Comic Book Sales Figures for 1963

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1963 Comic Book Sales Figures
Average Total Paid Circulation as Reported in Publishers' Statements of Ownership

	Title	Publisher	Avg. paid circ.
1)	Dennis the Menace	Fawcett	493,534
2)	Archie	Archie	471,166
3)	Walt Disney's Comics & Stories	Gold Key	446,000
4)	The Three Stooges	Gold Key	354,785
5)	Tarzan	Gold Key	332,460
6)	Flintstones	Charlton	325,350
7)	Betty and Veronica	Archie	320,605
8)	Life with Archie	Archie	316,106
9)	Uncle Scrooge	Gold Key	299,155
10)	Walt Disney's Donald Duck	Gold Key	293,800

11)	Turok, Son of Stone	Gold Key	276,550
12)	Archie's Pal Jughead	Archie	266,239
13)	Laugh Comics	Archie	264,863
14)	Yogi Bear	Gold Key	255,500
15)	Pep Comics	Archie	252,621
16)	Combat	Dell	247,959
17)	Little Lulu	Gold Key	247,530
18)	Archie Giant Series	Archie	246,857
19)	Archie's Pals 'n' Gals	Archie	243,652
20)	Woody Woodpecker	Gold Key	217,350

21)	Sea Devils	DC	203,150
22)	Little Archie	Archie	195,414
23)	Rawhide Kid	Marvel	194,390
24)	Kid Colt Outlaw	Marvel	192,755
25)	Tales to Astonish	Marvel	189,390
26)	Strange Tales	Marvel	189,305
27)	Tales of Suspense	Marvel	188,110
28)	Journey into Mystery	Marvel	187,895
29)	Patsy Walker	Marvel	174,375
30)	Millie the Model	Marvel	173,925

31)	Forbidden Worlds	ACG	169,603
32)	Fightin' Marines	Charlton	154,369
33)	Adventures into the Unknown	ACG	153,283
34)	Unknown Worlds	ACG	143,468
35)	Unusual Tales	Charlton	141,083
36)	Fightin' Navy	Charlton	136,526
37)	Space War	Charlton	121,581
38)	Space Adventures	Charlton	117,623

	Average for comics		242,061

	Magazines
	Mad	EC	1,429,080

To 1962 The 1960s To 1964

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1963
The year in comics

Comics publishers filing Statements: 8
ACG
Archie
Charlton
DC
Dell
Fawcett
Gold Key
Marvel

Statements confirmed:
38

Average sales of all
reporting titles:
242,061

Just as Statements of Ownership for 1962 went AWOL from most Gold Key/Dell titles, a puzzling and frustrating period for the archivist begins at DC with the 1963 reports. For three years beginning with 1963, DC, alone among publishers, began printing many of its Statements without any sales figures. The only exception in 1963 is, just as inexplicably, Sea Devils. The figures would not return to the entire line until supplemental filings appeared for 1965.

So consider a serious asterisk next to Dennis the Menace — which, while selling a healthy half-million copies here during the height of the TV show's popularity, was almost certainly outsold by Superman, if nothing else.

Statements for Gold Key titles returned, and while they were at much lower levels, titles like Uncle Scrooge had gone from quarterly to bimonthly in the interim.

And the super-hero movement began to move the needle at Marvel, with the publisher's titles fully pulling past ACG and Charlton once and for all and leaving its own Millie the Model in the dust.

— John Jackson Miller

THE FINE PRINT

    The figures at right are the average paid circulations for the year as reported by the comics publishers named to the United States Postal Service in accordance with Section 4369 of Title 39 in the United States code.

    The figures include copies sold through newsstand and other channels, as well as copies sold by subscription. They are not the print runs, which would be higher.

    Note that these rankings only include titles for which Statements have been found. Some publishers did not file them; some titles did not have them; and some have simply not been reported as found. The rankings and averages here will be updated periodically to reflect new Statements that come to light.
BOOKS ON COMICS
- All in Color for a Dime
- Standard Catalog of Comics

THE FINE PRINT

BOOKS ON COMICS