Garystar

Sorry if I've let the UK down, but Silver Surfer #10 was the one that got me started on my comic road to ruin and as you know it doesn't exist as a pence or even a pence stamped.

Nothing new but x-men #80 with not one but two pence covers.

Living in the UK with limited exposure to American comics my story is more of a journey. The first American stories I remember were in UK comic Pow #1. My dad bought this for me although I must have been barely old enough to read, dated January 1967 as well as UK originated stories it contained B&W reprints of Spider-man #1 and SHIELD from Strange Tales #135 and it was these two stories which stuck in my mind - Peter Parker terrified of going to jail and the Hydra agent looking at the radio/screen in his crash helmet as the SHEILD car flew away. Fast forward to 1970 when I was bought this UK annual for my birthday reprinting Marvels IN COLOUR! Golden age Romita and Everett, Ditko Spider-man, Kirby Hulk and Thor, Heck Iron-man and origin of Hawkeye - who could not be impressed. But as much as the stories, the image of the strange character "Silver Surfer" on the inside cover made a lasting impression on me. Fast forward again to 1973 when whilst on holiday I found a shop selling REAL American comics (although brand new the comics had been published several years previously). And they had an issue of Silver Surfer the character I had fascinated over years earlier. I bought the issue along with Thor #172, 173 and Captain America #122. Silver Surfer #10 made such an impression on me I started collecting that day and 16,000 Marvels later I haven't stopped. My original copy was read to death, this is my current copy;

I know it's been posted before but just picked up this one on E-Bay UK for the grand sum of £6.71 including postage. For that tidy sum I also got Archie #111 (pence copy) and the remnants of A Date With Millie #4 (Cents, split spine, two pages missing, brittle, tape etc etc)

Whilst Creepy Worlds is a UK reprint the alternative cover wasn't done in the UK, look at these covers from the Fireside "Origins Of Marvel Comics" only three people on sidewalk (although in UK we call it a pavement) No vent in Banner's lab coat …… how many Stonemen? Compared to the published comic versions we all know;

Whilst I don't actively collect these Alan Class comics I pick up the Marvel super-hero reprints when I see them cheap (£1 - £5). In the last few years those reprinting key issues - AF#15, TOS#39 and your FF#1 - have soured in price mirroring the key issue focus on the originals. As to value I agree with Lazyboy and I'd be surprised if you didn't get around £200 for it. Try Wiki for some useful info on these Alan Class comics, I know wiki isn't always reliable but I think most here is. Also 30th Century Comics site although info is dated; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Class_Comics https://30thcenturycomics.co.uk/extras/alan-class/

From my reading the MMMS club was run in house and was run in a professional manner. However the later Marvelmania International Fan Club was out sourced and it was this club where the booking was "sloppy". Cash and cheques were being pocketed and many fans did not get what they paid for. I also read that the Marvelmania guys didn't fully pay Jack Kirby for all of the art he supplied them which furthered soured his deteriorating relationship with Marvel and Stan Lee (although not strictly Marvel's fault).

If you can locate a copy this book tells the history of the club, all the memorabillia with plenty of pictures and the ads which appeared in the comics. Research for the book from contemporary fanzines and a 2008 interview with Stan Lee he estimates membership to be 50,000 upwards. Membership cards are numbered but not straight forward to gauge membership numbers; My first issue card (white) issued with the 1964-1967 kit is numbered 15593 whilst my second issue card (yellow) issued 1967-1969 is numbered 277. The second issue card pictured in the book is numbered 21014. So perhaps the numbers were completely random or they started again with the second set - if the latter is true then there were at least (15,593 + 21,014) 36,607 members. (J Ballmann has also published an equally informative book on early bronze age memorabilia)

Have they lived with you long in Canada? Perhaps it is a UK climate effect on poor quality staples, either that or you have a really good eye for spotting nice examples. My copy of Terrific #1 has nice white pages and nasty rusty staples. (Early MWOM and Spider-man Comics Weekly were glued so don't suffer from this problem).

Fantastic effort, I'm interested and I wasn't even a member. I started collecting comics as a young kid in the mid 70's and every time I came across an old Marvel issue I longed of getting the Marvelmania and MMMS goodies being advertised. Of course these were completely out of reach not only because the adds were 5 - 10 years old but living in UK I had no access to them anyway. I signed up to e-bay in 2000 with the specific intention of hunting down the Marvelmania and MMMS stuff denied me as a kid. Here's scan of the two MMMS membership cards I have - first and second sets. Dale Meyler (from Texas, I have the mailing envelope) and Greg McAninch being the original members.

I can't comment about all of them because I only have a few issues but I can say that all of the issues I do have have rusty staples. I have a very nice Pow #1 which has rusty staples and even the otherwise near mint "spider-matic" gun has a rusty pin. It must be our UK climate.

Here's an oddity I recently noticed whilst looking at my DD issues; #12 pence copy has utilised the 12c price to become the issue number and has the price where the cents copy has the issue number. This wasn't continued into #13 as UK issues started including the month and would only have worked if the price had been 13c.

I know this one has been posted previously but there is another My Girl Pearl #7 pence copy for sale on eBay UK. Despite considering myself a Marvel "completist" I haven't got a single issue of this title, cents or pence, but with half a page cut out I'll have to give this one a miss. Shame.

Hi, this Marvel superheroes and the Occult is a UK reprint one-off special. There are a couple for sale on e-bay UK at present but not common even here.

Have you guys noticed this one on sale in ebay? (It's not mine) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fantastic-Four-48-CGC-5-0-off-white-white-pages-rare-UK-variant-key-silver-1st/352676936421?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160727114228%26meid%3Dd3c0400be5d240b1af58993d7f5c90cb%26pid%3D100290%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D352676936421%26itm%3D352676936421&_trksid=p2060778.c100290.m3507

My MMMS membership kits, first and second versions. I too would recommend J Ballman’s collectibles guides ( there is an updated 2nd edition of the silver age book) but they will cost you a fortune as you’ll want everything in them.

My mistake, still gave me an excuse to go looking through some old comics I don’t usually look at.

hi Steve, here's scan of Kid Colt 96 indicia you sought in earlier post. Well done looks like your long journey (into mystery) may soon be completed.

Have a search of eBay uk Two Gun Kid 64 for an even more eye popping asking price. I used to set my upper limit for westerns and sgt fury at 50p (pence, cents, condition unimportant) and was still picking them up at that price into the early 2000s which makes It hard to comprehend asking prices such as these. The vast knowledge of all things comics by the guys on this site is what attracted me, and i’m Sure many others, to it so please keep sharing.

My collection, bar a few Adams Batman trades, is all Marvel. As collection has grown and also branched into Marvel memorabilia I've had to make room by letting go of everything bar main collection so sorry can't help with other publishers. There are still silver age westerns and humour mags I look out for so if I come across any more pence copies from your list I'll post.

This is my copy of Gunsmoke Western #64, at first glance appears to be the ultra rare 6B price variant I've looked at the others on your list and my copies are either cents issues (GSW and RK) or I haven't got them at all (TGK, WY). I've had TGK #58 on my wants list for many years, although it pops up regularly in USA I can't bring myself to pay the postage on it - I've never seen a copy from UK.

The confirmed pence list is a great piece of work, I had assumed that common titles like FF or Spider-man had pence copies of all distributed issues. No work for me today so just spent morning comparing pence list to my comics and they match almost exactly, as I collected most of my silver age collection in UK pre-internet I have a lot of pence issues but my pence/cents list mirrors Marwood's. I noticed a number of issues you list as no pence copies Duncan McAlpine's guides show as scarce or uncommon in UK, my copies of several of these are unstamped cents copies making me wonder whether there are more UK non-distributed issues than previous guides have suggested. I could only find one pence issue in my collection your list isn't showing, I can't believe its not common in UK so probably glitch in your list. (What a bargain, Barry Windsor-Smith double sized issue for 6p!)

I can't offer you pictures of any models but perhaps you may be interested in some gun-slinging action.

Thanks for the welcome. My copies of JIM 61, 64 and 65 are all cents as are all my other copies of Patsy/Hedy and Millie. I bought the Patsy Walker from Ebay UK dealer/collector about 2 years ago, I couldn't have looked at the scan too well because I remember doing a double-take when I came to record it and realised it was a pence.

Hi Guys, I've been observing the boards for several years but never joined until today. Being in UK I've long had an interest in the pence/cents debate. Anyway here are a couple images of my comics you may be interested. (Apologies if I've posted scans incorrectly and they don't come out in which case I may need some insufficiently_thoughtful_person guide help).