pemart1966

D.C.'s lawyers will be in touch shortly

Here's some more information found in this Wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Whites If you go to the bottom and click on the hot links, there's some interesting stuff there - the actual legislation regarding WECA and various amendments. 1. Reference 3 in this article is the actual WECA - page 5 of the act (hold your cursor down and move it as if you're turning the pages of a book) tariff 177 mentions comics specifically. 2. Reference 6 is the repealing of WECA August 15, 1944. 3. Reference 7 is the revival of WECA November 26, 1947. Page 2195 specifically mentions comics in similar, if not identical language to the 1940 WECA. 4. Reference 8 is the final repeal of WECA effective January 1, 1950. The article does mention that "foreign exchange controls" effectively kept American comics out of Canada during the 1944 - 1947 period even though the WECA had been repealed. I'm not sure how that worked. Perhaps someone with an understanding of this can explain. So although there was no ban on American comics during the '44 - '47 period, it would appear that these "foreign exchange controls" made it economically prohibitive for US publishers to do business in Canada. Goodman, it would seem, got both of these books printed (possibly in Canada) during the hiatus and may not have been affected at all by "foreign exchange controls" if all of the work was done in Canada. All he would have had to do was ship plates or negatives to a Canadian printer and as discussed above, he had a Canadian distributor during the time that his 1939/40 Timelys were sold in Canada prior to the WECA of 1940 and probably used the same. 5. The revival of the WECA in 1947 and its final repeal in 1950 would go a long way in explaining the proliferation of US comics printed in Canada by companies like Superior and Bell during that time. Between 1948 and 1950 tons of US titles were printed in Canada by these two companies - titles such as: Marvel Mystery; Captain America; Human Torch; Sub-Mariner; Batman; Superman; Action; Detective etc etc. Once the WECA was repealed for good then US comics printed in the US were allowed back in to Canada thereby ending these Canadian versions. Thoughts?

At today's prices most folks are "investing" in comics whether they know it or not...

Not sure what you mean by "...the last WECA comics were from January, 1947."

I don't think that it's odd that the house ads are included. Goodman took the original source materials (existing plates or photo negatives or...) and had them reproduced verbatim. Any modification to them would have cost him $. Besides, he may have looked upon the original house ads as advertising for Timely titles he had visions of selling in Canada once the WECA ended.

I don't have it was does it say in a nutshell?

From what I've read, the Act was repealed "in stages" after the war. Overstreet has noted '43-'44 quite likely due to the original US publication dates of the contents of both books IMO. Based on the discussions here and the date stamp, I'm calling the Overstreet info incorrect. No way they were test marketed in upstate NY...too many copies are tied back to the Canadian cities in which they were originally purchased - none so far to US cities. I saw a copy for sale here in Ottawa back in the 80s at the now defunct Maplecon. The book had very tan pages though which is why I didn't buy it - that and the $600 or so price tag. Where was it printed? If it was printed in Canada, that would have meant shipping printing plates to probably Toronto as opposed to having the book printed in say NYC and shipped directly to Canada. Probably far easier for Goodman to seek out a Canadian distributor (he probably had those contacts when Timely was originally selling books in Canada pre WECA) rather than trying to find a printer to which to ship the plates.

Hi again - don't know if you saw my post on the last page but would you mind asking clink for a high def jpeg of the cover so that we can (hopefully) pin down this date once and for all? Tx!

Here's the link to the Vancouver Witness #1 https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/witness-1-vancouver-pedigree-marvel-1948-cgc-nm-94-white-pages/a/830-91202.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515 Vancouver is within spitting distance to the US border so it could be possible that a trip to the US or visiting relatives there might have accounted for it being (I assume) the US version...

Hi aardvark88 - as the consignor, could you ask clink to send you a biiiiig jpeg of the front cover so that we can try to identify the year on the date stamp?

I had exactly the same thought this afternoon. Marvel Comics/Marvel Mystery Comics (MMC) were quite likely sold in Canada right up until issue 15 or 16. The date that the WECA (War Exchange Conservation Act) came into effect was December 6, 1940 meaning that any comic with mmm a February 1941 cover date or so and beyond would not be allowed to enter Canada. Doubtful then that Captain America #1 made it here. If Goodman indeed sold the first 15 or so MMC here in Canada as well as the rest of the Timely line cover dated prior to Feb '41 then he must have had a pretty good idea as to the sales figures of those books here. Along comes the WECA cutting off not necessarily a lucrative market but probably a pretty good market nonetheless. As the war showed signs of ending, Goodman might well have decided to test the market again here circa '45 or '46 as well as acquaint or re-acquaint the kids with characters that they hadn't seen in several years. He may have decided to make his product stand out by bulking it up to 128 pages and charging 25c for it thereby making it stand out on two counts. Are these 2 books larger in dimension than a regular comic of this era? If so, that's a third characteristic that would have made them stand out. He went cheap on the contents (B & W reprints) and the print run was small enough that he could live with it. As well, I suspect that these 2 books were released if not at the same time then very close to each other. The WECA was repealed in stages apparently after the war and I don't think that Timely ever got back into the Canadian market with just US printed books did they? I know that they had a run in the late 40s of Canadian printed Timely books... All purely conjecture on my part but I don't see any other story line that makes sense...

Please tell the story as to how you pinned it down to being distributed in Vancouver and during the summer of 1945. I love hearing histories of books!

As noted above though, he could have been getting the comics from two sources: 1. On trains coming from the U.S.; and 2. The newsstand in the Montreal train station itself...

I wasn't able to enlarge the image any more than what's on the website. I mulled it over and at one point was sure it was a "6" but settled on the "5". If it's a "6" then this is a whole new ball game... Funny that neither CGC or Clink make reference to the book as a "Canadian" edition...

Interesting information but perhaps a bit confusing. It's not clear to me how the seller knew that his father received the book in 1943. He could have received it when he was 11 in 1945 thus matching the date stamp (I've assumed all along that the date stamp on the cover was a store/newsstand date stamp). There's nothing to say that the father's uncle didn't find the MM Annual at the Montreal train station (could have been purchased there and forgotten) or bought it off the Montreal train station newsstand himself for the seller's father. I've never heard or read anything about this being an unauthorized print. Has anyone else? Chances are that if it was published/printed in NYC it was fully authorized.

I must have had a complete brain cramp when I wrote this initially. The Clink book is the MARVEL MYSTERY "ANNUAL" and not the initially referred to Captain America "Annual" - sincere apologies. None the less, the original questions still apply as the book was printed and sold in the Canadian market only and the generally accepted date of sale was before 1945. Bronty (and anyone else who's on topic in this thread) - please take a look at the date stamp on the Clink book and tell me what year you think it is. Thanks.

This book, as I understand it, has no year of publication anywhere on or in it. That said, the "accepted" year of publication seems to be 1942/maybe 1943, I assume based on the contents. Comiclink currently has one up for auction (note that I am not the consignor nor, as far as I know, do I know the consignor) with a date stamp that reads either June 15, 1945 or June 15, 1946 - I think that it's 1945 but perhaps someone can confirm. So...could this mean that this book was printed and released several years later than is currently thought?? Could the same be said for the Marvel Mystery Giant? Interested to hear your thoughts...

I certainly think of Sprang as a top artist. Arguably the best artist to ever draw that family of characters and certainly the definitive Joker artist.

Most anything post 1967

Yes I see them now - no doubt that that's Marvel Comics #1. I note as well what looks like Whiz 5 (4) cover dated May 1940. If that's the case, it may explain the long sleeve shirts. Could mean that the photo was taken March/April 1940. I also think that I see Superman 3...

I can make out the wording now but still not the image and it's driving me

I kinda see it in the lettering but not in the image. Can anyone blow this up further?

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