We don’t normally cotton to populism, but we had to dig these numbers up for something else we were working on and we were quite happy to see what was selling at The Beguiling in 2012. We thought it might be a nice thing to share with all of you, to reinforce your excellent tastes and maybe nudge you towards picking some of the other books listed.

As a note, we have confined this list to books released in calendar-year 2012, as there are a number of perennials that would skew the top ten listing considerably.

10. Back Alleys and Urban Landscapes, by Michael Cho. Published by Drawn & Quarterly.

9. New York Drawings, by Adrian Tomine. Published by Drawn & Quarterly.

8. Loeg III Century #3 2009, by Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill. Published by Top Shelf Productions.

7. Saga Volume 01, by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples. Published by Image Comics.

6. Jerusalem, by Guy Delisle. Published by Drawn & Quarterly.

5. King City, by Brandon Graham. Published by Image Comics.

4. Are You My Mother, by Alison Bechdel. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

3. Underwater Welder, by Jeff Lemire. Published by Top Shelf Productions.

2. The Hive, by Charles Burns. Published by Pantheon Books.

1. Building Stories, by Chris Ware. Published by Pantheon Books.

Honorable Mentions:
11. (TIE) Jinchalo, by Matt Forsythe. Published by Drawn & Quarterly.
11. (TIE) Walking Dead Volume 16: A Larger World. Published by Image Comics.

Quite a different list than perhaps might be reported elsewhere, but one we weren’t terribly surprised by. We thank all of the wonderful creators and publishers whose work is represented on this list, as well as the hundreds more making great books, for keeping us in business.

– Chris @ The Beguiling