Get Marwood & I

They're everywhere! You got any late 59 DC's Gary?

So her outfit is burrowed from Star Wars.... No... No, sorry, I'm not seeing it?

...or use this if it's easier - it's set on October 1959, click forward and back etc: http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/newsstand.php?type=cover&month=10&year=1959&publisher=dc&sort=alpha&checklist=null

Can you read these Kevin - click to enlarge - every folder is a title that crosses those dates. 47 of them I think - each has the first issue number that could theoretically have a T&P stamp, e.g. Batman #127 etc:

....when I've added in all the titles I can find by the way, I'll post a big comprehensive summary of what I think we've all learned so far in this thread. I may do a journal summary page over at The Pence Palace of Doom too. I think there's enough here to put together some decent information, for the few that are interested. I'm quite pleased with how this thread has grown really. It was only supposed to last a page or two. Brief review my arse

Some of them are the best Kevin! Just look at my avatars! It's Alberts fault. I had it all under control until he arrived I think we've cracked the stamp numbering pattern now Kevin, but we need more examples of the early books to see which 'first use' number came first - 6 or 8. So if you could look for any T&P stamped DC books cover dated September/October/November 1959, that would be lovely

No UK angle here, but another near spot on arrival date from a book I was looking at today: Now't on cover... But on't back...

Yeah, that's a 9. See previous comment re the dodgy 6's

My, you've got a lot of Flashes Albert I've been adding to the table all day and it's filling up. I'm currently undecided on whether 8 is the start so I'll keep going until I've added every DC title of the time to the first stamp use at least and then lets discuss then. I can get my head around a batch of books being late, but 9 months late? I don't know. Then again, no 7's at all is weird and does imply the 6's are out of sequence. We'll see!

No luck from Bob Mandry on Charlton - he was a DC man only. I told him I'm still waiting to find a Charlton man. That didn't sound right did it. Blimey, imagine that Antoni - knowing then what we know now.... I'd still buy the Charltons.

I forgot you'd done that Kevin. Sign of getting old I emailed him when I saw your post though and, alas, he hasn't kept any of the old books. He did what many did - upgraded to unstamped copies long ago. We had a nice PM discussion though, and his recollections of certain books arriving out of sequence happily matched some of my research. I'm waiting to hear if he saw any Charltons in the batches....

The arrival dates on Mike's Comic Newsstand turn out to be quite accurate at times - two examples: Wonder Woman #126 - spot on! Batman #130 - 12th of Jan on MCN - 14th Jan arrival penned to cover: Quite reliable

Another 6 with the right 1959 cover date to be a potential first use alongside the Boones and GI Combat - very faint, but just about legible:

That's not uncommon though in my experience, very low start numbers, and there may be more we've yet to find of course - some of the early Marvel UKPV's took years to materialise And yet we don't have a single 'first use' 7 stamped example Albert - they're certainly hiding well, if they do exist (see above comment ) I would if I could find a contact for him. It's a rainy old day here today so I may add a few more titles to the table - I think I'll continue and add examples of every title DC were publishing at the time. As well as that, I'd like to start to maintain a summary of the earliest known DC stamped examples, so if any one reading has a T&P stamped book in the late 1959 cover date range, do chime in:

If it was, and given this cover date cycle I posted: ...I calculate that the fourth use of stamp #9 as below... ...would have been July 1962 assuming every month had a shipment. Or June, if the first #7 shipment never came (no examples yet). That is only 4-5 months from the cover date, so not a million miles off. There were bound to be a delay or two along the way I would have thought, bringing the date / stamp correlation even closer

Exactly, and that's why I think it's so hard to call the dates for each UK stamping event. Speculating though: Pat Boone #2 on sale in the US on the 3rd September 1959 Newsagents takes off the unsold copies after one month - say 3rd October - and initiates their returns US collation point collates all returns for onward shipping to the UK around mid-October 3 month shipping window (the anecdotal standard) Arrives in the UK mid-January 1960 for stamping and onward distribution to UK newsagents the same month This from the CBPGUK website: https://www.comicpriceguide.co.uk/features.php?id=25 Is that sufficient anecdotal evidence to indicate that the first use of the number 6 stamp - and therefore UK DC comic arrival - was January 1960?

Mikes Comic Newsstand has Pat Boone #2 and GI Combat #78 both 'on sale' in the US in September 1959: I have a copy of each book stamped #6: So there's a date link, if you like, which places these two books together. If they came over to the UK together as well, they would either sit here in the First Use table: Or here in the Second Use table: The First Use seems much more likely doesn't it based on the cover date alignments? Accordingly, and regardless of their printed cover dates, are these three books below the current joint earliest known official DC arrivals in the UK do we think? The first DC books, in the first comic shipment, and the first DC comics to be stamped up for distribution in the UK?

It's pretty clear Albert - one 6, one 8:

I was thinking more Kim Carnes, Reggie

Splash page, apparently. And he's got Spidey Andru eyes. Sounds like the song

Yeah, it was just indicative of the kind of photo I was looking for really Gary - we need a clearer / earlier 1959 one! In the meantime, guys, what do you think was going on with Pat Boone? It ran for five issues and I can only find T&P stamped examples of 1, 2 & 4 with three examples of a six stamped #1 (September / October 1959 indicia date / October cover date): One of the two number 2's, one is stamped an 8, the other a 6. Is it likely these stamps were first use do you think? Or could all the Pat Boones have come over later and they're actually the second use of the stamps? If they're first use stamps, Pat Boone is tied at least for the earliest official DC comic arrival, no?

I added 'My Greatest Adventure' in just now - the early ones' numbering is all over the place. Flash next...

I've been trying to find pictures of UK newsagents / newsstands to see if I can see any comics alongside dated newspapers - no luck so far: Yeah, what on Earth went on there...? I love Charltons