The 175th issue of the The Walking Dead comic series outsold all of Marvel's January releases, creator Robert Kirkman has confirmed. While The Walking Dead may be more widely known as an AMC television show, the property started life in printed form back in 2003 at Image Comics under creators Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore. Impressively, the series is still going strong and released issue 176 earlier this month.

The 175th installment marked the first part of The Walking Dead's "New World Order" arc which takes place several stories ahead of where the TV adaptation currently resides. The issue saw a group consisting of Michonne, Eugene and Siddiq, along with newcomers Magna, Yumiko and the hilarious "Princess" arrive at a huge, newly discovered community called The Commonwealth. The group is harshly interrogated by arrogant interviewer Lance and threatened with death if they do not comply. Although initially unsure about the Commonwealth's intentions, Michonne soon discovers that a loved one she had long presumed dead was living inside the vast settlement.

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Franchise creator, Robert Kirkman, has now confirmed in a Tweet that The Walking Dead's January issue outsold any of the titles released by Marvel in the same month. Kirkman also draws attention to the fact he formerly worked for the mighty Marvel and received criticism upon leaving in 2008 to focus on his work with Image Comics and The Walking Dead, among other titles. As Kirkman quite rightly points out, these are not the sales figures of someone whose career choices have backfired.

To put The Walking Dead's latest achievement into perspective, Marvel's January output included several titles under the X-Men, Spider-Man and Avengers banners, as well as tie-ins for movies such as Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Avengers: Infinity War. For Rick Grimes and his merry band of zombie apocalypse veterans to see off such established competition is certainly worthy of a social media humblebrag.

It is, however, interesting to note the difference in fortunes between The Walking Dead's comic and screen incarnations. Season eight of TWD has attracted mixed reviews and is suffering from a slump in ratings, despite still being immensely popular. By contrast, the comic series appears to be as successful as ever and is still racking up impressive achievements. Considering the two mediums tell roughly the same story with the same characters, the reason for this discrepancy is up for debate but at least the success of The Walking Dead on the page suggests there is absolutely no problem with the source material.

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The Walking Dead season 8 continues February 25th with "Honor" on AMC. Issue 176 is out now.

Source: Robert Kirkman (via Twitter)