Get Marwood & I

Some great stories here I can think of quite a few days that stand out - one was finding about 20 early Amazing Spider-Mans with Mark Jewelers Inserts in a UK shop that I just went to on a whim one day. They were in immaculate condition and had just come in. A MJI was a big deal to me back then as a Spidey completist and finding a load in that condition in a UK shop was a revelation. One other day that stands out was back in 2011. I'd just left my job after 25 years and was taking a few months off before looking for something new. My Spidey completism was at it's peak then and I had parcels coming almost daily (miss those days). One particular day, the sun was shining, the wife was at work and it was just me and the lovely weather and the Strokes on in the background (Is This It album) and the postman knocks and hands me about ten parcels. Every one was (to me) an amazing thing. I was big into misprints then and these two came on that day: I was in heaven. The last parcel I opened was one which I was desperate to see arrive - an eBay win that was one of my luckiest ever: Ridiculous good fortune! I still have it and treasure it to this day. There was something about that day. No work, the freedom. Good weather, good music. The anticipation of opening piles of parcels. And all these lovely things sitting in front of me. There have been other such days, but that one really stood out

You win Bob

Here's my pence copy: You can see the THORPE & PORTER indicia: My research indicates THORPE & PORTER will also show in the cents copy but I cant find an image anywhere to prove it!

Yikes, let me clear up a few things here. Below is a pence priced copy of ASM #1. As we've already said, it was made in the US, same location, printing press etc, and it was then shipped to the UK on a boat to be distributed in the UK by a UK company called Thorpe & Porter based at the time in Leicester. It has three differences to the cents copy: The price No cover month The indicia page has additional Thorpe & Porter wording It is much scarcer than the cents copy, with production numbers generally accepted (although never definitively proven) to be in the region of 5-10% of the cents numbers. It is a variant in my view because it varies in appearance from it's cents cousin in the three ways I mentioned. It came from the same Mother. It is a first printing. Where it was intended to be shipped is not, in my view, relevant, but I accept that you and others may hold a different view on that. The cover / indicia differences between pence and cents copies varies from the first ever pence variant (Archie #108 in March 1960) right up to the final single UK priced copies in 1982. Sometimes the price is the only difference, but there are many other differences, all captured in my threads here on the boards. The salient point is that the pence books I have covered for the seven known US publishers are first printings and not reprints / repackaged books. So they are by definition variants, because they vary in content / appearance from their US twins. So as not to confuse them with other variants out there, I call them what they are - pence priced variants. I call 35 cent variants '35 cent variants' because they are variants priced at 35 cents. I call Canadian Price Variants 'Canadian Priced Variants' because I can't call them by their currency as it is the same as the US - dollars and cents. So 'Canadian' is the next most logical descriptor. Ditto Australian Priced Variants. I call the 1999/2000 price variants summarised in one of my threads 'US Newsstand Price Variants' to distinguish them from the more widely known 30/35 cents variants. I have no issue with what you or others want to call them. As long as the reader understands that the books are first printings, on an equal historical footing with their US counterparts, I'm fine. My mission here is not to 'pimp the books' as some have suggested or over inflate their importance. It's simply to catalogue what exists and to explore all the minutiae that goes with them. I enjoy it and others seem to too, albeit it in limited numbers which is understandable on a US website. I just love the books, and I want to share that love, and all that I have discovered, with you guys here on the CGC boards using the excellent software which allows me to do so many things so easily.

Howdy Pardners In support of my pence thread research, does anyone here own a 10c copy of Kid Colt Outlaw #96 that they'd be able to post a picture of the inside cover indicia page of? I'm expecting it to have a Thorpe & Porter indicia wording. Cheers, Steve

You tell 'em Stephen! Now, get back in your box

I knew you'd come through Aman Just be thankful they actually noticed the second 10c price! Thanks for the explanation - it was a great period for casual practices wasn't it. There are seven different Thorpe & Porter indicia scenarios, cents copies with T&P details, unexplained font variants. Random as anything. Great comics, from a great period in time when everything was seemingly crashed out with little care for consistency. I love it

Cheers for holding the fort while the lights were out in Englandville boys @lizards2 @ADAMANTIUM @sfcityduck Sorry I couldn't convert you. You were kind enough to dive into my price font thread a while back so I was hoping I might convince you. I like the challenge, but I think my earlier post was clear enough and I can't really add any more to it - they're Marvel books, they're pence priced, and they're variants. The variant word is key for me, as this is the only word that conveys that they are first printings. Many US collectors still believe them to be reprints. 'Editions', 'copies' and such words do not convey what they are for me. As long as we now both understand what we're talking about, it's OK to have a different view. Take our board titles: You wear diapers, I wear nappies. Different words for the same thing. As lizards2 said, "pence variants" is an age old collectors term now. Maybe one day CGC will get around to considering it too. Maybe they won't. I understand what they mean by "UK Edition", but I don't think it is an accurate enough description. I try to make my descriptions as factually accurate as possible. Hence thread titles like: https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/406704-marvel-oct-1999-~-feb-2000-newsstand-price-variants/ and https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/412313-marvel-price-font-variations-jun-1960-~-feb-1961/ and https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/404397-marvel-first-printing-australian-priced-variants/ See - I don't just do pence books you know Anyway, have a good day boys. The sun is shining for once. I'm off to work now (how else can I afford to spend £8.61 on crappy 9d KCO's?)

No, it's Penny from Big Bang Theory

I've got it! The face model is out of a porn mag. That's it.

In many respects, it's an extremely competent piece of art. The face in isolation has much to commend it. I think the artist has found a face model (but a particularly ill suited one, for the intended subject), created a lovely picture of their face, and then added a body afterwards. The body however is several sizes too small. Or at best, looks totally at odds with the head somehow. Possibly the artist just starred at it too long and 'lost' the ability to see what looks immediately obvious to a fresh set of eyes. It's 'off'. A bit like when you say a word over and over in your head. It loses all meaning. Yes, the artist here, lost the meaning. See, I could be a proper art critic and everything me

Any excuse

The Dude obviously loves pence threads

They can't spell Deceased?

I refer the honourable gentleman to the reply I gave earlier in the Marvel Pence Priced Variants thread

Good man Ron! I bet they've been read a time or two

Cheers Gary - it's actually the cents copy indicia I need to see (nice to see another pence 96 though). If I'm right, the cents copy will have a Thorpe & Porter indicia too

I'm going for me dinner now Mr D, in case you reply, and I don't, and you think etc

Hello Ducky I call them "pence priced variants" because: They are first printings, produced in the US of A at the same time, in the same location, and on the same printing presses as their cents counterparts (according to online folklore) They have differences and therefore 'vary' from the cents copies They are priced in the currency of the pence So, "pence priced (the 'd' is important) variants" is factually accurate in my opinion. "UK Editions" to my mind suggest the UK reprints. Now I could call them "Dave" but that would just be silly. Have I converted you?

Here's a fun eBay story (is there another kind? ) Browsing away, I spot a KCO #97 with a 9d price on the bay. Terrible looking listing, tatty looking comic. But I collect the Kid in pence, and my current copy looks like this: Quite ironic that a book famed for it's 'hand written issue number' has been subsequently scribbled on! Anyway, because my copy is defaced, I bid on the other eBay copy and, despite a halfhearted attempt I win it for £8.61. Being of weary mind at the time, I see the same seller has a listing for, '3x vintage Superman comics'. Two are showing, one is not. The two look tatty. Curious as to what the third might be, I bid the 99p current price. And win, at 99p! Yay! So, I pay for both lots and incur double postage costs in doing so as I can't be bothered to wait for a combined invoice. You do that sometimes, don't you, when it's £1.26. Don't you? Anyway, they turn up, in the crappiest envelope ever. The Kid looks like this: OK, not great, but no writing (apart from the 'handwritten issue number' that is). Now, the two 'vintage' Supes are present, and they suck. 1986 'vintage'. But what's this - five additional books, one an old sixties Batman! The other books are terrible, suitable only for lining a budgie cage, and I leave the seller feedback thanking him for the 'freebies' which I assumed he added out of embarrassment given the state of the aforementioned 'vintage Supermans' (which I throw in the bin, with the freebies. I then get this eBay message from the seller. And I quote "send back purple vintage batman comic" Yes, just that. And then two more messages, giving me the address and telling me effectively to 'do it now'. No apologies, but my return postage 'will be refunded'. After I've sent them back. Laughing my sorry arse off, I duly return all the 'freebies' in a sturdy card backed envelope paying for recorded delivery 'as requested'. I note that three of the books that I was sent in error are still listed by the seller, and one has sold! Someone with a budgie I ponder. Days pass, and the recorded delivery confirmation tells me they have been delivered so I enquire accordingly with the seller - "Did you get the books back?" His reply (in full): "yes" I'm going to leave it there, as there is a swearing filter on the boards and I want to keep my record clean for judgement day (it's a coming). But it turned out that the seller had 'broken his arm' and was in 'a lot of pain' so I decided to withdraw graciously. Did you enjoy that story? It's moral is simple. Don't bid on a whim on comics that look like horse sh on the off chance of getting something exciting. Even if it comes with a 9d Kid with a hand written issue number. Nothing more will I teach you today

Yep, that's the image that currently sits in the files. It's the only pence image I've ever seen, never mind the comic itself! Such a tough book - I'm dying to see whether it will have a Miller or a Thorpe & Porter indicia. After all this time, knowing my luck, it will have neither!