Millie The Model outsold everything but Thor and DD in '71? 0

[NoMan]

So I'm reading the Tashen Book "The Little Book of the Avengers" and on page 134 is a copy of a Marvel Publication Schedule for 8/23/71 which charts issues sold and returns and Millie The Model was Marvel's #3 book.

Never read Millie the Model so can't quite comment, but, really…?

[shadroch]

That doesn't seem right. 

[Prince Namor]

Has to be incomplete data.

Amazing Spider-man was Marvel's best selling title in 1971, and only the likes of Archie, and Superman could beat it. Millie the Model would've been nowhere near that conversation.

During Kirby's reign on Thor, it was usually a top 3 seller for Marvel, but by 1971, Kirby was gone and it had probably fallen a bit, and DD was never a big Silver Age seller for Marvel.

[catman76]

I am not surprised. People wrongly assume superhero comics were always the biggest selling comics, but that not true at all. The only time they were was when they had like a 50 percent share during a few of the WW2 years and by the mid 80s they were the majority of comics sold, but between all that time I don't think superhero comics were ever the best selling. Certianly number of titles wise and total issues sold, superhero comics were not close to being the biggest selling comics for almost all of comics history.

[namisgr]

Having bought comic books off the rack in the early seventies, in the venues I used and visited on a weekly basis (new comic book day was Wednesday), the main Marvel Superhero titles sold more copies and sold them much faster than Millie, or any other romance, kids, or western comic title.

I'll add that while Thor was considered a top tier Marvel book at that time (1971), Daredevil was not, and I don't believe that the latter was ever one of Marvels' better sellers.  From the publisher's data in the comics themselves, Spidey was Marvel's best seller, followed by Fantastic Four, Thor, Hulk, and the Avengers.

 

Edited February 28, 2018 by namisgr

[Prince Namor]

6 hours ago, catman76 said:

I am not surprised. People wrongly assume superhero comics were always the biggest selling comics, but that not true at all. The only time they were was when they had like a 50 percent share during a few of the WW2 years and by the mid 80s they were the majority of comics sold, but between all that time I don't think superhero comics were ever the best selling. Certianly number of titles wise and total issues sold, superhero comics were not close to being the biggest selling comics for almost all of comics history.

It is wrong to assume superhero comics were always the biggest selling comics - not sure anyone was actually doing that here, but it IS probably assumed by some...

But superhero comics came back strong, even by the late 60's, and made up a large majority of sales. Here's Comichron.com's (a GREAT source of comic publishing information - maybe one of the only real sources), and even in a year when Archie (one of the best selling non-superhero comics) was helped by the popularity of their cartoon TV show to catapult into the #1 spot (up from #2 the previous year and #5 the year before that), it still is surrounded by primarily superhero comics in the first 19 titles.

In fact, 6 of the first 9 are Superman or Batman related books (though Archie titles are an impressive 6 of the first 16) and superheroes are more than half the first 19 at 11.

Uncle Scrooge would start off as the best selling book of the early 60's, following the 50's collapse in superhero titles, where other genre's dominated sales (wish we could see those numbers!) and even romance comics sold a million copies in a month...even in the early 60's comics like Dennis the Menace hit the #1 spot!

But in 1962, Superman went to number one, and then Action Comics in 1964, and superheroes started to rather quickly take hold again - thanks to the Batman TV show in 1966 and some quality Marvel Comics, and a domination of Superman titles throughout the 2nd half of the 60's.

What information I can find on Millie the Model, shows it posted rather tepid numbers for the times - 140,000 to 175,000 to a high of 190,000 (#77 for the year) in 1966 when Amazing Spider-man showed 340,00 - the first publication by Marvel of that book's numbers.

I imagine whatever numbers they were posting in that Tashen Book, are incomplete, as Marvel didn't always publish their statement's for every book each year.

 

Edited February 28, 2018 by Chuck Gower

[NoMan]

oh, I forgot the part where it said "these statements were often wrong and led to demise of popular books."

sorry guys….

[Prince Namor]

22 minutes ago, NoMan said:

oh, I forgot the part where it said "these statements were often wrong and led to demise of popular books."

sorry guys….

No one is saying the statements are wrong.

Or that the statements led to the demise of popular books.

[namisgr]

29 minutes ago, NoMan said:

oh, I forgot the part where it said "these statements were often wrong and led to demise of popular books."

sorry guys….

You asked the question, and got multiple informed responses.  'Nuff said!

[NoMan]

33 minutes ago, Chuck Gower said:

No one is saying the statements are wrong.

Or that the statements led to the demise of popular books.

No, I'm sorry, you misunderstand. Or I mislead, or…   The book staid that. I just didn't read it all before I asked ya'll the question. Tis all. 

[KPR Comics]

Kav, that you?

[01TheDude]

I always got a kick out of the little blurb Marvel would put on issues of Thor about how "If this book isn't great enuff for you, maybe you should try Millie the Model." It was sort of a ribbing to kids that these were the good books or that you were a wimp if you didn't like them (or some sort of tongue in cheek remark)

[Larryw7]

I remember my corner candy shop got rid of superheroes and sold only Archie comics for awhile around 1972 or so. Then he abandoned that tactic and started to sell stripped books in the 3 for 25¢ package. The store owner was a notorious cheapskate.