Cape and Cowl Comics' Best Selling Graphic Novels of 2018!

Saga Volume 8 Cover by Fiona Staples

It’s that time of year again! Time to dig into those down and dirty comic book sales stats and see what those crazy kids shopping for graphic novels in Oakland got up to in 2018. We. Love. This! We think it’s absolutely fascinating to dive into this. We’ve added a few rambly thoughts below the list, but if you notice anything you find particularly cool, interesting, perplexing, or infuriating we want to know what you think!

Before we do this thing though, we have to pause and thank you, thank you, thank you! We’re now a happy, (mostly) healthy 3 year old comic shop and we could not do it with a single one of you. We sold SO MANY graphic novels this year which means there are SO MANY people out there reading comics and we take serious pride in that!

All the love. Thank you!

1. Saga Vol. 8

2. Monstress Vol. 1

3. Black Panther Vol. 1

4. Saga Vol. 9

5. Calexit Vol. 1

6. Paper Girls Vol. 1

7. Saga Vol. 1

8. Paper Girls Vol. 4

9. Deadly Class Vol. 1

10. Wicked + Divine Vol. 1

11. Monstress Vol. 3

12. Miles Morales Ultimate Collection Vol. 1

13. Monstress Vol. 2

14. Black Panther World of Wakanda Vol. 1

15. Head Lopper Vol. 1

16. Seven to Eternity Vol. 1

17. Black Panther Hardcover Vol. 1

18. Wicked + Divine Vol. 6

19. Space Riders Vol. 1

20. Batman White Knight

21. Saga Vol. 2

22. Paper Girls Vol. 2

23. Infinity Gauntlet

24. Head Lopper Vol. 2

25. Paper Girls Vol. 3

26. Black Panther Vol. 4

27. Saga Vol. 5

28. Snotgirl Vol. 1

29. Dark Nights Metal The Nightmare Batmen Hardcover

30. Ms. Marvel Vol. 1

31. Saga Vol. 7

32. Saga Vol. 4

33. Saga Vol. 3

34. X-Men Grand Design Vol. 1

35. Bitch Planet Vol. 1

36. 4 Kids Walk into A Bank

37. Saga Vol. 6

38. East of West Vol. 8

39. Black AF America’s Sweetheart

40. Deadly Class Vol. 7

41. Deadly Class Vol. 6

42. Chew Vol. 1

43. Wicked + Divine Vol. 7

44. Paper Girls Vol. 5

45. Deadly Class Vol. 2

46. Black Science Vol. 1

47. Sex Criminals Vol. 1

48. Isola Vol. 1

49. Black Vol. 1

50. Black Panther Vol. 5

51. Space Riders Vol. 2

52. Kill or Be Killed Vol. 1

53. Infinity War

54. Kill or Be Killed Vol. 3

55. Wicked + Divine Vol. 2

56. Fear Agent Final Edition Vol. 1

57. Lumberjanes Vol. 1

58. Black Panther Vol. 3

59. Black Panther Digest (All Ages Reprints)

60. Dark Nights Metal Hardcover

61. East of West Vol. 1

62. Black Monday Murders Vol. 2

63. Black Monday Murders Vol. 1

64. My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies

65. Snotgirl Vol. 2

66. Black Panther Shuri Deadliest of the Species

67. I Hate Fairyland Vol. 1

68. Deadly Class Vol. 3

69. Sex Criminals Vol. 5

70. Gideon Falls Vol. 1

71. Captain Marvel Earth’s Mightiest Hero Vol. 1

72. American Gods Hardcover Vol. 1

73. Kill or Be Killed Vol. 4

74. Wicked + Divine Vol. 5

75. Rick & Morty Vol. 1

76. Bitch Planet Triple Feature

77. Tokyo Ghost Vol. 1

78. Kill or Be Killed Vol. 2

79. Descender Vol. 5

80. Seven to Eternity Vol. 2

81. Love is Love

82. Batman Vol. 4 War of Jokes and Riddles

83. Shirtless Bear-Fighter Cape & Cowl Exclusive Var.

84. Amulet Vol. 1

85. Night Night Groot Board Book

86. Black Panther Official Movie Special Hardcover

87. Sandman Vol. 1

88. Black Science Vol. 7

89. Batman Vol. 5 Rules of Engagement

90. Deadly Class Vol. 4

91. The Vision Hardcover

92. Paper Girls Vol. 1 Hardcover

93. Descender Vol. 6

94. Deadly Class Vol. 5

95. Cleopatra in Space Vol. 1

96. Black Panther and the Crew

97. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Vol. 1

98. Prince and the Dressmaker

99. Girl Town

100. Princeless Vol. 1

•  Image Comics makes up a whopping 62% of our list this year! That’s up from 52% in 2017.

• Marvel comes in 2nd with 18%, DC and Black Mask are tied for 3rd with 6% each, Scholastic makes up 2% of the list, and BOOM, Dark Horse, Oni, Action Lab, Top Shelf/IDW, and :01 Second each come in at 1%

• DC’s 6% is a pretty significant drop from the 21.5% they claimed on 2017’s list.

• 25% of the books on this list feature women creators/members of the creative team!

• We’ve got 8 all-ages titles on here, which is up from 6 in 2017. This is something we’re always looking to improve upon so fingers crossed for 2019.

• 15 of the 18 Marvel titles on this list feature characters that were in a Marvel movie this year. 10 of these are Black Panther books!

• There are more Black Panther books on here than DC books. Ouch.

• Just 36% of the list were books released for the first time in 2018.

• 39 of the books on the list are the first volume of multi-volume series. People like trying new things!