Get Marwood & I

"Bring me one Earthling who dares to accept my challenge....or else face the wrath of Zarkorr!" "Heaven help me!! No other man can accept his challenge... except me!" "OK, are you ready Earthling?" "Yes Zarkorr. I am" "OK, then I shall begin. My first is in cat, but not in dog..... "

Do you think Jim Starlin would do it?

Three words surely?

Whoops. Sold now, but I took lots of pics. I'll dig them out and report back later.... Bugger. Can't find the other photo's. I did have 3 copies, Direct. Newsstand and Canadian, and I do remember confirming all 3 had the tattooz. So while I can't now say for sure, I'm as confident as my scrambled brain will allow me to be.

Ahoy @ADAMANTIUM Welcome back? I never left! Poll got pulled you see. Blame cgcmod11

Hello @Bakerbr13 Tom should be a fine Venom indeed methinks. Join in the debate here my friend:

I like the way your mind works @valiantman. Interesting theory. If only we could find someone who worked at Sparta who could say whether this kind of thing happened. Have you got any early US Marvels around these dates? Check for Thorpe and Porters if you have

Good advice and suggestions

Whoops. Sold now, but I took lots of pics. I'll dig them out and report back later....

My ASM #238 Canadian had the tattooz, so, and not for the first time, Overstreet was/is wrong:

Spectacular array of prizes there Jay Here's my feeble uninformed attempt: John Mccrea - $375 Bill Morrison - $600 Walt Simonson - $625 Chrissie Zullo - $275 Ron Randall - $300 Hope you get lots more entries

A rainy Sunday trip to London, to look for pence variants Out of the station... ....past the book shop... ...hmmm, nice books... ...over the bridge... ...nice view... ...past the imposing old lights... ...past the antique shop... ...up to the comic shop... ...coffee and spoils... ...to a lovely view... ...back on the tube... ...jump out at Notting Hill... ...another shop... ...home with the spoils... What else can we do on a Sunday?

Sooper!

By the way, if this kind of thing interests you, take a look at this thread too, and you'll see that, actually, Thorpe & Porter were not the sole distributors in the United Kingdom...

Hello Friends of Obscure and Unexplained Price Font Variations! It’s taken me some time to recover from being told by Steve Ditko that price font variations for early Marvel comics are, and I quote, “not some CRIME NEVER to be done. The problem is TRIVIAL”. I like Steve Ditko. He is one cool, if slightly cranky fellow Putting to one side his cruel disinterest in my question, the fact remains that we still don’t seem to know (or care?) why there are early Marvel comics with different fonts being used for the same US prices. During the Dog Like Sparky car crash years I speculated in detail as to why these variations may exist and came up with some detailed, but extremely tedious observations. There are two aspects which I think are noteworthy however. For the period June 1960 to February 1961, some US original cents priced titles have multiple fonts for the same priced issues. I would love to know why this is the case. I do not now believe the variations infer second printings, as it is widely documented that Marvel comics in this era were hugely over-printed so there would be no call for a further printing. I have found no evidence that the different issues were printed in different locations. Because the prices are the same, there is no reason to suggest the different copies were intended for different markets or regions. 10c is 10c, so why would we need to have these differences? 2. For the period January 1961 to March 1961, every US original that I have found, pence or cents, carries the Thorpe & Porter distribution indicia line. If you asked most people about Thorpe & Porter, they would say that they handled the distribution of Marvels into the UK. It is for this reason that early pence priced Marvels often carry an additional "Sole Distributors In The United Kingdom - Thorpe & Porter Ltd” strap line under their indicias. What I cannot understand is why the T&P indicia line exists on all copies that I have found, cents or pence, during the period stated? Surely it would only appear on those pence priced copies intended for the UK, and any US bound issues would not have it? If any of you in the US have cent priced Marvels around these dates, check the indicias and see if they have a Thorpe & Porter distribution line. Here are some charts I put together for two of the titles crossing the dates involved. I have charts for 6 titles, but these two will do for now so you get the point. You’ll see that I show the price type (pence / cents), any font variation and what indicia details exist. These are all from copies lifted from the web, notably Ebay USA (where you would expect the majority of listed comics to be home grown US destined copies). If anyone would like to join the debate as to why these variations exist, or why US cents copies have T&P indicia data, please dive in. I am no expert, I just like to document what I find / see. I’m hoping some of you guys will know yourselves, or know industry figures who may be able to shed some light on this. I’m sure some of you reading this will be thinking “So what. Who cares if there are variations”, and I get that, but there is so little ‘new’ information or outstanding questions relating to old comics to find nowadays that I thought this was worth pursuing. Anyway, as Thomas Crown once said, what else can we do on a Sunday? Except it's Friday. Cheers!

Hello Friends of Obscure and Unexplained Price Variants! I thought this thread was worth a bump, if only to see if it draws out any new eyes or information on these price variants which remain stubbornly under the radar. To recap, during the months of October 1999 and January 2000 Marvel produced newsstand copies with three different prices – the ‘regular’ price of $1.99 and two variant prices of $2.29 and $2.49. Here’s a pretty chart for the Amazing Spider-Man issues, and I posted full scans of all the copies of earlier in the thread: The reason I think it’s worth resurrecting is that I feel these variants could be the modern equivalent of the 30 and 35 Cent Variants. Given how prolific and cherished they are, I find it odd that there is such a lack of interest in these more recent examples. Maybe it’s because they are of a later, perhaps less cherished period in comic history? According to the DC Indexes website there are over 50 titles for October 1999 alone: http://www.dcindexes.com/features/newsstand.php?publisher=marvel&type=cover&month=10&year=1999&sort=alpha At a rough average of 50 titles per month, that’s 200 issues over the four months if every title had the treatment. If all had an additional $2.29 and $2.49 copy that would be approximately 400 price variants (over and above the regular priced Direct and Newsstand editions). There are two aspects to this investigation – what exists, and why they exist. Now I’m close to running out of pence things to investigate, I may look at starting to build up a library of what exists on this front. I would imagine it would be hard going, but it’s something to pass the time. Meanwhile, if anyone has any Marvel newsstand comics dated Oct 1999 to Jan 2000 with single $2.29 / $2.49 prices, please post them here so I can add them to the list. And if anyone knows for sure why these variants exist – there is some speculation earlier in this thread – I’d love to hear it. All good fun!

Hello Pence Friends! Having bored you all into a comicoma (good name for a shop that ) with my Marvel Pence Price Variant ramblings, I thought I’d punish you all further and do the same for DC. Dive in here, if you dare: Back to Marvel. You may recall I was stuck on 2,996 Pence Variants. Well, owing to ticking off a few new finds from the missing list, and the discovery that I’d counted the Hulk issues wrongly, we have finally broken the 3,000 comics barrier! I now have evidence of 3,001 Marvel Pence Price Variants! Accordingly, here is my updated ‘Missing List’ – a summary of the issues which I believe may still exist as pence copies. I’m fairly confident that the remaining issues of Gunsmoke Western exist as pence copies. They turn up so infrequently, and it’s a waiting game, but when they do appear it’s a real thrill. Here’s my latest addition, Gunsmoke Western #74. It’s the only pence copy I’ve seen in 800 years (about the same amount of time I spent training Jedi coincidentally): Aint she purdy So, check your copies please, and report back any new ones from the Missing List. I’m starting to think that the missing TOS / TTA copies don’t exist. If you line them up side by side like so: …you can see a kind of a pattern. The likelihood is that the missing issues were not solicited but I remain hopeful that one or more will turn up. It would be great if someone could discover some actual old solicitation records to put these question marks to bed, but it may be that we never know (part of the reason that I post here on these boards is in the hope that a clued up old timer will spot this and have some answers). So, that’s it for now but please do dive in if you have any of the missing issues, or have any thoughts on what may or may not exist. Until then, a few more pretty pence comics that I picked up on my travels to brighten your centsless lives: P.S. It was interesting comparing the DC pence approach to Marvels' – quite a lot of differences. Apart from the obvious time frame differences DC only used 3 prices, never solicited over size copies and never made any changes other than the cover price. Marvel’s pence copies are so much more varied and interesting. They're my favourites See ya pardners!

And here's a DC pence cover which I'm posting just because I like it Can't think why.....

DC Pence Price Variants Hello Pence Friends! Since documenting the Marvel Pence Variants here: ...I’ve been compiling the same for their DC cousins. Currently, I have documented a whopping 838 DC comics with pence only printed prices. These are cover dated: July 1971 - the cover date of the first known single 5p price printed comics (only 4 titles – see below) and between the cover dates of: February 1978 – the start of the continuing pence copy run and September 1981 – the last cover date month before consistent dual pence/cents pricing commenced (a nice easy tie off, effectively ending the existence of pence only priced variants). They are documented on a spreadsheet that looks like this...... .....and I have scans / images of every comic saved in folders like this: ....with individual comic scans captured like this: As with my Marvel research, I have stuck to standard comic sizes, hence these exclusions: If you are interested in DC pence variants, here are some observations: 1. The first pence only printed DC comics found are Action Comics #402, Adventure Comics #408, Detective comics #413 and Jimmy Olsen #139 all cover dated July 1971. No pence printed issues dated prior to this date have been found to exist, nor after this date (until we hit February 1978). July 1971 is the final US 15c regular cover price date, which may have a bearing on why it was chosen. I have found no explanation for why only 4 of the available 31 titles cover dated July 1971 were chosen, or indeed why those particular 4 titles were chosen. Here they are: 2. We have to jump forward 8 years before pence only printed copies recommence in full from the cover date February 1978. I have found no copies dated prior to this date. Not all titles commence at February 1978 – many commence on March 1978 holding out the possibility that some February 1978 copies may yet still exist / be found. But I’ve been looking a long time…. 3. The last pence only printed DC comics are cover dated September 1981. From October 1981, DC introduced dual cents / pence pricing for all their titles. Marvel did the same 3 months later (December 1981) 4. 85 titles exist with cover dates crossing July 1971 and February 1978 through to September 1981. Of those 85, 31 titles appear to have no pence copies (lists below) 5. For monthly titles only, no pence copies have been found for comics cover dated September 1978 to November 1978 inclusive. All monthly titles which cross these dates have a 3 issue gap. This gap coincides with, and is likely explained by, the increase and subsequent decrease in the US cover prices (35c to 50c September 1978 / 50c to 40c December 1978). For bi-monthly titles, September 1978 dated issues exist, but no pence issues exist for the following two months. 6. Only three prices exist for DC pence comics – 5p (July 1971), 12p (February 1978 to August 1979) and 15p (September 1979 to September 1981). Unlike Marvel, who would raise the cover price where applicable, DC would not produce a pence copy if the issue was double sized / the US price increased. As an example, Detective Comics #500 was a double sized issue. Rather than increase the price from 15p DC simply omitted the issue from pence production. This pattern is absolute – there are no double sized DC pence issues, and any one-off deviation in the US price would mean no pence copy (hard on UK collectors!) 7. No annuals have been found as pence only printed copies, presumably for the same reason that double sized / non-standard priced copies were not 8. Unlike Marvel, DC pence copies are distinguished by the pence price alone. No other changes are made (e.g. removing the cover date, additional indicia distribution data, different cover banners) For my Marvel pence research, I produced a ‘missing list’ of issues which I believe should have pence copies. They are mostly the obscure early titles (Gunsmoke Western etc.) and those following that thread will see that I update the numbers when I find a new example. I do not believe there are any missing DC issues to find, given the significantly smaller date window and the concrete patterns. That said, I am always happy to be proven wrong if it means finding a new pence copy, so here is the full list of numbers which I believe represent the full 838 issue range: Titles With Pence Copies Action Comics: 402, 480-486, 490-499, 501-523 Adventure Comics: 408, 456-458, 473-485 All-Star Comics: 71-73 All-Star Squadron: 1 Aquaman: 60-63 Arak Son of Thunder: 1 Batman: 297-299, 301-302, 306-339 Black Lightning: 7-10 Brave and the Bold: 140-142, 145-178 Challengers of the Unknown: 85-87 Claw the Unconquered: 10-12 DC Comics Presents: 1, 4-37 Detective Comics: 413, 475-478, 496-499, 501-506 Doorway to Nightmare: 2-4 Firestorm the Nuclear Man: 1-4 Flash: 259-264, 268-299, 301 Freedom Fighters: 13-15 Ghosts: 62-67, 71-104 Green Lantern: 101-107, 111-144 House of Mystery: 263-296 House of Secrets: 151-153 Jonah Hex: 10-15 Justice League of America: 161-194 Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth: 56-58 Karate Kid: 13-15 Krypton Chronicles: 1 Legion of Super-Heroes: 259-279 Men of War: 11-26 Mister Miracle: 23-25 Mystery in Space: 111-117 New Adventures of Superboy: 1-21 New Gods: 17-19 New Teen Titans: 1-11 Secret Society of Super-Villains: 13-15 Secrets of Haunted House: 11-13, 17-40 Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes: 1-3 Sgt. Rock: 323-356 Shade the Changing Man: 6-8 Shazam!: 34-35 Showcase: 97, 101-103 Star Hunters: 3-6 Steel the Indestructible Man: 1-4 Super Friends: 10-13, 15-47 Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes: 246-258 Superman: 321-326, 330-363 Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: 139 Tales of the Green Lantern Corps: 1-3 Unexpected: 183-186, 200-214 Unknown Soldier: 222-255 Untold Legends of the Batman: 1-3 Weird War Tales: 70-103 Weird Western Tales: 45-47, 50-70 Witching Hour: 77-83 Wonder Woman: 240-246, 250-283 If anyone reading has a pence version not on the list above, do let me know - I'll update this thread if and when I find any new ones, or if anyone wants to talk pence related stuff. Here is the list of titles with no pence copies found – again, if you have one, let me know: I'll end with full scans of all four July 1971 issues which I purchased to check the indicias etc: Aren't they pretty The cover prices are the only change - no differences internally or additions to the indicias: Cheers!

OK, I've experienced it for, admittedly, a short period and I hate it. It is much more irksome than I imagined it would be and I completely underestimated how many times I would need to use the expand function. It was a worthwhile test, but you can switch me to the "turn it back off please" camp too.

OK, thanks. I had to look up what SEO stood for, but I get the reason, not enough juice in the engine. Shame, as it shows would be new members that we talk about more than just comics. Nevermind.

Come off it.

No good deed goes unpunished Jay! Great competition and some excellent prizes. Well done mate. I'll get studying....

"Saaaay, has one of you old timers farted in my cab?" "Certainly not! How dare you! Clarence, speak to the driver!" "Poooor, Mum that stinks!" "Careful Peter, you'll knock your Mothers new hat off!" "You call, that a hat Mister? It looks more like a lamp shade! I'm thinking now it was your old lady that floated the air biscuit in my cab!" "Oh, Dave!" "You're sure gonna regret saying that buster! When I get my hands on you I'll - HOLY SWEET MOTHER OF ****, WHAT'S THAT OUT THE WINDOW!"