WDC&S Circulation

deckerd@agcs.com deckerd at agcs.com
Thu Oct 19 17:28:50 CET 1995


An American comics fan named Robert Beerbohm has been researching
comic-book circulation figures in connection with a book he is
writing, and recently had a letter in the Comics Buyer's Guide
announcing some of his findings. I found a few of his statistics
frankly incredible, and wrote a letter to CBG questioning his
numbers. He wrote back and sent me some of his data to back up
his statements. I won't go into the argument here, save to say
that some typographical errors on CBG's part and some mutual
misunderstandings may have contributed to the problem. I'll sum it
up by saying that I think Beerbohm has done much solid research
work and has turned up some impressive and useful information,
but I feel that his interpretation of the information is clouded
by his enthusiasm and a couple of eccentric theories he's trying
to prove.

Anyway...among his findings was that Bruce Hamilton has gotten
hold of the Dell Comics circulation ledgers from the 1930s up.
According to this, Hamilton reports that Walt Disney's Comics &
Stories had a circulation in excess of five and a half million
copies per issue at one point (probably in the 1950s). This makes
it the top-selling American comic-book _ever_. Looney Tunes, the
Warner Brothers character comic book, sold over three million
copies per issue at one time. By contrast, Superman and Captain
Marvel peaked in the million to million and a half range.

Beerbohm has also turned up an industry trade journal with a
1959 ad from Dell Comics announcing that their four billionth
comic book was about to be sold (4,000,000,000), and that
"millions of comics fans throughout the country have the Dell
plants producing 100,000 comic books per hour."

Well, it's no secret that American comic-book circulations used
to be much higher than they are now. I was just floored by the
5.5 million figure for WDC&S -- I might have guessed a million
or two at the max. Still, I'm old enough to remember when it
seemed like every kid in the country had a subscription to WDC&S;
I had one myself when I was a wee tyke in the late '50s (although
now I find I remember the Paul Murry Mouse stories better than the
Duck stories at the time). If you ask what happened, I'd say
"television."

If nothing else, I think there's some food for thought here.

--Dwight Decker



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