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American comics are doing well, but they no longer have the market hold they used to. Deadpool/Batman #1 sold over 500,000 units, making it the highest-selling American comic of 2025. It’s an impressive number, and far higher than the usual 100,000 range most highly successful comics get. However, a typical issue of Batman would generally sell nearly 900,000 copies in 1966 (thanks to Adam West), and Superman wasn’t far behind.

This is understandable as comics have become more a niche hobby. However, manga appears to be going strong. Weekly Shōnen Jump regularly sold 1 million copies per issue in 2025, and keep in mind that’s a weekly title. Part of this is cultural, with manga being more of a mainstream hobby in Eastern countries. However, Robert Kirkman believes the manga-to-anime pipeline is a big part of that success, and it’s what he’s trying to recreate with the Invincible animated series.

“What I’m seeing with Invincible, and the way that the animated series is fueling the sales on the trades in the direct market is something that to me is signaling that there’s a potential to build something really exciting in this industry that will sustain us for years and years and years,” Robert Kirkman says during a keynote speech at ComicsPRO 2026.

“Everybody talks about manga and how successful manga is, and the thing that makes manga so successful is the manga to anime pipeline. And with Invincible, we’re seeing that you can with American comics basically do the exact same thing.”

It hasn’t escaped Kirkman’s notice that sales of the Invincible trade paperbacks have grown since the animated series began, and he thinks this could serve as a template for future comic book shows.

“Invincible is an animated series that adapts the comic book very closely, and it is doing really well, and all of the streaming services are so excited about adult animation that they are rolling out entire divisions trying to do that. And I think that as more comic books are adapted in this way, because having done Invincible, comics being adapted into animation really is the most seamless transition, and I feel like the two mediums are just made for each other. And so I think that there is a future where we can have a comics to animation pipeline that will fuel this entire industry in a completely unprecedented way. And we’re already seeing the beginnings of it now.”

Invincible is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

From the self-proclaimed "best superhero comic in the univrse" Invincible to the hit animated series Invincible on Prime Video, here's everything you need to enjoy it more:

• How to watch Invincible in release and chronological order
• Invincible ending explained: What happens to Invincible, Omni-Man, the Viltrum Empire, and everyone else in Robert Kirkman’s original comic series
• The biggest differences between the Invincible comic and the Prime Video animated series
• Watch Prime Video's official Invincible panel from NYCC 2025, with Steven Yeun, Gillian Jacobs, Robert Kirkman, and Lee Pace
• Prime Video's Invincible season 4 will include "a few bits" not from the comics, and co-creator Robert Kirkman is excited about it
• Invincible, the TV show, won't repeat the Spawn cameo from Invincible, the comic - here's why
• Popverse Picks: The best Invincible characters (according to me!)