The Small Press Comics & TPBs/OGN Sales Charts for the Year of 2009

• The top ranking small press graphic novel of 2009 was The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1910 (Top Shelf), with an overall ranking at position #2.

In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Vol III): Century #1 (“1910″), our familiar cast of Victorian literary characters enters the brave new world of the 20th century!

CHAPTER ONE is set against a backdrop of London, 1910, twelve years after the failed Martian invasion and nine years since England put a man upon the moon. In the bowels of the British Museum, Carnacki the ghost-finder is plagued by visions of a shadowy occult order who are attempting to create something called a Moonchild, while on London’s dockside the most notorious serial murderer of the previous century has returned to carry on his grisly trade. Working for Mycroft Holmes’ British Intelligence alongside a rejuvenated Allan Quatermain, the reformed thief Anthony Raffles and the eternal warrior Orlando, Miss Murray is drawn into a brutal opera acted out upon the waterfront by players that include the furiously angry Pirate Jenny and the charismatic butcher known as Mac the Knife. This one is not to be missed!

This book is the first of three deluxe, 80-page, full-color, perfect-bound graphic novellas, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O’Neill — with lettering by Todd Klein, and colors by Ben Dimagmaliw. Each self-contained narrative takes place in three distinct eras, building to an apocalyptic conclusion occurring in our own twenty-first century. — 6 5/8″ x 10 1/8″

- Written by Alan Moore, with art by Kevin O’Neill.

• The second spot goes to Scott Pilgrim Volume 5: Scott Pilgrim vs The Universe (Oni Press), with an overall ranking at position #14.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe is the penultimate volume of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s story about a Canadian slacker who falls in love with American delivery girl Ramona V. Flowers, but must defeat her seven “evil exes” in order to date her.

Scott Pilgrim just turned 24, and things couldn’t possibly be better! This means things are about to get infinitely worse. Suddenly, TWO of Ramona’s evil ex-boyfriends are in town, and they’re playing dirty. His band is in turmoil, and his own exes aren’t making things any easier. And what’s up with Ramona, anyway? She’s been acting kinda weird ever since they moved in together. It’s the SECOND LAST VOLUME of SCOTT PILGRIM: Scott’s precious little life is coming back around to bite him in the butt, and it may not be pretty!

- Written and Illustrated by Bryan Lee O’Malley.

• The third spot goes to Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life (Oni Press), with an overall ranking at position #55

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life is the first volume of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s story about a Canadian slacker who falls in love with American delivery girl Ramona V. Flowers, but must defeat her seven “evil exes” in order to date her.

Scott Pilgrim’s life is so awesome. He’s 23 years old, in a rock band, “between jobs,” and dating a cute high school girl. Everything’s fantastic until a seriously mind-blowing, dangerously fashionable, rollerblading delivery girl named Ramona Flowers starts cruising through his dreams and sailing by him at parties. But the path to Ms Flowers isn’t covered in rose petals. Ramona’s seven evil ex-boyfriends stand in the way between Scott and true happiness. Can Scott beat the bad guys and get the girl without turning his precious little life upside-down?

- Written and Illustrated by Bryan Lee O’Malley.

• The fourth spot goes to Mouse Guard Volume 2: Winter 1152 (Archaia), with an overall ranking at position #75

In the Winter of 1152, the Mouse Guard face a food and supply shortage threatening the lives of many mouse through a cold and icy season. Some of the Guard’s finest - Saxon, Kenzie, Lieam, and Sadie, led by Celanawe, the legendary Black Axe - traverse the snow-blanketed territories acting as diplomats to improve relations between the mouse cities and the Guard, and find themselves on a race against time to deliver crucial medicines. This is a winter not every Guard may survive… Collects the second Mouse Guard series by Russ Manning Award-winner David Petersen, with an epilogue and bonus content.

- Written and illustrated by David Peterson.

• The fifth spot goes to Rasl Volume 1: The Drift (Cartoon Books), with an overall ranking at position #123

Cartoon Books proudly presents Jeff Smith’s new adventure series, RASL - a stark, sci-fi series about a dimension-jumping art thief, a man unplugged from the world who races through space and time searching for his next big score - and trying to escape his past. In this first of three graphic novels, Rasl faces an assassin’s bullet and stumbles across a mystery that not only threatens to expose his own illicit activities, but could also uncover one of the world’s most dangerous and sought after secrets!

- Written and illustrated by Jeff Smith.

• The sixth spot goes to Warren Ellis’ Frankenstein’s Womb (Avatar Press), with an overall ranking at position #126

1816 was called “The Year Without A Summer.” In the weird darkness of that July’s volcanic winter, Mary Wolfestonecraft Godwin began writing Frankenstein on the shore of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. But that is not where Frankenstein began. It began a few months earlier when, en route through Germany to Switzerland, Mary, her future husband Percy Shelley, and her stepsister Clair Clairmont approached a strange castle. Castle Frankenstein, some one hundred years earlier, had been home to Johann conrad Dippel, whose experiments included the independent invention of mitroglycerin, a distillation of the exlixir of life - and the transfer of a live soul into an awful accretion of human body parts! Mary never spoke of having entered the real Castle Frankenstein, stark on its hilltop south of Darmstadt. But she did. and she was never the same again - becasue something was haunting that tower, and Mary met it there. Fear, deather, and alchemy - the modern age is created here, in lost moments in a ruined castle on a day never recorded.

The newest addition to Warren Ellis’ Apparat line of original graphic novels has arrved! Following up the huge successes of Crecy and Aetheric Mechanics, Ellis turns his spark of mad genius to bring us a fantastical tale in this all-new original graphic novel illustrated in atmospheric perfection by newcomer Marek Oleksicki.

- Written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Marek Oleksicki.

• The seventh spot goes to Stinky (TOON Books), with an overall ranking at position #131

Stinky is a monster who loves pickles and possums - but is terrified of people! When a new kid enters his swamp, this adorable little monster comes up with all sorts of crazy plans to scare him away. But Stinky quickly learns to conquer his fear, as he realizes that bats, rats, and toads aren’t the only friends you can find in the swamp. This hilarious and heart-warming story by ferociously talented newcomer Eleanor Davis proves that even monsters can make new friends… warts and all!

- Written and illustrated by Eleanor Davis.

• The eight spot goes to Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 2: Scott Pilgrim Versus The World (Oni Press), with an overall ranking at position #141

Scott Pilgrim Versus the World is the second volume of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s story about a Canadian slacker who falls in love with American delivery girl Ramona V. Flowers, but must defeat her seven “evil exes” in order to date her.

Does Scott and Ramona’s burgeoning relationship have a future? Isn’t Scott still supposedly dating Knives Chau? Who is Ramona’s second evil ex-boyfriend, and why is he in Toronto? Who are The Clash At Demonhead, and what kind of bizarre art-punky music do they play? Who’s their hot girl keyboardist, and what is Scott’s relation to her? Why are they Knives Chau’s new favourite band? Fights! Drama! Secrets revealed! The answers to all these questions and more!

- Written and Illustrated by Bryan Lee O’Malley.

• The ninth spot goes to Alan Moore’s Light Of Thy Countenance (Avatar Press), with an overall ranking at position #161

Alan Moore, master and magician of storytelling, tears back the veil of one of the most arcane of enchantments - The Magic of Television! Part grimoire, part grim invocation of things that are all too ordinary, Light of Thy Countenance - an original and breathtaking story by Alan Moore - is adapted to graphic novella format by Antony Johnston, preserving every word, with each page painstakingly painted by Felipe Massafera.

Maureen Cooper is not real. She is an apparition summoned to screens, into homes, into the hearts and mind of the viewing audience by Carol Livesly. But Carol Livesly is not the god that creates the illusions that capture the mind and bind the soul. She is only a servant of a higher power. A higher, hungry power, as old as the world and eternally new. As, perhaps, are we all.

- Written by Alan Moore, adapted by Antony Johnston, illustrated by Felipe Massafera.

• The tenth spot goes to Freakangels, Volume 2 (Avatar Press), with an overall ranking at position #184

This installment collects the entire second arc of the post-apocalyptic saga into 144 gorgeous, full-color pages. Twenty-three years ago, twelve strange children were born in England at exactly the same moment. Six years later, the world ended. Today, eleven strange 23-year-olds are living in and defending Whitechapel, maybe the last real settlement in flooded London. They’ve made a new friend, and together they successfully defended their home from raiders-but the post-apocalyptic drowned London that the eleven Freakangels survive in is never a safe place, and never surrounded by friends. Night has only just fallen, but strangers already creep through Whitechapel with the worst of intentions and the weapons to see them through.

In FREAKANGELS: VOLUME TWO, we discover just how bad the situation in sunken England has gotten, and we meet the last of the eleven strange Freakangels. But the twelfth, sinister Mark, is still out there somewhere… Ellis’ ongoing story of a flooded London is beautifully illustrated in jaw-dropping detail by Paul Duffield, and every page is as much a work of art as it is a compelling and multi-layered story.

- Written by Warren Ellis, illustrated by Paul Duffield.