Bobbi_Betamax

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.

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 3/29/2023 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...

Hello All. I thought I better follow up on this as these are clearly now the hot collectible of the moment, especially since Redshade's revelation that a dealer has a mountain of 3 of the titles from a defunct newsagent store find (I'd love to know what else turned up in there, and was it related to the 'Streamlined' UK distributor noted on many of the covers?).

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

The Conquerers – (Superior/Century), reprints Conqueror Comics (Albrecht 1945)

Bogey Man #2 (Superior/Century), reprints Red Band comics #1 (Rural Home 1944)

Dr. Mercy (Superior/Century), reprints Zoom Comics (Carlton 1945)

Golden Lad (Superior/Century), reprints Golden Lad #1 (Spark 1945)

The Jinx (Superior/Century), reprints???

Skunky (Superior/Century), reprints Funland Comics #1 (Croydon 1945)

Jack Bradley (Superior/Century), reprints Red Circle Comics #1 (Rural Home 1945)

Zor The Mighty (Superior/Century), reprints part of Captain Commando Comics (F.E. Howard, 1945)

Mister Lucifer Comics (Crestwood), reprints? Spook Comics #1 (Bailly 1945)

...and maybe more????

Maybe we'll gradually figure out a list of all in the same vein as these UK versions, the Jack Bradley book looks pretty striking.

I do know Valerie_VHS, I'm gonna fast forward her a link to this post!

On 3/27/2023 at 5:53 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

How cool are they @Bobbi_Betamax!

I'd sort of given up on this thread so thanks for reanimating it. It's great to see that someone else has been mucking about in this area. I thought it was just me!

Your two comics there make me want to start up investigating again. It's funny how comics do that, isn't it. I saw this issue for sale recently at 30th Century Comics which shares similar characteristics to our books, but it was snapped up pretty quickly:

I wonder how many of these 'coverless' 1940s UK distribution comics are actually out there. And I wonder what is under those price stickers on your two comics there....

 

All good fun. Thanks for dropping in and welcome to the forum 

Thanks, I had to post when I saw your info. GCD has a sticker less image of the Mister Lucifer showing a price of 6D, so either this issue was in circulation for a while, or inflation was pretty bad in 1946 as there look to be at least 2 price rise stickers on top of the original value.

I am guessing there are likely many earlier examples of UK-specific reprints of U.S. Comics but these are the earliest I know of in my limited knowledge.

Thank you for the detective work in this thread, very interesting!

I have acquired a few issues in this vein also, a Zor the Mighty (super tatty and not pictured here) plus the below versions of Golden Lad #1 and Mister Lucifer Comics (Spook Comics #1).

Golden Lad is a Superior Comics reprint with similar properties to the copy of Skunky examined earlier, it is definitely a reprint as the indicia and page dimensions are clearly different to the original.

Meanwhile the Mister Lucifer Comics copy looks not obviously different to the first page of Spook Comics #1 bar the (not quite lined up) overprinting of the title addition and the indicia - could this be an overprinted remaindered copy of Spook Comics #1? According to GCD, Crestwood Publishing Toronto are only known to have published this single title, could this Crestwood be related to the USA Crestwood/Prize-Comics?