Superman ongoing series from the 1940's to 1980's

[PB210]

Many people like to think that SUPERMAN and BATMAN have been of near equal stature since their debuts in the late 1930's. But prior to the Adam West TV series, Batman was in a very distant second place to Superman. In fact, during the 1940's, Batman was in a distant third place behind rivals Superman & Captain Marvel. By the 1950's, Superman was the star of a long running radio show and a long running newspaper strip. He also had appeared in several innovative theatrical cartoons in the early 40's. Batman on the other hand, had only guest started in a handful of episodes of the Superman radio show, his newspaper strip only lasted a few years and he hadn't made the jump to cartoons. In the 1950's, Batman just didn't have anywhere near Superman's name-recognition and multimedia clout.

Well, I was unable to find sales figures for BATMAN for the 50s, so let's go to the nearest thing, 1960.

In 1960, the eponymous titles sold:

BATMAN ... 502,000 (avg circulation)
SUPERMAN 810,000 (avg circulation)

So, I guess you were correct in that Batman was just not as popular as Supes.

To bolster the effect the Batman TV show had on sales, look at 1965 (pre-TV show):

BATMAN ... 453,745
SUPERMAN 823,829

But in 1966 (after the first season):

BATMAN ... 898,470
SUPERMAN 719,946


Regarding the Metropolis Rogues Gallery, by and large, live action adaptations of the Kryptonian have given them short shrift. The George Reeves show used none of them.

http://marvelmasterworksf...te.yuku...allenge?page=2

Suddenly BIFF! POW! ZAP! began appearing in media headlines, and the Batman craze was upon us. The TV and print news media were abruptly afloat with the word "Batmania," which they doubtless believed they had coined. Sales of the Caped Crusader's comics spiked. (Batman even outsold Superman for a while, something it wouldn't do [regularly] again until the 1990s after a patch in the mid-1980's.)

http://www.twomorrows.com...articles/03batmania.html

Note that the Superman family of titles had six titles by 1965 or so (Superboy, Adventure, Superman, World's Finest, Action Comics, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen)
http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2007/03/26/dare-you-facecomichron/
http://forum.superman.nu/index.php?topic=3442.0

How regular Superman titles did they have in the 1970's and 1980's compared other franchises?

 

[CLARKY]

I don't have the answer to your question, and I'm not sure of what exactly you want to talk about, but what you wrote is anyway informative, thanks. The loss of Success of the superman book (while the bats ones are rising) is indeed something I find horrible but interesting. I'm not talking about the last 15-20 years with the CONSTANT batman stuff going on. I think it does not only keep Superman low but every other heroes who could eventually have a place in the sun.

 

[redhawk23]

An amazing essay about the shift in popularity between Batman and Superman written by FilmCritHulk. http://badassdigest.com/2011/12/21/film-crit-hulk-smash-what-the-f-is-it-about-batman/ I don't think it has the numbers you're looking for but there's some relevant info.

 

[Panthro]

Interesting article