You would think that little could stand up in the face of the combined Direct Market power of the terms “Civil War” and “X-Men,” but a certain orphan and her passel of cursed friends and acquaintances managed it, with Fruits Basket Vol. 16 (Tokyopop) trumping some of the masses of Marvel event trades that compose most of the top 10 graphic novels for April.

Another group of orphans are hot on Tohru’s heels, however, as the seventh collection of Marvel’s Runaways comes in 9th place. In fact, two of Marvel’s digest-sized books cracked the top 100, the second being the eighth volume of the much-admired but almost-always-nearly-canceled Spider-Girl, landing in 67th place. These books are similar in size and price point to, say, Viz’s Shonen Jump Books, though they’re printed in full color. Runaways is, I believe, the last survivor of Marvel’s vaguely manga-influenced Tsunami line, and Spider-Girl pretty much lives in its own little world, continuity wise. (I wish more regular and complete bookstore figures were readily available, as I suspect both titles do pretty well there.)

I had wondered about last month’s somewhat lackluster performance of the 12th volume of Fullmetal Alchemist (Viz). It’s back this month, slightly higher in rank that it placed last month, but well below the 13th volume, which earns a more customary placement on the list (23rd in GNs overall, 4th in manga). Frequency of publication doesn’t seem to be hurting Death Note, with the 11th volume coming in 2nd in manga and 15th in graphic novels overall, compared to last month’s 2nd in manga and 7th in graphic novels overall. (Last month didn’t present quite so many Civil War trades.)

It’s another happy month for yaoi in the Direct Market, with three Juné titles making the top 100. When Dark Horse does manage to ship titles like Oh My Goddess, they do well in this market, with vol. 26 placing fifth in the manga pack and leading the rest of Dark Horse’s releases. And Del Rey has an unusually good Direct Market month, with three titles making the top one hundred. Genshiken isn’t surprising, but School Rumble? Who knew?

Oh, and kudos to not-safe-for-work Icarus for landing three titles on the top 300 comics list. How often can a manga publisher say that?

Newsarama has the Direct Market graphic novel figures for the month of April, and 32 manga titles made the top 100. That’s about 10 more than usual. More on the list later, but for now, here are the manga entries (and a couple of interesting digest-sized successes from Marvel) after the cut.

Graphic Novel Rank — Manga Rank — Title — Publisher

6 – 1 -FRUITS BASKET VOL 16 GN (Of 20) – TKP
9 – NA – RUNAWAYS VOL 7 LIVE FAST DIGEST TP – MAR
15 – 2 – DEATH NOTE VOL 11 TP – VIZ
20 – 3 – BLEACH VOL 18 TP – VIZ
23 – 4 – FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST VOL 13 TP – VIZ
32 – 5 – OH MY GODDESS VOL 26 TP – DAR
35 – 6 – PATH O/THE ASSASSIN VOL 6 TP (MR) – DAR
41 – 7 – BATTLE VIXENS VOL 11 GN (Of 11) (MR) – TKP
45 – 8 – INU YASHA VOL 29 TP – VIZ
51 – 9 – FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST VOL 12 TP – VIZ
52 – 10 – NEON GENESIS EVANGELION VOL 10 TP – VIZ
56 – 11 – ONE PIECE VOL 14 TP – VIZ
57 – 12 – CHIBI VAMPIRE VOL 4 GN (Of 9) (MR) – TKP
61 – 13 – SAIYUKI RELOAD VOL 7 GN (Of 7) (MR) – TKP
63 – 14 – GENSHIKEN VOL 8 GN (MR) – RAN
67 – NA – SPIDER-GIRL VOL 8 DUTY CALLS DIGEST TP – MAR
71 – 15 – TENJHO TENGE VOL 13 – DC
72 – 16 – LOVEHOLIC VOL 1 GN – DIG
74 – 17 – VAMPIRE KNIGHT VOL 2 TP – VIZ
75 – 18 – ROZEN MAIDEN VOL 4 GN (Of 7) – TKP
81 – 19 – HIKARU NO GO VOL 9 TP – VIZ
82 – 20 – BLACK CAT VOL 8 TP – VIZ
83 – 21 – FAKE FUR VOL 1 GN – DIG
84 – 22 – MILLENNIUM SNOW VOL 1 TP – VIZ
85 – 23 – RIN VOL 3 GN – DIG
87 – 24 – RG VEDA VOL 9 GN (Of 10) – TKP
88 – 25 – HANA KIMI VOL 17 GN – VIZ
89 – 26 – OLD BOY VOL 5 TP (MR) – DAR
90 – 27 – D GRAY MAN VOL 5 GN – VIZ
91 – 28 – SHAMAN KING VOL 12 TP – VIZ
92 – 29 – WALLFLOWER VOL 11 GN (MR) – RAN
93 – 30 – IS VOL 13 GN – VIZ
98 – 31 – SCHOOL RUMBLE VOL 5 GN (MR) – RAN
100 – 32 – YUBISAKI MILK TEA VOL 4 GN (Of 7) (MR) – TKP