Analyzing 20 years of DC sales

[The no face guy]

Now that DC is severing ties with Diamond Distributers, I thought I would look at 20 years of DC superhero Comic sales to see who sold and who didn’t, and most importantly, the titles that kept DC a float. (I basically looked at three months Jan, june & Dec)

So without further Adieu here is The Year 2000 https://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales.html

Top DC Title:

The Justice League under Grant Morrison, remained DC’s premier comic, selling over 75, 000 copies per month, but still not enough to challenge the X-men empire that dominated the comic industry at the time.

50, 000 Range

Batman, Detective Comics and Batman related titles are the next to dominate sales, selling around 50,000 copies or lower depressingly; well below a slew of Marvel Comics, even Image Comics like Spawn & Tomb Raider were selling higher.

40, 000 Range

Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) is sold quite well for a female lead comic 45,000 mark
Nightwing as well sells in this range
Harley Quinn series starts with issue 3 selling over 44,000 copies.
Superman’s continued decline seems notable around this time with title selling in the low 40,000’s and Action Comics and other titles dipping into the 30,000 + category (I’ll guess I’ll find if this was on ongoing trend through the 2000’s or if he bounced back)

Justice League Society being written by a young and upcoming writer Geoff Johns is also around the 40,000 mark.

[30,000 Range

Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) & the Flash (Wally West) both are selling in the high 30’s around 38, 000 and 36, 000 for the most part though a drop occurs
The Titans, Young Justice and Robin round out the mid to low 30, 000’s
Plus I have to note that one of my all time favourite comic mini series is in this category, Greg Rucka’s Huntress: Cry for Blood

20,000 Range

Catwoman & Chuck Dixon’s Birds of Prey rounds up the higher 29 to 28,000 range though they bounce up and down a bit.
Wonder Woman is in the mid 20 thousands, not great for one of their big three, but it is a male dominated hobby, still so many heroine titles ahead of her.
Starman, James Robinson’s classic run of the 90’s is in the mid 20’s, 24,000 or so.
Gen 13, I have no idea who they were?
Supergirl rounds out the low 20,000’s

15, 000 to 19,000 range

Hellblazer, John Constantine probably one of the only Vertigo titles I will mention, they typically had a lower print ratio.
Azreal (remember him) and Martian Manhunter, in the higher range.
Orion in the first year of it’s run, but sinking fast unfortunately
Impulse, Bart hanging in there with some fan support.
Aquaman, a tired but good run would comes to an end
Legion of Super Heroes, the long running 90’s series would comes to a close

15,000 and below,

Hourman – An Hourman comic that doesn’t look like the classic Hourman, so not surprised it was not selling well.
Swamp Thing – Vertigo title so limited prints
Finally some numerous Batman titles

[DanMad1977]

Cool idea, dude. Thumbs up

[scary harpy]

Sorry to ask a dumb question but...what is a good range for sales?

[iron chimp]

Sorry to ask a dumb question but...what is a good range for sales?

Its not a dumb question at all.

In the 60s quarter of a million and yr doing well. By the 70s dc could barely most of its books away. By the 90s marvel's cut of for cancellation was 125k. Its been very much big peaks and big troughs until last 2 decades where things have been relatively flat but stable.

Where they see whats good sales compared to wider comic market - say versus peanuts or asterix or garfield - that's another matter.

[Digifiend]

Justice League Society being written by a young and upcoming writer Geoff Johns is also around the 40,000 mark.

Justice Society of America. It's JSA, not JLS!

[The no face guy]

Cool idea, dude. Thumbs up

Thanks!

Sorry to ask a dumb question but...what is a good range for sales?

It changes, but I would say 50, 000 to 100,000 + is good to exceptional, 40,000, 30,000 average, 20,000, low average below 20,000 you enter into the cancellation zone.
It differs for characters to. For Green Lantern or the Flash to hit the 20,000 is usually a sign of an immediate shake up, for a lesser known character like Mr. Miracle, Orion, it' probably keeping the title a float.

Justice Society of America. It's JSA, not JLS!

Thanks brain hiccup. I read the series. I'll post 2001 later tonight.

[The no face guy]

2001 https://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales.html

Top Selling Title

Green Arrow – Yes believe it or not, at one time or another, Green Arrow dominated DC Comic sales largely as result of Kevin Smith’s brilliance in bringing Oliver Queen back. The series clocked in around the 85,000, mark appox for the year, a valiant effort but still not enough to dent the X-men empire.

70,000 Range

JLA – Grant Morrison ended his run, so they brought in another classic writer to keep the JLA’s hot streak going with Mark Waid!

40,000 Range

Superman – Started to get a bit of bump overall, in the high 40,000’s overall, Action Comics in the low 40’s the other several Superman titles not far behind
Batman & Detective Comics, in the high 40,000’s than dropping. Not a good year for Batman, you never want your premier character dropping down to those numbers.
JSA – Geoff Johns run remained in the 40’000’s
Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) the same
Nightwing – low 40’s; 6 years into his run, doing better than most of the big 6.

30, 000 Range

Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) – high/mid 30’s good six years since he took over as GL
Titans low 30s
Some more Batman titles

20, 000 Range

Wonder Woman – High 20’s and climbing
Flash (Wally West) Geoff Johns (I totally forgot he was writing the Flash than)
Robin
Harley Quinn
Young Justice
Legion New Legion of Super Heroes Title
Birds of Prey (Chuck Dixon) all in the high/mid 20’s
Catwoman - sinks but then gets a new series at the end of the year, quite a spike.
Doom Patrol & Suicide Squad have new titles released and start of at this sales point
Spectre – mid 20’s one year in. (not bad)
Starman - James Robinson's classic 90's series comes to an end.
Supergirl & Superboy low 20’s

20,000 to 15,000

Hellblazer John Constantine, topping this section (Vertigo limited prints)
Gen 13
Azreal: Agent of the Bat
Martian Manhunter cancelled
Monarchy (Never heard of them)
Impulse – Bart hanging in there

15,000 and below

Orion – slips under, close to two years into the run
Batman title
Hourman – Cancelled, (I remember being irritated that he didn’t look like Hourman)
Swamp Thing – Cancelled/Vertigo title

[Restingvoice]

What happened to Tim Drake in 2001?
I'm gonna guess he peaked in the 90s

[The no face guy]

Made some editing changes, somehow I ended up deleting a few titles.

The Robin title is 8 years into it's run in 2001, which is really good for a sidekick title, I'd say it showed his popularity, but you can expect sales to nod of a bit the longer a series runs.

[Digifiend]

Made some editing changes, somehow I ended up deleting a few titles.

The Robin title is 8 years into it's run in 2001, which is really good for a sidekick title, I'd say it showed his popularity, but you can expect sales to nod of a bit the longer a series runs.

Oh it's definitely good. The book ran until 2009 in the end, another eight years, and he immediately relaunched, only losing his book when New 52 started two years later. Meanwhile Superboy and Impulse will both be gone in 2002. There's a Young Justice issue where those two and Ray complain about their comics being cancelled. They're referring to their favourites they've been reading, but to the readers it has a double meaning, as those three had all just lost their solo books.

[The no face guy]

Oh it's definitely good. The book ran until 2009 in the end, another eight years, and he immediately relaunched, only losing his book when New 52 started two years later. Meanwhile Superboy and Impulse will both be gone in 2002. There's a Young Justice issue where those two and Ray complain about their comics being cancelled. They're referring to their favourites they've been reading, but to the readers it has a double meaning, as those three had all just lost their solo books.

Well that's a good sign for DC if a Robin title can run for close to 20 years. That long a run means there is a solid base of fans willing to support that character for a long time. What is surprising me is how long Azrael had a title. Looks like it ran for 7 to 8 years, and than after that his popularity seems to have gone up in smoke. I know he will ever be the scorned by Batman fans, but still, 7/8 years is a good run.

[Timothy Hunter]

When was the last time the Legion of Superheroes sold like it wasn't a middle tier franchise? It used to be in the top ten best selling titles in the 80s. What caused this decline?

[The no face guy]

When was the last time the Legion of Superheroes sold like it wasn't a middle tier franchise? It used to be in the top ten best selling titles in the 80s. What caused this decline?

I can only speculate, as I have no data to back it up, but for me at least, I quite the Legion as a result of too many reboots. It wasn't the Levitz run many long time fans remember. DC executives basically killed the brand in my opinion, by rebooting them with younger or different versions.

[The no face guy]

2002 - A year that saw a DC title knock Marvel off it's perch in the last three months

Top Selling Title

Batman – In the last three months of 2002, the DC executives decided to make a change on Batman by bringing in Jeph Loeb & artist extraordinaire Jim Lee, resulting in six figure sales, close to 121,000 on the first Hush storyline issue, finally blasting a big cannon hole into the side of the X-men empire.

70,000 Range

Green Arrow - would start off strong but would begin to drop significantly after Kevin Smith’s departure, down to the high 50’s by the end of the year, which is a shame, because I personally think Brad Meltzer is a better writer, and I enjoyed his little run more.

60,000 Range

Justice League of America (JLA)
Thundercats (Mini series?)

40,000 Range

Aquaman- Issue 1 Dec – High 40’s
Detective Comics – Bounced around a lot, so mid 40’s
Justice Society of America, (JSA) – Geoff Johns mid 40’s
Superman Low 40’s
Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) low 40’s

30,000 Range

Nightwing – High 30’s
Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) – High 30’s
Hawkman – Geoff Johns – High 30’s
Batman Gotham Knights – High/mid 30’s
Action Comics – mid 30’s
Superman titles – mid 30’s
Catwoman – low 30’s
Flash – low 30’s - Geoff Johns

20,000 Range

Birds of Prey (Dixon) - High 20’s
Robin
Wonder Woman
Legion
Batman titles
Gotham Central
Titans – Mid 20’s
Young Justice
Harley Quinn – low 20’s
Supergirl
Gen 13

19,000 to 15,000 Range

Hellblazer Constantine (Leading the pack again) Vertigo limited issues
Spectre
Doom patrol
Superboy – Cancelled 8 year run
Suicide Squad - Cancelled 1 year run

15,000 and Below

Azreal Agent of the Bat
Impulse (Bart) Cancelled Good 7 plus year run
Orion – Cancelled 2 year run
Deadman – Cancelled (mini series? bombs out hard, less than a year)

[Timothy Hunter]

Did sales go up on Birds of Prey during Gail Simone's run compared to Dixon's? It's rarely heard of, especially in modern times, but it's difficult to imagine a book in the 20,000s from the get go lasting 127 issues.

Also Gail Simone's Birds of Prey seems to be similar to a Martin Pasko - Alan Moore Swamp Thing situation where the successor overshadows the predecessor.