rakehell

Ah. I thought that was maybe what you were aiming at, Redshade, but I'm posting on skive-time at work, so I rushed it a bit. Apologies. By showing the interior shots of the reprint, I was complementing your post, rather than challenging it (& that'll teach me to keep my flippin' eyes open).

I agree with nmtg9 that the "pence first" idea is just a theory at this point, but I don't think it's important. The thing to remember with these is that the only difference is on the cover, even with the early L. Miller & Thorpe & Porter indicia changes, and that the interiors were all printed at the same time together. What order the covers were printed in is immaterial, really when you consider that the other 30-odd pages all came from the same pile. Yes, colossus is awesome!, they are exactly the same as the 35 cent variants. In fact, many of the comics that were released in 35 cent variants also had pence variants in the same run. A good question. I can only guess at an answer, but I suggest that most people prefer the more common cents covers because they simply don't know about (or know enough about) the pence variants. Speaking as someone with a foot on both sides of the pond, I like the added dimension these variants add to the hobby. I think the number of pence collectors will always be smaller than the number of regular cents collectors, but I've seen a real uptick in interest lately. I also think for very high grade key issues, the scarcity of pence covers can only drive prices up, eventually.

Whizzer, I hadn't seen one either. Been collecting since the early 70's in the US & early 90's in Penceland & I only spotted these in the last few days. I've had a bit of a root around & they're the only three I've managed to find (possibly because they all happen to be currently up on Ebay). All three from consecutive months in 1960, everything 1961 or later with a T&P stamp, so it's looking like a very limited thing. Redshade, I don't think these are reprints. Mainly because I found this yesterday & it's definitely a reprint... It has the characteristics of most other UK reprints: squarebound, slightly different size, black & white & red interior... & this line instead of a proper indicia... To be fair, I haven't seen any interior shots of the three I found earlier, so I could just be talking out of my donut. We await Marwood's postman.

Spotted this today. June, 1960. I'm not really into Archies, just curious about how many/few pence covers they did. Doesn't look like much so far. Everything I've seen dated 1961 or later seems to have a T&P stamp. Looks like an experiment, a bit like the DC pence output for July, 1971.

Sometimes a light at the end of the tunnel is just some b*****d with a torch bringing you more work.

Found another Archie... The Fly above was released in May, 1960. Archie's Joke Book 47 was July, 1960. Don't know if that's indicative of anything yet.

Cheers Redshade. I've seen some Dell as well; a few with just pence & a few with pence and cents. Also some Gold Key & a ton of Charlton. Marwood deserves serious credit. I'm using his lists to compile my own Excel charts for each publisher, listing price changes by issue number. It's a PITA & I'm only doing about a third of the work because Marwood has already done the hard stuff. Maybe a miscellaneous pence thread would be an idea. Just to catch all of the oddments. Anyway... Getting back on topic. Four of my favourites. These are a good example of the whole black plate swap out idea. Printed at the same time as the 30 cents copies, and, in the case of #s 2, 3 & 4, at the same time as the 35 cent price experiment copies. So, two slug changes.

Greetings All, Long-time lurker, first-time poster. I know it's a little off topic, but only a little... Anyone ever seen an Archie pence cover? I hadn't until this morning. Spotted it on E-bay. It's a dog, really, but I've never seen an Archie pence cover. Didn't know they did any. Marwood? Will there be an Archie page on your list of other publishers with pence variants? Don't mean to add to your workload (Sterling job so far, BTW).