British Comics Sales Figures – a quick snapshot

By John Freeman on August 27, 2010

How healthy is the UK comics market? With fierce debate raging among British fans about whether titles like Titan’s CLINT, the brainchild of Mark Millar, will be a success, here’s a rundown of some of Britain’s comic sales on the UK news stand, sourced from ABC, the official auditing body for UK magazines.

The figures listed are the Total Average Net Circulation / Distribution Per Issue between 1st January 2010 and 30th June 2010. (Doctor Who Magazine is included as it features comic strip).

These figures do not include sales in comic shops – where many of these titles aren’t stocked, anyway.

• The Simpsons – 81,862 (ABC Data here)
• VIZ – 76,408 (ABC)
• Ben 10 – 74,013 (ABC)
• Simpsons Comics Presents – 63,172 (ABC)
• Doctor Who Adventures – 53,559 (ABC)
• In the Night Garden – 60,060 (ABC)
• The Beano – 46,656 (ABC)
• TOXIC – 40,235 (ABC)
• Doctor Who Magazine – 35,374 (ABC)
• BeanoMAX – 29, 067 (ABC)
• Spectacular Spider-Man – 28,504 (ABC)
• Transformers Comic – 24,617 (ABC)
• Lazy Town – 22,604 (ABC)
• Dandy Xtreme – 14,355 (ABC Data)

Neither 2000AD or Judge Dredd: The Megazine, and many other comics titles (Commando and many of the Panini US reprint digests, for example) are ABC rated.

Estimated sales of 2000AD and Judge Dredd: The Megazine vary but given that they aren’t licensed titles – which today, are the most successful products on the news stand – we would not expect them to be huge. (They’re still enough to make money for Rebellion, obviously).

But will CLINT, which now has a sneak preview of Issue 1 live on its official website, be bought by traditional comic fans or will the majority of its audience come from a potential new audience, more used to buying SFX (31,342), Nuts (147,134), FHM (192,586) or, perhaps, titles like Metal Hammer (44,034)?

If so, sales of comics, with which readers of this web site will be looking at, are moot, and this new Titan title may well open up a whole new market for a new wave of comics. Let’s hope so…

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About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.