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Robert Bradley
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 20 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 4951
Posted: 12 August 2018 at 11:09am | IP Logged | 1 post reply
In support of JB's assertions that X-Men sales didn't take off until after he left the book, here are the sales numbers for X-Men/Uncanny X-Men from 1966 to 1985.

Date - Average monthly circulation [main creative team(s)]
1966 - 255,070 [Lee/Kirby/Roth, Thomas/Roth] published mothly beginning in September 1963
1967 - 266,034 [Thomas/Roth, Thomas/Andru]
1968 - 273,360 [Thomas/Heck, Freidrich/Heck, Drake/Heck, Drake/Steranko]
1969 - 235,811 [Drake/Heck, Thomas/Adams]
1970 - N/A - cancelled March 1970 (issue #66), revived December 1970 (issue #67) as a bi-monthly reprint title
1971 - 164,169 - bi-monthly reprints
1972 - N/A - bi-monthly reprints
1973 - 127,653 - bi-monthly reprints
1974 - N/A - bi-monthly reprints
1975 - 119,231 [Claremont/Cockrum] resumed August 1975 as a bi-monthly title (issue #94)
1976 - 115,992 [Claremont/Cockrum]
1977 - 123,725 [Claremont/Cockrum]
1978 - 115,260 [Clarement/Byrne] resumed monthly schedule in August 1978 (issue #112)
1979 - 171,651 [Clarement/Byrne]
1980 - 191,927 [Clarement/Byrne]
1981 - 259,007 [Clarement/Cockrum] renamed Uncanny X-Men in February 1981 (#142)
1982 - 373,225 [Clarement/Cockrum]
1983 - 336,824 [Clarement/Smith]
1984 - 378,135 [Claremont/Romita Jr.]
1985 - 448,870 [Claremont/Romita Jr.]

The numbers peaked in 1993 [714,675] with the speculator boom.


Edited by Robert Bradley on 12 August 2018 at 11:37am
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Joe Smith
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Joined: 29 August 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 6729
Posted: 12 August 2018 at 11:23am | IP Logged | 2 post reply
I will always be skeptical of any numbers pre-direct
sales market due to the backroom dealings at my hometown
newsstand.

I would ride my bike through the back parking lot/loading
dock area and see stacks and stacks of comics bound
together by the hundreds, the tops of the covers ripped
off. The inevitable inquisitive nature of youth got me to
asking the newsstand owner about this 'process', and he
answered me, in the most disinterested tone, saying
they'd be in the garbage when the next shipment came in
on Monday.
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Robert Bradley
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Joined: 20 September 2006
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Posted: 12 August 2018 at 11:36am | IP Logged | 3 post reply
Undoubtedly there were more readers than the sales indicated in the 1960's and 70's, as comics were also passed around a lot more back then.  But the number sold rather than the number of readers is what determined what titles were cancelled.

 
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Thomas Woods
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Joined: 09 June 2004
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Posted: 12 August 2018 at 11:51am | IP Logged | 4 post reply
What are this years numbers?
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Robert Bradley
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Joined: 20 September 2006
Location: United States
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Posted: 12 August 2018 at 12:27pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply
Recent sales by month -


In Junuary the most recent issue of the three X-Men monthlies (Astonishing X-Men - 50,772, X-Men Gold - 36,915 and X-Men Blue - 32,540) sold a total of 120,227 copies.



Edited by Robert Bradley on 12 August 2018 at 12:32pm
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Dave Phelps
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4188
Posted: 12 August 2018 at 12:34pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply
 Joe Smith wrote:
I will always be skeptical of any numbers pre-direct sales market due to the backroom dealings at my hometown newsstand.


At least in that case the numbers would be lowballed since those copies would've been reported unsold and destroyed.
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Robbie Parry
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Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12185
Posted: 13 August 2018 at 6:26pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply
 Joe Smith wrote:
The inevitable inquisitive nature of youth got me to asking the newsstand owner about this 'process', and he answered me, in the most disinterested tone, saying they'd be in the garbage when the next shipment came in on Monday.

What the fuck?! 
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Rebecca Jansen
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Joined: 12 February 2018
Location: Canada
Posts: 4560
Posted: 13 August 2018 at 7:47pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply
Late 1980/Early 1981 is when wholesalers like Capital and Westfield started advertising investing in cases of 100 of hot titles with the prices and a phone number to order by credit card, you didn't have to be a business. X-Men and Daredevil were no-brainer examples of hot titles to 'invest' in case lots of, but also Dazzler #1. And as I've written many times before, by the time Alpha Flight #1 they were advertising cases of 1,000 with a price open to anyone. I still remember seeing a case of 100 Wolverine #1s-#4s someone I knew had bought. All direct editions all presumably brand new... and if there were a thousand more like him there would be a lot of these for anyone who wants one I'd have to think. I don't think many comics from 1965 on are actually rare, and for DCs and Archie Superheroes probably from 1963 on.

The newsstand system was extremely wasteful in America and sellers really had no way of serving customers' wants for such a low price item. If something sold well one issue they might not even get any copies of the next one. Really terrible. In England the paper shops and newsagents were much for reactive to their customers and you could even reserve your copies each week of your favorite titles. Unheard of in America for comics, but perhaps you could reserve Mad or something in magazine format at the higher price with sellers that might bother.
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 13 August 2018 at 7:49pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply
All too typical. In fact, Marvel had to create Direct Sales Only cover variants so shady DSM retailers couldn't collude with equally shady distributors to return their unsold unreturnable books.
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Peter Martin
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Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 16302
Posted: 13 August 2018 at 8:45pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply
What the fuck?!
-----------------------------
Why the surprise/outrage? To do anything other than to throw the non-sold, cover-torn comics into the garbage would have been ripping the publishers off.
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Robert Bradley
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Joined: 20 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 4951
Posted: 13 August 2018 at 10:54pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply
I remember that I had an arrangement where I would straighten up the comic rack every time I came as a kid and the sales clerk would reward me with a couple of coverless comics that I hadn't read.  I remember getting a SHAZAM! treasury edition that way.

Once they were reported as unsold by sending in the covers they were going to the trash anyway he figured, so why not?
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Bill Collins
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Joined: 26 May 2005
Location: England
Posts: 11491
Posted: 13 August 2018 at 11:49pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply
Weren`t the UK `distributed` Marvel comics we got in the
U.K. were used as ship`s ballast?
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