Comic Book Sales Figures for 1961
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.
Covers and issue links on this page lead to current eBay listings. This site may be compensated if you make a purchase.
Uncle Scrooge led the list in 1961 but lost a lot of ground, dropping about 15% in sales. As publishers began raising prices from the 10¢ mark comics had been at for a quarter of a century, Dell misread the market and went to 15¢ when everyone else went to 12¢. Over at DC, Superman actually picked up copies to take second. The super-hero take-over of the comics market was on. (No Statement has been found for Walt Disney's Comics & Stories, which presumably would have tracked Uncle Scrooge in sales on the way down.)
The first known statement for Richie Rich put it below any of the Archie titles. The Marvel tiles, still all horror-themed, continued to lag behind everything else. It would be a while before Fantastic Four, which launched in 1961, would print its first Statement.
Magazines with comics content (like Mad) are sorted separately at the bottom.
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.
About a hundred more Statements exist for this year and have been collected by Comichron. They'll appear here soon!
