Archie Sales Figures
- Posted by Johanna on January 20, 2008 at 10:23 pm
- Category: Archie Comics
It’s that time of year again… Archie Comics is the only major publisher I’m aware of that still publishes its Statements of Ownership, Management, and Circulation, a post office requirement to use certain mail classes. That means we know what circulation numbers they’re reporting to the government.
Here’s the figures I’ve seen so far for Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation. The first number is the Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months; the second is No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date.
| Title | Average | Nearest Issue | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archie #581 | 27,498 | 28,885 | ||
| Archie’s Double Digest #185 | 96,887 | 104,056 | ||
| Archie’s Pals ‘n’ Gals Double Digest #118 | 85,587 | 98,753 | ||
| Betty #171 | 12,731 | 13,295 | ||
| Jughead and Friends Digest #26 | 46,247 | 48,842 | ||
As usual, the digests do much better than the single issues. For comparison with Diamond direct market sales, the ADD’s 104K would make it #5 in ranking (based on this November 2007 list) while Betty would be #164 or so, right next to the last issue of Loners and part of the Howard the Duck miniseries.
I’ll try to update this post in a month or so when I get more issues.
January 21, 2008 at 3:59 am
[...] Johanna Draper Carlson presents a few Archie Comics sales [...]
January 21, 2008 at 9:52 am
Thanks Johanna; this is interesting…
BTW, Marvel also still publishes Statements of Ownership in some of its titles (those for which they sell subscriptions).
January 21, 2008 at 10:13 am
[...] response to my posting the 2007 sales figures for Archie comics (at least, those released so far), Heidi asks how they compare to previous [...]
January 21, 2008 at 10:19 am
Dave, true, I’ve noticed that in some of them. I wonder if anyone is collecting those?
January 21, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Heavy Metal magazine does it to:
http://www.heavymetalmagazinefanpage.com/sales.html
January 22, 2008 at 11:13 am
That’s not exactly a straight comparison.
You’re taking a look at Archie’s circulation numbers based on the number of issues published. But if you’re going to do that for Archie, you have to do that for the other titles that you’re comparing it to.
Instead, you’re comparing:
Archie’s direct market sales + Archie’s subscription sales (if any) + Archie’s newsstand sales + Archie’s unsold/returned newsstand sales (which are included in number of issues published even though they aren’t sold) to
Thor’s direct market sales (the current #5 book)
If you want a fair comparison, you also have to give Thor credit for subscription sales (if any), newsstand sales and unsold/returned newsstand sales (and there are some. I’ve seen comic books- and not just Archies- in several grocery stores, corner stores and book stores. They aren’t as prevalent as they once were, but they’re out there). But that’s not what you’re doing. You’re comparing Archie’s total number of published issues to Thor’s direct market sales only.
It’s true that a greater percentage of Archie’s sales come outside of the direct market. And Archie looks a lot better when you look at the overall totals than just the direct market sales. But if you’re going to look at the overall totals for one, you have to look at the overall totals for everyone.
January 22, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Actually, no, the number of issues published is a higher number, also included elsewhere in the statement. So I’m just reporting what Archie says their sales are (the first three parts of your equation). But your point is taken. Sadly, we can only work with the numbers available to us, which aren’t many.
My comparison was to give people a rough idea of how Archie sales outside the direct market (for the most part) compared to superhero sales within it. You’re right, it’s not as accurate as some would like.
February 25, 2008 at 6:42 am
[...] time for part two of looking at Archie sales figures. I’ve copied over the numbers from the previous post. Remember, these are the Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation figures that Archie files with the [...]