Get Marwood & I

Cool. The 9d UK Price Variant and US cents copies came off the same press, at the same time. The UKPV would have gone on a boat and sailed to the UK, while the US copies were distributed to US outlets. Mikes Comic Newsstand has KCO #97 as having an 'on sale date' of the 27th of October 1960 in the US: That's quite a bit before the January 1961 La Prensa indicia date, albeit who knows how long before / after that date the comic actually went on sale in Mexico. Here's another example I found online for KCO #102 which has the Mexican book a month after the US indicia date: Notwithstanding what the indicias say, the production dates are the key to which came first. I've not been able to find a KCO #97 with an arrival date, but they can often contradict the dates on Mikes Comic Newsstand by quite a bit. No idea on the La Prensa dates, but it's all very interesting isn't it.

Are you making all this up?

Kevin76 is right about printed ink, so it might have been a flaw in the paper or an ink drop of some kind post production. Hard to see it as a conscious attempt at CT in that location alone, but who knows, people do odd things. If it's smooth to the touch, what were they covering up anyway? Send it in to CGC and it'll come back trimmed Joking.

eBay listings that constantly appear in your searches and make you want to tear your own head off because you know they're NEVER GOING TO SELL and that they will be there FOREVER until you die

Photos of group lots were the only book I am interested in is the only book that has the crucial part of the cover obscured. It's like they know it's the only book I'm interested in, and do it on purpose.

It's always difficult to assess from photos, but I would say not colour touch. Logically, if someone was going to touch that cover up, with either a view to enhancing eye appeal or increasing value, then I would have expected them to touch these areas up too: A dot on the Bat wing line seems an odd one to target. Does it feel like there was something there to touch up? Nice book, by the way.

OK. So if the plates were run in the correct order, and the result I am seeing is due to the black ink running weak, can you explain why the black areas arrowed #1 and #2 are as they should be, yet the black areas arrowed #3 and #4 are not? If the black is visually strong in all cover locations other than where red is present (on the finished article), and in those areas of the cover the red appears to sit 'on top' of the black, does that not indicate that the black ink was applied evenly on the black plate, but those creating the red that we see were run last, out of sequence, causing the effect above? Do you see what I'm saying?

Anyway, to get things back on RK17 track, I've still got these two high grade beauties:

Stop it. You're making me blush, Eric

I think the US 10c Price Font Variations exist because of the introduction of 9d pence copies. This post illustrates it fairly well, I think:

I think you may be confusing the US Price Font Variation books with the L Miller UK Distribution books, Aman. They are two different things.

Got ya. In this example though, if, say, the blank cover paper was stamped with the Complimentary stamp first, and then run through the normal cover printing process, is this not how it would look? In these old Spidey examples of mine below, it looks to me like the plates were run out of order and the red ink was applied over the black in error: Rather than blend, the red appears to sit above the preceding colours and is strong enough to almost wipe out the black underneath. That is what I'm seeing on that Avengers #109 - the colours from the cover plates have covered the black of the stamp that preceded them. Whaddaya think? Am I taking a load of old guff? I'm not a printer!

I agree. Can you expand on your comment here Legion: I'm not sure I get what you mean by 'knock out'?

I've got one of those

From one of those eBay listings:

Cdorin, I like this kind of thing but I don't think there is a market for it as such. If you search eBay you'll find lots of available examples - but none that have sold (that I can see). A fun thing, but likely not a thing that increases the value.

There are quite a few comics with 'Not To Be Sold' stamps to be found online, but this is the first one I have seen where - as Stronguy says - the stamp looks like it was applied before the cover was printed. Here's another of the same stamp type - it's difficult to determine whether this is a pre or post printing example though - after, from the looks of what can be seen where it meets colour:

Depends how rubbish my theories are Patricia, but probably anything between none and the nine missing gaps in the chart here: With an outside chance of a few more.

That's my belief. I was quietly gathering Spideys and then one day he suddenly caught on and blew the prices up with his nonsense 100x multiplier thing. Or thereabouts. Others followed suit and that was the end of that. There's no argument how comparatively hard to find later newsstands are - but that doesn't mean they should be priced to the same perceived ratio, however accurate. The market decided how newsstands should be priced, naturally. Then Chuck ruined it.

My recent Harvey thread had a UK distribution element. Well, theory. That was one of them. Barely a ripple was made. As for knitting patterns, I'm not sure why you would jumper to that conclusion....

Yes. Horror, war, westerns, romance, sci-fi, mystery, medical drama, monsters, funny animals, teen-angst.... What's not to love.