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