Thanks to Ferran Delgado for the scan. Here's a list of the Top 34 of comics with April 1984 cover date. Direct market sales only. Published in Comics Feature #46
Nice to see that Alpha Flight was a top seller. I'm assuming that the "Phoenix" comic is the Phoenix: The Untold Story. Interesting that DC's best title is Wolfman and Perez's Titans's spin-off Tales of the Teen Titans.
Not sure this 1984 sales list is entirely accurate: for instance, it mentions Fantastic Four # 242, but that issue's cover dated May 1982?
ReplyDeleteWow! Look at Alpha Flight! Those were better days...
ReplyDeleteHey Jef, that's a typo. Probably should be FF #262.
ReplyDeleteThese are direct market numbers only though, right? That's the only way Spider-Man's not in the top 5, right? Especially in the middle of Stern's run.
ReplyDeleteAnd DC's best direct market book was Teen Titans, right? #8 on that list.
The corresponding FF would be #265...
ReplyDeleteActually, now that I look at it, the list seems a bit off. All those core Marvel comics are basically the Secret Wars set-up issues (typically ending with the heroes beamed off-planet by the Beyonder). So the next month would feature events like Secret Wars #1 (as well as the debut of Spidey's black costume). But wasn't the SW series launched in January 1984? Is it possible that this is a 1983 list instead?
In any case, it's nice to see fondly remembered series like Alpha Flight, New Mutants, X-Men/Micronauts and that Phoenix one-shot up so high (I loved my X-Men spin-offs back then). It's amazing even relatively forgotten stuff like Hercules (the second mini?) and Jack of Hearts placed so high. And I didn't realize Simonson's Thor skyrocketed up the charts quite THAT high and fast.
I wasn't a DC collector, but it's striking how many of those comics I did eventually end up picking up, like Vigilante and that excellent Batman Special.
Thanks for posting this fun list.
david p.
The 5 things I noticed about the list.
ReplyDelete5. How low DC ranked especially Batman and Superman.
4. The amount of Independents on the list. Generic comic #1, was this real?
3. That SSOC ranked so high being it was a B+W magazine. ( a favorite of mine)
2. The fact that if the A-Team was ranked #28 it never got a regular series.
1. That GI Joe is no where to be found on this list. I always hear that GI Joe was the biggest selling comic at the time and I remember it always selling out when I would try to find it but it is never on any lists I see from the era.
Ahhhh...The good old days...
ReplyDeleteYou bet the Generic Comic was a real thing, and published by Marvel even! Check it out: http://marvel1980s.blogspot.nl/2011/12/1984-generic-comic-book.html
ReplyDeleteJohn Byrne would do a similar thing a few years later on She-Hulk where he had She-Hulk and Thing fight your favorite villain (guaranteed!)
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/yourfavoritevillain.htm
I guess all the cover dates were generally a few months ahead of their actual release...they're all Apr. 1984 cover dates, but I know for sure I got those comics around fall/winter 1983 (don't ask how I know, I just have a bit of a Rain Man thing about that era of Marvel...hence my enjoyment of this site!).
ReplyDeleteComics Feature copied the information on this list from the "TCR Top 100 Comic Books" originally published in Comic Reader #218, cover date June 1984. On that list, TCR typoed Fantastic Four as #342, accidentally repeating the number from Thor just above it. Whoever at Comics Feature re-typed the list, & attempted to put in the right number, flubbed it again. CF also didn't catch that they had skipped slot 33. Conanxxxv could easily guess what title placed there. Yep, it was G.I. Joe #22.
ReplyDeleteHey Gary, thanks for the clarification!
ReplyDeleteI'm shocked, astounded, thrilled and ashamed at how many of these I bought off the rack back then!
ReplyDeleteALL of the top 10.
20 of the top 25.
50 of the whole 100.
That was when I bought nearly everything that came out!
I bought a good number of Marvel's, a nice assortment of Indies, and a fair amount of DC (except for the mainstream DC. I'd buy ARION, FIRESTORM, AMETHYST, NATHANIAL DUSK, SWAMP THING, ATARI FORCE, THRILLER, OMEGA MEN and more but not BATMAN, SUPERMAN or any of the regulars [unless a creator I liked was on it or a character I liked guest starred - for instance, I DID buy BATMAN & the OUTSIDERS regularly, and also got the BATMAN SPECIAL. Although, within a year or two, I'd be buying Batman titles regularly as well].
What a GREAT time for comics!
Thanks for the trip down memory lane (and a bright light shone on where my retirement money went).
lol