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Jason Czeskleba
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 April 2004
Posts: 4548
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| Posted: 23 March 2010 at 12:01am | IP Logged | 1
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Hey, I was looking at my old issues of The Comic Reader the other day and I thought it might be fun to post one of these. It's the TCR Top 100 sales chart from their July 1980 issue.
This chart was not in any way scientific. It was a produced by compiling sales figures from the 30 or so comic shops that participated (the shops are listed at the bottom). Even so, it provides an interesting window into what the direct sales market was looking like in 1980.
A few points of interest: X-Men is #1. Back then, it pretty much was #1 or #2 every month on this chart. I was surprised to find out a few years ago that the Claremont/Byrne run was only an average-to-mediocre newsstand seller. From my recollection of the TCR chart, I had assumed it was a big seller overall. It seems there was a notable difference between the fan market and the general public regarding the title at this time... being a huge fan favorite didn't translate into big overall sales.
Also interesting is how Marvel totally dominates the direct sales market here... their worst-selling titles, things like Power Man and Doctor Strange, are selling about the same as DC's best-selling titles, Warlord and Legion. I know Marvel was outselling DC at the newsstand at this time, but I can't imagine the newstand disparity was so huge. A few years after this, DC finally cracked the TCR top ten with New Teen Titans, but over the entire time I was reading this chart the majority of Marvel books sold better than almost all the DC books.
Edited by Jason Czeskleba on 23 March 2010 at 12:23pm
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Jason Czeskleba
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 April 2004
Posts: 4548
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| Posted: 23 March 2010 at 12:01am | IP Logged | 2
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Here's the second half of the list:
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Pete York
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1198
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| Posted: 23 March 2010 at 12:38am | IP Logged | 3
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You know, I can remember me and all my friends buying WARLORD, but I had no idea it was DC's top (or near top) seller. Surprised at ROM, too. Certainly a much more interesting Top 100 than you would find today.
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Neil Lindholm
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| Posted: 23 March 2010 at 3:23am | IP Logged | 4
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Didn't realise that Conan was so popular back then.
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Joe Hollon
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Joined: 08 May 2004
Location: United States
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| Posted: 23 March 2010 at 3:55am | IP Logged | 5
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Interesting observations:
1. 30 out of the top 31(!!!) are from Marvel Comics.
2. The only top 30 DC comic isn't even a mainstream superhero title.
3. Eight of those top 31 are licensed properties (STAR TREK, STAR WARS, CONAN, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, MICRONAUTS, ROM, etc.)
4. No first issues (or fake first issues) dominating the top of the sales chart.
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John Byrne
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| Posted: 23 March 2010 at 5:53am | IP Logged | 6
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Begin with the fact that X-MEN during my tenure was never anywhere near the Number One spot, and in fact was so much lower it was always just a few steps ahead of cancelation, and that list kinda falls apart, doesn't it?
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Stéphane Garrelie
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Location: France
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| Posted: 23 March 2010 at 6:58am | IP Logged | 7
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I began to read comics around those years and, at least in France,I think the point was that the general public knew Superman, Batman, Spiderman because of the 60s cartoon, Hulk because of the Bixby/Ferigno tv show, but to become aware of the existence of the X-Men or Iron Man you had to already be in comics.
Edited by Stéphane Garrelie on 23 March 2010 at 6:58am
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Stéphane Garrelie
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| Posted: 23 March 2010 at 7:00am | IP Logged | 8
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And by "general public", i mean kids that were not yet in Super-Heroes.
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Mike Howell
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| Posted: 23 March 2010 at 11:42am | IP Logged | 9
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Jason, thanks for posting this.
I found it interesting to see the difference between these numbers and what the books were actually selling. I tried finding actual sales figures on the top 3 books on the TCR list but couldn't find The Avengers. I did find Fantastic Four though.
Here is what they averaged in 1980, plus a bonus of what they did the year before and the year after.
1979: Fantastic Four sold 267, 511 per month. Spider-man sold (couldn't find the numbers but 258,156 in 1978) X-Men sold 171, 091 per month
1980: Fantastic Four sold 243, 786 per month Spider-Man sold 296, 712 per month X-Men sold 191, 927 per month
1981: Fantastic Four sold 192, 731 per month Spider-Man sold 242, 781 per month X-Men sold 259, 007 per month
Do you have the TCR numbers for July 1981? It would be interesting to see how X-Men ranked on it once the actual sales were higher than the other two books.
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Brian Miller
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| Posted: 23 March 2010 at 12:03pm | IP Logged | 10
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JB wrote:
| Begin with the fact that X-MEN during my tenure was never anywhere near the Number One spot, and in fact was so much lower it was always just a few steps ahead of cancelation, and that list kinda falls apart, doesn't it? |
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Do you think it being the number 1 direct book had anything to do with it not being cancelled? Sure it's "only" 7400 copies, but was Marvel, perhaps, seeing what the Direct Market could possibly become?
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Matt Hawes
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| Posted: 23 March 2010 at 12:10pm | IP Logged | 11
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As pointed out in the first post, the sales figures from "The Comic Reader" are based on sales reports from a selection of participating comic shops retailers and not from the distributors or the publishers. It's not even sales from all retailers, just those that were in contact with "The Comic Reader." What is interesting to note is how well "The Uncanny X-Men" sold at the shops at a time when the newsstand sales were low and how the newsstand sales eventually reflected those sales.
Edited by Matt Hawes on 23 March 2010 at 12:12pm
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Jason Czeskleba
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| Posted: 23 March 2010 at 12:23pm | IP Logged | 12
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Pete York wrote:
| You know, I can remember me and all my friends buying WARLORD, but I had no idea it was DC's top (or near top) seller. |
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Neil Lindholm wrote:
| Didn't realise that Conan was so popular back then. |
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From what I've read, Warlord was also one of (if not the) top-selling DC books on the newsstand, too. And Conan apparently was one of Marvel's top five books throughout the latter half of the 70's.
But it is notable how in many ways fan market sales diverged from the reality of actual newsstand sales. Aside from the aforementioned X-Men example, we see Howard the Duck magazine #6 ranking #16 on the chart. No way that thing was selling that well overall, given the book was canceled just a couple issues later. My guess is that the comic shop sales were inflated by the presence of fan favorite Michael Golden on the art.
Joe Hollon wrote:
| 4. No first issues (or fake first issues) dominating the top of the sales chart. |
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I did notice that the chart from two months earlier had Star Trek #1 as first on the list, displacing X-Men to the #2 spot. First issues were speculated on and did sell much better than average in comic shops back then, but the publishers had yet to start cranking out piles of them because the fan market was still just a tiny percentage of the overall market. Obviously, being the top-seller in the fan market was not a significant indicator of overall success, as we see with X-Men.
Mike Howell wrote:
| Do you have the TCR numbers for July 1981? It would be interesting tosee how X-Men ranked on it once the actual sales were higher than theother two books. |
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I do, but I don't have time to dig the issue out today. My recollection though is that X-Men is #1 or #2 on pretty much every chart from 1981 through 1984 (when TCR ceased publication). In months where there was a first issue it might take the #1 spot, and when Miller's Daredevil started becoming a fan fave it alternated with X-Men for #1.
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