Comics Sales 1977-1978

This post features the sales of the established comics titles published by Marvel, DC, and Archie during the 1977-1978 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 1977 through the winter of 1977 and 1978.

The first group is of titles for which U. S. Postal Service Statement of Ownership forms were filed in late 1978. The forms were published in early 1979 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 1,626,452
Amazing Spider-Man 258,156
Superman 223,222
Action Comics 183,601
Fantastic Four 177,802
Incredible Hulk 171,931
Avengers 162,966
Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes 141,386
Archie 137,620
Thor 135,599
Adventure Comics 131,076
Detective Comics 129,901
Justice League of America 126,918
Batman 125,421
Wonder Woman 124,296
Sgt. Rock 123,216
Brave and the Bold 121,668
Archie's Girls Betty and Veronica 119,474
Unknown Soldier 117,110
Betty and Me 116,546
Captain America 116,146
Flash 115,825
X-Men 115,260
Unexpected 115,047
Weird War Tales 113,988
Daredevil 111,559
Everything's Archie 111,141
Archie and Me 110,245
Archie's Pals 'n' Gals 109,891
Laugh 109,778
Life with Archie 109,732
Archie's TV Laugh-Out 109,526
Pep 108,806
Jughead 108,495
Little Archie 106,314
Archie at Riverdale High 104,076
Archie's Joke Book Magazine 102,945
Weird Western Tales 100,519
Ghosts 99,771
Reggie and Me 97,828
Jughead's Jokes 96,248
Vampirella 92,550
Rawhide Kid 89,414
G. I. Combat 85,968
World’s Finest 85,015
House of Mystery 75,759

Marvel's licensed Star Wars title is reputed to be the year's top-selling color comic. The sales of the six movie-adaptation issues are believed to be over a million each. But there was no Statement of Ownership filing for the year, so it is not listed.

This year was one of the few in which Detective Comics outsold Batman. The reason was most likely the boost given Detective Comics by the fan-favorite Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers run.

The following group are titles that had 20 or more issues published by early 1979, but had no Statement of Ownership filed in 1978. 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.

Captain Marvel
Conan the Barbarian
Defenders
Doctor Strange
Ghost Rider
Godzilla
Green Lantern
Howard the Duck
Invaders
Iron Man
John Carter, Warlord of Mars
Jonah Hex
Kid Colt Outlaw
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
Ms. Marvel
Power Man
Savage Sword of Conan
Sgt. Fury
Spectacular Spider-Man
Star Wars
Super Friends
Tarzan
Tomb of Dracula
Warlord

Other Comics Sales Posts

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