Comichron

 

Comic Book Sales Figures for 1964

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

This list includes only those titles which offered subscriptions via the USPS Second or Periodical Class, and which published their sales reports in their titles.

#1 Most Ordered Issue
#1
#2 Most Ordered Issue
#2
#3 Most Ordered Issue
#3
#4 Most Ordered Issue
#4
#5 Most Ordered Issue
#5

Covers and issue links on this page lead to current eBay listings. This site may be compensated if you make a purchase.

Another asterisk year as DC returned sales figures to the Statements of Ownerships in a seemingly random spattering of its titles. Sales figures appeared in the Statement for Action Comics, allowing it to take the #1 spot — but not in Superman or Superboy, which had higher reported sales both before and after 1964 and presumably would have been higher on the list. Also odd is that the Action form appeared in the August 1965 issue; DC's custom would have been to publish it earlier in a March or April issue.

There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to which DC titles had numbers in their reports for 1964 — the ones that appeared were not all in one editorial office, for example.

TV phenomenon The Flintstones gave Gold Key a much-needed boost.

Statements appeared for the first time in Treasure Chest, the religious comic book distributed in parochial schools by the Catholic Guild. There were print subscribers — the comic book wasn't free — so a Second Class permit was probably finally deemed necessary.

Of all Harvey and Dell titles, Statements with numbers has only been confirmed for Little Dot and Felix the Cat. None has been found for Fawcett titles for 1964.

No Statements were filed in 1964 for Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man (they wouldn't start in the titles until 1966), but sales on the horror-turned- super-hero titles Tales to Astonish and Tales of Suspense increased.

The Outlaws of the West figure seems to be in error, but it's impossible to tell from other figures in the Statement what it was intended to be. Odds are it was probably 124,071, given the sales of the other western titles from Charlton.

Magazines with comics content (like Mad) are sorted separately at the bottom.

—John Jackson Miller


Title links below lead to current listings for the issues on eBay. As an eBay Partner, this site may be compensated if you make a purchase.



TitlePublisherAverage Copies Sold
Per Issue
1Action ComicsDC518,026
2ArchieArchie484,704
3Walt Disney's Comics & StoriesGold Key456,425
4Treasure ChestCatholic Guild405,087
5FlintstonesGold Key379,792
6TarzanGold Key353,237
7Uncle ScroogeGold Key336,380
8Betty and VeronicaArchie333,833
9The Three StoogesGold Key322,860
10Bugs BunnyGold Key322,317
11Walt Disney's Donald DuckGold Key316,657
12Life with ArchieArchie311,744
13Archie's Joke BookArchie295,946
14Metal MenDC295,513
15Tom and JerryGold Key293,564
16Turok, Son of StoneGold Key274,914
17Laugh ComicsArchie271,122
18Archie's Pal JugheadArchie268,889
19Top CatGold Key266,253
20AtomDC265,304
21Pep ComicsArchie258,904
22BonanzaGold Key253,547
23Yogi BearGold Key252,842
24MadhouseArchie252,261
25Doctor SolarGold Key247,315
26MagnusGold Key247,279
27Woody WoodpeckerGold Key245,885
28Twilight ZoneGold Key244,886
29Little LuluGold Key239,376
30Archie's Pals 'n' GalsArchie239,171
31Archie Giant SeriesArchie238,137
32PhantomGold Key236,028
33Lost in SpaceGold Key231,629
34AquamanDC226,578
35Strange TalesMarvel215,090
36Tales to AstonishMarvel207,365
37Tales of SuspenseMarvel207,065
38Journey into MysteryMarvel205,075
39Felix the CatDell199,443
40Sea DevilsDC198,486
41Adventures of the FlyArchie197,748
42Rip Hunter, Time MasterDC197,398
43Rawhide KidMarvel187,190
44Kid Colt OutlawMarvel184,405
45Forbidden WorldsACG179,330
46Unknown WorldsACG174,028
47Adventures into the UnknownACG172,819
48Little DotHarvey171,642
49Adventures of Jerry LewisDC164,364
50Adventures of Bob HopeDC163,346
51Fightin' MarinesCharlton158,912
52Fightin' ArmyCharlton157,240
53Unusual TalesCharlton136,036
54Strange Suspense StoriesCharlton130,495
55Cheyenne KidCharlton121,963
56Outlaws of the WestCharlton24,071*
999MadEC1,424,628




About a hundred more Statements exist for this year and have been collected by Comichron. They'll appear here soon!