Golden age sales figures and die-off

[Tzigone]

Does anyone know of any good books or resources on the die-off of Golden Age superheroes for DC and what sales for different characters looked like at the time their titles were cancelled v. the sales of those that survived?

[Digifiend]

The information you're asking for simply doesn't exist.
https://blog.comichron.com/2009/02/c...s-funnies.html

So never mind Buck Rogers in the 25th Century — what was he doing in the 1930s and 1940s? Well, while there are no subscription numbers from back then — postal statements did not require them until 1960...

[Tzigone]

Oh well, I was hoping for internal figures or even word-out-mouth from later interviews. Guess there's no luck there, either?

[Jim Kelly]

The internal figures must exist because Michael Uslan wrote an article for AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS in the 1970s where he reported some sales figures for Superman vs Captain Marvel, proving that sometimes the Man of Steel did outsell the World's Mightiest Mortal. And it's been widely reported that Cap's comics were selling in the millions at a certain point in the 1940s.

I thought that Fredric Wertham had sales figures for comics to prove his point that every kid was inundated by them, but skimming my copy of SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT, I don't see that. Still, since Wertham was one for using statistics to prove his point, there probably were numbers that he had. Remember, this wasn't simply an academic subject--there were government investigations, first in Canada and then in the United States, so there had to be sales reports to make the case.

[iron chimp]

There is an excellent post on this thread which has golden age sales figures for a number of different comics

https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/top...tion-question/

[The Darknight Detective]

There is an excellent post on this thread which has golden age sales figures for a number of different comics

https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/top...tion-question/

What's amazing about those sales figures is they destroy the numbers of today, despite the fact the US population was much smaller back then. Just think what those sales figures would have been had the population been 327 million!

[Noodle]

What's amazing about those sales figures is they destroy the numbers of today, despite the fact the US population was much smaller back then. Just think what those sales figures would have been had the population been 327 million!

There was less competition for them back then with kids. The internet didn't exist yet and TVs weren't even a common thing until after World War 2.

[The Darknight Detective]

There was less competition for them back then with kids. The internet didn't exist yet and TVs weren't even a common thing until after World War 2.

Oh, I know why. It's the same reason why kids of my generation (the late '60s and '70s) were the last great network TV audience (before cable, video games, etc. changed things).

[Güicho]

Also a huge difference is comics weren't some specialty item, you went into a specialty comic or book store for.
Comics were much more easily available, used to be sold (cheap) at every news stand, which in cities were every other block, and convenience stores, corner shops, deli, bodegas, candy store, soda shop, whatever you're neighborhood called them, anywhere a newspaper or bubble gum was sold, you picked up comics too.
Any kid that once chewed gum, or bought a soda likely also bought a comic , they went hand in hand. They were everywhere!

[Air Wave]

Also a huge difference is comics weren't some specialty item, you went into a specialty comic or book store for.
Comics were much more easily available, used to be sold (cheap) at every news stand, which in cities were every other block, and convenience stores, corner shops, deli, bodegas, candy store, soda shop, whatever you're neighborhood called them, anywhere a newspaper or bubble gum was sold, you picked up comics too.
Any kid that once chewed gum, or bought a soda likely also bought a comic , they went hand in hand. They were everywhere!

AND they were much cheaper. You got, what? 64 (larger) pages for 10¢? According to an inflation calculator I just looked at online, that's $1.79 in 2018.

[iron chimp]

Im not entirely sure competing media, price, and availability have that much bearing on sales as Marvel especially was doing huge figures in the early 90s at higher than inflation price point sold only through direct market and up against tv and computer games.

Likewise most of the superhero books that were selling big numbers in earky 40s were cancelled by the end of the decade. In the 60s books sold a lot, in 70s back in a mess, by mid 80s to mid 90s big sales again, then a mess then a status quo.

[Noodle]

Im not entirely sure competing media, price, and availability have that much bearing on sales as Marvel especially was doing huge figures in the early 90s at higher than inflation price point sold only through direct market and up against tv and computer games.

Likewise most of the superhero books that were selling big numbers in earky 40s were cancelled by the end of the decade. In the 60s books sold a lot, in 70s back in a mess, by mid 80s to mid 90s big sales again, then a mess then a status quo.

Those are two different markets, though. The Golden Age was mostly kids who read the books. The 90's boom was mostly speculators who bought multiple copies just to shove them in a box as an "investment" and led to the Crash. It wasn't as if a new influx of readers who were interested in the books themselves and stayed with the hobby came in. Once the Crash hit most of them left.

[The Darknight Detective]

Im not entirely sure competing media, price, and availability have that much bearing on sales as Marvel especially was doing huge figures in the early 90s at higher than inflation price point sold only through direct market and up against tv and computer games.

Likewise most of the superhero books that were selling big numbers in earky 40s were cancelled by the end of the decade. In the 60s books sold a lot, in 70s back in a mess, by mid 80s to mid 90s big sales again, then a mess then a status quo.

Marvel at its best wasn't selling close to what the top Golden Age companies were doing, though. The only comic book from my lifetime that could compete would be Superman's death, but as Noodle pointed out, for totally different reasons.

[The Darknight Detective]

Also a huge difference is comics weren't some specialty item, you went into a specialty comic or book store for.
Comics were much more easily available, used to be sold (cheap) at every news stand, which in cities were every other block, and convenience stores, corner shops, deli, bodegas, candy store, soda shop, whatever you're neighborhood called them, anywhere a newspaper or bubble gum was sold, you picked up comics too.
Any kid that once chewed gum, or bought a soda likely also bought a comic , they went hand in hand. They were everywhere!

Heh. My generation was also the last one to have that type of access (including the LCS near my home) before it began to disappear during the '80s.

[iron chimp]

Marvel at its best wasn't selling close to what the top Golden Age companies were doing, though. The only comic book from my lifetime that could compete would be Superman's death, but as Noodle pointed out, for totally different reasons.

I dont know. Relaunch of x-men supposedly did 8 million copies and mcfarlane Spiderman did 2 million. I think they were within 12 months of each other so thats 10 million sales just over 2 issues. Id have thought both of those books would have been selling 7 figures or high 6 figures month in month out too. It would have been close call between early 90s marvel and golden age.

Image shifted gigantic numbers in that period too.

But as noodle said... buying them and reading them were too very different things. Goĺden age book would have been passed around and swopped and traded so maybe 2 or 3 people read each copy. 90s book would have been encased in carbonite but in terms of pure sales the mania of the early 90s would have run golden age close i think.