A graph of the Legion's sales figures back to 1996 (when we first had such information available). The most recent month is May 2012. I last posted the graph over a year ago. Sales figures for recent months from comichron.com.
The best way to temporarily raise sales is to have a crossover. The highest sales were for the Adventure Comics Blackest Night crossover, but crossover sales generally don't last. The May bump for Legion Lost is obviously because of the Culling crossover. I have no idea why there is a bump for LSH #9.
Edit: Fixed the Legion annual and LSV special, which I had under the wrong year.
[ July 02, 2012, 10:40 AM: Message edited by: Ken Arromdee ]
Registered: Apr 2010
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June 2012 is now added. I also fixed a mistake where I was using publication dates for some issues and cover date for some others--it should all be correct now. It seems that sales are pretty much steady.
Since comichron.com got some older data, I extended it back another year, to September 1995. However, the graph shows a sharp change between August 1996 and September 1996--and it's not just Legion; Batman was in the 50000 range and went up to the 70000 range. At that point, Capital City died, and Heroes World became the Marvel distributor. Since Diamond remained sole DC distributor throughout this period, this change shouldn't affect the Legion figures at all. But it does. Something is obviously wrong here and I have no idea what.
Before September 1995, Capital City was also a DC distributor. comichron only has data for Capital City for January 1995, so there's a big gap in the chart from January to September. Nothing I can do until they get more data.
Edit: In fact, in July and August 1995, Capital City and Diamond distributed DC. Before July, Heroes World did too, and Heroes World didn't release sales figures, so the January 1995 point is useless unless I figure out some way to account for this.
[ July 15, 2012, 07:24 PM: Message edited by: Ken Arromdee ]
Registered: Apr 2010
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A better guess for the jump in LSH #9's numbers, which was replicated for a number of DC titles NOT involved in crossovers in May, is the fact that with #10, those "New 52" titles in the "first wave" that had been returnable for their first 8 issues no longer fell into that category. Hence, Diamond no longer automatically reduces the number by 10% or so, and the actual sales for earlier issues for both LSH and Legion Lost are probably a bit higher than shown on your graph. That also means that there was probably no bump in sales for LSH #9, but rather another small decline.
-------------------- Mike McKean
From: San Diego CA | Registered: Mar 2008
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I know it wouldn't be an apples to apples comparision, but are there any graphs or charts out there showing the the "circulation" numbers from the 1960's-1980's for the Legion titles?
Registered: Feb 2007
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Actually, those graphs are the ones that inspired mine, since they were last updated in 2007 and there have been a lot of changes since then.
Also, if you'll notice, his explanation that estimates have to be made before 1996 contradicts comichron, which claims that Diamond was exclusive DC distributor back to September 1995.
Registered: Apr 2010
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