Grime and Punishment,” by Dav Pilkey (AmazonBookshopKobo)
  4. “Cat Kid Comic Club,” by Dav Pilkey (AmazonBookshopKobo)
  5. “Chainsaw Man,” vol. 5, by Tatsuki Fujimoto (Amazon, Bookshop, Kobo)

(Disclosure: The blog is an affiliate of Bookshop.org, and will earn a commission for purchases made through Bookshop links.)

My Hero Academia vol. 28
“My Hero Academia,” vol. 28. Art by Kohei Horikoshi. (VIZ Media)

Yet another month of “Dog Man” as top dog

Once again, “Dog Man” dominates the best seller list. Three of the top five spots are “Dog Man” related titles, while the overall list has five spots taken by the canine cop.

Manga’s also tops

Manga also put in a strong showing, taking five of the 15 slots on the list. The best seller is the latest volume of “My Hero Academia,” along with a volume of “Chainsaw Man.”

As far as I can tell, “Chainsaw Man” (per Wikipedia) is a series about various devils running amok on Earth, and a young man who gets caught up in dealing with both said devils and the Yakuza. Also, he can turn into a human chainsaw? And the whole thing’s set in an alternate version of 1990s Japan?

Other graphic novels

Jerry Craft’s “New Kid” is still on the list, at #12 this month. I’m reminded the New York Times best seller list shows some creator diversity: a high number of non-White creators (between Jerry Craft and the various manga creators), plus women are usually well represented (though fewer than usual this month). Contrast both of those with the usual creative staff behind the direct market’s best sellers…

“The Twisted Ones” by Scott Cawthon and Kira Breed-Wrisley is a graphic novel based on the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” series of video games.

“Manga books” by Ruth and Dave is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (Flickr / CC BY / cropped from original)

Anthony Dean

Anthony Dean is the owner of Diverse Tech Geek and Diverse Media Notes.

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