DC & Marvel Circulation Data 1950-1987
jonh...@mac.com
Shuamberg, IL some years ago to obtain Golden Age comic book
circulation data, I decided to visit myself to get data from the 1950's
through the 1980's. I have always been interested in the sales figures
of DC and Marvel comics. Modern data is readily available on the
internet in an issue-by-issue basis, as published by Diamond
Distributors. However, my interest is in early periods, particular
Gold, Silver and Bronze Age periods. Although Statement of Ownership
filings give some information on those issues sent 2nd Class postage
(usually subscription based), overall figures are available only
through A.B.C.
The period I chose to cover was 1950-1987. This decision was based
simply on time constraints, and I did not want to redo the fine work of
1940's material by Russ. So picking up at 1950 and carrying through
the Silver and Bronze Ages made sense. Also, I concentrated
specifically on DC and Marvel for this time frame as this was the main
area of interest I had. There is an abundant amount of information on
other comics as well, like Archie, Gold Key, etc.; however, knowing
that I will only have part of a day to visit, I decided that DC &
Marvel would be the best targets for this first go around.
The Audit Bureau data is file twice a year, a January-June period, and
then a July-December period. Although there is an overall average
number assigned for each half-year, the data breaks down into more
detail inside, typically monthly (but occasionally bimonthly).
Although I have some of this monthly data, I was running out of time,
so I decided to grab all of the semiannual averages first and worry
about getting the monthly numbers later.
In addition, these numbers are collective of the entire company, across
most all titles. Up until 1977, DC submitted three sets of numbers:
one for a "Red Group", one for a "Blue Group", and a set of these
numbers combined. (the Red and Blue groups each represented a number of
different titles). From 1977 onward, DC published only the combined
numbers. Likewise, Marvel also had numbers in differing groups for a
time, and eventually just published the total. The numbers displayed
below are the combined numbers only.
For the period 1950-1987, there would be 76 Audit Bureau of Circulation
filings each for DC & Marvel, making a total of 152 reports.
Unfortunately, I was able to find only 149 of them, missing 3: late
1969 Marvel, early 1976 DC, and early 1979 DC. For the second 1969
filing, the Marvel report was replaced in the microfilm with a notice
that the filing took place too late to be included in the book. For
DC, the first half of 1976 and 1979 filings were altogether absent from
the microfilm. At least in the 1979 case, it appears that a filing did
in fact take place, as DC Comics Group was listed in the index. I can
only assume that a clerical error took place during the creation of the
microfilm that either misplaced the DC data.
Listed below are the monthly averages for each semiannual period for DC
& Marvel from 1950-1987 (best viewed in a monospaced font):
1st HALF 2nd HALF
DC Marvel DC Marvel
1950: 7,656,051 5,653,019 7,926,752 5,913,443
1951: 7,906,688 5,518,916* 8,472,257 5,725,249*
1952: 7,611,038 7,637,083* 7,896,927 6,806,662*
1953: 7,193,478 5,502,395* 7,807,311 5,926,109
1954: 6,952,335 6,007,137 7,504,156 5,222,603
1955: 6,200,214 4,929,250 6,917,359 5,538,212
1956: 6,206,964 5,057,638 7,752,562 5,808,486
1957: 7,586,304 4,672,693 8,144,993 3,194,947
1958: 6,685,196 2,130,057 7,614,394 2,755,868
1959: 6,653,485 2,253,112 7,973,030 2,719,722
1960: 6,695,210 2,322,162 8,056,093 3,058,312
1961: 6,908,803 2,833,849 7,747,787 3,401,069
1962: 6,049,602 2,992,017 7,250,513 3,587,987
1963: 6,262,836 3,364,779 7,283,109 4,145,588
1964: 6,671,121 3,903,821 7,461,786 5,322,151
1965: 6,274,065 4,873,463 7,010,828 5,935,322
1966: 6,987,445 5,980,401 7,687,633 7,300,363
1967: 5,848,098 6,390,403 6,800,572 7,695,583
1968: 5,970,013 7,088,687 6,614,980 9,147,001
1969: 5,190,137 7,238,465 5,380,124 ---------
1970: 5,044,064 6,883,675 5,938,232 8,172,667
1971: 4,976,403 6,812,047 5,172,927 8,121,933
1972: 4,189,748 6,479,463 5,352,500 5,182,333*
1973: 3,893,553 5,255,991* 5,559,097 6,395,885*
1974: 4,517,231 5,569,567* 4,115,532 6,435,666*
1975: 4,064,300 5,500,849* 4,573,387 6,165,991*
1976: --------- 5,952,292* 4,153,922 6,837,698*
1977: 4,007,411 6,701,811* 4,528,265 7,317,045*
1978: 3,585,518 6,203,019* 3,511,779 6,653,229*
1979: --------- 5,819,014* 3,112,934 5,741,001*
1980: 2,784,907 5,506,359* 2,818,985 5,298,891
1981: 2,754,304 4,641,924 3,219,871 5,472,724
1982: 3,055,643 6,111,286 3,388,623 5,859,966
1983: 3,231,784 5,054,805 3,625,623 6,263,061
1984: 3,023,232 6,045,887 3,180,821 7,173,545
1985: 3,050,625 6,546,965 3,185,105 7,491,439
1986: 2,229,091 6,995,080 2,671,788 7,318,874
1987: 2,937,404 7,958,239 3,052,403 7,038,813
The above listed are the monthly sales averages. However, not all of
the filings showed monthly sales. for example, DC switched from
monthly to bimonthly figures in the second half of 1972, but switched
back to monthly beginning with the first half of 1983. To make the
numbers consistent, I cut the bimonthly figures in half to get a
monthly average.
Unfortunately, I was not aware that these ABC numbers could jump
between monthly and bimonthly until the end of the day, when I started
to scramble back to read them more carefully. Although I could confirm
DC monthly/bimonthly rate from 1967-1987, I unfortunately ran out of
time to reconfirm the others. Fortunately, it is fairly obvious to
determine this from the data. For example, Marvel numbers suddenly
doubled in the second half of 1972, and then again suddenly halved
themselves in the second half of 1980. Likewise, Marvel numbers
suddenly doubled in 1951 and halved themselves again in 1953, leading
me to conclude the same thing happened there. So, I placed asterisks
by the Marvel numbers which I cut in half. (As I was able to confirm
the DC numbers, no asterisks are shown.) The next time I travel to the
Audit Bureau of Circulation, I will reconfirm these numbers.
I have more information, but if you would like me to give more details,
please respond back to me, either on this message board or at
jonh...@mac.com .
Thanks,
Jonathan Hoyle
Jer
jonh...@mac.com wrote:
> In addition, these numbers are collective of the entire company,
across
> most all titles. Up until 1977, DC submitted three sets of numbers:
> one for a "Red Group", one for a "Blue Group", and a set of these
> numbers combined. (the Red and Blue groups each represented a number
of
> different titles). From 1977 onward, DC published only the combined
> numbers. Likewise, Marvel also had numbers in differing groups for a
> time, and eventually just published the total. The numbers displayed
> below are the combined numbers only.
Wow, that's interesting stuff. You hear about how Marvel started
kicking DC's asses in the 70's, but seeing the numbers really makes it
hit home.
It would be interesting to see how many titles each company was
reporting on each half-year as well - to see what the average copies
per title were for each company were. If you have that, that would be
cool to see.
It would also be interesting to see the comparisons for DC and Marvel
in the decade following Crisis, since Crisis was supposed to fix all of
the things that DC thought it was losing ground to Marvel over.
Thanks for sharing your work!
Kevrob
Bravo! I can remember going to the library back in the 1970s
and reading old issues of Editor and Publisher on microfilm,
and seeing the ads DC placed for their various "groups". They
offered ad space so that clients could buy all their comics,
or everything but the romance books, or either the Red or Blue
group. I think one was heavier on superheroes while the other
had more war or humor. It makes sense that the ABC figures
would be broken out by group, as they were the basis for the
ad rate card.
The Marvel sales falling off heavily from 1957 into the early
60s corresponds to the collapse of their distributor, which
required Goodman to go hat-in-hand to Independent News, a sister
company to DC, and make the fateful deal limiting Marvel to
8 releases a month (or 16 bimonthly books.) The end of that
agreement, when Magazine Management became a part of Cadence,
which controlled Curtis Circulation, allowed Marvel to finally
expand its line. This is 1968(?) when books like TALES TO
ASTONISH split into CAPTAIN AMERICA and IRON MAN.
I would have thought that the Batman craze of `68 would show DC
selling well compared to Marvel. Could the spike in Bat-sales
merely cannibalized other sales? Once the show left the air
DC hero and SF titles started falling like flies.
Do the ABC figures report the print run, the way the Statements
of Ownership did? I can remember getting a sick feeling when
one of my favorite books would print one, and the sell-through
started dipping well below 50%. I've read that, from the 40s on,
almost any book could sell a third of its print run. Printers
would extend credit to those getting into the business just to
keep the presses busy, knowing that whatever dreck hit the stands
the new outfit would at least have enough cash flow to pay the
printing bill.
Kevin
Mike Ward
news:1112151635.1...@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:
Very interesting. I notice that the Crisis didn't have much of an effect
on DC's average sells. Sells were down the year of the Crisis but the
year before and the year after they're nearly the same. They're actually
a little lower the year after.
Mike
neil
rough number of titles being offered by each company in each period?
It's one thing to saying that there are 5 million total sales, but
it's something altogether different if those 5 million sales are
coming from 10 titles in one year and 20 in another.
Jer
Mike Ward wrote:
>
> Very interesting. I notice that the Crisis didn't have much of an
effect
> on DC's average sells. Sells were down the year of the Crisis but the
> year before and the year after they're nearly the same. They're
actually
> a little lower the year after.
That's kind of what I was wondering too. I'm not suprised that the
publication of Crisis didn't cause an immediate boost to overall
circulation of all of DC's titles, but I wonder how DC's trends look
further out - say between 1987 and 1997 compared to Marvel's.
jonh...@mac.com
titles as well that I have been looking at. I was looking to take the
ABC figures, subtract out the Statement of Ownership numbers, and then
be able to divide the remainder up as an average for the remaining
titles.
Let's take 1967 as an example. There are 38 titles which I have
Statement of Ownership data for: 18 from the Blue Group, 14 from the
Red Group, and 6 from the Teen Group. There was no ABC data for the
Teen Group until 1970, so those titles will have to be ignored for the
moment. Remember that Statement of Ownership numbers are *issues
averages* for the year (which can be published 6, 8 or 12 times per
year).
ABC data exists *monthly* each for the Blue Group and the Red Group.
Each of these groups contains 22 titles and 6 80 Page Giants. Titles
which are published less than monthly are staggered so that each month
the same number of titles are available for accounting purposes.
Aggregating this data together, we can subtract out Statement of
Ownership numbers and come up with average numbers for the remaining 4
Blue titles and 8 Red titles. What makes this tricky though is that
the 80 Page Giant issues of a title were sometimes in the opposite
Group for ABC accounting. So essentially, this has to be computed on a
month by month basis, and compute the annual averaage at the end.
It is very interesting, and I am hoping to have a web page with all of
the results soon.
Regards,
Jonathan
Nathan P. Mahney
news:Xns962950...@204.127.36.1...
It would be interesting to see DC's sales for the year the Batman movie came
out.
--
- Nathan P. Mahney -
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