Get Marwood & I

I was pleased to nab this copy recently, with a Thorpe & Porter UK distribution stamp. It seems to be fairly uncommon. The GCD has this under the index notes: "Colletta suggested by Ger Apeldoorn. Giordano suggested by Nick Caputo. Previous indexer credited Steve Ditko" What do you guys think?

I wonder if the No.1 came from the same comic? How much for the date, do you think?

We have an answer!

Do you think I could get a trimmed Detective #11 past them?

Maybe it was the reverse of the "it's nothing personal / strictly business" scenario. There was a personality element that dictated what happened. Or didn't happen. Somebody fancied someone enough. Or hated them enough. Would it be the first time that a boss made a questionable decision based on matters of the heart? At the end of the day, it gets dark, and everything is personal.

How did it take so long for someone to make that comment

It looks to me like it may have been in a window with individual panes like this one below, with the red bar of colour being caused by one of the cross rails: Who knows. It's fun trying to work them out though - I posted this one in the Sun Fade thread: Gawd knows how that effect came about

I spotted the comic on eBay UK, and the back cover colouring looks normal: Does that change your view at all Kevin?

You're welcome - the effect can be puzzling at times and inconclusive. It's why I started that thread. Even though the books are effectively damaged, some of them look eerily cool. I like anything that is different, and sometimes a sun fade can be a thing of beauty. The Vision has a few things going on, on his cloak. The sun fade, the strip where the sun was blocked, and in that the original colour changes. It all adds up to a puzzling effect, and makes you sort of doubt yourself. Lovely stuff

That's surely the result of sun fade Deutero - the book has spent a bit of time sunning itself in a shop window I suspect. Have a read in here, for more examples:

Quick Draw McGraw Four? Sure! He follows the Law and takes us up to 221 Dell UK Price Variants. I've been expecting him for a while now, and like many titles, he ends his pence run with the October 1960 issue. I managed to snag a few pence Dells today, happily, but made a schoolboy error on the Flintstones Giant, the only Giant that I don't have of the known pence copies. I somehow managed to miss that it was the first appearance of the Flintstones, so the bidding run away from me before I could twig what was happening. Had I looked closer, and seen that designation, I would have bid more appropriately and seized my chance. Oh well. Only the second pence copy I've ever seen. Maybe it will be third time lucky for me, if there is a next time.

Thanks Lion. It's sort of the point of my post really. If a book of that magnitude - a book which will be scrutinised above all others - can be encapsulated and presented in that fashion, then what does that say about the whole slabbing gig full stop? If books of a certain age have covers that sit proud of the guts by design, then what is the logical conclusion for any that sit in a holder in which movement is possible? And yet here we are, twenty years later, with a multi-million pound organisation pumping them out in their thousands to the majority approval of the industry. Puzzling in a way, isn't it.

Might be a while yet Andy, sorry. I've got too many irons in the fire at the moment. Need some time to sort out how to present it. As well as all that below in the Harvey file, I'm linking the other publishers timelines in too, as that can often be revealing.

I like to read your posts Lion, as you are one of the few members here with direct experience of the CGC operation. For the sake of discussion, and not putting you on the spot personally, if we take the above two statements as true - that pieces of rogue plastic can find themselves encased and that a book can shift in the inner holder - what would your views be on the recent record breaking Heritage AF15: Using the scans provided by Heritage, I see a piece of rogue plastic in the back cover image: Do you see that? It may be a trick of the light, or perhaps something on the scanner bed, but you would have thought that Heritage would have spotted that, wouldn't you. The fact that it is clearly present in these magnifiable images lends weight to the possibility of it being in the case. More importantly though, it is clear from the scans that the book has leeway to move within the inner holder. There is a graduating gap of a few millimetres at the top... ...at the side and, again on a graduating basis, the bottom: The book appears to have a back cover overhang - very visible in the back cover image (which presumably explains the recess): ...and which is still visible, but not so pronounced from the front: My thinking is that if the book were to move upwards in the holder, the fact that it is not in alignment with the top of the inner holder means that that back left corner overhang is going to hit the top first, about an inch in, at an angle, and get dented by the curve of the inner holder recess edge. Indeed, the image gives the impression that it has already done so: Another trick of the light? If this book were to get damaged as I have illustrated, I presume it would no longer qualify for a 9.6 with obvious implications. What do you think? Is there scope for that book to get damaged within the inner holder, just by sliding upwards, or should we put it all down to bad camera work / optical illusions, exacerbated by magnification?

Like Stew.

Yes, the UK aspect sort of rules that out doesn't it. If it were a market test - albeit of a lower price for less comic - it would only make sense if they were distributed in a US geographical region. I've been tracking the Harvey UK distribution aspect a little more, either side of the variants, and will post more about it soon. It's a bit like a jigsaw, as it turns out.

Not my book, one from the Bay, but here's a savagely sun attacked copy with a nice prominent price sticker barrier effect on offer between the B and the E of B and V (which sounds like something that a crap rap artist would say. Which itself sounds like something...) I like that cover too. Very clever

....one other thought, Hulk, if you are using Mylar bags, you will find they tend to stick to each other unlike regular bags which slide around. So putting one Mylar into another can be tricky as they won't slide in freely. One trick is to place a backing board either side of the inner Mylar, slide that wedge into the outer bag, and then pull each board out, leaving the inner Mylar in perfect position. It's something to try....

Welcome to the forum @TheHulkCollector - and what a cracking first post. I like a man who dabbles in storage options Here's what I do with some of my books, especially those for which I make custom labels. The above two copies are in the same bag. I use: Silver age backing boards Standard Size Mylites2 inner sleeve (#725M2) Silver & Golden Size Mylites2 outer sleeve (#775M2) I trim the inner Mylite2 on one edge, and along the top flap. I place the book in that. That goes against two silver age backing boards and then into the outer Mylite2. The second book (in this case, the 10c version of the 15c price variant) goes at the back and I then seal the outer Mylite2 with a Post-It book marker, which is easy to remove and leaves no residue. You could try something like that - the trick is to get the right size bags. One other point - if you leave the books on an open shelf they will get very dusty, very quickly. It's nice to be able to see the books, but a boxed environment might be better. If you use the search function, you'll find lots of threads here about storage recommendations - here's just one of them: Let us know what you decide, and always post pictures.

Love it. One of my favorites too. Fabulous colouring and a facially expressive horse. My kind of comic

If they did I would imagine that the author of the Harvey Companion would have unearthed them by now, given his contacts and the depth of his exploration into the publisher. It's probably destined to be yet another one of those things we will never know. And only fifty years ago, in this case. The UK link is inescapable I think, but there are a number of reasons why that might have happened. Finding them all will be fun though. That is one of my favourite things to do in life. Pottering outside the circle, trying to join the dots.

Here's one more example. If someone asked you "When was Charlton's Konga #1 on sale in the US?" you would probably have no idea. If you went to Mike's Comic Newsstand, the 'on sale' date would be the 1st of April, based on a June 1960 cover date: The GCD has a June 1961 cover date: Big difference. The book is actually undated, save for a 1960 indicia. Here are three dates found on the comics themselves: November 14th, 15th and 17th. One pencil, two in different inks, suggesting three different locations. If you match those mid-November cover stamps to other Charlton titles with the same cover dates stamped, you find that they match February 1961 cover dated books. That makes much more sense, as books often had a three month gap between cover date and being on sale. So the comics tell you the story, and both the GCD and MCN are miles out, on this occasion. Always trust the comics.