Amazing Spider-Man Sales Figures

Circulation as Reported in Publishers' Statements of Ownership
Filed with the United States Postal Service

Continuing the adventures of the character first appearing in the 15th and final issue of the cancelled Amazing Fantasy, The Amazing Spider-Man would become the flagship title of Marvel's line. By 1969, it had vaulted into the Top 10 titles overall for the year, Marvel's first title to do so; in the 1970s, it would surpass Superman to become the top-seller in the industry.

The cool-off following the Silver Age is clearly evident, apart from the outsized bump from 1980, which included the 200th issue.) We see growth again in the comics-shop era of the 1980s, with a peak in 1985, the year following the new-costume appearance in #252. Reported sales begin to build again in the run-up to the Todd MacFarlane era, but the really big numbers were to come at the peak of the 1993 boom, when the sales nearly doubled their historic average.

Sales followed the market downward in the comics recession of the mid- and late-1990s. The late 1990s found Marvel in a spate of series renamings and renumberings for short-term gains, and it sacrificed its flagship title for the first time in 1999, only to undo that renumbering at the end of 2003. Sales rebounded a bit under J. Michael Straczynski in the early 2000s. Later in that decade, Marvel increased the title's frequency to three issues monthly.

The 2010s would see multiple changes to the series' numbering and title, with the book transforming for a time into Superior Spider-Man before returning to be rebooted not once but twice under the Amazing Spider-Man name, with the Renew Your Vows miniseries in between. In 2017, Marvel brought the title back to its original numbering during the Legacy event. But postal data had ended long before that, as Marvel stopped publishing its required reports after the 2011 filing year.

This series provides one of the better examples of trends in the overall market, as its sales were seemingly less affected by short-term external influences (such as the Batman TV show, which had a major effect on that title). It should be remembered in comparing across decades that the purchases of Spider-Man fans were divided multiple ways across multiple titles, whereas the purchaser up until 1972 only had one Spider-title with new content to consider.

Some direct-market only information is available in the monthly reports.

—John Jackson Miller

Statement History
Marvel did not begin publishing Statements of Ownership in the title until 1966, and it ceased publishing them linewide after 2011.

The forms for 1979, 2006, and 2007 have been confirmed not to have been published. Marvel's 1979 forms seem to have been lacking in many titles due to editorial turnover, but there's no obvious explanation for the 2006-07 omissions. The 2005 form was dated two months earlier than the customary October filing date.

Subscriptions in 1995 included issues of Amazing Scarlet Spider, which the title had "become" for a while before resuming with its original name and numbering. As far as the Statement record is concerned, those issues — along with all the comics from 1966-2011, comprise one series, since the subscriptions went along with the volume and title changes.