On 3/29/2023 at 8:22 PM, Bobbi_Betamax said:

From what I can see, there are now 9 known titles in this Canadian 1946 coverless-style UK edition niche:

1. The Conquerers – (Superior/Century), reprints Conqueror Comics (Albrecht 1945)
2. Bogey Man #2 (Superior/Century), reprints Red Band comics #1 (Rural Home 1944)
3. Dr. Mercy (Superior/Century), reprints Zoom Comics (Carlton 1945)
4. Golden Lad (Superior/Century), reprints Golden Lad #1 (Spark 1945)
5. The Jinx (Superior/Century), reprints???
6. Skunky (Superior/Century), reprints Funland Comics #1 (Croydon 1945)
7. Jack Bradley (Superior/Century), reprints Red Circle Comics #1 (Rural Home 1945)
8. Zor The Mighty (Superior/Century), reprints part of Captain Commando Comics (F.E. Howard, 1945)
9. Mister Lucifer Comics (Crestwood), reprints? Spook Comics #1 (Bailly 1945)

...and maybe more????

Nicely done, BB 

I've had this research on a back burner for a while, but do have another two potentials as follows saved in the files, which I've yet to investigate further:

Not the best images, and they may yet be cover-stripped originals, but both were for sale in the UK at some point. Neither has an overprinted UK price, or sticker, but neither do the other Zor issue and the Conquerors so.....

On 3/29/2023 at 9:05 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Nicely done, BB 

I've had this research on a back burner for a while, but do have another two potentials as follows saved in the files, which I've yet to investigate further:

 

Not the best images, and they may yet be cover-stripped originals, but both were for sale in the UK at some point. Neither has an overprinted UK price, or sticker, but neither do the other Zor issue and the Conquerors so.....

 

Nice - so that's 2 more, and I forgot about 'Splash' Waters too, a feature title which I can't seem to find a point of origin for yet...

On 3/30/2023 at 7:10 AM, Bobbi_Betamax said:

Nice - so that's 2 more, and I forgot about 'Splash' Waters too, a feature title which I can't seem to find a point of origin for yet...

This is odd. "Splash" Waters means something to me, but I don't know why. I've found the Century version online, and I recognise it. So I must have looked at it at some point but can I find anything saved in the files? Odd. Anyway, it shares the content of Full of Fun #8:

The IW/Quality is a late 1950s reprint title, but I can't find an original source. Also odd!

Of course, it's on here isn't it!

I haven't woken up yet 

There's another Zor on there too @Bobbi_Betamax, making 3 so far, yes?

Also, you list Zor as "Zor The Mighty (Superior/Century), reprints part of Captain Commando Comics (F.E. Howard, 1945)", but isn't it from Jungle Adventures #10?:

Does JA#10 reprint CCC?

I'm going for coffee....

On 3/30/2023 at 7:53 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

The IW/Quality is a late 1950s reprint title, but I can't find an original source. Also odd!

From Jon McClure's article on IW:

Full of Fun (1958) #8, from undetermined source, most likely unpublished Bernard Baily Studio material from the mid-1940s

http://www.jonmcclurescomics.com/iw.html

From WiKi:

Looks like we can't find the original Bailey source for "Splash" Waters as it was never published @Bobbi_Betamax - only 'reprinted' in the late 1950s IW/Quality book. So the Century UK distribution copy appears to be its first outing!

While we're on the subject of Century Publications, there are also 9d priced books with covers out there:

I have this one below and planned to do a comparative piece on it at some point:

Mad cover, isn't it 

On 3/30/2023 at 8:50 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

While we're on the subject of Century Publications, there are also 9d priced books with covers out there:

I have this one below and planned to do a comparative piece on it at some point:

Mad cover, isn't it 

Wow all fantastic research here, this is a deeper can of worms than I was expecting. That Jeep comics cover is particularly great, beautiful colouring!

On 3/30/2023 at 9:13 AM, Bobbi_Betamax said:

Wow all fantastic research here, this is a deeper can of worms than I was expecting.

I know! Have you seen this? 

https://www.comicbookdaily.com/collecting-community/whites-tsunami-weca-splashes/weca-checklist/

My interest here was focussed on establishing whether there were any UK Price Variants among these books but it's an interesting avenue in itself and others have clearly gone into much greater depth.

On 3/30/2023 at 9:13 AM, Bobbi_Betamax said:

That Jeep comics cover is particularly great, beautiful colouring!

Isn't it just 

Definitely a sprawling area, some of it invites categorisation and some sort of defies categorisation. Century being covered/coverless for example, and where does that leave Mister Lucifer Comics? It seems a bit of an outlier, and maybe not even a reprint as such.

Here's my copy of Joke #28 that I mentioned earlier in this long forgotten thread:

It's from Bell Features, dated 1946, and some copies can be found with a 6d British price sticker:

I spotted a third interior variation this morning on eBay (my copy is the bottom one):

There was a nice Bombardier on feebay a week or two ago.  I might still be able to access the images if you need them...

I might be late to the party here (people don't usually tell me about their parties, don't know why...) but why the three different puzzle pages? That doesn't seem to be something that needs to change for different markets.

On 2/11/2024 at 1:16 AM, AJD said:

I might be late to the party here (people don't usually tell me about their parties, don't know why...) but why the three different puzzle pages? That doesn't seem to be something that needs to change for different markets.

I thought it was odd, yes. I only have one of the books in hand, so can't establish whether there are any other differences. I'm not the expert in this area, and don't know if this is common, but I don't recall ever seeing internal content differences mentioned anywhere else for books that I thought were printed the same for both markets.

On 2/9/2024 at 8:46 PM, Yorick said:

There was a nice Bombardier on feebay a week or two ago.  I might still be able to access the images if you need them...

I'm not collecting or investigating these books any more Yoz, thanks. I just thought the Joke #28 variations were worth a mention, should anyone in the know ever happen by....

@sarvaj

I am not the Uk Dealer mentioned earlier in this post, but I did recently purchase a collection which contained multiple copies of Skunky, Zor, Conquerors & Dr Mercy ... so if you want any or all of them, you can contact me at Contact Form at www.splatcomics.com or by email to splatcomics@hotmail.com

I didn't get to the copies at Splatt - they seem to be gone now - but I did pick up a stickered Dr. Mercy from the bay:

There appear to be a glut of Zor, Skunky and The Conquerors doing the rounds in the UK lately, but this is the first Dr. Mercy I've seen for sale (aside of Splatt's copy).

The story comes from the unnumbered 'Zoom Comics' from 1945. 

CB+ has an image of the interior and you can see, like the other coverless Century comics I posted, that the book is clearly a crude reprint of the source material rather than an actual remaindered copy. 

All the scruffy tell tale printing signs are there.

Incidentally, a different Dr. Mercy story pops up in 'Merry Comics', also from 1945. I can't think of the comic without singing a Roy Orbison song in my head for some reason.

Anyway, not something I'm actively collecting anymore, and certainly not a pre-1960 UKPV, but fun to look at all the same. 

On 3/8/2024 at 3:39 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

this is the first Dr. Mercy I've seen for sale

I been waitin' for dis for a long time! Well, if dat's da way y'want it...

Hello 

Notwithstanding how I ended my last post here, curiosity got the better of me and I ordered the second Joke Comics that I posted about back in February.

I compared the book to my existing copy and it looks like it is a completely separate printing. 

First up, the book titles have different colouring albeit the fact that everything is off-register might explain some of the differences. There is an absence of blue on the bell however so if there was, say, plate movement within the same run there was clearly some ink failure too:

The inside front covers are indeed different, as I pointed out previously, which is either the result of a mid-run plate change or a completely separate / later printing:

There is some notable movement to the wording above the indicia:

Aside of those subtle production differences, the only intentional difference is the inside cover 'cut out' variation. Everything else is the same - page count, ads, size and story content.

The production quality is very poor on both books but some of the interior panels in one copy look like they may have been reproduced from the other rather than from the original source material - two good examples here:

It's sometimes hard to decipher what is going on production-wise when comparing books like these, but my gut tells me that these two copies came from separate print runs - covers and guts - and are not the result of a mid-run cover plate change to accommodate an alternative inside front cover. Why those 'cut out' pages vary is anyone's guess.

The salient learning point for me here is that variations of this comic exist in the first instance - I don't think I've seen that fact noted anywhere online before, even in those blogs written by those who clearly know what they're talking about (which, in this area, I largely don't).

Cool though, isn't it.

And worth paying fifteen quid to prove, I think.

Anyway, here are both copies - you can click each image to expand them. I'm off to cut out a pony and a turkey to see which one wins in a fight.

All good fun 

On 3/9/2024 at 5:59 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Nice illustration happening here.  I think I recognize them...  Not Bulleteer. 

On 3/9/2024 at 1:59 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

It's sometimes hard to decipher what is going on production-wise when comparing books like these, but my gut tells me that these two copies came from separate print runs - covers and guts - and are not the result of a mid-run cover plate change to accommodate an alternative inside front cover. Why those 'cut out' pages vary is anyone's guess.

The salient learning point for me here is that variations of this comic exist in the first instance - I don't think I've seen that fact noted anywhere online before, even in those blogs written by those who clearly know what they're talking about (which, in this area, I largely don't).

Something that may be a factor in some of these differences, going back to the war and the post war years, is paper rationing. In the US, Canada and the UK, newspapers were still published, but rationing meant that publishers had to get clever.   For newspapers, there was no real choice as they were limited to size of newspaper they could print.  In the UK,  in 1939, it was reduced immediately to 60% of their pre-war consumption of newsprint. Paper supply then came under the No 48 Paper Control Order on 4th September 1942 and was controlled by the Ministry of production. By 1945 newspapers were limited to 25% of their pre-war consumption. Wrapping paper for most goods was prohibited, so ironically, newspaper would have been even more useful. UK newspapers didn't get back to their pre-war size until 1953 (and I think that was only because Liz got a new hat that year).  

In the US, there were similar restrictions.  When Al Kanter was trying to print second + runs of Classics Illustrated, he did it by buying up paper allotments from 9 different publishers in NY, so you could have bought yourself 9 copies of the same edition and found each one subtly different.  When he published CI 7 (Robin Hood) it was so popular it went to 5 editions in a matter of months.  Despite being produced across only 7 months, the 3 latter editions came from 3 different printers on paper stock from 3 different publishers. 

The high suicide rate among Classics Illustrated completists is probably unrelated. 

On 3/8/2024 at 11:39 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

 

CB+ has an image of the interior and you can see, like the other coverless Century comics I posted, that the book is clearly a crude reprint of the source material rather than an actual remaindered copy. 

 

 

I too came to this conclusion after seeing an article somewhere that said that they were  remaindered copies. I cannot recall (nor retrieve) the actual wording of the altercation and my refutation of it. I think that I may have mentioned this somewhere in these pages but the relocation of such musings are beyond my capabilities. (smile)

Cheers for the comments boys. I've hopefully got another variation example to post soon. It all depends if the millimetre that was visible in the listing is telling me what I think it is... 

On 3/11/2024 at 10:42 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Cheers for the comments boys. I've hopefully got another variation example to post soon. It all depends if the millimetre that was visible in the listing is telling me what I think it is... 

I hate that.  I saw a Doc Strange 179 with what may have been a T&P stamp but it was in a massive bundle. The seller said it was already parcelled up and wouldn't open it to tell me.  I was sorely tempted but once bidding went over £500, it was too much money just to find out it was a dealer stamp or similar.  Still haunted by it. 

Good luck.   

On 3/11/2024 at 3:42 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

It all depends if the millimetre that was visible in the listing

Oh... how many times I've bought up big lots of stuff due to a tiny corner of something or other popping out from the back...

I guess that's the sign of a true collector.  You're willing to go through the trash to find what you seek! 

On 3/11/2024 at 2:55 PM, Malacoda said:

I hate that.  I saw a Doc Strange 179 with what may have been a T&P stamp but it was in a massive bundle. The seller said it was already parcelled up and wouldn't open it to tell me.  I was sorely tempted but once bidding went over £500, it was too much money just to find out it was a dealer stamp or similar.  Still haunted by it. 

Good luck.   

On 3/11/2024 at 5:12 PM, Yorick said:

Oh... how many times I've bought up big lots of stuff due to a tiny corner of something or other popping out from the back...

I guess that's the sign of a true collector.  You're willing to go through the trash to find what you seek! 

You wouldn't believe how many comics I've bought down the years just to prove things, large and small. I've always liked to own the comics I write about where I can, rather than use other peoples scans. I've sat on discoveries for months, sometimes years, waiting for the book(s) I need to surface to complete a picture. Some of my pending folders are so old I have to remind myself why I created them in the first place  

On 3/11/2024 at 5:48 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

You wouldn't believe how many comics I've bought down the years just to prove things, large and small. I've always liked to own the comics I write about where I can, rather than use other peoples scans. I've sat on discoveries for months, sometimes years, waiting for the book(s) I need to surface to complete a picture. Some of my pending folders are so old I have to remind myself why I created them in the first place  

I fully agree with this in principle, but in practice, life's too short to wait years for a knackered copy (of something you don't actually collect) when you know that someone you chat to (probably on here) might have a FN+ copy of the smoking gun run behind them.  That said, sometimes you need to get enough of a critical mass to even frame the question.  I'm currently groping towards a question for your Alan Class Club thread, but I need to hone it down first.