Get Marwood & I

I've answered your question here @956Ref as I think it will get more views that the journal page you posted it on (no one reads the journal pages) I don't keep track of price differentials between UK and US copies that much myself - my area of focus is on what exists and all the wonderful nuances that go with that. Others will have a better take on whether a 6.0 WWBM #32 in pence will command less, more or the same as its US counterpart. What I can say is that there has always been a general view that pence copies are worth less than cents copies and that still holds true for many non-key issues. Lately however we are starting to see keys go for big money and, in the case of this actual book, more than the equivalent graded US version. https://youtu.be/M33kqHaiTBQ So I doubt that you will have made a bad purchase, if you paid FMV. Let's see what others say though, who pay more attention to the financials than I do.

Morning Further to yesterday's tale of Cathy and Tony (sorry about that) another strange thing is happening today, right now. I'm going to post about The Partridge Family and you are going to read it. As I type, it occurs to me how wonderful life is when you can live on a planet of some many billions of people and yet, probably, be the only person in the world doing a certain thing at a certain point. And that thing is posting pictures of The Partridge Family #16, from Charlton (who else?), cover dated February 1973. First up, we have a stamp fight - unique to the UK - with competing prices of 6p and 8p and Porters and Brunswick in Hove (completely understandable given that this was one of those Charlies without a dual US/UK cover price. Did you know they were the first to do that, Charlton, dual price their comics? Beat Marvel and DC by a mile they did): Brunswick carries on stamping on the rear: And in doing so reduce the possibility of their product being in the 'good condition' that the comic collectors of the day would approve of. So why bother with this comic today? Well, look at the art inside, courtesy of Don Sherwood, of whom I knew nothing until this comic came across my path (which took a while to clean up - it gets in all the cracks you know): Now that's a very good likeness isn't it of old David. Or young David, as he was in 73. That attention to likeness continues as we progress - I'd know her, the Mum, anywhere, even though I never watched the show: Perfect likeness again: And again: Yes, I know he's copied the panels from photos but I still think that is an admirable effort for what was likely required. Over and above I feel. I saw a programme on David the other month, a retrospective on his career. That is to say, the period where he was momentarily everything followed by a longer period where he wasn't. It makes you think doesn't it, what that would do to a person. On top of the world one minute, for reasons frivolous, then at the foot of the mountain for the remainder, wondering what happened. It put me in mind of this song which, of course, only Morrissey could write and be widely, intentionally, ironically ignored for: See you next time.

I've just posted this question below in Comics General. @themagicrobot I know this will interest you (I think you posed this question once in one of my threads?) Nice cover stamps on that Billy I was thinking - if the average print run for a Charlton was around 200K per issue in the early 1960's, and the print run for the Charlton UKPVs was around 2%, then that would indicate about 4,000 copies came over here with 6d/9d cover prices. Given that many of the Charlton UKPVs that I have seen are the only copy that I have seen, I wonder if the percentage was even lower than that? Or would an arrival of c4K books here, of which only half sold, manifest in the kind of extant numbers we see today? There were quite a few Spidey books that had print runs of 5K (specials etc) and I have seen loads of them in my time. But then again he's arguably a much more popular - and therefore collected / preserved - character than, say, Cynthia Doyle. So likely an unfair comparison. Nice to speculate though, isn't it.

Hello Charlton were in the habit of occasionally posting 'Statements of Ownership, Management and Circulation' figures in their titles. Here is an example from Billy The Kid #112 cover dated April 1975: If we zoom in... ...we can see under the column titled "Actual number of copies..." a figure of 221,800 for a single issue. If I'm reading this right: 221,800 copies were printed 2,000 were spoiled leaving 219,800 Of that 219,800, 118,577 were sold leaving 101,223 A further 200 were given away leaving 101,023 That 101,023 is shown as being "Copies distributed to newsagents but not sold" The pattern above is repeated on various examples that I have gathered in Charltons ranging from 1964 up to 1975 - all show about half the printed copies as being sold. So the obvious questions are: Why did Charlton routinely print double the amount of copies that their historic sales figures indicated would sell? What happened to the unsold copies? Anyone?

Here it is: One thing I find intriguing about this is how T&P are actively promoting the US original DC books here on their homegrown UK reprint title. Compare that to the Marvel position where the arrival of the UK Spider-Man Comics Weekly title, for example, pushed the US Amazing Spider-Man title into non-distribution status. As I've shown in the First Distribution thread, DC and Marvel were always treated very differently in the UK when it came to distribution practices and here is yet another example of that.

Hi Steven, the indicias will be the same - for Dell, the only differences between the US originals and their UK Price Variant counterparts are the 9d / one shilling cover prices. Or two shillings, for the giant ones https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/blogs/entry/4901-dell-comics-uk-price-variants/

They are, yes. I'll have to flag Jimmers at some point

That is intriguing isn't it. I'll have a look into it, ask around, and see if I can find anything new out. Good stuff Yorick

I thought the exact same thing Yorick Someone in the UK must be reading this thread as they just posted a New Joke Comics #28 on eBay, which I just bought. I'm intrigued by the images on the back cover which show certain other titles, some of which have the English prices showing. If the Red Hot Comics on the back here shows a UK price under the 10c.... ....then the absence of it on here... ....gives me hope that variant copies may exist and, potentially, they could be the first known 'UK Price Variants'. I'll let you know how it pans out when my copy turns up and I've delved further....

Aww, thanks boys, sniff

The Super DC #4 turned up: As I mentioned in the previous post (DC thread) the back covers of these British periodicals are really cool: The 'mock up', and the reality: Nice skin-toned Batsuit there

He posted the first image of a Miller marvel indicia, yes. I built on it, somewhat

Do you believe in magic? Or that sixth sense that some people seem to possess? You know – that thing when someone tells you something about your life that they couldn’t possibly know, and which makes you - just for that moment - believe there is ‘something else’ at play in life? I like the idea of it of course, a little magic, who wouldn’t. But it takes something quite exceptional to actually make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and make you rethink the bounds of what is possible and what simply cannot be explained rationally. Last month, such a thing happened to me which I could not explain and which I’ve been dwelling on ever since. The wife is into the mystics and healers, as many Catholics are. You know, the ones with ‘the gift’ who move around from town to town and certain people in the know always seem to know when they're coming. The ones who can see into your soul and pull out your demons. I usually make sarky comments about them myself, but this time was different. Very different. “Bring me an object, sir” he said, after a muttered discussion with the wife “Any object, and I will tell you something of its owner, its history”. “Here we go” I thought. “She’s let a nutter into the house”. As it happened, I was sorting through some of my sister Cathy’s old comics that day – said I’d let her know what was worth saving and what wasn’t. You know the drill. So I gave him a copy of one of the books she said she wanted to keep as it reminded her of a boy called Tony, her first true love. He held the book for a few moments and closed his eyes. I winked a sarky wink to the wife who glared back disapprovingly. “This book” he said finally “was owned by a girl called Cathy”. I froze. “She was in thrall to a boy named Tony, and she will never forget him”. With that he put the book down, thanked my wife for the tea and made his way to the door. I can honestly say that in that moment I was flabbergasted. There was absolutely no way this man – a complete stranger to us - could know that. None. Even my wife had not heard the story. Even now as I write this, I can’t shake the feeling that something was happening at that moment, with that man, which I cannot explain. He didn’t elaborate of course and I wish now I had had the courage to push for further explanation. But I didn’t and that’s that. Anyway, I’m not even sure why I’m sharing this with you. I just didn’t want to let it pass I suppose. She’s definitely keeping the book now, Cathy....

Sounds reasonable. It can be quite hard to find the US counterparts to some Millers. This one didn't take too long given the title match... ...but this book which came in a recent Charlton parcel has a unique UK cover (none of the Charlton US 'True Life Secrets' have it): GCD isn't much help: And the book itself is undated: ...but it is copyright Fawcett. No date clues on the back: So all we can do is look to the interior splash to see if we can match the title to any Fawcetts on the GCD: There are two Fawcetts with a 'Tomorrow is Ours' story, one 8 pages and one 11: Our Miller has an eleven page story, so we assume that it reprints this: Anyone got a copy who can confirm? Next up.....

Puts me in mind of Ingrid Pitt in the Wicker Man

Any ideas which story has gatecrashed this Romantic front cover here?

Send it back on their penny. Sorry, dime.

I can see that - there's a story being told in each picture I feel, rather than just the capture of one moment in time. Keep going Flex....

....and three more Barbies Brings us up to 1,312 confirmed APVs across 107 titles: Cosmic!

A new one-shot title! Marvellous

Just liked a few of my favourites but the truth is they're all beautifully judged with some very telling expressions. Thanks for posting them Flex.

No, no internal images for that one I'm afraid Andy. It's one of the few Gold books I've seen where different versions exist though which seem to be from the original print state. Some of these other Bell Feature examples in my folders seem to have the England printed price on all extant copies: I'd like to know more about them, but have more or less parked any investigations while I concentrate on the Silver Age up. It would be nice, for example, to know which was the first ever comic to have part of its print run feature either a single or dual priced UK/GB/English copy. Maybe the Wonder Comics #8 is that book?

These are nice clean copies actually - not structurally high grade but uncommonly bright and white This one's quite appropriate for the weather: And looking through the files this previous copy always makes me chuckle. Something about Clouseau's face: