Get Marwood & I

Paul Gambaccini used to be a regular too. Unmistakable voice Repaired that for you

Here's an image from my old Spidey files Bababooey, back when I was collecting all variations of ASM. Interesting that whilst referring to them as 'Early Direct Editions' I still stuck 'Whitman' in parenthesis: For some reason I could never personally take to ASM #193 onwards - the slash barcode copies - as being in scope despite evidence to the contrary. I called #193 on Direct Editions in my documents. Albeit this early prototype uses the dreaded Whitman word I see FD, SBC, G. What a load of old carp I do think it's important to describe things correctly - I wouldn't have hassled Matt Nelson about CGC's erroneous use of 'UK Editions' on their labels if I didn't - but I think it's a shame when people with obvious comic passion get hammered for using the 'wrong words' or for making broad but fairly reasonable assumptions in their research.

Yes, I post about those in my Gold Key thread: This extract from an early 1970's fanzine talks about Thorpe & Porter winding up:

I'll take some pictures at the next one Paul. It's still the only comic gig in town worth attending. Mostly the same old sellers with the same old stuff but occasionally, a newbie, and for a brief second, excitement. CGC were there in the corner of the 'add on' room last time, which rarely opens. And there's a lot of those Funko things there now too. If it wasn't for one quarter of the Beatles turning up each time, I'd probably knock it on the head. Who am I kidding.... I'll likely be the last one out when it finally folds.

Your wish is my command Fog I said, I ain't payin' no ten pee to get into no toilet cubicle. 0% to landfill!

A man of taste. They're often in the minority I find. I'm on the road today Drotto, but more on this later...

Cheers Comicopolis. I preferred my previous reports. This one felt very samey and lacking anything cool to report. Even the cosplayers were underwhelming. Maybe it was the weather. Sorry Bane, I missed your post. It was at London Olympia. It was half the size of the last one I went to and didn't take long to navigate alas.

Agree to differ? You do know this is the CGC board don't you Stephen. We will fight to the death over this! Night mate

I thought he was joking

In the case of ASM #96, I'm assuming the art on the original US cover above is itself original and not cropped or a stat. If it is original, and drawn directly on the board, the additional art that we see on foreign copies never existed as Kane drew up to the line. If it has been cropped and pasted on, any additional art is now cut away / discarded from the original work. So the 'full' OA no longer exists, if it ever did. When the UK reprints were being made years later, the full OA would no longer exist to send them, nor, presumably, a copy of it if that's what was sent. Does that make sense or am I talking baloney Stephen? To me, it looks like the additional side art on both the foreign reprints above have been added in. Remember, a lot of the UK reprints have original covers so the idea one of those artists would not be avaialble to add art to fill the UK page size on examples like this doesn't seem that odd to me. Interesting discussion though.

It is. I'm always discovering new things when revistiting books. Sometimes you're so preoccupied with a particular variation type that you miss another right under your nose. I missed the Australian Price Variant barcode numbering differences for ages, being too preoccupied with the prices and dates. Amazing what you can miss.

It was here wasn't it Stephen? Not sure in this example - see below

The month eradication is quite erratic as it goes in the later stages. Lots of quirks and oddities.

Less Copper, more bloke on the left...

Not according to the GCD. CGC do this with UK comics too - they put 'UK Edition' on titles for which no US version exists.

From page one.... 3 weeks later...

I don't think that my older brother ever distributed comics. Too busy with the drugs no doubt...

Not always But yes, I understand that that was the rationale for the later slashed versions. Me neither. It's the most likely / logical reason, yes, but I've not seen anything definitive myself one way or the other.

Not sure for the time period in question here Shadroch. I haven't looked too deeply into the post Miller / Thorpe and Porter era yet. Let me tag a few of the Brits who might know@Gnasher @rakehell @Redshade

The examples above tell a story. Note how the pence copy has the UPC associated with the US Direct Edition but the square price box and Curtis Circulation symbol of the newsstand edition.

The time period follows that of the US priced slashed barcode UPCs. They would have had two US cents priced starting point choices from which to create the pence covers from June 1979 - the newsstand and the diamond 'early directs'. They chose the latter for reasons unknown to me. It may have been deliberate, it may have been the flip of a coin or an unconcious decision. Price Variants are usually 'newsstand' books, i.e. they follow the US newsstand barcode UPC format. Canadian and Australian price variants are all barcode UPCs. I'm not sure why pence copies have the direct style slashed barcode and then picture UPCs which are associated with directs. I did a piece about this in my Marvel pence thread a while back. Maybe someone reading here will have some insight.

I watched a few Capaldi's this week. The chemistry between him and Clara is just lovely. And Moffat's scripts are so damn witty and clever. Missy, Davros. Cracking. Imagine spending four and a half billion years 'legitimately' escaping a tomb that you could leave in an instant, but for one unwanted sacrifice, because you have a duty of care to look after your friend. Preposterous, but a love story to make the hairs on your neck stand to attention when played by those two. Like a fable. And I watched the Doctors watch the WW1 soldiers as they sang their ceasefire song and I cried tears for the loss of my Dad. They tapped into my grief with admirable empathy. How cleverly did Moffat weave a meaningful history around the past during his tenure. How casually has Chibbers destroyed it. It's ghastly what he's done to the show. Simply ghastly.

Here's a picture of me outside the old GOSH! comic shop, back in the days when it was opposite the British Museum: I'm letting the side down by holding what looks like the Spanish version of Pulling Mussels instead of a comic but you can't have everything. Around 1985 I think Oh for the days of hair....

Hello Matt, Yes, We've been there once or three hundred times over the past 30 years. Here's an old report of mine if you find yourself near to tedium at any point: https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/411880-marvel-uk-price-variants/?do=findComment&comment=9828039 I would pop in to the CGC offices for some slabbing activity but your grading team refuse to recognise rare interior misprints! The rotters...

For Marvel, pence copies (UK Price Variants) exist from May 1960 through to December 1981 inclusive. From January 1982 all copies are dual priced. Bar codes first appear on Marvel comics from June 1976. All pence copies cover dated June 1976 have regular 'newsstand' barcode UPCs like so: This continues up to May 1979. From June 1979, pence copies have the 'slashed' barcode UPC: This continues for nine months to February 1980. From March 1980, the ‘Direct Edition’ Spidey head UPC commences: To the best of my knowledge, all pence copies / titles follow this pattern. There are no known examples of pence copies having different UPC areas for the same issue.