Get Marwood & I

I just watched it again and find myself welling up with emotion whenever I hear that music. If nothing else, Star Wars has given us some of the best film music ever

Some pence related ponderings in my 'font variations' thread here, which may be of interest following the earlier debates here:

Morning I updated my font summary chart this morning, following the recent discovery of these two pence copies of Journey into Mystery #64 and 65: Here it is: Only JIM #61 is missing a pence copy now. You can't say it won't ever appear because of the presence of the single bold fonted US 10c copy, as pence versions exist for #58 and 60 which also have that font type. But then again, JIM always seems to buck the trend (see pence thread for indicia research - especially JIM #60!). I had some interesting discussions with @Aman619 in my pence thread earlier this week, and the subject of how things were printed again came up. When I look at the picture above I can see how with JIM #58, the cents copies would have been run first as the cents price is printed white, presumably having been etched out of the overall red background colour plate. To print the 9d pence copies, I presume that the 10c price was scratched out to form a square, and a 9d raised plate was inserted to print the 9d price. I'm theorising, but that seems to make sense. So when I look at issues 62 to 65, and I note that no solid bold font 10c priced copy seems to exist for any of them, I'm left wondering why the cents copies do not follow the #58 scenario, namely, a bold white 10c font in the background colour. Why would the cents copies sit in a white square box when that appearance always seems to indicate that something previous was removed? Here's my theory. All marvels up until April 1960 carried this bold fonted cents cover price either black on white or white within the background colour of the cover. So the printers would have been using that for years. Same price, same font, year after year. Then one day, they get a direction to produce some 9d priced copies. So they do the logical thing - scratch out the primary 10c price from the production plate and add a 9d raised price. Hence the white box, 9d price where the cover background is coloured. But one day they get the order wrong and scratch out the 10c price to add the 9d plate and run the pence copies. Realising they haven't run the cents copies yet, they add a raised 10c price. So the end result is all copies have a white box on the covers with a 9d or 10c price. What other explanation could there be for the absence of bold fonted 10c cover prices? Why would you scratch out a white box / 10c price when previous standard practice was for a black price on white, or a white price sitting in a colour background? The fact that there are no fewer than 7 types of Thorpe & Porter indicias in a short window of time indicates that there was no consistency during this period. It seems to have been very random and haphazard, with every issue feeling like it was 'the first time they had been asked to vary the regular cents production process'. Does the absence of 10c bold fonted copies of JIM #62-65 (and other titles on my chart) indicate that the 9d copies were printed first? Otherwise, would not the cents copies follow the JIM #58 format? Could this explain why there is anecdotal evidence that some pence copies appear to have stronger colouring, better paperstock? Could this be why people such as Cuck Rozanski (I know, I know) say that they were told that pence books were printed first? It seems to me that maybe some were, and some weren't during this period of change. What does anyone reading think? Disclaimer: I am not trying to promote or 'pimp' pence books. I have none to sell. I'm am simply trying to make sense of these variations and identify what actually happened. These are some of the most researched, collected and desirable books in all of comic history. And we don't know why these variations exist or, in the case of pence / cents copies, which came first!

Cor.

Alice Cooper's looking good there.

Sorry Barry

I'm always happy me Aman. Except weekdays. And weekends. I do enjoy these debates. It's nice when people chip in and I always like your take on things drawn from your printing experience, hence the flag. I'm not sure we'll ever know for sure how it all happened, what was deliberate, what was an oversight. So many quirks around this time. And I'm not massively fussed what is called what. There are facts, and there are opinions. My focus has always been on the fact, the fact of what does exist. Hence the exhaustive summaries. But I also enjoy the speculation, even when I'm proven wrong (see JIM 64 & 65!). Until definitive facts arrive, I'm sticking with the first printing concept I've outlined and the descriptors. All good fun, as I always say

Paging @Get Marwood & I They've found a cure for you!!!!!!!! I could do with some tonight actually. They're cracking off like sellotape being pulled off a window

I'm a diabetic so have to stay away from sugar confections. Its a boring Muesli for me I'm afraid although I do get the fry-up on weekends. I've called @rakehell Stephen when he's Robert haven't I Stephen

I'm reminded of the first thought I had when I saw Kylo Ren's face... "Put the helmet back on!!!" Orrible isn't it Ryan. They say Liefeld can't do feet. Well he clearly cant do knobs either!

Not now you've arrived And you as well...., The Penceioners

Not now you've arrived

Blimey. There wouldn't be any threads left if everyone did that.

Higher than an eight!

Any behind the scenes news @DeadOne ?

I keep telling you Dave, bring Honey Nut Loops or you're off the gig mate

"Why, thank you very much Mr Fognel"

Hooray, a convert, thanks Whowood? Not just me. Others have been banging the drum, long before I started boring everyone clarifying I don't see it that way at all Aman. That's quite an odd idea to me. There will be many scenarios under which the presses could stop, pence books included or otherwise. The presses break down. Run out of paper / ink. Run out of time maybe even. If I'm the guy in charge, and the job sheet says run off 100K of book A. Whether I run off all 100K in one go, or staggered throughout the day, that's the one overall printing. If you're logic held true, three of the four known Rawhide Kid #17 10c font / price variations would by definition be second, third and fourth printings. That's silly Aman, surely? That's a good point - it's only the covers that differ. All the interior pages are the same for pence and cents copies. So, notwithstanding your point above, the interiors are all first printings. We don't know how it was done, and we may never know. But I can't see why they would print 4 covers on a sheet, one of which being a pence, and then have to hand sort them later. That would be spectacularly inefficient operationally (I know, I know) Yes, a further reason to discount the 'four covers page page / one is a pence copy' scenario - that would make the end pence product 25% of the production volume and we know - anecdotally - that it was between 5 and 10% So, my summary / position is that the pence books were printed separately to the cents but as part of one whole printing job (Barry, print me 90K of these and 10k of these). Being one whole printing job, both copies are therefore first printings. They are printings from the first - and only in most cases - production run. To call whichever priced book was produced at the end of the run a 'second printing' is a leap too far in my view and would be totally at odds with what I believe to be the common understanding of a 'second printing', that is, a book produced after the original production event due to a specific market need. What say thou now Aman (and what's your name by the way, I feel silly calling people Aman and SFC Duck in these discussions)?

The Dude obviously loves pence threads @01TheDude what's the score wit the thread title? You've got us all puzzled

Are you saying you met a poor Thor? Zut alors that Thor I met was a poor Thor