What Is Your Best-Selling Comic Book Issue OA You Own? 0

[Blastaar]

Meaning what piece of OA in your collection was circulated in print the most. I don't have much to share outside of a few pages from some popular Wolverine runs and no the below is not mine

 

[ESeffinga]

Wouldn’t even know how to go about figuring that out without a ton of reasearch. Never meant that much to me anyway. But I’m sure there are some easy to find doozies on CAF if you care to search your interests there.

Usual suspects aplenty.

 

Edited November 18, 2018 by ESeffinga

[hmendryk]

Comic book circulations was highest during the Golden Age. I have some OA for some Golden Age covers, but they were published by Harvey, which at that time was a small publisher. Circulations were still high after the war but before the Comic Code. Probably the OA from my collection that was used in the largest print run would have been the Simon & Kirby cover for Headline #25 (July 1947). But now that I think about it Simon & Kirby's Young Romance was an immense seller so my Simon & Kirby splash from Young Romance #20 (April 1940) must have been a big selling issue. I am sure either title sold more comic books than any modern age comic.

[comix4fun]

Hmm...have to think about it. 

To get to true circulation numbers you have to include reprints, TPBs, hardcover editions, promotional uses, posters, etc. 

At that point you'll find pieces that have been in constant print, and on their 15th, 20th, etc. reprinting by this point. 

Pages from Killing Joke, Watchmen, DKR, will certainly be up there. 

Just from Killing Joke alone I believe there have been 14 different printing, not counting the hardcover editions of which I know there are at least three American versions. Then you have to get into the international reprints of that story. 

So, for the more popular stories or more lasting the impression the story leaves on the hobby, you could have issues remaining on the shelves and in print for decades. 

[AnkurJ]

Modern comics have much bigger print runs and sell through than older books, but that doesn’t make them more significant imo.

[MGS]

2 hours ago, AnkurJ said:

Modern comics have much bigger print runs and sell through than older books, but that doesn’t make them more significant imo.

Isn't the opposite true?  These days only a handful of titles a month hit six figures.  Silver and Gold age books had way higher print runs.

Mike

[Brian Peck]

2 hours ago, AnkurJ said:

Modern comics have much bigger print runs and sell through than older books, but that doesn’t make them more significant imo.

Your are wrong its been a few of decades since comic books sold in the 6 figures on average. Even then that was alot less than silver age and golden age comics. 

1960 was the first year that the U.S. Postal Service required that publishers actually include circulation information in the Statements of Ownership that appeared in their comic books. At this point, only the print run and paid circulations were reported by all; some also included subscription sales. 

The information below is just for initial print runs not reprints.

Uncle Scrooge and Walt Disney's Comics & Stories both topped 1 million copies, and it was the last time to date that any  title (apart from Mad, a magazine) would top that figure. 

 

Title	Publisher	Average Copies Sold Per Issue
1	Uncle Scrooge	Dell	1,040,543
2	Walt Disney's Comics & Stories	Dell	1,004,901
3	Superman	DC	810,000
4	Superboy	DC	635,000
5	Mickey Mouse	Dell	568,803
6	Batman	DC	502,000
7	Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen	DC	498,000
8	World's Finest Comics	DC	476,000
9	Looney Tunes	Dell	459,344
10	Action Comics	DC	458,000
11	Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane	DC	458,000
12	Adventure Comics	DC	438,000
13	Lone Ranger	Dell	408,711
14	Casper	Harvey	399,985
15	Turok, Son of Stone	Dell	359,013
16	Blackhawk	DC	316,000
17	Detective Comics	DC	314,000
18	Flash	DC	298,000
19	Pep Comics	Archie	269,504
20	Mystery in Space	DC	248,000
21	Challengers of the Unknown	DC	228,000
22	Blondie	Harvey	218,344
23	Brave & Bold	DC	214,000
24	Showcase	DC	213,000
25	Wonder Woman	DC	213,000
26	Little Archie	Archie	210,089
27	Sugar & Spike	DC	209,000
28	My Greatest Adventure	DC	208,000
29	House of Mystery	DC	208,000
30	Strange Adventures	DC	207,000
31	House of Secrets	DC	194,000
32	Fox & The Crow	DC	193,000
33	Adventures into the Unknown	ACG	192,500
34	Unknown Worlds	ACG	192,000
35	Tales of the Unexpected	DC	192,000
36	Dagwood	Harvey	188,819
37	Forbidden Worlds	ACG	187,200
38	Tomahawk	DC	180,000
39	All-American Men of War	DC	176,000
40	Our Fighting Forces	DC	175,000
41	Our Army at War	DC	172,000
42	Star-Spangled Comics	DC	169,000
43	Tales to Astonish	Marvel	163,156
44	All Star Western	DC	154,000
45	Tales of Suspense	Marvel	148,929
46	Kid Colt Outlaw	Marvel	144,746
47	Felix the Cat	Dell	138,191
48	Space Adventures	Charlton	110,166

 

Magazines
	Mad	EC	1,209,918

[The Voord]

Not the kind of question I'd want to obsess over, sorry.

[aokartman]

Ed Hannigan and Klaus Janson.

 

Edited November 19, 2018 by aokartman
artists

[Blastaar]

12 hours ago, AnkurJ said:

Modern comics have much bigger print runs and sell through than older books, but that doesn’t make them more significant imo.

Agreed I don't believe that makes them more significant. Just thought it would be a fun topic to see who has pages from high run issues. 

[PhilipB2k17]

12 hours ago, Brian Peck said:

Your are wrong its been a few of decades since comic books sold in the 6 figures on average. Even then that was alot less than silver age and golden age comics. 

1960 was the first year that the U.S. Postal Service required that publishers actually include circulation information in the Statements of Ownership that appeared in their comic books. At this point, only the print run and paid circulations were reported by all; some also included subscription sales. 

The information below is just for initial print runs not reprints.

Uncle Scrooge and Walt Disney's Comics & Stories both topped 1 million copies, and it was the last time to date that any  title (apart from Mad, a magazine) would top that figure. 

 

Title	Publisher	Average Copies Sold Per Issue
1	Uncle Scrooge	Dell	1,040,543
2	Walt Disney's Comics & Stories	Dell	1,004,901
3	Superman	DC	810,000
4	Superboy	DC	635,000
5	Mickey Mouse	Dell	568,803
6	Batman	DC	502,000
7	Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen	DC	498,000
8	World's Finest Comics	DC	476,000
9	Looney Tunes	Dell	459,344
10	Action Comics	DC	458,000
11	Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane	DC	458,000
12	Adventure Comics	DC	438,000
13	Lone Ranger	Dell	408,711
14	Casper	Harvey	399,985
15	Turok, Son of Stone	Dell	359,013
16	Blackhawk	DC	316,000
17	Detective Comics	DC	314,000
18	Flash	DC	298,000
19	Pep Comics	Archie	269,504
20	Mystery in Space	DC	248,000
21	Challengers of the Unknown	DC	228,000
22	Blondie	Harvey	218,344
23	Brave & Bold	DC	214,000
24	Showcase	DC	213,000
25	Wonder Woman	DC	213,000
26	Little Archie	Archie	210,089
27	Sugar & Spike	DC	209,000
28	My Greatest Adventure	DC	208,000
29	House of Mystery	DC	208,000
30	Strange Adventures	DC	207,000
31	House of Secrets	DC	194,000
32	Fox & The Crow	DC	193,000
33	Adventures into the Unknown	ACG	192,500
34	Unknown Worlds	ACG	192,000
35	Tales of the Unexpected	DC	192,000
36	Dagwood	Harvey	188,819
37	Forbidden Worlds	ACG	187,200
38	Tomahawk	DC	180,000
39	All-American Men of War	DC	176,000
40	Our Fighting Forces	DC	175,000
41	Our Army at War	DC	172,000
42	Star-Spangled Comics	DC	169,000
43	Tales to Astonish	Marvel	163,156
44	All Star Western	DC	154,000
45	Tales of Suspense	Marvel	148,929
46	Kid Colt Outlaw	Marvel	144,746
47	Felix the Cat	Dell	138,191
48	Space Adventures	Charlton	110,166

 

Magazines
	Mad	EC	1,209,918

Not correct. http://www.comichron.com/faq/alltimebestsellingcomicbook.html

"During the heat of the comics boom of the early 1990s, Marvel published the bestselling comic book of all time: X-Men Vol. 2, #1, with sales of 8,186,500 copies."

 

[Brian Peck]

11 minutes ago, PhilipB2k17 said:

Not correct. http://www.comichron.com/faq/alltimebestsellingcomicbook.html

"During the heat of the comics boom of the early 1990s, Marvel published the bestselling comic book of all time: X-Men Vol. 2, #1, with sales of 8,186,500 copies."

 

You better read what I was responding to. AnkurJ said "Modern comics have much bigger print runs and sell through than older books"

I was referring to modern comics not a specific issue. X-Men #1 was a blip on the radar. Modern comics on avereage sell alot less than Silver Age or Golden Age comics.

[comix4fun]

22 hours ago, MGS said:

Isn't the opposite true?  These days only a handful of titles a month hit six figures.  Silver and Gold age books had way higher print runs.

Mike

You're right. At their peak, in the Golden Age, comics regularly had seven figure print runs. Today's print runs are but a sliver of that. 

[The Voord]

3 hours ago, comix4fun said:

You're right. At their peak, in the Golden Age, comics regularly had seven figure print runs. Today's print runs are but a sliver of that. 

So we're now in the Sliver Age?

[Catwoman_Fan]

From the modern age, I can think of two issues with “large-ish” numbers  

Ninjak 1 (Valiant 1993) sold 500,000, with art by Joe Quesada.

And Batman 50 (2018) sold 440,000. Art by Jose Garcia Lopez

But through the 90’s there were tons of Marvel /DC/Image Comics with print runs in the millions