House of Mystery Sales Figures

Circulation as Reported in Publishers' Statements of Ownership
Filed with the United States Postal Service

The longest-running horror series at DC, the House of Mystery provided a showcase for strange and macabre stories beginning with the first issue in late 1951. The issue set the tone with the series with stories with names such as "Wanda Was a Werewolf," "I Fell In Love with a Witch," "Man or Monster?" and "The Curse of Seabury Manor.") Cain, the caretaker, kept the horror stories flowing straight on through the early 1980s, logging an impressive run of 321 issues. A companion House of Secrets was built next door later in the 1950s for Cain's milder-mannered brother.

When the U.S. Postal Service began requiring sales data in comics in 1960, the series was selling 208,000 copies monthly; that number declined in the early 1960s and the title's frequency was cut to eight issues a year. That assisted sales, boosting them close to 200,000 copies per issue; the addition of superhero stories in 1964-66 may also have helped. Frequency reduction helped boost sales briefly again in the late 1960s as the title was cut to bimonthly and the horror focus returned.

Sales plummeted when the title went back to monthly in the late 1970s, with a new low set in the DC Implosion year of 1978; the title fell below 100,000 copies for the first time. Some recovery took place as the Direct Market continued to flourish, but the title finally went out at a low of just under 75,000 copies sold per issue.

Cain—and poor Abel—would find a home in Neil Gaiman's Sandman series in the 1990s, and DC would revive the title name for a Vertigo series that ran for 42 issues beginning in 2008. Sales for that title can be found in our monthly reports.

—John Jackson Miller

Statement history
Statements of Ownership appeared for many years in the title before DC (or, rather, National Periodical Publications) was required to publish sales figures beginning in 1960. As with other DC titles, DC did not print sales figures in its Statements in 1963 and 1964.

DC stopped mailing subscription copies Second Class in 1987, putting an end to its need to publish circulation statements, so nothing appears in any later House of Mystery titles.

Understanding Statements of Ownership
The figures above are taken directly from the annual Statements of Ownership, Management, and Circulation filed by publishers with the United States Postal Service. The sales figure is the Average Paid Circulation figure and includes all copies sold through newsstands, comics shops, and postal subscription. It does not count copies the publisher gave away for free, or copies that were kept for office use.

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