List of The New York Times Manga Best Sellers

The New York Times Best Seller list for manga published in the United States was introduced on March 5, 2009, along with two additional lists for hardcover and paperback graphic novels. The three lists are grouped under the "Graphic Books" category. Deborah Hoffman, an editor for the Best Seller lists, explained that the term "Graphic Books" was selected to create an "inclusive and expansive" list which can extend to works of both fiction and non-fiction. Journalist George Gustines announced, in his introduction of the new lists, "Comics have finally joined the mainstream." The announcement was made the week the film Watchmen, based on the comic book of the same name, was released in movie theaters throughout the U.S. The Best Seller lists are printed weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication.

Gustines explained the methodology used to determine the rankings:

Rankings reflect sales of graphic novels [...] at many thousands of venues where a wide range of books are sold nationwide. These include hundreds of independent book retailers (statistically weighted to represent all such outlets); national, regional and local chains; online and multimedia entertainment retailers; university, gift, supermarket, discount department stores and newsstands. In addition, these rankings also include unit sales reported by retailers nationwide that specialize in graphic novels and comic books.

On multiple occasions, manga have been listed outside its designated list. Mike Kiley, then-Senior Vice President of the publisher Tokyopop, explained in 2010 that it has become more difficult to draw a distinguishing line between works that are manga and manga-inspired, such as Korean manhwa and American original English language (OEL) manga.A Drifting Life, an autobiographical manga by Yoshihiro Tatsumi, appeared on the May 3, 2009, Best Seller list for paperback graphic novels, where it ranked third.X-Men: Misfits, an original English manga based on the X-Men comic book franchise, ranked fifth at its debut on the August 30, 2009, paperback graphic novels list, and stayed on the chart for five consecutive weeks. The first volume of a manhwa adaptation of the popular vampire-themed Twilight novels by Stephenie Meyer remained on the hardcover graphic novels Best Seller list for 27 consecutive weeks in 2010.

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