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The Year That Was--1990
2007-07-23 11:44:33

Once again dipping into the files, here are some moer Direct Sales marketplace sales figures from many years ago. Remember, these were just the number of copies sold into the non-returnable direct market of comic book specialty shops. With most of these books, there were additional sales through the returnable Newsstand distribution network as well, so these aren't complete figures. Still, they give us a nice snapshot of an exciting period of change for Marvel and the industry.

As you can see at the left, this was the month that the first issue of Todd McFarlane's adjectiveless SPIDER-MAN title shipped. And as you can see, it was an overwhelming hit, selling close to two million copies in the direct market alone (and that's only for these two editions of the book--there were also two newsstand editions, and a specialty version or two that were later done as a gift to retailers.) The next-nearest selling book, X-MEN, didn't do a fraction of that.

I can remember at the time that nobody was surprised that Todd's SPIDER-MAN was a hit--it was a new ongoing Spidey book produced by the most popular artist to illustrate the web-slinger in a long time. But the actual extent of its success raised the bar and changed the industry. Because, having done this once, the powers-that-be above editorial expected a repeat performance the following year. Hedging his bets, EIC Tom DeFalco working with X-MEN editor Bob Harras decided to launch a new X-MEN #1 and transition NEW MUTANTS into X-FORCE that following year, hoping that between the two titles, they'd be able to deliver the same sales spike as SPIDER-MAN #1. And then, of course, X-FORCE #1 moved 4 million copies, and X-MEN #1 moved 8 million--and suddenly, there was an even bigger hurtle to deal with the year after that.

It's also interesting to see the range of material Marvel was producing at this point. Far from simply focusing on the super hero titles of the Marvel U, there was an aggressive licensed property program, a line of books aimed at younger kids, the creator-owned Epic line, and a number of other projects that defied easy categorization. Not all of it was wonderful, but there was definitely some diversity going on.

This was also a summer month, which at that time meant that many of Marvel's most popular titles had started to ship twice-a-month for the duration. A glance at these sales numbers will tell you instantly why that happened--an additional issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN brought in more revenue than any number of other books, even mainstays in the Marvel line. This strategy allowed the Marvel of the era to dominate the sales charts, leaving the competition, for the most part, in the dust.

I also can't quite figure out what would have been the number one selling title for Marvel the month previous. According to these rankings, X-MEN was the #3 book in May. Even if this was skewed because of the double-shipping, that still means that X-MEN would have been the #2 title. So what was #1 in May of 1990?

More later.

Tom B

Millions??
That's just not fair. Why can't we go back to that, but with better written stories and more thought put into it as a whole?

Blech.

Posted by PseudoSherlock on 2007-06-27 23:08:41

what happened?
How did we get from 8 million copies to high-fives all around by selling 400,000 books on a CW title?

That is just incredible to think about. 8 Million. That means that one out of every 32 people in america bought a copy of that issue.

Tom, can you visit this again and try to offer insight over why comics are not even close to that mark anymore?

Posted by bigdaddyhub2 on 2007-06-27 23:46:19

Question
Tom, I'd just be interested to know what you made of the HEROES FOR HIRE 13 controversy. What was your opinion? Is that a cover you'd have okayed on one of your books? Would you want a 13 year old son or daughter (hypothetically) buying something with that on the cover? Do you think it is a suitable cover to show a non-reader as an example of why we like comics?

Posted by skagandboneman on 2007-06-28 06:31:37

x-force and spiderman
hey

this a hey,
glad to see that SPIDERMAN and X-FORCE were hit-saling, but it looks like Presidentials, everybody were waiting for them and the authors, arrived too soon on the top I think , couldn't afford the pressure, X-FORCE and SPIDERMAN never been what everybody granted, I'm not talking about sales, I'm talking about Liefeld's and Mc Farlane psychological profiles....I don't remember exactly where the readers stopped to follow, do you ?

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-06-28 07:29:00

I long for a world where Guardians of the Galaxy can sell close to 90K copies.

Posted by MattDiCarlo on 2007-06-28 07:56:44

I'm most amazed to see What If? ranking so high. I guess it depends on whats being covered in the book that month, but that is a strong showing regardless. Also amazing to see stuff like Thor so low and Namor and Excalibur so high. Its also weird to think about how many of the books on that list are #2s and #3s or less than a year old and lasted for a good long while.

Posted by IanZL on 2007-06-28 12:41:28

Oh, and with regards to why 400,000 is now considered a great number when books were selling 4,000,000 17 years ago. Easy, about 7-10 years ago they were selling 100,000 at the very most.

Not one out of every eight people in the country bought the book, it was more like one out of 100 people bought 20 copies.

Posted by IanZL on 2007-06-28 12:43:26

ok...but why???
Keep going IanZL. I stopped collecting comics in about 1989 and didn't get back into them until 2005. Why the drop-off? Why did the 1 in 100 stop buying? What happened in the '90s that almost killed comics?

Posted by bigdaddyhub2 on 2007-06-28 13:31:54

Epic
I discovered Plastic Forks and the art of Ted Mc Keever years later,I will never cease to said this is his masterpiece, and everybody should go find the TPB
I just missed the LEGION OF MONSTERS with Man Thing and the Zombie, but for what I had read about, seems like the editorial-team made a point because the two creative teams Huston /Janson and Garth/Mc Keever made the points, why not the same team on a character such like SLEEPWALKER, I'm sure that Mc Keever could give the dimension needed...

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-06-28 13:41:28

1990 IMO: higher sales, but lower quality
i think that the 90's decade wasn't the best decade of comics, but one of the poorer ones in terms of quality stories. I am surprised of the higher sales, but remember that there were a lot of ''speculators'' at that time.
I am glad that the current decade 2000's, is a positive decade for comic books, maybe not in incredible sales, but in quality stories --most of them thanks to MARVEL-- (like in the 80's --most of them thanks to DC).

that's all!!

Guido Cuadros F.A.

Posted by Los Shapis on 2007-06-28 16:22:19

Go 90's
I am amazed that a Deathlok comic from the 90's sells the same as a current Moon Knight or Ghost Rider mag. And those sales are meant to be incredible by today's standards. I am amazed...

Posted by s05bf0d4 on 2007-06-29 09:15:42

I'm not sure that there was a single event that made people stop buying, but people slowly realized that not every comic would be worth buying dozens of copies of so they started buying either fewer or no copies. It might have been the Death of Superman, which everyone bought, only to see that Superman was just coming back a short time later.
Companies started to really grab the buyers with all sorts of varients and gimicks to try and stay afloat. That was just a stop-gap though and eventually that started failing as well. Comics were selling horribly by the mid-90s with books hitting 100,000 if they were lucky. There has however been growth ever since.

I'm sure Tom could explain this better than I. Maybe he can take a look at the bubble and crash some day.

Posted by IanZL on 2007-06-29 16:15:17

kids these days
Kids just dont appreciate comics any more. Everytime that I go into a comic book store (and I try and find one in every new town I go to) there are only older people in there 25+ and IF there are any kids they arn't paying any attention to the comics they are picking out pokemon figurines in the glass display case. It hit me when I went to see the last spidey movie...even though I felt like I was sitting down in a kindergarden class room I thought to myself 'most of these kids dont even KNOW that spiderman comes from a comic' they just know spiderman to be some guy who's been in 3 movies now.

Its sad because unless someone starts writing 'The Adventures of Jay Z' or 'The Amazing Paris Hilton' the younger people these days just dont care. To me the Civil War series and the current and upcoming World War Hulk comics are HUGE 'entertainment' news topics but young people arn't exposed to that. Why read a comic when you have 800 channels of TV to catch up on....sigh...like I said sad.

Posted by steve_swv on 2007-06-30 19:48:19

hi there

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:38:03

this place is heaven for insomniacs,
no?

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:38:35

yes

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:38:48

you got it

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:39:04

exactly

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:39:24

-kweest....

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:39:37

.....buubbbbbbble....

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:39:56

- KWEEEST....

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:40:13

bubbble.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:40:30

yes this is a notapotatoe session online, right here and now,
it will be certainly about Texas Radio and The Big Beat....

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:42:13

AAAuuuuu-wa

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:42:27

I tell you, I start believing in God when I realize that I was none of his own, which is not particulary a good new,I start to believe in God by trough damnation.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:44:29

AAAAAuuuuu-wa
aaaaa-uuu....

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:44:56

WA.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:45:17

many questions arrived then,
how far you must be, which signs really count to make you not doing the wrong step,
how people do such things to each other,
then
when you got an idea of what perfection is, and there is an inch of respect left, you decide yourself the leave the....
table, you know.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:48:03

I mean, TO leave the table.
Typing express,okay?

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:49:01

okay.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:49:17

AAAAuuuuuwa.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:49:47

I had been helped you know.
One of my best friend who was also my mentor ( yeah man I got mentors, heh ) had been very helpful, he says that if you decide to not jump under th train from the bridge, then you'll have to assume the fact of living.
According with the fact that when you're depressed, you surely don't want to begin.
Making a step is making others, failing again.
For the same reasons you had failed before, who look so ....

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:53:56

AAA-UUUUU-WA

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:54:11

employers,
parents,
teachers,
school-mates,
school-mates teachers,
what ?

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:54:58

you know what they said ?

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:55:23

grow.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:55:41

Life is amatter of death,
the purpose of life is learning to die.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:56:20

AAAAA-uuu-wa

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:56:48

I mean no harm you know.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:57:10

You know what I read at the end of a page ?
at the nota-bene ?
(yes, there was a notabene)
"Stars are up in the sky,
wish you were here,
I'm happy now ".

Like this.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:59:13

AAA----u----WAAAAA.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 06:59:34

So DeadPond where are you ?

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 07:00:50

.....should be naked,y'know...

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 07:01:28

are you finished with the catalog ?

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 07:01:50

this is not toilets here,
if I'm asking you to leave the place like you finded it,
things will become VERY difficult.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 07:03:01

I'm not asking.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 07:03:16

okay man.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 07:03:37

the headband feets you well,
will be helpful.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 07:04:07

My problem ?!:
....I had been feeded.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 07:05:03

okay.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 07:05:32

AAAAAA--uuuuu-WA

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 07:05:48

nobody laughs at notapotatoe.

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-07-01 07:06:13

#1 the previous month
Per the data, it looks like it would have been Amazing Spider-Man:

X-Men #265, Last Month: 219,900
Amazing Spider-Man #336, Last Month: 224,750

Posted by hogfat on 2007-07-13 15:27:21

90's
there were some good comics back then...mostly X-Men and Spider-Man...i think things are better now with titles like the New Avengers and Captain America putting out amazing stoylines instead of 90's cheese...

Posted by themangler on 2007-08-14 19:46:26

Array

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