The first group is of titles for which U. S. Postal Service Statement of Ownership forms were filed in late 1971. The forms were published in early 1972 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 1,845,325
Archie 482,101
Superman 421,948
Superboy 353,462
Archie’s Girls Betty and Veronica 349,527
Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane 331,145
Action Comics 325,618
World’s Finest 312,978
Amazing Spider-Man 307,550
Life with Archie 301,045
Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen 299,882
Laugh 299,627
Adventure Comics 288,941
Jughead 286,601
Fantastic Four 275,930
Pep 274,713
Archie’s Joke Book 261,593
Betty and Me 257,368
Reggie and Me 256,551
Bugs Bunny 251,523
Batman 244,488
Incredible Hulk 232,840
Donald Duck 229,933
Thor 229,492
Archie’s Pals ‘n’ Gals 224,425
Uncle Scrooge 222,673
Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories 211,846
Little Archie 211,357
Brave and the Bold 210,708
Mickey Mouse 210,361
Justice League of America 210,108
Captain America 209,315
Marge’s Little Lulu 208,875
Avengers 206,478
Sgt. Fury 205,326
Daredevil 199,872
Detective Comics 199,112
Twilight Zone 198,641
Archie Giant Series 197,765
Rawhide Kid 193,624
Daffy Duck 192,856
Turok, Son of Stone 190,325
House of Mystery 187,408
Woody Woodpecker 184,699
Our Army at War 183,928
Flash 181,380
Josie and the Pussycats 180,149
Unexpected 178,578
Three Stooges 177,111
Millie the Model 176,609
Young Love 173,116
G. I. Combat 167,841
X-Men 164,436
Falling in Love 163,425
Young Romance 162,016
Wonder Woman 159,263
Girls’ Love Stories 157,866
Heart Throbs 157,182
Star Spangled War Stories 156,713
Our Fighting Forces 149,180
Green Lantern 142,657
Tomahawk 141,865
Strange Adventures 135,265
One wouldn't call the 1970-1971 sales year a good one. In general, the per-issue average sales for comics declined. But the declines for the most part weren't a lot. There were also titles that saw modest increases.
The upper end of the field was much the same as the previous year. Mad was the top-selling title, with over three times the sales of Archie, the number-two seller. The rest of the top ten included DC's Superman titles, the better-selling Archie books, and Marvel's Amazing Spider-Man.
A few costumed-superhero titles saw modest gains. These were Incredible Hulk, Justice League of America, and Green Lantern. The Green Lantern series was featuring the "Green Lantern/Green Arrow" stories by scriptwriter Denny O'Neil and artist Neal Adams at the time.
DC's war titles and horror-mystery books saw modest gains as well. Star Spangled War Stories saw a 15% increase, which was the year's largest for any title.
The year's biggest drop was seen by DC's Batman. The series had a sales decline of 17%. DC's decision to repudiate the campy Pop style of the TV series with a dark, pulpy tone was proving a commercial mistake, at least at the time. The TV show had found continued success in syndicated reruns. Those who came to the comics from the TV series found something that had little in common with what they enjoyed. It's no wonder the sales fell (and continued to fall in succeeding years) as dramatically as they did.
The following group are titles that had 20 or more issues published by early 1972, but had no Statement of Ownership filed in 1971. 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
House of Secrets
Iron Man
Jughead’s Jokes
Kid Colt Outlaw
Magnus, Robot Fighter
Marvel Tales
Marvel’s Greatest Comics
Porky Pig
Ripley’s Believe It or Not
Sub-Mariner
Tarzan
Teen Titans
Tom and Jerry
Tweety and Sylvester
Two-Gun Kid
Vampirella
Other Comics Sales Posts
--1969-1970
--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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