High-brow critics wisdom is to disregard popular works - what do ordinary people know about Art? I agree that quality has nothing to do with sales, but, at the same time, extremely popular works must have some quality to reach that level of popularity…
Best-selling illustrated books
In this list, I include some “text-only” books for comparison. According to Wikipedia, the most popular illustrated books are…
“The little prince”. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1943). ~200 million copies.
“Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone”, J.K. Rowling (1997). ~120 million
“The da Vinci Code”, Dan Brown (2003). ~80 million
“The tale of Peter Rabbit”, Beatrix Potter (1902). ~45 million
“The very hungry caterpillar”, Eric Carle (1969). ~43 million
“The adventures of Pinocchio”, Carlo Collodi (1881). ~35 million
“James and the giant peach”, Roald Dahl (1961). ~20 million
“Where the wild things are”, Maurice Sendak (1963). ~20 million.
“Charlie and the chocolate factory”, Roald Dahl (1964). ~20 million.
“The Poky Little Puppy”, Janette Sebring Lowrey (1942). ~15 million
“The Gruffalo”, Julia Donaldson (1999). ~11 million
“The Cat in the Hat”, Dr. Seuss (1957). ~11 million
Then, best-selling series of illustrated books:
“Diary of a Wimpy Kid”, Jeff Kinney (2007-present). ~275 million.
“Berenstain Bears”, Stan and Jan Berenstain (1962-present). ~260 million.
“Peter Rabbit”, Beatrix Potter (1902-1930). ~150 million.
“The Chronicles of Narnia”, C. S. Lewis (1950-1956). ~120 million.
“Miffy”, Dick Bruna (1955-present). ~85 million
“Anpanman”, Takashi Yanase (1973-2013). ~80 million
“Captain Underpants”, Dav Pilkey (1997-2015). ~80 million
“Winnie-the-Pooh”, A. A. Milne (1926-1928). ~70 million
“Where's Wally?”, Martin Handford (1987-present). ~50 million.
“Paddington Bear”, Michael Bond (1958-present). ~35 million.
“Le petit Nicolas”, Sempé + René Goscinny (1956-1965 ) ~15million
Best-selling comics
In Wikipedia there is a listing of comic series, from which I selected theses titles:
“One Piece”, Eiichiro Oda ~515 million copies
“Asterix” René Goscinny + Albert Uderzo ~385 million
“Dragon Ball”, Akira Toriyama ~350 million
“Peanuts”, Charles M. Schulz ~300 million
“The Adventures of Tintin”, Hergé ~250 million
“Black Jack”, Osamu Tezuka ~175 million
“Mortadelo y Filemón”, Ibáñez ~100 million