Amazon Top 50

Here are the Top 50 Graphic Novels on Amazon this afternoon. All the previous caveats apply.


1 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days *
2 (-). Mercy Thompson Homecoming
3 (+4). Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
4 (+2). Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
5 (-). Watchmen
6 (+2). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw
7 (+4). Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
8 (+6). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
9 (-). The Complete Persepolis
10 (-7). Fables Vol. 12: The Dark Ages
11 (-7). The Walking Dead, Vol. 10: What We Become
12 (+8). The Complete Peanuts 1971-1974 Box Set *
13 (+4). Parker: The Hunter
14 (+12). Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)
15 (-3). Diary of a Wimpy Kid
16 (+2). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
17 (+5). Fun Home
18 (-8). Asterios Polyp
19 (-6). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
20 (+1). V for Vendetta
21 (N). A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge
22 (+2). Batman: The Killing Joke
23 (+4). The Complete Peanuts, 1973-1974 *
24 (-5). American Born Chinese
25 (-10). Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Deluxe Edition
26 (-1). Batman: Year One
27 (-4). The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale
28 (R). Predators and Prey (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Vol. 5) *
29 (R). Final Crisis
30 (R). Batman: The Long Halloween
31 (+6). Mouse Guard Volume 2: Winter 1152
32 (R). Watchmen (hardcover)
33 (-17). Time of Your Life (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 4)
34 (+14). Bone: One Volume Edition
35 (+6). The Arrival
36 (+7). The Joker
37 (N). Batman: Hush
38 (+2). Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation
39 (-9). The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
40 (-9). The Boys, Vol. 4
41 (N). Unknown Soldier Vol. 1: Haunted House
42 (N). The Manga Guide to Calculus
43 (-1). Green Lantern: Rage of the Red Lanterns
44 (-6). Dark Avengers Assemble (Dark Avengers, Vol. 1) *
45 (N). Blankets
46 (R). Stephen King's Dark Tower: Treachery
47 (-14). Angel: After the Fall, Vol. 4
48 (+1). The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1

Items with asterisks (*) are pre-order items.

N = New listing appearing on list for first time
R = Item returning to the list after having been off for 1 or more weeks


Commentary:

* Mercy Thompson Homecoming is finally released, but can't quite topple the newest Wimpy Kid pre-order. It will be interesting to see how long it hangs out int he top ten.

* The rest of the top ten—seven out of ten titles—is dominated by the University Effect. Expect to see it continue through at least mid-September.

* Despite reports from certain comics gossip columnists, followers of these charts know that the Arkham Asylum GN has been hanging about in the low teens–mid twenties–upper thirties on the Amazon bestseller lists for many months now. There might be a little bump from the video game, but it's not very significant and we know that you can't judge trends just by looking at a one-time snapshot. If it moves up into the top ten, then maybe we'll have something; but until now we haven't ever seen movement on the graphic novel charts based on a video game release.

* The highest debut, A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, saw some favorable mainstream press, and was as high as at least #4 earlier in the week. Another debut, the first Unknown Soldier collection, also had some MSM attention, but didn't get nearly as high of a jump in the charts.

Visiting A Broad

Bizarro is brought to you today by Vixen Travel Services.

I like this cartoon for its simplicity. The absurd lack of geographic proficiency of Americans is embarrassing and reflects our arrogance. It is yet another item on the "Why They Hate Us" list, and who can blame them? Far too many Americans are too self-absorbed and intellectually lazy to find out what is going on outside of our own borders. Or inside, for that matter. That's how the network calling itself "Fox News" gets away with passing off their absurd propaganda as "news."

On a less stressful note, with all the excitement of yesterday's first Bizarro contest I barely got any sleep last night. By the time the Western press was finished with me, around midnight, the Asian press started in. It was exhausting.

This morning, the winner, a reader indentifying himself as "t. tex," wrote to me and I was surprised to find out he is a guy I knew way back in my squandered youth in Texas. When I was front man for The Doo, Tex was at the helm of the infamous Dallas punkrock band, The Nervebreakers.

Tex is in Austin now, (good choice) and has a pretty interesting blog about music and other odd things. I got lost there this morning, applying my eye bones to the many peculiar photos and sundry art, to which I will be linking in the future. Always fun to find a new source.

Gotta catch some shut eye now. Conan wanted me on his show tonight to talk about the contest, but I just can't make it all the way out to the West Coast on such short notice.

See you in dreamland, kiddies...

CONTEST WINNER

We have a winner of the previous post's contest, a Mr. t. tex. I've posted his winning answers, coming in only minutes after I posted the contest, in the comments section of the contest blog. If you don't want to dig, here they are again, in t.'s own words:

Garfield graffiti added
snake added
screaming manface photo added
C gone from crash
backwards s
bugeyed little spaceman(?) in top right corner
month misspelled
object under car turned a different direction
image in back windshield added
license plate changed from pixie to piraro

Next contest is next week, and this time I'll announce it the day before, telling you exactly what time I'll post the images the next day, so that you can get a jump on the competition if you're so inclined. Thanks to everyone for entering!

Wasn't this fun?!

First Bizarro Contest!!!

Bizarro is brought to you today by Free Eye Exams.

For today's cartoon post, I've decided to try something different. A CONTEST! Weee.

The cartoon at top is the one that ran in the papers, the one below has been changed in ten ways. The first person to correctly list all ten differences in the comments section of this post will win an ENTIRE BOX of Bizarro Trading Cards. That's a bunch of cards, over a hundred, a full set, a 50-something dollar value retail.

"How can you afford to be so generous, Dan?" one might well ask.

To which I would reply, "I don't know, I'm just jacking around."

If the contest is fun and works out well, we'll do this from time to time. If it is a huge hassle for me and I start to sweat and weep, this will be the last one. Stay tuned.

Click on the individual images for a larger view. Some differences are easy (duh) some are hard.

Only one winner per contest. Must be alive to win. No purchase necessary. Do not use trading cards while operating heavy machinery. Light machinery is probably fine. Use of alcohol or tranquilizers may intensify effect of trading cards. Must be willing to send me a pic of yourself with your prize to post on the blog. Try to look excited. Winner does not have to agree to publish their name or location. Trading cards may present a choking hazard to people with a huge mouth and a tiny I.Q.

Let the slugfest begin...

Cave Democracy

Bizarro is brought to you today by Blood Sucking Babies.

I've always loved bats, ever since I was a kid in Oklahoma and could see them careen past the streetlight on our corner just after dark. The more I learn about them, the more fascinated I am.

Here are some of my favorite bat facts:

1. A single little brown bat can eat up to 1000 mosquitoes per hour.

2. Bats may have descended from primates, making them more closely related to humans than to rodents.

3. A single Mexican free-tailed bat can drink up to 3 bottles of tequila per hour.

4. There are over 1000 species of bats, making up around one fourth of all mammal species.

5. Vampires can not turn into bats.

6. Adam West, who played Batman on TV in the 1960s, was neither bat, nor man.

For more bat facts, go here.

Until next time, may your life be filled with Bavarian cream...

Could Digital Comics Save the Midlist?

I was contemplating this morning the coming wave of digital comics. (And by digital comics I don't mean Webcomics—those that are born online—but rather digital editions of print comics.)

It's no secret that the past decade or so has not been kind to the midlist in the direct market. A system has evolved by which the major publishers are chasing the hits with splashy first month sales. As in other media (films, books, music) this serves to depress sales of midlist titles, making it very hard for a comic series to have a long life selling in the middle of the pack. And you almost never see a comic series have a nice regular upward growth in sales.

It occurs to me that a couple of different digital comics models could be a boon to midlist titles.

The first, the "iTunes model" that is nearly imminent with Longbox, could results in long tail effects being realized. This would especially be a boon to smaller publishers that aren't picked up by a majority of comics shops, as they would have a way to point their widely dispersed potential audience to an online location for purchase. Since marginal costs for distributing digital comics is close to zero and "shelf space" is virtual, such comics can potentially find their audience much more easily,

The second, a subscription model, would potentially be more helpful for midlist titles at major publishers. An analogue for this is cable television subscription channels such as HBO or Showtime. These networks are selling a package to viewers, not individual programs. This means that a critically acclaimed title adds to the overall package and is not viewed in terms of opportunity costs lost by not doing the next big crossover event. (In an interview I recently heard with the head of documentary programming for HBO, she said that in her 30 years with the network no one had ever even gone over ratings with her!)

I for one want a comic market that can support a title like Nexus and that can nurture the next Bone.

Missing Link

As many a commentator noted, the first link in the previous blog about the caveman cartoon was not working. I've fixed it, so the "missing link" is back.

Thanks, Bizarrozzi!