This post features the sales of established comics titles published by Marvel, DC, and Archie during the 1969-1970 sales year. A few series from other publishers are also included. Established titles are ones that have had 20 issues or more. The sales year is approximately the spring of 1969 through the 1969-1970 winter.
The first group is of titles for which U. S. Postal Service Statement of Ownership forms were filed in late 1970. The forms were published in early 1971 in the titles' letter columns. The accompanying numbers are the average per-issue paid circulations reported in the forms. The titles are listed from the highest sellers to the lowest.
Mad  1,864,443
Archie  482,945
Superman  446,678
Superboy  377,525
Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane  355,561
Archie’s Girls Betty and Veronica  344,478
Superman’s Pal. Jimmy Olsen  333,539
World’s Finest  333,213
Action Comics  329,925
Amazing Spider-Man  322,195
Adventure Comics  310,123
Betty and Me  302,591
Archie and Me  297,739
Batman  293,897
Laugh  290,156
Life with Archie  286,935
Fantastic Four  285,639
Pep Comics  253,368
Tarzan of the Apes  251,736
Reggie and Me  250,094
Archie’s Pals ‘n’ Gals  246,007
Archie Giant Series  233,904
Thor  232,058
Millie the Model  227,733
Uncle Scrooge  226,614
Captain America  225,651
Mickey Mouse  223,396
Incredible Hulk  222,619
Sgt. Fury  221,921
Avengers  217,394
Daredevil  212,935
Brave and the Bold  211,266
Detective Comics  209,630
Twilight Zone  208,992
Rawhide Kid  207,678
Justice League of America  200,715
Josie and the Pussycats  196,442
Woody Woodpecker  196,372
Korak, Son of Tarzan  195,563
Reggie’s Wise Guy Jokes  194,701
Turok, Son of Stone  192,381
Mad House Glads  186,736
Flash  184,479
House of Mystery  180,642
X-Men  180,589
G. I. Combat  178,363
Young Romance  172,606
Wonder Woman  172,536
Our Army at War  171,510
Young Love  165,816
Tales of the Unexpected  159,390
Girls’ Love Stories  158,303
Heart Throbs  157,644
Girls’ Romances  153,649
Jerry Lewis  151,461
Aquaman  141,210
Secret Hearts  140,927
Our Fighting Forces  139,770
Tomahawk  139,555
Star-Spangled War Stories  136,204
Strange Adventures  136,047
Sugar & Spike  135,093
Green Lantern  134,150
The North American comics industry appeared to have sales declines pretty much across the board during the 1969-1970 sales year. Even Mad, for which sales had a general upward trend throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, saw its numbers drop.
The only sales bright spots, and they were small ones, were with DC's horror-mystery titles and their Wonder Woman series. House of Mystery and Tales of the Unexpected saw increases of less than five percent. Wonder Woman's increase was less than one percent.
However, most DC titles saw their sales shrink by double-digit percentages. Marvel and Archie generally saw double-digit declines as well.
The following group are titles that had 20 or more issues published by early 1971, but had no Statement of Ownership filed in 1970. Publishers often did not file the form for titles that had not published at least 20 issues when forms were due to be submitted, so those are not listed. Marvel did not file Statements of Ownership for any series that began publishing in 1968 or later until 1978. Titles that were published during the sales year, but were cancelled before the Statement of Ownership could be printed, are not listed, either.
Beep Beep the Road Runner
Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery
Bugs Bunny
Daffy Duck
Donald Duck
House of Secrets
Iron Man
Little Archie
Marvel’s Greatest Comics
Marvel Super-Heroes
Marvel Tales
Porky Pig
Ripley’s Believe it or Not
Sub-Mariner
Teen Titans
Two-Gun Kid
Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories
Other Comics Sales Posts
--1970-1971
--1971-1972
--1972-1973
--1973-1974
--1974-1975
--1975-1976
--1976-1977
--1977-1978
--1978-1979
--1979-1980
--1980-1981
--1981-1982
--1982-1983
--1983-1984
--1984-1985
--1985-1986
--1986-1987
--1987-1988
--1988-1989

 
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