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The World According To 1984
2007-05-29 15:59:43

Direct market sales figures, April 1984

Direct market sales figures, April 1984, pt.

Talking about this month's rankings at the beginning of the week, and excavating through the crank file yesterday put me in a mind to share the attached document with everybody, just by way of compare and contrast. What you see at the left is the sales rankings for Marvel books for April 1984.

These figures, however, are only for the direct market, which was still largely in its infancy during this period. In 1984, most Marvel books were still sold through what was then called Newsstand channels, everything from candy stores to 7-11s, on a returnable basis, just like any other magazines. So these numbers represent only a fraction of the total sales for these titles in these months--and the rankings don't even necessarily represent how well a given book was doing overall (because there were some titles that were extremely popular on the Newsstand, but which weren't real favorites of the more rarefied clientèle who frequented comic book specialty shops.)

Nevertheless, it's an interesting snapshot as to how things were performing in the early days of the direct market. The numbers for SECRET WARS, for example, far outstrip everything else (in a manner that's held true today for event books like CIVIL WAR.) It's also very interesting to me that, at least in the direct market, ALPHA FLIGHT was outselling both AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and FANTASTIC FOUR a year in--this despite the fact that both AF and FF were being done by John Byrne at the time.

Generally, things seem to be looking good for Marvel in the direct market in April 1984, as a majority of the titles being published, especially what we think of as the "core" Marvel books, are mostly posting increases. And the lowest-selling mainstream Marvel title on the list, POWER MAN AND IRON FIST, would run for another two years or so--and then was canceled not because it wasn't making money, but because the feeling was that the resources that went into producing that title could be used to produce some other book which would make even more money.

If nothing else, it's very clear from this document how much of a savior the direct market was for the comic book industry--an industry that looked as though it might be breathing its last towards the end of the 1970s, as the returns from Newsstand channels dwindled.

More later.

Tom B

Disappearance from the Newsstand
Hey, Tom --

Could you explain the reasons for the decline in newsstand revenue? Is this why comic companies today are gunshy about committing to a significant, extended, long-term newsstand push? I know that I got into comics via newsstands as a kid in the 80s, but from what I've seen today, comics aren't readily available outside of the direct market comic shops.

Posted by therubberbandman on 2007-04-19 18:24:08

There was a website that showed the numbers from newstands through the ages somewhere. I can't find the URL, but I think it was something like 350,000 for Amazing Spider-Man #1.

Posted by Undergirl on 2007-04-19 20:12:28

Wow
The X-Books were still quite popular, even then. They were the second and third sellers with X-Men and New Mutants. Honestly, I had no idea that they were as famous in the 80s as the 90s, when I thought their popularity spiked.

Posted by PseudoSherlock on 2007-04-20 08:01:45

I miss the Micronauts, couldn't they team-up with the new Ant- Man ?
Don't talk about New Mutants either or I'll sound very nostalgic.

See ?

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-04-20 11:00:56

Dazzler is Diva Magic!
Ha! Dazzler sold more during it's WORST ISSUE OF THE RUN (#33 -- the MICHAEL JACKSON THRILLER issue) in the direct market than New Excalibur does today! Not to mention she's the only female hero headlining a book!

Talk about FABULOUS! I would love to see the direct-sales figures for Dazzler #1 in comparison to other books -- or even Dazzler #10. Girl can rock it if she's made divafabulous again! Thanks, Tom!

Posted by Novaya Havoc on 2007-04-22 19:13:56

Agreed. Mr. Bevroot, is there any way we could see the Dazzler sales figures for previous issues? I'm quite interested in how it was holding up compared to other books.

And I do think its rather funny that one of the bad Dazzler issues outsold the likes of "good" New Excalibur issues of today by almost 20,000.

Posted by tetragene on 2007-04-22 19:16:00

Micronauts and RoM?????????
I cant believe ROM and micronauts beat out so many titles like captain america. Goes to show you how crazy and confusing the 80's were. AAAaahhh but I see my mutant teams still go fourth --very wise titles-- the 80's were always very good to the mutant titles, crazy and confusing thats how mutants were looked at in there books so it can only make sense.

Posted by terciera on 2007-04-27 01:20:41

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About this blog:
Ramblings and musings from the mind of Tom Brevoort. "It won’t be clean. It won’t be fun. It mostly won’t be coherent."

About the author:
Tom Brevoort is Executive Editor for Marvel Comics, and oversees such titles as New Avengers, Civil War, and Fantastic Four.


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