The first group is of titles for which U. S. Postal Service Statement of Ownership forms were filed in late 1979. The forms were published in early 1980 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. Estimates are provided for select titles that did not publish a Statement of Ownership in early 1980. The estimate number is a rounded average of the title's sales from 1977-1978 and 1979-1980.
Mad 1,561,327
Star Wars 278,759
Amazing Spider-Man 277,000 (est.)
Incredible Hulk 276,805
Fantastic Four 267,511
Superman 246,276
Avengers 229,960
Marvel Two-in-One 180,736
X-Men 171,091
Batman 166,640
Legion of Super-Heroes 162,265
Action Comics 160,928
Wonder Woman 158,678
Brave and the Bold 153,034
Defenders 152,101
Captain America 140,000 (est.)
DC Comics Presents 135,657
Thor 135,599
What If 135,381
Ghost Rider 135,107
Justice League of America 128,660
Master of Kung Fu 128,293
Spider-Woman 126,875
Archie 121,530
Archie's Girls Betty and Veronica 112,215
Betty and Me 108,812
Super Friends 108,520
Archie's Pals 'n' Gals 106,101
Sgt. Rock 105,772
Laugh 103,850
Everything's Archie 102,542
Flash 102,297
Jughead 101,547
Archie and Me 101,291
Pep 100,827
Little Archie 100,107
Archie at Riverdale High 100,047
Unknown Soldier 99,046
Archie's Joke Book Magazine 98,042
Green Lantern 97.249
Archie's TV Laugh-Out 94,764
Jughead's Jokes 93,205
Ghosts 92,687
Reggie and Me 92,684
Unexpected 90,495
Vampirella 90,050
Warlord 89,508
Weird War Tales 85,628
House of Mystery 85,569
Weird Western Tales 85,176
Jonah Hex 84,200
Adventure Comics 83,642
Detective Comics 79,872
G. I. Combat 78,980
World’s Finest 78,044
The Jim Shooter era at Marvel has begun. Several long-running titles began having Statement of Ownership forms filed and published, which was likely due to the tighter administrative ship Shooter ran as editor-in-chief. One also sees the sales of several Marvel titles rise significantly. Incredible Hulk had the most impressive increase at 61%. This was probably because of interest generated by the CBS television series, but other titles saw striking gains as well. The sales of Fantastic Four increased 50%. Avengers increased 41%. X-Men, during the first full year of the landmark John Byrne/Chris Claremont run, saw a 48% gain. The revival of Marvel's fortunes in the newsstand market was in all likelihood a large part of what gave Shooter his clout with the executives of Marvel's parent company. DC's inability to make similar gains all but certainly added to the executives' regard.
The following group are titles that had at least issues published by early 1980, but had no Statement of Ownership filed in 1979. 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. Titles that were published during the sales year, but were cancelled before the Statements of Ownership could be published, are not listed, either.
Conan the Barbarian
Daredevil
Doctor Strange
Iron Man
Marvel Premiere
Marvel Super-Heroes
Marvel Tales
Marvel Team-Up
Marvel's Greatest Comics
Power Man & Iron Fist
Savage Sword of Conan
Secrets of Haunted House
Sgt. Fury
Spectacular Spider-Man
Other Comics Sales Posts
--1969-1970
--1970-1971
--1971-1972
--1972-1973
--1973-1974
--1974-1975
--1975-1976
--1976-1977
--1977-1978
--1979-1980
--1980-1981
--1981-1982
--1982-1983
--1983-1984
--1984-1985
--1985-1986
--1986-1987
--1987-1988
--1988-1989
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