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Author Topic: Our Vanishing America Teen-ager  (Read 2798 times)

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Offline Forsythe

Our Vanishing America Teen-ager
« on: March 29, 2009, 01:37:30 AM »
I've thought of putting a list like this together for years, the recent discussions of last years sales data inspired me. The only number that really matters is the Total Paid Circulation, average numbers of copies over the preceeding 12 months. Single issue nearest to filing date means only that.

This is for the title Archie!

This info is from the publishers statement found in the comics. This info can be found usually in the April issue, sometimes March, sometimes May or June.

The filing date until 1996 was always Oct 1st, then it started moving around a little. Starting in 1995 they began to mention which issues this info covered, it stayed very consistant Oct-Sept, so the 2008 numbers were for the Oct 2007 - Sept 2008 issues. The earliest statement that included the actual numbers is from the April 1961 issue . The total print run numbers didn't start until 1963, but here goes

Total Paid Circulation is the first number, the total print run is the second number

1960 - 500,200
1961 - 458,039
1962 - 457,689
1963 - 471,166 - 847,177
1964 - 484,704 - 852,794
1965 - 467,552 - 850,115
1966 - 491,691 - 857,136
1967 - 484,648 - 869,130
1968 - 566,587 - 910,507
1969 - 515,536 - 886,643
1970 - 482,945 - 853,590
1971 - 482,101 - 884,292
1972 - 390,408 - 810,400
1973 - 345,087 - 748,465
1974 - 272,272 - 528,601
1975 - 199,918 - 453,574
1976 - 181,827 - 423,959
1977 - 155,252 - 360,831
1978 - 137,620 - 346,308
1979 - 121,530 - 303,952
1980 -   89,409 - 266,468
1981 -   87,302 - 244,478
1982 -   67,693 - 212,613
1983 -   69,697 - 169,624
1984 -   64,781 - 158,298
1985 -   63,143 - 157,750
1986 -   67,059 - 178,673
1987 -   66,176 - 194,181
1988 -   74,223 - 200,363
1989 -   67,423 - 188,864
1990 -   56,855 - 179,586
1991 -   45,960 - 150,515
1992 -   47,530 - 167,245
1993 -   44,547 - 152,085
1994 -   46,033 - 153,534
1995 -   43,885 - 142,193
1996 -   43,298 - 129,795
1997 -   41,134 - 130,481
1998 -   35,801 - 112,065
1999 -   29,361 -   93,621
2000 -   27,551 -   83,356
2001 -   24,285 -   67,590
2002 -   21,456 -   63,302
2003 -   19,945 -   53,330
2004 -   18,137 -   49,451
2005 -   18,020 -   54,589
2006 -   18,765 -   52,492
2007 -   25,305 -   53,647
2008 -   13,259 -   36,774

pretty scary!

:o
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Offline RiverPhoenixDale

Re: Our Vanishing America Teen-ager
« Reply #1 on: March 29, 2009, 01:54:30 AM »
Wow, fascinating stuff!

1968 was a banner year for Archie!  Was that the same year as "Sugar, Sugar" came out?
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Offline archiecomicsfan27

Re: Our Vanishing America Teen-ager
« Reply #2 on: March 29, 2009, 02:06:46 AM »
Wow what happened in 2007?? The comics were popular and then in 2008 they were less than ever!!
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Archie Comics are my WHOLE life


Archie Comics = 781
Archie Digests= 370

Offline Captain Hero

Re: Our Vanishing America Teen-ager
« Reply #3 on: March 29, 2009, 09:47:45 AM »
Wasn't 2007 the year that all the buzz was going around with the new look series?  I imagine that got a lot of people curious to see what it looked like.

There was actually a bigger drop between 1979 and 1980!

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Offline RiverPhoenixDale

Re: Our Vanishing America Teen-ager
« Reply #4 on: March 29, 2009, 11:40:10 AM »
Yeah, the late '70s were brutal to Archie.  From 1975-1980 circulation is cut in half!

Weren't the late '70s in general a terrible time for comics?  I heard that Marvel would have gone completely out of business if Star Wars comics weren't selling so well.
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Offline Frank

Re: Our Vanishing America Teen-ager
« Reply #5 on: March 29, 2009, 11:53:17 AM »
How very brutal......

It's sad to see comics in this light - as a dying art form.  While many have predicted the death of comics for many, many years - it seems that this trend will eventually reach it's conclusion at some point in the near future.  10 years more?

If there was ever a revival - the comics from this current era would certainly be amongst the scarcest though!

Uncle Scrooge is another great example (or even better Walt Disney's Comics & Stories).  They had sales of over 1,000,000 copies in the 50's and have been as low as 2,000-3,000 during the times when they have been cancelled (Gold Key, Gladstone, Gemstone).

It would be interesting to map cover prices against the decline.  Not that cheaper comics equal more sales - that's probably not true.  However, there is a "base" cost that has to be covered.  Printing and Production costs must be "x" dollars.  Printing would be incremental (with some economies of scale), but the other costs (artists, editors) would be fixed.  I don't imagine most artists work on a copy-sold basis! (if they do - then double ouch)

For those of us that collect comics - another cool line (and, to some extent an impossible one), would be survival rates.  I suspect most copies in 1968 were read, re-read and tossed away.  I further suspect that 70%+ of all current copies are preserved in some way (in my case - in mylar!).  So which era is harder to collect?
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No matter where I go, there I am.  Creepy.

Offline Frank

Re: Our Vanishing America Teen-ager
« Reply #6 on: March 29, 2009, 11:54:43 AM »
Oh - to clarify why I would be interested in the cover price.

It would allow us to predict when base cost failed and cancellation was imminent.
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No matter where I go, there I am.  Creepy.

Offline Tuxedo Mark

Re: Our Vanishing America Teen-ager
« Reply #7 on: March 29, 2009, 10:12:11 PM »
Quote from: Captain Hero on March 29, 2009, 09:47:45 AM
Wasn't 2007 the year that all the buzz was going around with the new look series?  I imagine that got a lot of people curious to see what it looked like.

But these figures are for "Archie", not "Betty and Veronica Double Digest Magazine".

Anyway, it's odd that Archie Comics seems very slow to match print runs to demand. For example, the 2008 print run is at the sales level of 1998.
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Betty Cooper + Cheryl Blossom. It's inevitable.

The Betty Cooper FAQ
http://supergirl.741.com/Betty/bettyfaq.html

The Cheryl Blossom FAQ
http://supergirl.741.com/Cheryl/cherylfaq.html

Offline Frank

Re: Our Vanishing America Teen-ager
« Reply #8 on: March 29, 2009, 10:52:26 PM »
To confound things even further, Archie comics have (in my opinion) always relied on a cyclic/renewable readership. Not many readers read Archie for a block of time greater than a few years.

One of the reasons that they reprint stories on a 5 year cycle I suppose.

Only problem: the readership doesn't seem to be renewing.  :(

Don't people understand how much fun these comics are?
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No matter where I go, there I am.  Creepy.

Offline archieandme

Re: Our Vanishing America Teen-ager
« Reply #9 on: March 30, 2009, 12:05:04 AM »
Interestingly, the digests started in 1973.  Of course there was just Archie Comics Digest, followed a short time later by Jughead with Archie (plus Betty and Veronica and Reggie, Too... for the first couple of issues.)

I wonder how much the digest concept of more comics for less money caused a decline in sales of regular issues.
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Offline RiverPhoenixDale

Re: Our Vanishing America Teen-ager
« Reply #10 on: March 30, 2009, 01:33:16 AM »
Is there a thread called "Why I Hate Digests"?  :)  No offense to the digest collectors, but all those stories from multiple eras thrown together haphazardly offends my OCD-ish sense of order.  :)

And they're so SMALL!

Of course, without the digests, Archie probably wouldn't still be publishing.
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Offline Captain Hero

Re: Our Vanishing America Teen-ager
« Reply #11 on: March 30, 2009, 11:51:56 AM »
Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on March 29, 2009, 10:12:11 PM
Quote from: Captain Hero on March 29, 2009, 09:47:45 AM
Wasn't 2007 the year that all the buzz was going around with the new look series?  I imagine that got a lot of people curious to see what it looked like.

But these figures are for "Archie", not "Betty and Veronica Double Digest Magazine".

Anyway, it's odd that Archie Comics seems very slow to match print runs to demand. For example, the 2008 print run is at the sales level of 1998.

Doesn't matter.  If there's buzz surrounding one title, I'd like to think that other titles would be taken into consideration.  I know as a comic book buyer myself, I've ended up buying titles I'd never have considered before because it looked neat, so I'd buy it along with the title I'd usually buy.
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Offline Captain Hero

Re: Our Vanishing America Teen-ager
« Reply #12 on: March 30, 2009, 11:53:42 AM »
Quote from: RiverPhoenixDale on March 30, 2009, 01:33:16 AM
Is there a thread called "Why I Hate Digests"?  :)  No offense to the digest collectors, but all those stories from multiple eras thrown together haphazardly offends my OCD-ish sense of order.  :)

And they're so SMALL!

Of course, without the digests, Archie probably wouldn't still be publishing.

I agree with you to a point.  The newer digests might seem small and slapped together, but for someone like me who can never find the regular standard 32-page comics, the digests are like playing "catch-up" for me. 

Besides, the older digests were much better...more creative cover art...60 cent cover price...160 pages in full colour...
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Offline JimY

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Re: Our Vanishing America Teen-ager
« Reply #13 on: March 30, 2009, 11:57:23 AM »
I agree about the digests. The new ones are poor imitations to the digests that originally came out, especially the Double Digests. Those were a treat.

I'd be interested to see what the Uncle Scrooge circulation numbers were like when Ducktales was on TV. That was my first introduction into the stories. Prior to that, I thought the Ducks were all about those Donald Duck cartoons so I had no interest in reading the comics.
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Offline Banshee

Re: Our Vanishing America Teen-ager
« Reply #14 on: March 30, 2009, 03:41:56 PM »
That is one reason WHY I am going into the comic book business as part of my career.

To help save the great medium that is "comic books". As well as comic strips, which is also on the decline and cartoons, which seem to be getting mediocre, too BTW.

But, it is still a very hard and time-consuming work, though. :(
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