Hi, I'm a PhD student at the University of Chicago preparing a journal article on Superman as a myth of American national identity. My thesis is that the market position of Superman comic books has fallen because audiences are not as interested in stories that reenforce particular social messages, in the case of Superman the messages of what I'm calling "establishment altruism" and "standardized diversity." Part of my argument, however, would be strengthened if I had hard data on the market position of Superman comic books in the seventies and eighties--in the thirties, forties, fifties, and sixties, as best as I can tell, his titles did very well, but by the nineties they were, at best, mediocre. I'm looking to see when his relative market strength ebbed. Sorry if this is not sufficiently specific, and thanks for any help.

All the best,

David P. Lyons

Dear Mr. Miller,

Thanks for the post. I hear what you're saying about the "death" issues, but given the media hype that surrounded this issue and the problem of speculation in the comic book market generally at the time, I don't know that this represents a huge problem for my thesis, as what was being purchased then, I plan to argue, were not Superman narratives but the event as commodity. The same problem arose in 1996 with the wedding issue, where, for that one month, the wedding issue was the number one selling book.

To the extent you're able--and you and your cite will be getting an acknowledgment if this paper gets published--could you give me just a general sense right now of when the sales position of Superman comic books started to decline?

Thanks very much.

All the best,

David P. Lyons