Get Marwood & I

When's the next meander Harry? It's been ages...

What is he looking at.....

Cheers CC! Glad you like it Lot's more to come!

If you have an ASM #400 with an AUS only price I think @nesqrick2 and I will have a coronary!

Excellent, thanks fett!

I found this online recently, regarding the handwritten issue number on TGK #60: I've only ever seen handwritten versions, never a 'properly' printed one - has anyone else? Here's my one again (any excuse):

Reptilicus cannot be slabbed! He will fight to the death before that happens, if necessary, by recruiting Gorga and Konga to fight alongside him. What a trio that would be come to think of it. The Fearsome Three! Lead of course, by Registered Nurse. It's the quiet ones you have to watch.....

Talking of Reptisaurus, or as he's known to his friends 'Reptilicus', how annoying is a missing number two? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 He's 'terrible' isn't he!

Cheers Craig. Don't buy any pence copies from under me though will you, or I'll have to set Reptisaurus onto you. And trust me, you'll definitely have a 'saurus' after he's finished with you

Flippin Nora, he's a hard 'rock' to crack

Cheers Harry! I can't believe how rare that book is. Our kind of grade too, eh!?

Drek? DREK! That's more like it Craig Cheers AJD, coming from a dedicated pence price person (albeit disguised as AUS schillings) that's some compliment Can 'Fightin' Nurses' the Movie be far off do you think? ....and Charlton have that attitude in bucket loads! Well, paint pot loads. Maybe rabbit hole loads. I'll shut up now.

Hurry up. This ones next

Niiiice AUS variants as usual Nes! But that cover is..... well....

Bobby's here! I've got a few more Archie's on the way, and will try to put a table together to track them. It doesn't look like there are too many titles actually so it may be easier than I first thought if they only exist for 1960/61 Meanwhile, here's a pence priced variant of a publisher you don't see often - King Comics! That's one cool cover, and one cool space ostrich! No differences to the US version other than the cover price that I can see, and no evidence of who imported it. I dunno, Kings, Dell, Gold Key... This is going to take forever!

Last Charlton post for today - hope you've enjoyed it so far. I’m not sure if anyone else has noticed this, but is there a reason why Charlton medical staff always seem to be standing in doorways? Answers on a postcard please (or I could just ask Quincy. He always knew what was going on, and which corporate bully had been poisoning the water supply etc)...

Any excuse to post pretty pence pictures. Look at the cool ‘Miller’s’ stamp on the back of this copy of Unexplored World #27: Presumably we’re talking L Miller? Well placed stamps are great aren’t they. They add character

One of the fun things that can happen during collecting is finding the notes and comments of former owners in with your newly received books. Take a look at the notes on this backing board that came with my pence copy of Unusual Tales #33: Isn’t it great to see how much thought went into the appraisal of this book by its former owner? It’s not in that great a shape, but the love that comes through is heart-warming. Whoever he or she was, they clearly loved their books and they had a great approach to documenting them. As they say, “Great comic!” I salute them, whoever they were and will be keeping this board with the comic in its new mylar sleeve Brilliant.

Charlton seems to suffer from a perception that everything they did as a publisher was done ‘on the cheap’. It’s not a perception I share I have to say. I think they rock, warts and all They have their share of printing related issues of course, most notably in my experience the failure to use enough ink when printing the internal indicia details. They didn’t put the issue number on the covers in the early years, so running out of ink on the indicia was a masterstroke to further hamper the would be researcher. How things were printed has always interested me (hence my Marvel Price Font thread and my ‘which came first – pence or cents’ price pontifications) and I like all the little unexplained nuances that you can find. Take these two copies of Gorgo #6 that I picked up for example (Gorgo....): How is that the placement of the ‘LM 6d’ price differs on each book? One is very clearly further right to the other. How does this happen if the books are part of the same run? Does the plate slip? If so, wouldn’t all of it slip? Odd. And while we’re at it, what is Gorgo doing with those crabs? They’re pretty freaking big crabs, I have to say, so maybe he’s bashing them together to be free of them rather than do what the rest of us do and pop to the chemist for some cream. Still on Gorgo, here’s a nicely miscut #14 with a nice big white stripe across the top: And something has clearly gone wrong with this Submarine Attack #39: Abort mission! There are some cents copies out there with blank interiors that I have seen but I’ve yet to find a pence copy (eBore example below). Every time I receive a new book in the post I cross my fingers for a blankety blank. Maybe one day…

Sometimes when you start out on a new project you find a bit of information online, forget to save it, and then can’t find it again. It’s a schoolboy error - always save / bookmark your information! In the early days of my research I remember finding reference to Charlton ‘no price’ variants. Try as I might, I can’t find again online what it was that I originally found, but I did recently find this reference on a Charlton related blog: So unless my memory has cheated me, that makes two separate references to the same thing and, therefore, something to follow up on / explore Here’s the picture of the Atomic Mouse #44 lifted from the Charlton blog I found: Sure enough, it looks like there is 'no price'. Here’s a copy with a US price for comparison: Could it be that the price was removed and the pence price wasn’t applied? Or is it just a sticker? I found a copy online, ordered it and here it is: It’s a sticker Obviously, the book is a pence copy as you’d be able to see the cents price given its size relative to the sticker. And anyway, you can see the pence price when you hold my copy up to the light. So at least I know a pence copy exists (I haven’t found one without a sticker yet). The image from the Charlton blog looks like a different book to my one. Could there be multiples with a sticker? Then I noted that the owner of the blog 'manipulates' his images to make them look better. So the likelihood is that he has manipulated the picture that was used by the seller of my copy for his site! So, probably just the one copy, and probably no ‘no price variants’ exist after all Or do they….. Flipping stickers!

Charlton 15 Cent Price Variants (March / April 1962) In an earlier post I promised you some genuine USD price variants. The focus of this thread is pence books of course, but when you’re doing your research things sometimes crop up which you can’t ignore. Whilst scouring the web for pence copies of Timmy the Timid Ghost, I spotted this cents copy of #31 which I duly purchased: As you can see, it has a printed 15c price. All other copies (except for our 9d copies of course) have 10c prices (10c image courtesy of eBore): Here's my pence copy's price while we're at it: So why does this 15c version exist I thought? After finding no information online, my first consideration was that it might be a Canadian copy. So I searched eBay.ca but I couldn’t find another one like. If it were a Canadian, you’d have thought there would be another example to be found given that there were 75 Charlton titles running around the time. So probably not a Canadian then. Timmy the Timid Ghost #31 is the last 10c issue. #32 is the first 12c issue. So my next thought was that it might be an error, or perhaps a price test variant. Then one night I was Googling away and found this website which had previously eluded me…. https://jonmcclurescomics.com/history.html It contained the following comments: Charlton Publications (See King Features and Modern Promotions) Texas Rangers in Action #32(3/62) exists as a Type 1 Test Market 15 cent Cover Price Variant. All comic publishers considered raising prices in 1961, and by mid 1962 all standard comics cost between 12 and 15 cents each. The following 16 issues from March 1962 may exist as Type 1 Test Market Price Variants: Brides in Love #29, Fightin Air Force #31, Fightin Army #45, High-School Confidential Diary #11, Hot Rods and Racing Cars #56, Konga #5, Lil Genius #37, Love Diary #20, My Little Margie #40, Nurse Betsy Crane #15, Romantic Story #59, Six-Gun Heroes #67, Space War #15, Submarine Attack #32, Teen Confessions #16, and Timmy the Timid Ghost #31. Earlier and later examples may exist. Type 1a Canadian Price Variants exist from for all books cover dated 2/83 to 8/84. Some Charlton comics with cover dates from at least 5/61 through 11/63 exist as Type 1a Pence Cover Price Variants, as do sme issues with cover dates from at least 10/73 through 5/76. 1957 saw some test market experimentation with funny animal, romance, and war titles, but these were regular editions stamped with a pence price. Haunted #62(7/82) exists as a Type 10b Variant with inverted contents. Sixteen different Type 1 Charlton 15 cent test market cover price variants from March 1962 may be out there, but currently Space War #15(3/62) and Texas Rangers #32(3/62) are the only two examples confirmed to exist. Such 15 cent variants are so scarce and unknown to collectors that no sales have ever been reported, and only four total copies are confirmed to exist(three #32s and one #15). No additional 15 cent variants surfaced in the last year, and real value is difficult to judge without any money changing hands. I find such cusp era variants interesting and hope collectors will share acquisitions with me and/or the Guide so I can disseminate the information The author, Jon McClure, wrote a variant article for Overstreet and lays claim to having discovered the Marvel 30/35 cent variants. Whether this is true I don’t know, but his article was admirably detailed, open and must have taken many years to research. With his info in mind, I dug around some more and managed to find a further three examples which I purchased as follows: Sweethearts #64 Li’l Genius #37 and I love You #39 Li’l Genius is a good one, as the price appears on the cover twice: Given how carefree Charlton allegedly were as a publisher, it would have been funny if they had forgotten the bottom one wouldn’t it?! A book with two different prices on it would have confused everyone very nicely. I wish they’d done it on purpose For all four books that I have, the cover price is the only difference between the 10c / 15c copies – the indicia (when you can read it!) and everything else appears identical: Even though these aren’t pence related as I’ve said, I still think they’re extremely cool and I may try to complete a set as a side project. It looks like they exist for the months of March and April 1962 and, if so, and notwithstanding what Jon McClure wrote, these are the issues that may therefore exist based on my research: March 1962 (3 of 20 Confirmed) Fightin’ Air force #31 Fightin’ Army #45 High School Confidential Diary #11 Hot Rods and Racing Cars #56 Hunk #4 Just Married #24 Konga #5 Li’l Genius #37 – CONFIRMED Love Diary #20 My Little Margie #40 Nurse Betsy Crane #15 Romantic Secrets #37 Romantic Story #59 Six Gun Heroes #67 Space War #15 – Noted online as existing but no pictorial evidence Submarine Attack #32 Sweethearts #64 – CONFIRMED Texas Rangers in Action #32 – Noted online as existing but no pictorial evidence Timmy the Timid Ghost #31 – CONFIRMED U.S. Air Force #20 April 1962 (1 of 21 Confirmed) Atomic Mouse #47 Billy the Kid #33 Black Fury #35 Brides in Love #29 Cheyenne Kid #33 Fightin’ Marines #46 Fightin’ Navy #103 First Kiss #25 Freddy #33 Gorgo #6 I Love You #39 – CONFIRMED Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #29 Outlaws of the West #36 Reptisaurus #4 Secrets of Young Brides #30 Strange Suspense Stories #58 Sweetheart Diary #63 Teen Confessions #16 Teen-Age Confidential Diary #11 Teen-Age Love #25 Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshall #41 It actually makes sense for them to exist for 2 months, March and April, as Charlton published bi-monthly so covering two months would have ensured that all titles were included in the market test prior to the formal switch from 10c to 12c. So, 41 possible issues of which I have 4 confirmed and a further two noted by Jon McClure as existing. If anyone has any more examples, or any other info on these to share, please dive in. If I get any more, I’ll post them.

In an earlier post I mentioned the three broad ‘UK’ phases I intended to cover in this thread as being: 1. Printed Cents priced comics with Thorpe & Porter distribution stamps (1959/1960) 2. Printed Pence priced Charlton comics from L Miller (1960/1963) – the variants of this thread’s sub-title 3. Intermittent dual Pence / Cents copies (1973/1975 and beyond) Phase 1 - Thorpe & Porter Stamped Cents Copies In respect of the first phase, I’ve found many examples of cents priced Charlton books dated prior to the L Miller pence printed phase which have Thorpe & Porter price stamps on them. The books date around 1959 to 1960 so it seems that Thorpe & Porter were importing cents copies to the UK for Marvel, DC and Charlton during the 1959/1960 period. I'll go into more detail on this and post some examples later Phase 2 - Printed Pence Priced Variants My earlier post details what Charlton pence books exists in this phase. In respect of the general history for the top three of Marvel, DC and Charlton, in 1960, Thorpe & Porter take hold of Marvel and solicit books with pence printed prices but stick with importing cents priced stamped copies for DC. I’m not sure why we have to wait until 1971 for DC to get actual pence printed copies, but there you go (see my DC pence thread for more details). L Miller take over Charlton books from 1960 for 3 years, and also a few Western Marvel titles for one year (see my L Miller thread). It would be interesting to know how the US comic importing empire was carved up during this time by the UK based publishers, and how it came to pass that Thorpe & Porter got Marvel and DC, and L Miller got Charlton and a few Marvels. Either way, it all seemed to happen around the same time and it would be great to hear the story from someone who was around at the time (if they’re still alive / reading this!). Phase 3 - Dual Cents/Pence Pricing As well as the genuine 1960-1963 pence priced variants documented in phase 2, Charlton also played around with dual cents/pence pricing from April 1973 onwards. If we look at the summary I put together here… …we can see that from January 1964 through to March 1973 there were no Charlton pence priced issues – everything had a printed cents price only (I’ve found a few books from 1964 with an ‘R.V. 9d’ pence price stamp on them and are investigating these for a later post). In March 1973, Charlton produced 20 titles, all with 20c prices. In the next month, April, three dual cents/pence priced issues appear (Beetle Bailey, The Phantom and Popeye). Quite why they only did these 3 is anyone’s guess but from May 1974 through to February 1974 we had a mixture of titles with cents only prices and titles with dual cents/pence prices. To be clear, there are no variants here. Where the book is cents only priced, every copy is cents only priced. Where the book is dual priced, every book is dual priced. The dates which individual titles begin dual pricing differ, so there is no real pattern or logic to it and none of the titles are obvious pence / UK audience contenders (Beetle Bailey who?). During March and April 1974, Charlton down tools and produce no titles at all. When they return in May 1974, with higher cents prices, every title is dual cents/pence priced but the pence price stays at 6p. This goes on up to August 1974. From September 1974, we’re back to a mixture of cents only and dual cents/pence issues and then from February 1975 every title reverts to cents only pricing. In March 1976 (not shown on the graph above) the dual prices actually crop up again, from May 1976 all copies are dual, etc etc etc all the way through to Charlton’s demise in December 1984 I don’t mean that last bit to sound flippant but Charlton really couldn’t seem to make their minds up which titles they wanted UK pricing on, for which months, and when. It’s all over the place. The key point to understand here is this – don’t confuse any Charlton books with pence prices on them from April 1973 onwards as variants. They are not, as every copy is the same when dual pricing occurs. The only true Charlton pence priced variants are those I’ve documented earlier from the 1960 to December 1963 phase 2 period. Unless I’ve missed something during my research of course - I’m always happy to be proven wrong, as it means people are interested / paying attention! As an aside, to me, the quality of the Charlton books flagged significantly during the 1973 onwards phase. They don’t look anywhere near as good as the 1960’s books and I suspect the reason Charlton is less loved than say Marvel or DC is largely down to the quality of their output from the seventies onwards. So it’s back to those sixties books in the next post.

One of the things I love about sixties Charlton comics are the titles. We have the ‘named medical profession protagonist’ book titles like: Cynthia Doyle, Nurse in Love Doctor Tom Brent, Young Intern Sue and Sally Smith, Flying Nurses and Nurse Betsy Crane Then we have the ‘unnamed medical profession protagonist’ book titles like: Emergency Doctor Registered Nurse (I love this cover ) Young Doctors and Three Nurses Drat. Don't have one of these yet We then have the ‘confessions / secrets’ book titles like: Teen Confessions Teen-Age Confidential Confessions and Secrets of Young Brides ....the ‘fightin’’ book titles like: Fightin’ Air Force Fightin’ Army Fightin’ Marines Fightin’ Navy and Fightin’ Nurses OK, no fightin’ nurses. We have the ‘monsters that are similar to other well known monster’ book titles like: Reptilicus Reptisaurus Gorgo Konga and of course, Gonga The absence of super hero books is actually quite refreshing. As I pointed out in an earlier post, some of the covers are fabulously detailed. Look back at Tom Brent. Is there an inch of space left on that cover? I love fabulously detailed covers and Tom Brent gives real value for money in that (ER) department. A single striking image can of course be powerful, but you can’t beat an artist intent on giving value for money. Look again at Secrets of Young Brides 35 here: You couldn’t fit a gnat’s backside on that cover! Great, great books with great, great titles. That’s just a snippet of them. In future posts I will show off every book I have collected so far, title by title. There are 75 titles, so it’s going to take a while. But when the books look this good, and the titles are this cool, who cares!

Hmmm. Looks like 3 pages got thrown out of the hidden sequence. Sorry about that. I blame the balds OK, let’s get down to business. To start, there are a number of phases which I will be covering in this post and future posts to come. The three broad phases are: 1. Printed Cents priced comics with Thorpe & Porter distribution stamps (1959/1960) 2. Printed Pence priced Charlton comics from L Miller (1960/1963) – the variants of this thread’s sub-title 3. Intermittent dual Pence / Cents copies (1973/1975 and beyond) This post covers the second phase, namely the Silver Age printed Pence priced Charlton comics (the only true pence ‘variants’, as will become clear if you read on) Currently, I have documented Charlton comics with pence only printed prices published between the dates of: 1960 - the indicia date of the first known single 6d price printed Charlton comics and December 1963 – the last indicia month for which pence priced books have been found As with my Marvel / DC investigations, they are summarised on a spreadsheet that looks like this...... .....and I have scans / images of every comic saved in title based folders like this: ….with individual books listed by title like this: For every book I own personally, I record the title, issue number, volume, date and cover price under the saved cover scan image. Over time I will post a scan of every book I currently own / pick up by title. The spreadsheet I use to track the books helps me see patterns and make observations Here are a few I’ve have made so far: My spreadsheet is titled ‘Charlton Pence Priced Variants Summary (April / July 1960, January 1961 ~ December 1963)’. The dates are recorded as such because there are only two books which were produced in 1960 (Gorgo #1 and Konga #1), with the rest starting ‘fully’ in January 1961. To accurately determine the eligible count of comics which may have pence copies therefore, I am ignoring the 1960 dates for all titles except Gorgo and Konga. I have found 75 titles published by Charlton during the Jan 1961 to Dec 1963 indicia period and have found pence copies for all but 5 of them. A full list of titles follows below. Some of the 75 titles are ‘split titles’, e.g. where ‘High School Confidential Diary’ becomes ‘Confidential Diary’ and then becomes ‘Three Nurses’ I have counted that as 3 separate titles, not one continuous title. At the time of writing, I believe there are potentially 832 Charlton pence priced variants in existence if every issue / title exists between the stated dates. There do not appear to be any gaps in the date range as is the case with Marvel pence copies, so I’m confident all 832 books will materialise over time. I currently have photographic evidence of 361 pence issues, of which I personally own 230. The intention is to try to complete a full set and create here in this thread what will hopefully be the definitive record of Charlton pence priced copies. If confirmed, the 832 copies would put Charlton third in the pence variant publisher pecking order based on my current research. Marvel leads the way with 3,008 confirmed pence issues, DC has 839 and Charlton’s 832 should cement them as the third most prolific in terms of numbers (unless I subsequently find Dell or Gold Key beats them). As stated earlier, the first pence printed Charlton comics I have found are Konga #1 and Gorgo #1, neither of which have cover dates. I have copies of both and their indicias simply read ‘1960’ so it is difficult to determine which month to record them as being produced. I have found online sources which refer to the books as hitting the newsstand in April and July respectively, so I have recorded them as these months for now until such a time as I find more concrete / reliable data. I have found no pence printed issues dated prior to these books. Incidentally, the first Marvel comics with pence printed covers are cover dated May 1960, so it seems that the importing of ‘US’ pence priced comics started around the same time with Thorpe & Porter and L Miller bringing pence priced variant books to the UK for Marvel and Charlton at least. The joint third pence printed Charlton comics are Atomic Mouse #40 and Sheriff of Tombstone #13 indicia dated January 1961. I’m not sure if these are the only two pence books which were dated January 1961 as there are a number of titles with a comic produced for this month – others may turn up. From February / March 1961 (note all Charltons are bi-monthly titles), pence copies commence / continue for all 75 titles except: Pence copies for these titles may turn up at some point – it would be great if every book and title in the date range existed as a pence copy. The last pence printed Charlton comics are indicia dated December 1963. From January 1964, all copies revert to single US pricing (until 1973 when some dual cents/pence priced books appear - I will cover this phase in a separate post later). Unlike Marvel and DC books, which were all distributed by Thorpe & Porter (with the exception of four Marvel western titles distributed by L Miller for one year), all Charlton pence copies were distributed by L Miller and all copies carry the ‘LM’ publisher logo alongside their price (see pictures below). All copies between the dates of April 1960 and April 1962 are priced at 6d (except Reptisaurus #4, dated April 1962 which is the first book to be priced at 9d). All copies between the dates of May 1962 and December 1963 are priced at 9d. There are no other pence prices known – 6d and 9d are the only ones I have found (unlike Marvel pence books which had multiple prices and price changes based on book size). No Charlton annual titles exist that I have found (cents or pence – Charlton did not seem to go in for these). I have found no double / non-regular sized issues (cents or pence) during the period. With one or two specific exceptions where titles have copies in sequential months (although never more than two), all titles are bi-monthly. All titles experience a two month gap on or in the early months following January 1962. The cover price box contents are the only difference between the cents and pence copies (see below). This is true of all copies found so far – there are no other differences. No Charlton comics in this period have issue numbers on the covers (apart from a handful of copies which say ‘first edition’ where applicable). Only price and month appear on the cover. The indicia shows the publication date, month and issue number. Here is a list of all 75 titles produced by Charlton during the period, including the number ranges of the pence copies which should exist / do exist (hope it comes out OK): Title Title Range Potential Pence Number Range Confirmed Pence Numbers Total Army War Heroes 1-38 1 0 0 Atomic Mouse 1-52 40-52 40-45, 48, 49 8 Attack 1-3 1-2 2 1 Battlefield Action 16-89 34-50 34-37, 42, 44-46, 49 9 Billy the Kid 9-153 26-43 27-30, 35-39, 41 10 Black Fury 1-58 28-45 30, 32, 33, 35, 37, 39, 43, 45 8 Brides in Love 1-48 22-39 23-25, 37 4 Caroline Kennedy 1 1 0 0 Cheyenne Kid 8-99 26-43 27, 29, 31-33-37, 39, 40, 43 12 Confidential Diary 12-17 12-17 12-14, 17 4 Cynthia Doyle, Nurse in Love 66-74 66-73 66, 67, 72 3 D-Day 1-6 1 1 1 Doctor Tom Brent, Young Intern 1-5 1-5 1, 4, 5 3 Drag-Strip Hotrodders 1-16 1 1 1 Emergency Doctor 1 1 1 1 Fightin' Air Force 3-53 25-41 25, 30, 33, 35 4 Fightin' Army 16-172 39-55 44, 47, 48, 50, 51, 55 6 Fightin' Marines 14-176 39-56 41, 42, 44, 45, 47, 48, 55 7 Fightin' Navy 74-133 96-113 97, 98, 100, 102, 105, 107, 112 7 First Kiss 1-40 18-35 20, 31, 34 3 Freddy 12-47 26-43 27-29, 37 4 Gorgo 1-23 1-16 1-8, 10, 11-15 14 Gorgo's Revenge 1 1 1 1 Green Planet 1 1 1 1 High School Confidential Diary 1-11 5-11 10 1 Hot Rods and Racing Cars 1-120 50-66 51, 52, 54, 56-58, 61, 63-65 10 Hunk 1-11 1-11 1, 2, 7, 10 4 I Love You 7-130 32-49 34, 39, 43, 46, 48 5 Just Married 1-114 17-34 23, 25, 28, 34 4 Kid Montana 9-50 27-43 29, 32, 36, 38, 42, 43 6 Konga 1-23 1-15 1, 3, 4, 5, 7-10, 12, 13, 15 11 Konga's Revenge 2-3 2 2 1 Lash Larue Western 47-84 82-84 82, 83 2 Li'I Genius 6-53 31-47 32-36, 39, 41, 42, 44, 47 10 Love Diary 1-102 14-30 15, 17, 24, 27, 30 5 Marco Polo 1 1 1 1 Masked Raider 14-30 28-30 28-30 3 My Little Margie 1-54 34-50 34-36, 41, 44 5 My Secret Life 19-47 38-47 41 1 Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds 1-48 22-39 24-28, 31, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38 11 Nurse Betsy Crane 14-25 14-25 12, 16-17, 22-23 5 Outlaws of the West 11-88 29-46 30-32, 34, 35, 37, 41, 42 8 Registered Nurse 1 1 1 1 Reptilicus 1-2 1-2 1 1 Reptisaurus 3-8 3-8 3-8 6 Reptisaurus Special Edition 1 1 1 1 Return of Gorgo 2-3 2 2 1 Return of Konga 1 1 1 1 Romantic Secrets 5-52 31-47 33, 45 2 Romantic Story 23-130 53-69 53, 61, 68, 69 4 Secrets of Love and Marriage 1-25 23-25 0 0 Secrets of Young Brides 5-44 23-40 27, 28, 34, 35, 38 5 Sheriff of Tombstone 1-17 13-17 13, 16 2 Six-Gun Heroes 24-83 61-77 61, 63, 65, 66, 68-71, 73, 74, 77 11 Space Adventures 23-59 38-54 40, 43-49, 51, 54 10 Space War 1-34 9-25 9-14, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24 11 Strange Suspense Stories 27-77 51-68 52-62, 64, 66, 67 14 Submarine Attack 11-54 26-42 26, 28, 30-32, 36, 38, 39, 41, 42 10 Sue and Sally Smith, Flying Nurses 48-54 48-54 48-50, 53, 54 5 Sweetheart Diary 32-65 56-65 57, 64, 2 Sweethearts 22-137 58-74 59, 60, 63, 66, 71, 74 6 Teen Confessions 1-97 9-26 11, 25 2 Teen Secret Diary 1-11 9-11 0 0 Teen-Age Confidential Confessions 1-22 5-21 6, 15, 21 3 Teenage Hotrodders 1-24 1-5 0 0 Teen-Age Love 1-96 18-35 21, 22, 29, 30 4 Texas Rangers in Action 1-79 26-42 27, 28, 31, 32, 35, 36, 38 7 Three Nurses 18-23 18-21 21 1 Timmy the Timid Ghost 1-45 25-41 25-29, 31, 37, 38 8 U.S. Air Force 1-37 14-30 15, 17, 19, 23, 24, 26, 27 7 Unusual Tales 1-49 26-42 26-31, 33-35, 36, 38, 40-42 14 War at Sea 22-42 40-42 40 1 War Heroes 1-27 1-6 3-5 3 Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal 12-72 34-51 35, 37-40, 42, 45-47 9 Young Doctors 1-6 1-6 1, 3, 5, 6 4 Updated 3-Mar-18 Pence Total: 361 If anyone spots a missing title or a pence issue that I have not recorded, please do let me know. As noted above, the contents of the cover price box are the only difference between the cents and pence copies. In contrast with Marvel pence variants, everything else is the same, including the indicias. This is odd, given that L Miller added additional indicia wording to the early Marvel titles they imported – see my L Miller thread for more details Every one of the Charlton pence copies has a price box format as follows: The early pence copies all have ‘LM 6d’ floating or in circles on the cover as opposed to the 10c pricing of the US copies: Then we have ‘LM 6d’ in the familiar offset rectangle boxes like so: This then changes to 9d (at the same time as the cents copies changed from 10c to 12c): Before changing to an ‘LM 9d’ in a red box like so: We then have the occasional lone ‘LM 9d’ in the colouring of a cover where no price box is used: To conclude this post, these are the facts I have gathered so far. I’ve not found one single meaningful reference to the existence of these pence copies anywhere else online or otherwise so I hope this thread will stand as the definitive (only!?) record of these lovely underappreciated books. Indeed, even the UK dealers I have spoken to who have been in the industry all their lives have expressed surprise when I’ve pointed the pence copies out to them. Such, alas, is the lack of love for Charlton books that they appear to have escaped virtually unnoticed. Until now that is! I’m going to champion them, because I think they rock. As noted above, my expectation is that all 832 copies within the stated date ranges are likely to exist. At the time of writing, I have 230 of them myself and pictorial evidence of a further 131 making 361 confirmed copies overall. It is my intention to collect them all, so this thread will keep going until I find them all or keel over – whichever comes first! Next up, a beauty parade of some of my favourite covers and titles, and then a post on some genuine US cents price variants. Stay tuned!