Comics Sales 1976-1977

This post features the sales of established comics titles published by Marvel, DC, and Archie during the 1976-1977 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 1976 through the winter of 1976 and 1977.

The first group is of titles for which U. S. Postal Service Statement of Ownership forms were filed in late 1977. The forms were published in early 1978 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 1,721,515
Amazing Spider-Man 281,060
Superman 235,430
Fantastic Four 194,661
Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes 184,928
Action Comics 179,714
Incredible Hulk 174,287
Avengers 168,164
World’s Finest 161,548
Thor 158,895
Archie 155,252
Flash 153,299
Justice League of America 152,382
Batman 150,853
Brave and the Bold 150,191
Wonder Woman 150,000
Captain America 148,370
Superman Family 141,557
Archie Giant Series 138,506
Archie's Girls Betty and Veronica 138,474
Sgt. Rock 137,803
Witching Hour 132,654
Archie's Pals 'n' Gals 131,395
Unexpected 131,315
Ghosts 130,761
Life with Archie 130,746
Archie's TV Laugh-Out 130,586
Laugh 128,343
Betty and Me 127,498
Everything's Archie 127,269
Detective Comics 126,143
Unknown Soldier 126,071
G. I. Combat 125,396
Daredevil 125,079
Little Archie 124,932
Jughead 124,795
Pep 124,462
Archie's Joke Book 124,215
X-Men 123,725
Archie and Me 122,736
Weird War Tales 122,484
Adventure Comics 120,728
House of Secrets 119,166
Archie at Riverdale High 119,017
Reggie and Me 117,620
Our Fighting Forces 114,226
Kamandi 110,623
Jughead's Jokes 109,916
House of Mystery 109,191
Weird Western Tales 107,334
Rawhide Kid 98,978
Vampirella 92,125

This was the third year in the last four that Marvel's Amazing Spider-Man was the top-selling color comic-book series. The title was now the standard-bearer for the color-comics field, and Marvel was now the most prominent color-comics publisher.

The following group are titles that had 20 or more issues published by early 1978, but had no Statement of Ownership filed in 1977. As a rule, the publishers 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. With titles first published in 1968 or later, Marvel did not begin filing forms until 1979.

All-Star Comics
Captain Marvel
Conan the Barbarian
Defenders
Doctor Strange
Ghost Rider
Green Lantern
Howard the Duck
Invaders
Iron Man
Jughead with Archie
Kid Colt Outlaw
Kull the Destroyer
Marvel Premiere
Marvel Super-Heroes
Marvel Tales
Marvel Team-Up
Marvel Triple Action
Marvel Two-in-One
Marvel's Greatest Comics
Master of Kung Fu
Power Man
Savage Sword of Conan
Sgt. Fury
Shazam!
Tomb of Dracula

Other Comics Sales Posts

--1969-1970
--1970-1971
--1971-1972
--1972-1973
--1973-1974
--1974-1975
--1975-1976
--1977-1978
--1978-1979
--1979-1980
--1980-1981
--1981-1982
--1982-1983
--1983-1984
--1984-1985
--1985-1986
--1986-1987
--1987-1988
--1988-1989