I’d say if I learned two things from Wicked, number one is every musical should end at the intermission, and number two is that it’s very fun to sing the word pop-U-lure. As such, these are the most – sing it with me! – popUlar comics of the decade, from superhero comics to kids comics to critically acclaimed fancypants graphic novels and everything in between!
Given a fragmented sales ecosystem and shifting standards and metrics, keeping track of what’s popular in comics and graphic novels is not quite as simple as a New York Times bestseller list, or a year-end sales list. Plus, the goal posts shift depending on the playing field – for example, the expectations and sales of manga and kids comics are *very* different than the American model for selling superhero comics in local comic book stores. I try to take all that into consideration while also factoring in the personal experience of what it felt like to be obsessed with comics this decade and the books that made the most noise.
Since there will inevitably be backlash that misses this point, please note this is not the same as the best comics of the 2020s, or even necessarily my favorites! I have lists for those! A good number of these picks are both critically acclaimed and successful, but the primary metric I’m using here is sales data, and secondary is how much a book captured readers attention throughout the decade. These are the comics the most people read and that the most people were talking about. As always, it’s going to be inherently slanted through my view in America and books translated into English. But if you have suggestions, let me know in the comments!
Now listen, if you’d prefer a home for curated comics recommendations, I keep track of 10 new favorite graphic novels every month in the Comic Book Herald newsletter. Is it the best newsletter for comics recommendations? Well, since it’s the only one I both write and subscribe to, I have no choice but to say yes.
Further Reading:
25 Best Graphic Novels of the 2020s
The Most Popular Superhero Comics!
Although the biggest wave of energy came for the release of House of X / Powers of X during the summer and fall of 2019, the collected editions released in 2020 and the start of Jonathan Hickman’s (short-lived) time spearheading X-Men comics was an undeniable moment in mutantdom.
Listen, did it end well? It sure didn’t! But in the words of Stevie Nicks (or is that, NiX?), “When you were good? You were veeerrrrry, veeerrry good.”
Read the whole era with Comic Book Herald’s X-Men: Age of Krakoa reading order!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin
About once every 20 years, a well-known franchise receives the “Dark Future” treatment in a way that completely captivates a fanbase. For Batman there’s The Dark Knight Returns, for X-Men there’s Old Man Logan, for Spider-Man there’s the one with radioactive sperm, and now for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, there’s The Last Ronin. Based on a 1987 plot outline from TMNT co-creators Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, The Last Ronin effectively summarizes decades of Turtles history into one effective story of the last turtle standing. It’s noir-ish, mysterious, and full of heart and action.
Read the whole series with Comic Book Herald’s TMNT: The Last Ronin reading order.
Bilquis Evely and Tom King’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow may have one of the fastest rises to move adaptation inspiration in comics history, as the graphic novel quickly became one of James Gunn’s go-to source materials for the refreshed DC Movie Universe. It’s an understandable move by Gunn, as Tom King is arguably the most successful DC Comics writer of the past decade, and most importantly, Evely and colorist Matheus Lopes made one of the coolest looking comics of the decade.
For more, check out Comic Book Herald’s Supergirl reading order.
Transformers (Energon Universe)
Turns out if you hand a floundering franchise to one of the most explosively skilled and popular cartoonists of the decade, you might just light a fire sparking an entire shared universe. Robert Kirkman lit the fuse with the secret universe launch in Void Rivals, and then Daniel Warren Johnson poured gasoline on the fire as the hype around the Energon Universe accelerated out of control.
The whole ensuing Energon Universe (Transformers, GI Joe, Void Rivals, and all those sweet 80s Toys Skybound licenses) fully captured comics reader’s growing appetite for concise, approachable superhero shared universes.
For the full read, check out Comic Book Herald’s Energon Universe reading order!
Marvel’s rebooted Ultimate Universe (aka the Ultimate 2niverse) was a relative – if deliberately short-lived – success for the publisher, with Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto’s Ultimate Spider-Man leading the way. The new USM became one of Marvel’s best sellers due to 1) A hunger for a knockout Spider-Man comic with the mainline Amazing Spider-Man wandering through the wilderness for years 2) Possibly an even greater hunger for Peter Parker and MJ to work it out and start a proper family after 60+ years of continuity! and 3) Jonathan Hickman’s first time writing a solo Spider-Man comics run.
Read the whole era with Comic Book Herald’s Marvel Ultimate Universe 2 reading order!
Absolute Batman // Absolute Wonder Woman
It’s an understatement to say DC’s Absolute Universe obliterated all expectations for superhero comics dominance in the 2020s. Over the last six months of Comic Book Herald search data, there are over 1 million searches looking for DC’s Absolute comics. Over that same time period, searches for all of Marvel – historically, CBH’s bread and butter! – are only about 20% higher! The Absolute Universe is only a fragment of DC’s overall publishing line, and yet it’s rivaling all of Marvel by itself!
Absolute DC is timed perfectly to explode with 1) Marvel in an unshakeable malaise 2) The aforementioned audience appetite for approachable shared universes 3) Most crucially, a linewide commitment to content over collectibles, aka putting top notch comics creators on stories that don’t hold back. Batman by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta and Wonder Woman by Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman are the most notable standouts from the launch, but the line as a whole is a behemoth.
Read the whole era with Comic Book Herald’s Complete Absolute DC Universe!
While not a specific graphic novel – and frequently not even comics released in the 2020s! – there’s no question to me that DC’s publication of the compact classic format marked a huge sea change in superhero comic book sales. When I walk into my local comic book shop, the best selling 25 recent collections shelf is always 50% Compact Editions, as DC’s $9.99 manga-sized versions of their greatest hits continue to fly off the racks. Publishers like Marvel and Oni have chased the approach to varying degrees of success, and I’m confident we haven’t seen the last of the impact.
Check out the whole list with Comic Book Herald’s Complete guide to DC Compact Classics!
The Most Popular Manga!
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
While Demon Slayer technically ended in May 2020, the anime and Mugen Train movie (October 2020) sent collected editions into the stratosphere throughout the 2020s. It’s perhaps the clearest beneficiary of the pandemic lockdown explosion where a renewed desire for at-home entertainment ignited the largest manga sales growth of the millennium. Written and illustrated by Koyoharu Gotouge, Demon Slayer is a shonen dark fantasy, where ronin-esque young warrior Tanjiro Kamado embarks on a quest for vengeance against the demons who murdered his family (and left his younger sister infected with demon blood). It’s certainly not the first of the kind – Devilman would like a word – but Demon Slayer also highlights a regular fixation with monstrous reimaginings of demons and kaiju that permeates many of the decades most popular manga.
The Lionel Messi of Manga. Whereas Messi just needed a 2020s Argentina World Cup to cement his GOAT status (pour one out for the Ronaldo-heads), One Piece just needed a successful Live Action adaptation on Netflix to ascend even higher this decade. One Piece is easily the longest running juggernaut included among the most popular comics list (with respect to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure which also seems to somehow be gaining steam this decade!), with an incredible 30 years of fandom and durability. Due to the length of Eiichiro Oda’s neverending story, the 2023 Live Action bump actually boosted sales of massive One Piece Box Sets, as opposed to individual volumes, to the point that in 2023, 64% of all One Piece sales in the U.S. came from Box Sets.
Oda’s hardly on cruise control either, prepping readers for The Final Saga, and a game-changing One Piece Volume 103 (lol) that ranks among the best-selling comics of the decade.
As I write this, the latest and final English volume of Jujutsu Kaisen Vol. 30 sits atop the New York Times bestselling graphic novels list, with Vol. 1 in the top 10, where it’s been for 13 straight weeks (the only manga with two entries inside the top 10 total). As a “new gen” manga, Jujutsu Kaisen already ranks among the top 15 best selling manga of all time. Gege Akutami sales titan – which translates to “Sorcery Battle” – helps define the dark mystical monster trend of the decade, with Curses, sorcerer showdowns, and some truly uniquely cool magic tactics like Domain Expansion.
My personal favorite manga of the decade, Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man is a remarkable blend of adolescent humor, artistic freedom and demonic lore. Not a lot of books can walk the line between furious action against cosmic horrors and the desire to touch a boob quite like Chainsaw Man.
Even more remarkable, Fujimoto followed the extremely popular, relatively straightforward first half of the work – The Reze Arc – with a POV and tonal flip that regularly denies the high highs of whirlwind pencils depicting a man made of chainsaws ripping through demons. It’s In Utero to Nevermind, if not quite as successful. What a cool manga!
For more, check out Comic Book Herald’s complete guide to Tatsuki Fujimoto!
Listen, one day I’ll do it, but for now Dandadan is my “most attempted” manga, with several binges that never quite make it to “caught up” status. Yukinobu Tatsu’s chaotic blend of alien abductions, evil spirits, and teenage kicks is a bona fide knockout hit, particularly intriguing given its digital-first launch on the Shonen Jump+ app. Tatsu regularly approaches Fujimoto level spreads, in a work that only seems to be getting bigger every year.
Tatsuya Endo’s classic espionage-family-assassin-telepath sitcom became one of the decade’s true crossover hits, with the anime adaptation sending English volumes soaring up bestseller charts week after week. It’s been a strong decade for manga genre mash-ups with a playful side (see Sakamoto Days below), and Spy x Family is one of the most accessible, converting all sorts of new manga enthusiasts in the process.
I’ll tell you what, if there’s one thing I can relate to, it’s an ancient 30+ year old man trying to regain his athletic peak. Combine that with a secret Kaiju transformation ability and a world infested with rampaging alien beasts, and it’s practically a biography!
Naoya Matsumoto’s kaiju-battling infantrymen saga rode one of the most explosive Shonen debuts in recent memory to a 2024 anime that only heightened interest. It’s almost like this manga to anime pipeline is a good idea for selling comics… wonder if anyone in America is listening…
What starts as “Lord of the Rings is over, now what?” blossomed into one of the decade’s most unexpectedly massive manga hits. Frieren’s meditative elf-wizardry is proof that readers will absolutely show up in force for quiet, contemplative storytelling if the emotional hooks are sharp enough.
Ryoko Kui’s monster-cooking dungeon crawler turned niche foodie fantasy into a legitimate sales powerhouse, especially once the anime adaptation hit and sent backlist volumes flying off shelves. Listen, I’ll be honest, this book’s popularity confounds me, but I only tried the first volume, and a hit’s a hit!
For the Studio Ghibli set, Kamome Shirahama’s intricately illustrated magic-system fantasy built a devoted, steadily growing readership through gorgeous artwork and a counter to the all-out city-wide destruction battles of the demon shonen. Witch Hat Atelier is interesting in that it’s quickly captivated the Western awards voters, winning an Eisner Award and Harvey Award already this decade. Given a 2026 anime launch, it’s likely the back half of the decade is even bigger for Shirahama’s work.
In the vein of Way of the Househusband, Yuto Suzuki’s retired-hitman-turned-convenience-store-owner premise proved to be exactly the blend of action and comedy modern manga readers were hungry for. Sometimes the pitch really just needs to be “John Wick, but he’s pudgy and happy now.” Don’t overthink it!
The Most Popular Indie Comics For Young Adults!
Something is Killing the Children
Somehow, someway, we have to make space for the decade James Tynion IV is having as an American indie superstar writer and creator. You could make a strong case for including the DC Black Label series The Nice House on the Lake by James Tynion IV and Álvaro Martínez Bueno, or The Department of Truth by Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds. And hey, if your favorite is The Deviant or Exquisite Corpses or WorldTr33, I’m sure you’re not alone!
For sheer popularity, though, Tynion IV’s clear winner is Something is Killing the Children via Boom Studios! with artist Werther Dell’Edera. While sales charts, spinoffs and an inbound TV adaptation are all clear indicators of the works success, nothing is clearer than the deluge of would-be imitators that expanded the average wordcount of comic book titles from 3 to 6 (estimates via CBH, sources too secret to be displayed!).
Read the whole series with Comic Book Herald’s Something is Killing the Children reading order.
Alice Oseman’s queer high school romance is a remarkable success story, self-published by Oseman across Tumblr and Tapas prior to a Kickstarter print publication in 2018. Fast forward to a publishing deal, and a Netflix adaptation debuting in 2022, and Heartstopper volumes have held permanent real estate on the New York Times Graphic Books bestseller list ever since.
Sweet, funny and full of heartfelt drama, Heartstopper is an essential, authentic slice-of-life series of graphic novels that deftly navigates a young queer relationship.
For hopefully obvious reasons, I’ve excluded any resurgent bestsellers from CBH’s guide to the most popular comics of the 2020s. For example, TV adaptations brought concluded books like Sandman, The Boys and Invincible back to the top of bestsellers lists this decade.
All that success invariably increases the desire for newer comics like those juggernauts, and Radiant Black taps strongly into that Invincible appetite. It’s a book focused on a new teen superhero, but where Invincible tapped into Superman and Spider-Man lore, Radiant Black looks to Green Lantern and Power Rangers. Kyle Higgins and company have successfully leveraged the comics appeal to build out a whole universe of interconnected spinoffs.
Read the whole era with Comic Book Herald’s Radiant Black reading order.
Ok, we have to mention the rise of the Kickstarter mega-funded comics in the 2020s, with the Keanu Reeves co-written Brzrkr marking the first such work to crack the $1,000,000 threshold. Although other Kickstarted comics have since easily eclipsed this mark (Transformers/GI Joe 80s compendiums, The recent Dungeon Crawler Carl graphic novel adaptation, Murder Drones), along with Matt Kindt, Ron Garney and BOOM Studios, Reeves’ Brzrkr is a shockingly genuine attempt at new comics not based on a pre-existing license (even if the work is clearly leveraging the film persona of the one and only Neo/John Wick himself!).
The Most Popular Comics For Kids!
If I was ranking books in order of sales, we’d have started with Dog Man, and you’d still be scrolling trying to reach the next comic. Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man simply dominates copies sold, with only one legitimate rival (and Raina Telgemeier has technically only released one new work this decade, the Cartoonist’s Club co-authored with Scott McCloud).
As a father of kids who love Dog Man, I’ve come to most appreciate just how excited the graphic novels get kids to read, and how effortlessly inspiring Pilkey’s works are – particularly Cat Kid Comic Club – at getting kids to make their own art!
Read the whole series, including Cat Kid Comic Club, with Comic Book Herald’s Dog Man reading order.
If Dog Man is my kids favorite series of books to read on their own, Investigators is the series I’m most excited to read with them. John Patrick Green’s Alligator duo of espionage are as charming as they come, constantly entering new capers of excessively pun-filled comic twists on language. It’s like Catch-22 for the 6 to 9 year old literary set. It’s absurdist, wordplay-drunk, and exactly the kind of book that turns reluctant readers into series completionists 100 times over.
Another long-running graphic novel best-seller (adapting an even longer running best-selling series of novels!), The Baby-Sitters Club not only shows no signs of slowing, but is even expanding with ‘Little Sister’ spinoffs throughout the 2020s. Ann M. Martin’s original prose series already had generational goodwill built in, allowing Raina Telgemeier’s earlier adaptations to lay the groundwork for a 20 year run of new readership via graphic novels.
Wings of Fire: The Graphic Novel
Tui T. Sutherland’s bestselling dragon-fantasy novel series found new sales life in graphic novel form, becoming a mainstay of the same middle-grade graphic novel boom that’s propelled Dog Man and Baby-Sitters Club up the charts. Dragons, clan warfare, and prophecy merge into Game of Thrones for the elementary school reading level, and kids can’t get enough.
The Most Popular Webtoons!
What began as a Korean webtoon (Manhwa) became a full-blown global multimedia phenomenon, with the Solo Leveling anime adaptation shattering platform records and sending print collections soaring. Written by Chugong and illustrated by the late DUBU (Redice Studio), Solo Leveling became the proof that the phone-scroller webtoon reading experience could successfully translate across print, anime and everywhere fans could get the story.
Man, those Greeks were really cooking. Rachel Smythe’s modern reimagining of the Hades and Persephone myth became one of Webtoon’s flagship success stories, racking up billions of views and eventually landing a print deal that shot straight to the top of bestseller lists. Turns out ancient Greek gods with modern relationship drama and impossibly lush color art is a formula for comics domination. The multiple Eisner, Ringo and Harvey award-winner concluded in 2024, but still awaits the animated series explosion.
Batman: Wayne Family Adventures
Heaven forbid a comics space leaves room for non-Batman stories! DC wisely allowed Wayne Family Adventures to capture the tone and style of the massive Webtoon reader base, converting Gotham’s traditional grimdark into a warm bat-household. Sure, it’s apples and oranges, but approaching 2 million Webtoon susbscribers puts Wayne Family Adventures as DC’s most-read Batman comic of the decade by several factors!
The Most Popular Prestige Graphic Novels!
Monsters by Barry Windsor-Smith
I’ve famously planted my flag as a Monsters hater (this is not true: I greatly respect the work, I just think it’s deeply flawed and didn’t include it among my year-end favorites, like a big weirdo!), but even I have to admit, it’s getting real lonely over here on ‘kinda-overrated’ island. This is *the* decades in the making, finally completed opus from a living legend, except unlike Kevin Shields pretty good MBV or Axel Rose’s Chinese Democracy (*snortswithheldinlaughter*), Windsor-Smith more or less made good on the magnum part of that equation.
Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath
I mean, I’ve been consistently and early on the hype train for Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees (hey, what’s up influence of Something is Killing the Children!), and even I’m impressed by what an apparently massive sales success the collected graphic novel has become. Patrick Horvath (with lettering from Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou) combines Dexter with Winnie the Pooh in a gorgeous, earnest mash-up of small-town anthropomorphic critters and rival serial killers.
Ducks: Two Years In the Oil Sands
It’s Lonely At the Centre of the Earth
The Many Deaths of Laila Starr
Ducks from Kate Beaton, It’s Lonely At The Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood, and The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V and Filipe Andrade are all also included on my guide to the 25 best graphic novels of the 2020s! What am I going to do, recap them twice? I ain’t no recycle-bot-GPT!
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