OtherEric

Marvel 1999 ~ 2000 US Newsstand Price Variants
Hello Reader 
Here is a summary of the Marvel Newsstand Price Variants that I have found hiding between the dates of October 1999 and February 2000. If you'd like to know more about them, please click the picture below and you'll be magically transported to the discussion thread in which we talk about them:
                 
                               
Notes and Observations
Most comic collectors have heard of the 30 and 35 cent variants which Marvel produced in limited numbers during the 1970s to test how the market would react to increasing the cover price of their comics. Less well known is the fact that, in late 1999 / early 2000, Marvel again produced newsstand copies with higher prices than the then standard $1.99 newsstand price, appearing to repeat that market price resistance test. I say 'appearing to' deliberately, as there is no actual evidence that the higher priced issues in this post were intended to be market testers. But that seems to be the only logical conclusion at present.
I have been researching these books for over ten years now, having first discovered them as a Spider-Man completist. Others have been aware of them, but I don't think anyone else has tracked them to the extent that I have and tried to summarise exactly what exists. 
There are two variant newsstand prices known - $2.29 and $2.49 - for a limited number of books which had a standard newsstand price of $1.99.
Here are three differently priced Amazing Spider-Man #10 newsstand copies to illustrate:
   
                      Standard $1.99 Issue                                             Variant $2.29 Issue                                               Variant $2.49 Issue
 
Here is a summary chart which I put together to show what titles / issues have been found so far:

Looking at the chart, we can see that:
Only six titles have been found to have newsstand price variants from the scores of titles in production at the time. Those titles are Amazing Spider-Man, Cable, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Thor and X-Men 32 variants are currently known to exist across those six titles Variants are priced at either $2.29 and/or $2.49 - no other variant newsstand prices exist Price variants only exist where the standard book is a $1.99 'regular' size issue - no variants have been found to exist where the standard issue is priced at $2.99 / is 'double sized' Only one Feb 2000 dated book has been found - Fantastic Four #26 No title has variant issues in all of the 5 known months (Fantastic Four for example has the only Feb 2000 variant issue, but no Oct 1999 variant issue) No title has more than six price variants  My current guess, based on no more than the patterns shown in the chart, the amount of time spent looking, and the lack of other copies found, is that no title will yield more than six variant issues (3 x $2.29 plus 3 x $2.49). If correct:
Amazing Spider-Man is 'complete', and no copies will be found for February 2000 Cable will have three more variant copies - #72 ($2.49), #73 ($2.29) and #74 ($2.29) ** See update below 23/06/2023 ** Fantastic Four is 'complete', and no copies will be found for October 1999 Hulk is 'complete', and no copies will be found for October 1999 / February 2000 Thor will have one more variant copy - #17 ($2.49) X-Men is 'complete', and no copies will be found for February 2000 This means that a further four copies may exist, pushing the overall total to 36. Only time will tell if this 'gut feel' turns out to be true!
In the main, the variant price is the only immediately obvious difference between the variant and standard editions but some copies (not all) have variant indicias which show the variant cover price - the two examples below show each indicia scenario:

                                                                         $2.29 variant with standard $1.99 indicia

                                                                      $2.49 variant with variant $2.49 indicia
 
These books are fairly difficult to find and, in some cases, the image I have in the files is the only copy I have ever seen. So happy hunting, if you decide to build a set!
22/01/20
By Stephen Cranch based on v2.6 of the 'Marvel 1999 ~ 2000 US Newsstand Price Variants Summary'
 
N.B. Those that follow my discussion thread will know that the regular $1.99 priced newsstand copy of Thor #19 has been on the missing list since I started the thread in 2016, proving more elusive than the variant priced copies. I finally found evidence of a copy on the 21/01/20 to confirm that it does actually exist. A second copy appeared shortly after as if often the case. 
 
Update 23/06/2023
A Cable $2.29 #74 was found by board member JonnyT2008 (see discussion thread) - this brings us up to 34 price variants:

I believe December 1999 and Jan/Feb 2000 are now complete. If my six issue per title theory is correct, the following issues may yet appear:
Cable #72 ($2.49) and #73 ($2.29)  Time will tell.....
 

Just picked this one up from Comic Connect, where my best offer was accepted. There are a few covers on this title by Neal Adams that are not bad. So it goes  with my hunt for books with Adams cover work only. Enjoy.

Hello 
I'm not going to post a big explanatory preamble this time, but just note that in this journal I will be looking to see if I can find any pre-1960 dated comics which could reasonably be referred to as 'UK Price Variants'. As we now know, a UK Price Variant is a book made for distribution in the UK, with a single printed UK cover price, but which was printed in the US as a junior subset of the same original print run as the primary cents priced version. We know from my research that UKPVs were produced post 1960 for seven US publishers, but I wanted to see if I could find any books prior to that date, either from the US or another country.
I have a number of books to post about, so let's get started.
I recently picked up this copy of 'Skunky Shopkeeper', undated, which carries a stickered one shilling price and an indicia which notes that the book was printed in Canada and distributed in the UK by 'Streamlined Books' (a possible misprint of the 'Streamline' of 'Pictorial Romance' fame?):

I then picked up a second corner-nibbled copy, also with a sticker, and painstakingly removed it to reveal this apparently overprinted 6d price:

Here are the two prices, side by side:
 
So my first thought was 'could this be a UKPV of an original Canadian book?'
I know very little about Gold and pre-1960s books. I'm sure there are people I could ask, but where's the fun in that? It's something to do, to potter on, explore and learn for yourself. 
That said, the GCD helpfully tells me that my Canadian Skunky reprints the US comic 'Funland Comics #1'

So I grab myself a copy of that book, also corner-nibbled:

Is corner nibbling a thing in Gold?
The obvious difference of course is the cover which is manifestly absent from 'Skunky'.
The indicia of Funland advises that the book was printed in the USA, c1945:

The interior story pages and content are the same as Skunky - here are the two books side by side:
 
A bit of Googling brings me to this image below, source unknown, which shows my Skunky as being one of a number of coverless Canadian comics, overprinted with UK prices by Superior/Century Publications for distribution in the UK by Streamlined of London:

It further says "The majority of these were remainders". Hold that thought.
The assumption is that I have two copies of a comic that was printed in the USA for Croydon Publishing, of which unsold copies were picked up by Superior/Century Publications of Canada, who then stripped them of their covers and then overprinted them with a UK price (which were then subsequently stickered at a higher price).
Incidentally, could the 6d overprinted price be for Canadian sales and the copies sent to the UK be marked up with the one shilling sticker? Mebbe.
Back to the pre-1960 UKPV search, can the coverless guts of an original US book, that is then overprinted with a UK/Canadian price in Canada be considered a variant? It can't really, can it. Now if there was a copy of Funland #1 with a printed UK single price, which came from the same print run, then yes. But amended guts? That's pushing it a bit.
Anyway, on inspection, the guts that comprise 'Skunky' do not actually appear to be remaindered copies of Funland #1 at all. If we look closely at these examples, we can see:
1. A very different print quality and colouring - Funland is clean, Skunky has got all the sloppy production marks that tend to indicate a crude reprinting:
 
The next two images show that clearly too - one clean, one with additional bits and bobs and an inferior production quality:
 
2. Next, we can see that the two sets of guts have different overall dimensions:

3. Any notion that that might be due to trimming evaporates when you see that the actual printed images are slightly bigger on the Skunky page than on the Funland original:
 
4. The staples location is different on the two books too, and the Skunky ones are much bigger than the Funland's:

My staple's bigger than yours mate!
All the evidence, which is much clearer in hand I might add, indicates that our Canadian Skunky was reprinted rather than being a cover-stripped, remaindered original US book. So the 'Printed in Canada' of the indicia refers not just to the price / logo overprinting, but the whole book. From a UKPV search perspective, that takes Funland #1 out of the equation, as a UKPV must come from the same print run as the headline country copy. That leaves us with Canadian Skunky.
Every copy of Skunky that I have seen has the 6d overprinted price. Now, if someone was going to reprint the guts, why would they then overprint a UK price? Why not do it all in one go? I say this, as I have noted that the 6d price moves from copy to copy (my copy vs GCD copy below):
 
In summary, it looks like Superior Publishers of Canada obtained the rights (?) to reprint the guts of Croydon Publishing's Funland #1, minus the cover, did so and then added their company livery, an indicia and a 6d price. They then either sent the whole lot to the UK, who promptly increased that price with a sticker, or sold some of the 6d copies locally in Canada. 
Even if we view Skunky as its own thing, separate to Funland, there is only one reprinted/overprinted version in existence it seems, so it can't be a UK Price Variant. If there was a majority 6d printed Canadian copy and a lesser UK one shilling printed copy, both printed together, we could perhaps make an argument. But there isn't. It seems.
I rather enjoyed the exercise though, on this book, and it's fun to learn more about books of this age by mucking about with them directly and holding them in your hands. Especially when they include stories such as "Angel Pussy", the pages of which further illustrate the colour and quality contrast between the two books:

Play nicely, Angel Pussy!
Well, that's Funland vs Skunky out of the way, to get the ball rolling. Next up, Jeep Comics. Or Lucky Coyne. Or maybe K G Murray's Super Adventure Comic. Or another one of the various candidates I've amassed over recent years. I'll see which one takes my fancy before dropping Wonder Comics into the mix. 
See you next time then, if you're interested....

 

Won this in the Comic Link auction that just ended. Yet another great cover by Barry Windsor-Smith. Again, this book is a re-acquisition to replace the 9.6 I sold during the pandemic. So in this case we're looking at a downgrade.
But my winning bid for this book was a surprise, having secured it for under $250. Enjoy.

Yeah, I knew Neal; I knew him well. You see he used to draw for me from some never ending well of talent and color; creations built upon a mighty palette. A wheel that circled and changed, brought forth lines and magic for my eager mind to absorb. He would tell me stories of heroes and villains; equal to both so that neither were greater. He put me to bed and then made it fly, shrieks of terror and nowhere to hide. He penciled the man with Super powers and he did this for me so I could understand what is best in us all by some alien. He made a bat fly off the pages and shown a bright light on his many dark secrets and home. He brought me reality of life through the image of racial and drug induced strife. He dusted off western and colored their life with cowboys and Indians captured in fight. He gave a good doctor some of his best lines. He drew a Spectre, a Deadman and Avengers a plenty but gave a boy, a super boy, the angst of my life. And who could forget Jimmy and Lois, the master took time to shine them and show us.
His fingers were always the best of his able, reaching out to me in some dynamic fable, touching the paper and touching my mind; I know now he was wanting to touch us all. He expanded the way an artist was held, he expanded the earth a little as well. New kinds of colors not seen much before, DC he demanded to let him explore. I'll say that I'll miss him but really don't know, he's always been with me and will be some more. Perhaps I will hold my fingers out open and reach for the man that showed me once more to jump of the pages and let me explore. Neal? Yeah, I knew him well. 
 
 
P.S.
I own a lot of comic books and magazines. While they are not all Neal Adams, I can honestly say I own all of them because of Neal. As an only child, he was often my friend as I was growing up and oh the adventures we had. He is remembered and loved by the boy I was and the man I am. He expanded the known boundaries in his art and I, we, are better for his work and effort.  
 

Its taken so many years  to put this set together and i'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!  7 short titles that ran from 1977-1979  . Its been  fun and  challenging chasing down such unconventional titles and I have to admit i'm sorry to see its almost complete, however there is always other titles/comics to find and collect     Comics Set Detail (collectors-society.com)     

I recently watched the Mile High II CGC 10 copy of Thor 156 sell for a staggering $37,200 on Heritage Auctions. I had been looking to upgrade my 9.4 to at least a 9.6 for some time. Thor 156 is common in high grades similar to Thor 132. Not that hard to find. Seeing that copy, it lit a fire under me to finally get an upgrade. I managed to find a 9.6 on a dealer site for $210 but he had a promotion so I got it for $158. I'd love to have the 10 but for 99% of collectors it's not going to happen.. Now while common in high grades the 10 is one of only two from the 1930's to 1974. An 8 page promotional comic is the other 10. So I'm happy the CGC 10 came up as it motivated me to get my upgrade.

It all started in 1971 when I was just a kid digging around inside a box of comics at a local garage sale.   "10 cents each" was written on the box which seemed like a small fortune to a 5 year old kid.  But in that moment I found a comic that stood out to me Mad #1.  With my dime I proudly marched to a small folding table where an elderly lady held out her hand and asked "did you find something?" Proudly I responded "yes!" grinning from ear to ear. 
From that moment on I eagerly awaited the new issues of mad to arrive at the thrifty drug store down the street.  I was hooked.  I had the nay sayers tell me I was too young to read such filth and even had clerks deny the sale, but I pressed on and maybe in a way enjoyed the controversy.  At the time Mad was cutting edge.
Fast forward to my late teens/early 20's I joined the US Navy and was stationed in San Diego, California.  In 1990 I read that Harvey Kurtzman (creator and early artist of Mad) would be attending the SDCC and immediately called my Mom to have her dig through the boxes in the attic and Send me my Mad #1 to have signed. 
With my Mad in hand I went to the SDCC and located his booth where he was promoting such works as playboy's Annie Fanny, humbug and other titles.
Looking back I probably acted like an insufficiently_thoughtful_person, but I couldn't contain my excitement I said "is it really you!" He smiled and said "it's me"  and signed my Mad with the caption "it's me!"
Many years passed since that day and unfortunately during that period as a young man I fell into financial struggles and sold my Mad #1 to a pawn shop for $30/probably less.
Now comes the reuniting.  I seen a Listing online for a Mad #1 CGC 5.0 with a signature and the caption "It's me!" I figured what's the odds and bought it.  I recently confirmed it was the issue I purchased as a child.
CGC went above and beyond when I submitted it for reholder and asked that they confirm specific discrepancies inside the book that weren't disclosed in detail in the grader's notes before they reholder.
Sure enough my Mad was crying out "it's me!"
 

Back to the journals after a winter hiatus, with this win in a Comic Connect auction. Actually, an upgrade. Had this one in 9.4 already, but qualified (detached staple). So now I have a universal copy. Enjoy.

Hello 
Thanks for visiting my Journal. Or John's, if you're into frippery.
My name is Steve, I'm based in England, and for the last ten years or so I have been on a mission to confirm and record every first printing UK Price Variant that exists for the seven known American comic publishers that produced them. As well as that I have gathered data on other types of first printing price variants including Canadian and Australian books. Basically, all those little nuances that most people wouldn't give a flying fart at a rolling doughnut for.
You will find posts in the journal which summarise the latest position on 15 separate research strands (the first seven are the UKPV summaries):
Archie UK Price Variants Charlton UK Price Variants DC UK Price Variants Dell UK Price Variants Gold Key UK Price Variants King UK Price Variants Marvel UK Price Variants Charlton Canadian Price Variants Charlton 15c Price Variants Marvel Australian Price Variants Marvel L Miller UK Indicia Variants Marvel 1999/2000 US Newsstand Price Variants Marvel Thorpe & Porter Indicias Marvel US Price Font Variations Thorpe & Porter UK Distribution Price Stamp Numbering Each summary post has a hyperlink to discussion threads in which you will find a lot more detail if you are mad interested. 
For the lazy, each square below will take you to the respective Journal entry:



 
Meanwhile...
How to Tell a UK Price Variant From Something Else That Looks a Bit Like It
A question I am often asked, especially offline by those who can't bring themselves to post at CGC. Take a look at these four books (pictures always help I find):
   
                1.  US Cents Copy                             2.  UK Price Variant                     3. US Cents Copy (UK Stamp)                    4.  UK Reprint Title
The four books are:
US Cents Copy  UK Price Variant US Cents Copy (UK Price Stamp) UK Reprint Title The first three were all printed in America, at the same time on the same presses - they are part of the first end to end printing run / state. The fourth book is a reprint, manufactured in the UK specifically for the UK market and long after the original US production event. 
Of the four, only number two (get your jokes in now) is a UK Price Variant as it is the only copy from the original US production run with a printed UK price. A cents copy with a UK distributor stamp (our example book 3) is just that - a cents copy. It is not a UK Price Variant or a 'pence copy'. If you ever see a cents priced book with a UK distributor price stamp referred to as a 'UK Price Variant', or 'pence copy', know that that is wrong. Similarly, if you ever see a reprinted / repackaged title with a UK price on it, know that that also is not a UK Price Variant. A UK Price Variant can only exist if there is an original US publication for it to be the variant of, and only where both books were printed at the same time on the same presses.
So, those four books again:
US Cents Copy - the original book, produced by the US for the US market. The guvnor. A first printing. UK Price Variant - produced at the same time as the guvnor, as part of the same print state, but with a price plate change for the UK market (we like them too). A first printing. US Cents Copy (UK Price Stamp) - the guvnor again, just with a UK price stamp on it to show that the book was shipped to the UK to be distributed and sold there, usually because no UKPV was made.  A first printing. UK Reprint Title - nothing to do with the first three books. Not a first printing. Just a book the UK obtained the rights to to produce an after the event, repackaged title for the UK market. Such books should never be called the 'UK Edition' of a US original comic as they often are when they share a common cover or content. They are not - they are their own publication and nothing to do with the original US title that they reprint whether in whole or part. In the example shown, 'Spider-Man Comics Weekly' should never carry the designation of 'UK Edition'. It is a specific UK publication and should be referred to as such.  Hope that helped.
While we're on the subject, here are two examples of my many attempts to explain why I favour the term "UK Price Variant" which you'll find scattered among CGC board threads:
https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/24238-price-variant-club/?do=findComment&comment=11617626
https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/485687-value-of-uk-price-variant-sa-grails/?do=findComment&comment=11674225
Additionally...
UK Price Variants - How Many of the Bloody Things Can There Be?
As I said earlier, there are seven known US Publishers who produced UK Price Variants and here are the up to date issue totals for each as at the 11th of December 2022:
Archie UK Price Variants - 26 confirmed issues  Charlton UK Price Variants - 598 confirmed issues DC UK Price Variants - 840 confirmed issues  Dell UK Price Variants - 223 confirmed issues Gold Key UK Price Variants - 122 confirmed issues King UK Price Variants - 24 confirmed issues Marvel UK Price Variants - 3,023 confirmed issues  That makes a total of 4,856 confirmed UK Price Variants if you're feeling ambitious. And patient. And rich.
Have a read of my discussion threads and / or journal summary pages to see how many more UKPVs may be out there for each confirmed publisher.
Thanks for looking and be seeing you... 

 

Thorpe & Porter UK Distribution Price Stamp Numbering
Hello Reader 
Those of you who have been foolish enough to follow my pence threads over the years will know that I have often speculated as to why the UK distribution price stamps used by Thorpe & Porter in the early 1960's were numbered 1-9 like so:
 
I've lost track of how many experts and collectors I have asked about it down the years and everyone was stumped. I undertook an exercise myself a year or so ago, captured I think in my DC UKPV thread, to see if I could detect any patterns (as I often do). It was unsuccessful because I was looking for the wrong thing, in the wrong way. Recently,  two contributors to a thread I started about the early distribution of US comics to the UK finally cracked the code - @01TheDude first suggested it and then @Albert Tatlock, helped in no small measure I would assume by his extensive DC collection, confirmed what he and likely a few other collectors of the day had worked out. You can read all about it here, in my UK Distribution Review thread:
       
Anyway, in short, it turns out that the numbers correlate with sequential - probably monthly - shipment arrival dates from the US to the UK. We know that the import ban on comics was lifted around mid-1959, so it is no surprise to see that our stamped US books started to arrive in the UK at the end of 1959 / beginning of 1960.
Using the many images that I had already captured in relation to my distribution review, examples from the thread contributors, and a subsequent trawl of eBay and other online sources, I plotted all the DC comics I could find in line with the 1-9 stamp numbers and the pattern was indeed confirmed:
Click to enlarge by the way




    
The tables show us that the books arrive approximately monthly - as you would expect for a monthly comic medium - and that each shipment comprises a mix of issue sequential books not usually separated by more than three months by cover date (which makes sense when you consider the end to end process involved from the point that issues were returned as unsold in the US to their arrival in the UK).
I'm not going to go into too much more detail here as I suspect that the vast majority of readers won't find this interesting. The small group that do will likely want to read the whole thread.
So, in a final nutshell, this is what we believe was going on:
With the import ban lifted, Thorpe & Porter made an arrangement with DC to have unsold books in the US sent to the UK US sellers removed unsold DC comics, perhaps once the replacement next issue arrived, and sent them to a central returns point The central point collated the US country-wide returns and shipped them to the UK, likely monthly Thorpe & Porter received them, stamped them (using the 1-9 stamps on a rolling cycle) and distributed them to the UK The evidence points to the stamp number 8 in the first cycle as being the likely 'first ever shipment' and it probably arrived in the UK for the books to go on sale around January 1960.
 
As ever there are gaps and quirks all over the place - there always are in this wonderful period of comic history - but you'd have to be blind to not see the pattern behind the outliers. The discussion thread covers Marvel and the other publishers for whom we have T&P stamped examples in the UK.  
So, with an element or two left to be finessed, notably a definitive calendar date for the start month, the mystery of the Thorpe & Porter price stamp numbering has, to my mind, finally been solved.
Well done to the Dude and Tatlock for making the breakthrough 
Cheers,
Steve 
P.S. I put these 1-9 grids together, for the numbered stamps. A few more to do, but I'll get there....

 

Archie Comics - UK Price Variants
Hello Reader 
Here is a summary of the Archie UK Price Variants (UKPVs) that I have found hiding between the cover dates of March 1960 to August 1960.
UK Price Variants were printed in the USA at the same time as their cents priced counterparts. They are part of the same first printing run and are not reprints. If you would like to know more about them, please click the picture below and you'll be magically transported to the Archie discussion thread in which we talk about them in more detail:
         
The Headlines
Archie UK Price Variants have been found to exist between the cover dates of March 1960 to August 1960 inclusive. Across those cover dates, a total of 54 cents priced comics exist spanning 16 titles. At the time of writing, 26 of them have a matching single printed price UKPV confirmed spanning 11 of the 16 overall titles The first known Archie UKPV is, appropriately enough, Archie #108 priced at 9d. This book is not only the only known March 1960 cover dated Archie UKPV, but the earliest known UK Price Variant of any of the seven known pence producing US publishers (Archie, Charlton, DC, Dell, Gold Key, King, Marvel). It may be the only March dated Archie UKPV because it was the last to be printed according to the 'on-sale' / Library of Congress dates that can be found on Mike's Comic Newsstand website. Here are the March applicable issues, plotted by production date:
You can see how the instruction to produce a 9d book might have hit the printers some time after January the 18th. If this theory is correct, we may never see a UKPV for the other March dated books.  The last known UKPV copies are Archie’s Pal Jughead #63 and Laugh #113, both cover dated August 1960 and also priced at 9d. I plotted the titles for the final months using their 'on sale' dates, and found no meaningful pattern. Consequently, the others August cover dated books may exist.  Of the 16 titles in scope, the following 11 titles have one or more UK Price Variant confirmed:
At the time of writing, no UK Price Variants have been found for the remaining 5 eligible titles:
I haven't found any UKPVs for giant 25c issues after four years of looking, so it's reasonable to assume that they were excluded from the UKPV experiment. The two remaining 10c titles, Jughead's Fantasy and Life With Archie, could have a UKPV hiding out there somewhere.
All 26 issues have a printed cover price of 9d (nine pre-decimal English pence) in place of their US counterpart's 10c price:  
Only one pence copy may turn out to exist for the three ‘adventure’ titles of Adventures of Pipsqueak, Adventures of Super Duck and Adventures of The Fly, each of which currently have only one UKPV each confirmed. Adventures of The Fly #6 has surfaced multiple times as a pence priced copy but no pence copies have ever been seen to date for issues #5 and 7. It is not currently known who was responsible for distributing Archie Comics in the UK and copies have been found to exist with both ‘L Miller & Co’ and ‘Thorpe & Porter’ price stamps in evidence. My research here indicates that Thorpe & Porter were the more likely of the two Happy hunting, if you decide to try and build a set! 
By Stephen Cranch based on v2.0 of the ‘Archie Comics – UK Price Variant Summary’ 
 
Here are eleven 9d cover examples - one from each known title 
    
    
    
  

DC Comics - UK Price Variants
Hello Reader 
Here is a summary of the DC UK Price Variants that I have found hiding between the dates of July/August 1971 and February 1978 to September 1981.
UK Price Variants were printed in the USA at the same time as their cents priced counterparts. They are part of the same first printing run and are not reprints. If you would like to know more about them, please click the picture below and you'll be magically transported to the Archie discussion thread in which we talk about them in more detail:
       
The Headlines
DC UK Price Variants have been found to exist between the cover dates of July/August 1971 and February 1978 to September 1981 inclusive. Across those cover dates, a total of 1,227 cents priced comics exist spanning 85 titles. At the time of writing, 840 of them have a matching single printed price UKPV confirmed spanning 54 of the 85 overall titles. The first known pence printed DC comics are Action Comics #402, Adventure Comics #408, Detective comics #413 and Jimmy Olsen #139 all cover dated July 1971 and priced at 5p. The Flash #208 follows on its own with an August 1971 cover date and, uniquely, priced at 7 ½ pence. No pence printed issues have been found to exist dated prior to these dates, nor after (until we hit February 1978). July 1971 is, incidentally, the final US 15c regular cover price date, which may have a bearing on why it was chosen. I have found no explanation for why only 5 of the many available titles cover dated July/August 1971 were chosen, or indeed why those particular 5 titles were chosen. We have to jump forward 8 years before pence copies recommence for what would be a 3 year period from the cover date February 1978. I have found no copies dated prior to this date other than the five July/August 1971 books. Not all titles commence at February 1978 however – many commence on March 1978 holding out the possibility that some February 1978 copies may yet still exist / be found for those titles. The last pence printed DC comics are cover dated September 1981. From October 1981, DC introduced dual cents / pence pricing for all their titles. Marvel did the same 3 months later (December 1981). 85 DC titles exist with cover dates that cross the July/August 1971 and February 1978 through to September 1981 periods. Of those 85, 31 titles appear to have no pence copies (listed below). For monthly titles only, no pence copies have been found for comics cover dated September 1978 to November 1978 inclusive. All monthly titles which cross these dates have a 3 issue gap. This gap coincides with, and is likely explained by, the increase and subsequent decrease in the US cover prices (35c to 50c September 1978 / 50c to 40c December 1978). For bi-monthly titles, September 1978 dated issues exist, but no pence issues exist for the following two months. Only four prices exist for DC pence comics – 5p (July 1971), 7 ½ p (August 1971), 12p (February 1978 to August 1979) and 15p (September 1979 to September 1981). Unlike Marvel, who would raise the cover price where applicable, DC would not produce a pence copy if the issue was double sized / the US price increased. As an example, Detective Comics #500 was a double sized issue. Rather than increase the price from 15p DC simply omitted the issue from pence production. This pattern is absolute – there are no double sized DC pence issues (with the exception of The Flash #208), and any one-off deviation in the US price would mean no pence copy (hard on UK collectors!). No annuals have been found as pence only printed copies, presumably for the same reason that double sized / non-standard priced copies have been. A small number of Treasury Sized books are know to exist. Unlike Marvel, DC pence copies are distinguished by the pence price alone. No other changes are made (e.g. removing the cover date, additional indicia distribution data, different cover banners). The only known exception to this is The Flash #208 which, as well as being the only known 7 ½p priced issue, has the distinction of being the only pence book with an additional cosmetic cover difference (the necessary omission of the 25c spine price). The working assumption is that DC pence copies were requested by, and distributed by Thorpe & Porter. Whilst no copies exist with Thorpe & Porter Indicias (as is the case with some early Marvels), their price stamps can be found all over DC books in the UK from 1959 onwards.  
Happy hunting, if you decide to build a set!
29/09/20
By Stephen Cranch based on v1.6 of the ‘DC Comics – UK Price Variants Summary’

Confirmed UK Price Variant Titles / Issues         Title Confirmed UKPV Issues             Total        Action Comics 402, 480-486, 490-499, 501-523 41 Adventure Comics 408, 456-458, 473-485 17 All Star Comics 71-73 3 All Star Squadron 1 1 Aquaman 60-63 4 Arak Son of Thunder 1 1 Batman 297-299, 301-302, 306-339 39 Black Lightning 7-10 4 Brave and The Bold 140-142, 145-178 37 Challengers of The Unknown 85-87 3 Claw the Unconquered 10-12 3 DC Comics Presents 1, 4-37 35 Detective Comics 413, 475-478, 496-499, 501-506 15 Doorway to Nightmare 2-4 3 Firestorm the Nuclear Man 1-4 4 Flash 208, 259-264, 268-299, 301 40 Freedom Fighters 13-15 3 Ghosts 61-67, 71-104 41 Green Lantern 101-107, 111-144 41 House of Mystery 263-296 34 House of Secrets 151-153 3 Jonah Hex 10-15 6 Justice League of America 161-194 34 Kamandi 56-58 3 Karate Kid 13-15 3 Krypton Chronicles 1 1 Legion of Super Heroes 259-279 21 Men of War 11-26 16 Mister Miracle 23-25 3 Mystery in Space 111-117 7 New Adventures of Superboy 1-21 21 New Gods 17-19 3 New Teen Titans 1-11 11 Secret Society of Super-Villains 13-15 3 Secrets of Haunted House 11-13, 17-40 27 Secrets of The Legion of Super Heroes 1-3 3 Sgt. Rock 323-356 34 Shade the Changing Man 6-8 3 Shazam! 34-35 2 Showcase 97, 101-103 4 Star Hunters 3-6 4 Steel the Indestructible Man 1-4 4 Super Friends 10-13, 15-47 37 Superboy and The Legion of Super Heroes 246-258 13 Superman 321-326, 330-363 40 Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen 139 1 Tales of The Green Lantern Corps 1-3 3 Unexpected 184-186, 200-214 18 Unknown Soldier 222-255 34 Untold Legends of The Batman 1-3 3 Weird War Tales 70-103 34 Weird Western Tales 45-47, 50-70 24 Witching Hour 77-83 7 Wonder Woman 240-246, 250-283 41          Confirmed UKPV Total:                 840  
 
Titles With No UK Price Variant Issues Produced / Confirmed       Title  Title Count     All-Out War ($1.00 Title) 1 All-Star Western (#6 July 1971) 1 Army At War (One Shot Crosses Sep/Nov 78 Price Increase) 1 Batman Family ($1.00 Title) 1 Battle Classics (One Shot Crosses Sep/Nov 78 Price Increase) 1 Binky (July 1971 #79 Double Size Issue) 1 DC Super Stars (#18 Jan/Feb 1978 Final Issue (Cover Dated 'Winter') Double Size Issue) 1 Dynamic Classics (One Shot Crosses Sep/Nov 78 Price Increase) 1 Falling In Love (#124 July 1971) 1 The Forever People (#3 July 1971) 1 From Beyond The Unknown (#11 July 1971) 1 G.I. Combat (#148 Double Size Issue / $1.00 Title) 1 Girls' Love Stories (#160 July 1971) 1 Girls' Romances (#158 July 1971) 1 Heart Throbs (#132 July 1971) 1 Madame Xanadu ($1.00 One Shot) 1 Metal Men (#56 March 1978 Final Issue) 1 Secret Hearts (#153 July 1971) 1 Star Spangled War Stories (#157 July 1971) 1 Sugar And Spike (#96 July 1971) 1 Superboy Spectacular (1980 $1.00 One Shot) 1 Superman Family ($1.00 Title) 1 Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane (#111 July 1971) 1 Swing With Scooter (#34 July 1971) 1 Teen Titans (#53 Feb 1978 Final Issue) 1 Time Warp ($1.00 Title) 1 Warlord (Probable Clash With UK Warlord Title) 1 Welcome Back Kotter (#10 US Only TV Show) 1 World's Finest ($1.00 Title) 1 World of Krypton (1-3 Regular Priced Limited Series) 1 Young Romance (#172 July 1971) 1     Title Total:  31  
Here are the five July / August 1971 books