FLOAT 100 · Comics · No. 72

Invincible #1

A $2.95 superhero book that barely cracked 10,000 orders in January 2003 hid one of modern comics' great twists, and a hit animated series turned its first printing into a four-figure key.

Year: 2003
Maker: Image Comics
By price in comics: 52 of 100

Realized at auction · Jul 23, 2026$8,235A realized sale: somebody paid it.

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On sale: January 22, 2003
Publisher: Image Comics Inc.
Creators: Writer Robert Kirkman, artist Cory Walker (pencils and inks), colorist Bill Crabtree
Cover price: $2.95 U.S., $4.50 Canada; 36 pages
Main story: 22 pages, opening with the line "Y'know, you really ruined my afternoon."
Estimated orders: 10,751 copies ordered through the direct market, ranked 157th for January 2003
Series: 144 issues, January 2003 to February 2018
Adaptation: Animated series on Amazon Prime Video from March 2021
This entry: First printing in CGC 9.8; later printings and variants sell for far less

A teenager whose powers come late

Invincible #1 went on sale on January 22, 2003, according to the distributor's retailer database. It cost $2.95, ran 36 pages and carried a single 22-page story. Jim Valentino, then Image's publisher, is credited with the editing.

The premise was simple. Mark Grayson is a 17-year-old whose father, Nolan, is Omni-Man, the most powerful hero on Earth and an alien from the planet Viltrum. In the first issue Mark's own powers finally arrive, and he tries to fit heroics around high school, a part-time job and family dinners. The book introduced a supporting cast that included the villain Titan, Art Rosenbaum, the tailor who makes costumes for heroes, and Principal Winslow.

Invincible was part of a small superhero line Kirkman launched at Image. Tech Jacket, a six-issue series, and Brit, a set of one-shots that later became an ongoing title, came out around the same time.

Two young creators and a long game

Robert Kirkman was born on November 30, 1978, in Lexington, Kentucky, and grew up in Cynthiana. His first comic, Battle Pope, was self-published in 2000 under the Funk-O-Tron label with the artist Tony Moore. Cory Walker co-created Invincible with him and drew the first seven issues before Ryan Ottley took over as the regular artist from issue #8.

The first issue was close to a two-man operation: Kirkman wrote and lettered it, and Walker penciled and inked both the story and the cover. Bill Crabtree colored it.

Later in 2003 Kirkman launched a second Image series, The Walking Dead, with Tony Moore. In July 2008 he was made a partner at Image Comics, the only partner who was not one of the company's founders, and in 2010 he launched Skybound Entertainment, which went on to oversee Invincible.

The twist that made the series

Readers of the first issue meet a warm, slightly corny superhero family. The payoff came later. In issue #7, Omni-Man lures the Guardians of the Globe, Earth's leading superhero team, to their hideout in Utah and murders all of them. Nolan eventually tells his son that he was sent not to protect Earth but to conquer it for the Viltrum Empire.

That reversal is the reason the quiet first issue now matters so much. Invincible ran 144 issues, collected in 25 volumes, and ended on February 14, 2018. Its last years were drawn by Ryan Ottley, and Kirkman kept the same lead character for the whole run.

First appearance, with an asterisk

Invincible #1 is widely sold as the first appearance of Invincible and Omni-Man, but sources differ on that label. Five pages of the story were previewed months earlier in Savage Dragon #102, cover-dated August 2002, and the Grand Comics Database lists Mark, Nolan and Debbie Grayson as making their second appearances in Invincible #1 for that reason. Wikipedia's character entry calls the Savage Dragon preview the first appearance and Invincible #1 the first full appearance in his own title.

Collectors treat the 2003 first printing as the key. The issue has since been reprinted many times, including a 2004 edition, an Image Firsts reprint in 2010, Free Comic Book Day and Local Comic Shop Day editions in 2020, a promotional printing for the animated series in 2021 and a facsimile edition in 2023. There are also variant covers, including a retailer exclusive and three 2015 convention box-set covers by Cory Walker.

To identify a first printing, collectors check the original January 2003 indicia from Image Comics Inc. and the $2.95 cover price. Grading labels and price lists usually say "1st print" outright, because a reprint or variant can sell for a small fraction of the original.

From modest orders to a modern key

The issue started small. Estimated direct-market orders for January 2003 came to 10,751 copies, 157th on the month's chart. The month's best seller, Batman #611 drawn by Jim Lee, was estimated at 129,377 copies, roughly twelve times as many.

No official print run or current census count appears in the sources consulted here. What the market record shows is demand for top-grade copies. A CGC 9.8 white-page copy sold for $3,432.75 at an online auction on June 9, 2022, after 12 bids. In 2026, after the animated series reached its fourth season, CGC 9.8 first printings regularly sold between about $6,500 and $9,500 online; one sold at auction for $8,235 on July 23, 2026.

The record for this entry lists a $7,500 sale on May 28, 2026. The sales list consulted shows two 9.8 sales on May 28 and May 24 at $8,000 and a $7,500 sale on May 14, 2026.

Into animation

Invincible debuted as an animated series on Amazon Prime Video in March 2021, with Steven Yeun voicing Mark, J.K. Simmons as Omni-Man and Sandra Oh as Debbie Grayson. Sources differ by a day on the premiere: the series article gives March 25, 2021, the character article March 26. Seasons followed in 2023 to 2024, 2025 and 2026, and the show was renewed through further seasons. A first 12-issue motion comic had earlier aired on MTV2, and a prequel spinoff, Invincible Universe: Battle Beast, was announced to begin in April 2025.

Kirkman received the Inkpot Award in 2012 and a special award at the 2020 Angouleme International Comics Festival. The first issue that sold about ten thousand copies to stores now anchors a franchise across comics and television.

The numbers

Cover price: $2.95 U.S. / $4.50 Canada
Pages: 36; one 22-page story
Estimated orders: 10,751 (direct market, January 2003, rank 157)
Print run: Not documented in the sources consulted
Census: No verified CGC census count found in the sources consulted
Reprints: At least six later editions of the full story, 2004 to 2023, plus variant covers

Timeline

2000
Robert Kirkman self-publishes his first comic, Battle Pope, with Tony Moore.
Aug 2002
A five-page preview of Invincible appears in Savage Dragon #102.
Jan 22, 2003
Invincible #1 goes on sale from Image Comics for $2.95.
Jan 2003
Estimated direct-market orders for the issue reach 10,751, 157th for the month.
Oct 2003
Kirkman's The Walking Dead #1 is published.
Jul 2008
Kirkman becomes a partner at Image Comics.
2010
Kirkman launches Skybound Entertainment; Image Firsts reprints Invincible #1.
Feb 14, 2018
The series ends after 144 issues.
2020
Invincible #1 is reprinted for Free Comic Book Day and Local Comic Shop Day.
Mar 2021
The animated series premieres on Amazon Prime Video.
Jun 9, 2022
A CGC 9.8 copy sells at online auction for $3,432.75.
2023
A facsimile edition of Invincible #1 is published.
Jul 23, 2026
A CGC 9.8 first printing sells at auction for $8,235.

The world in 2003

Jan 24, 2003
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security begins operations.
Jan 26, 2003
Tampa Bay beats Oakland 48-21 in Super Bowl XXXVII.
Feb 1, 2003
Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas on reentry, killing all seven astronauts.
Mar 20, 2003
The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq begins.
May 30, 2003
Pixar's Finding Nemo is released in theaters.
2003
SARS spreads as an epidemic centered in Guangdong and Hong Kong.

Price record

$1,000$10,000

Date	Price	Kind
Jun 9, 2022	$3,433	Sold at auctionCGC 9.8, white pages; online auction, 12 bids.
Jul 23, 2026	$8,235	Sold at auctionCGC 9.8, white pages, first printing.

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Invincible #1 is number 52 of 100 in the comics entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (72 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

Robert Kirkman lettered Invincible #1 himself.
The first five pages of Invincible #1 were previewed in Savage Dragon #102 months before the book came out.
The month Invincible #1 shipped, Batman #611 outsold it about twelve to one.
Kirkman launched The Walking Dead the same year as Invincible.
Kirkman is the only partner at Image Comics who was not one of its founders.
The first issue introduced Art Rosenbaum, the tailor who designs heroes' costumes.

How this page is made

The figure: One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
Realized or not: A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
The story: Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
Archive: Oct 5, 2026