themagicrobot

Oddly Eerie 66 to 70 (and presumably Creepy and Vampirella from the same period of 1975) were dual priced. Dunno if any other issues before or since were dual priced. I bought Eerie every month and don't recall it being defaced with stamps or stickers very often. How did I or the newsagent know how much to pay? So the Goldstar Eeries were a bargain at a mere 20p. Why is this one marked down tuppence?

It's a shame that threads here die as soon as they fall off the front page. Not exactly a story. Rather a question. As he is over the North Shore beach, what on earth is Spider-Man's webbing attached to? A No-Prize to whoever knows where this image first appeared.

PS: At first I thought it was a misprint but it seems that Harvey really did have a character called Sod Sack. He was Sad Sack's Hillbilly uncle who spent most of his stories sleeping all day much to the annoyance of his long-suffering wife.

How many Marvel comics found their way to South Africa? I had a distant relative there who knew all about Spider-Man Perhaps far less comics got pulped than you think Perhaps we received more than 10% of the print run in the UK I have heard tales of whole States in the USA that never ever saw a Charlton comic All those unsold Charltons probably came to the UK certainly in the 1970s when I saw them everywhere

@OtherEric That would be fab. This afternoon? This afternoon has been and gone here. It is 8pm UK time. Isn't time travel great. When my uncle regularly flew on Concorde to NY he would arrive there an hour before he had left London.

So just to confirm regarding this DC No Subsciptions thing. The July 1968 Lois Lane 84 offers subscriptions within the indicia. The August 1968 Lois Lane 85 states No Subscriptions. So, accepting that comics were released months before their cover dates at some point in the summer of that year, if people were looking at an issue a few months old did DC honour a request for a subscription or return people's money? Or did subscriptions account for such a minute amount of the sales that it was neither here nor there. And, repeating myself again, why continue talking about where second class postage was paid in future issues if the only point of second class postage was regarding (now non-existent) subscriptions??? PS: Every DC comic I've looked through this week dated 1969 and 1970 has No Subscriptions written in the indicia and no sign of the once-familiar adverts offering subscriptions within unless someone with even more ancient old comics in front of them than me can find some that is...... Dunno why it has taken me 50 years to notice this though?? PPS: We need someone with a full run of some DC title to look at the Statement of Ownership thingy for 1969, 1970,1971. How many Subscriptions are listed? Does that figure reduce to zero over those few years?

Wasn’t Star Wars a Marvel comic where differences were noticed? DCs may or may not follow the same indicia format as Marvels I was just looking through some Lois Lanes and surprised to see that for a period of two years subscriptions weren’t available to anyone foreign or otherwise. i

I have a full run of Lois Lane comics at least from number 40 but not every single issue is easy to currently retrieve. I'm just not that organized. I also have the bound volume mentioned above that starts at No 109. Repeating what I have already posted above Looking at my bound volume now, Lois Lane 109 April 1971 clearly says No Subscriptions in the indicia (and this had already been going on for many many months previous as No 92 May 1969 says no subscriptions too) Nos 110 to 114 say the same No Subscriptions. There are no ads offering subscriptions in those issues or 115,116,117,118. Lois Lane 119 February 1972 is the first time I see an ad for Subscriptions for a very long time. No Subscriptions without Zip Code means just what it says. (and might make things difficult for potential foreign subscribers). It has no connection with the later point blank No Subscriptions. I'm just curious how long this no subs situation lasted and if some or all DC titles were affected. Adventure comics from the same period say No Subscriptions. I need to look at some Supermans and Actions next.

I disagree I don’t think 112 was a subscription issue It was the new 48 page size not an 80 page giant Ive not looked at every issue but even back to Lois Lane No 92 it says no subscriptions in the indicia i think all DCs will say New York rather than Sparta from August 1971 i have just looked in Adventure 410 September 1971 also 25 cents New York and no subscriptions it also has a good old 7.5p T&P stamp on the cover PS: Looking through some more Lois Lanes the No subscriptions in the indicia disappears at No 115 but it isn't until No 119 that I see an ad offering subscriptions for 39 different titles so No subscriptions in some (all?) DC titles seems to have been a 1970/1971 thing. PPS: How neat is this? A bound volume of Lois Lane 109 to 132 I picked up years ago.

The only full run of DC comics post July 1971 I can easily find are Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane. No 111 is dated July 1971. Ironically that issue isn't on hand. I took it out to scan it yonks ago. Issue No 110 is May 1971 (a 15 cent issue) and Second Class postage was paid at Sparta Ill. Issue No 112 dated August 1971 (a 25 cent issue with 48 pages) has Second Class postage paid in New York and additional Mailing Offices. (my bold text not theirs). But isn't the whole point of this Second Class mailing stuff to do with Subscriptions? Because the indicia in both issues goes on to say No Subscriptions (my bold text not theirs). I wonder how many DCs of the period didn't even give the option of Subscriptions? And for how long did this decision last? I'm sure Lois Lane comics had been available by subscription in earlier years. Has it anything to do with decisions to increase the page count at the time and perhaps them being unsure if that new format would last? PS: I have found a Lois Lane 111 July 1971 which has Sparta in the indicia so things did indeed change August 1971. PPS: I have just looked at the indicia of a 1968 Lois Lane. Subscriptions were offered but it says Subscription in the US for twelve 32 page issues $1.75 including postage. Foreign $3.50 in American funds. Canada $2.00 in American funds; check (surely that ought to be cheque) or money order only. No subscription supplied without Zip Code. (my bold text). So that means you got 12 issues of regular sized comics and would miss out on receiving the 80 page giants which were interspersed with the normal comics. Also as they only published the comic 8 times a year your subscription would be spread out over the best part of two years. Things were far more straight-forward here in the UK where comics came out every week without fail.

For what it is worth here is a DC comic (Flash 145) with a nice subscription crease and another news stand issue. Both indicia are the same.

I really hope you have indeed discovered a new variant but is it just Marvel comics with slightly different indicia? Anyway, whatever the outcome this remains the only thread in these boards that reaches places no one else would go to. Rolling Stone magazine? In that case here is Gardeners' World. Their Subscribers editions do actually contain more pages and extra content.

And is almost 50 years old and still only worth tuppence. Meanwhile thousands pay thousands for Hulk 181 which isn’t even as good a read.

Didn't everyone fold their comics in half when they were kids? It was the only way to get them to fit into the pocket of your school blazer. Many of my comics then were only "reading copies" anyway and would soon be traded at the market stalls mentioned in earlier posts. This image amused me. Last year I purchased an Eaglemoss Zatanna figurine from the Bay. It came well wrapped within an old newsprint-style screwed up 2000AD comic. I should have taken a photo.

I have nicked this image from the Interweb (but doesn't everyone?) which shows that folded comics for subscribers continued for much longer than I thought. It must have been time consuming and a manual job for someone to fold each comic and stuff it in an envelope. If you subscribed to three comics it looks like you got them delivered in three different envelopes. Plastic bags were invented by this time but no one had thought of using them to mail stuff out. I don't think I would have been happy with a folded comic. Even comics that had been much-handled on a spinner rack would have been preferable. Subscriptions to UK comics in the UK in the 1960s was quite possible but as you could get the local newsagent to deliver them anyway the only people who would need a subscription were kids living on Scottish islands I suspect. In 1967 on a fortnight holiday at the coast I spent all my money on Alan Class comics and "forgot" to buy my usual Smash comics. Six months later I was still annoyed with myself for having two missing issues from the run. So I sent my postal order for the back issues. I was quite upset that they arrived folded in two. In 2015 in a moment of madness I subscribed to the Eaglemoss DC Graphic Novel Collection. The first issue from WH Smith was a bargain £2.99. Future issues were £9.99 but they were glossy hardbacks and looked good on the bookshelf. There were supposed to be 60 issues. Best not to think that I would be spending £600 eventually and probably only read three or four of them. They also tended to arrive with two books in a box. As this box was too large for my letterbox I often just got a postcard left telling me to collect my parcel from the sorting office. This happened far too regularly. Then the rotters announced that my subscription would be extended and there would now be a total of 180 books issued. Yikes! I would end up giving them more than £2000 overall at that rate. There were extra costs of 8 "Subscriber only" books featuring Green Lantern, a character I had/have no interest in. Sometime in 2021 when I had received approx 130 of the proposed 180 books the parcels dried up. It seems Eaglemoss went bankrupt in 2022. Again this is not my image but it does show how heavy books are.

If I had been responsible for purchasing T&Ps ink stamps I would have issued Gladys and Ethel with some of these (suitably modified to have Lsd figures on the bases of course).

As Archie Giant Series 19 is dated December 1962 I assumed it originated from Len Miller's warehouse. It WAS a 68 page "giant" so Len sensibly charged 1/- rather than the usual 6d or 9d for the thinner Archies. Dunno about this One and six though? Perhaps Gold rather than T&P?

The position of the price depended on who was doing it. Perhaps one of the stamp-wielders was shorter than the other and couldn't reach any higher up the comic. Aren't comics bonkers? Aren't people selling comics on the Bay mostly bonkers too? Wouldn't it have been a good idea to fold down the tear on the left before scanning? Aren't comics bonkers? Archie Giant comics originally had 68 pages. At some point the page count was reduced to 52 pages. From this June 1975 Issue No 234 the page count dropped down to a standard 36 pages including cover. BUT THEY STILL CALLED IT A GIANT. The cover continued to be printed with text on the spine. This nonsense of selling Giant comics that were nothing of the kind continued right until the final issue 632 in 1992. All this reminds me of a "sketch" in a Bonzo Dog Band LP. "I'd like this coat cleaned please". "That will be 3 weeks dear" "Three weeks! But the name of the shop is 24 HOUR CLEANERS. "That's just the name of the shop dear".

I've not made a detailed study of the Men's mags imported by T&P (honest!) but it did occur to me that as they had been coming to our shores long before the comics officially did I'm sure Gladys and Ethel would have been relieved to stamp some Batmans and Supermans for a change.

Here is a Metamorpho dated June 1967. It has a date stamp inside probably put there by whoever in the UK purchased it new in 1967. The three month time scale matches my memory of when DCs arrived in the UK in the 1960s. (Things did change in the 1970s).

@ Everyone in this thread.

Yes that was another of my hunting grounds. The Traders didn't want Beanos but as you say were happy with those Odhams Fantastics and Terrifics as although slightly larger looked similar to the American ones. It was there at the Morledge Market circa 1967 that I snagged in one hit six different Adventure comics for 3/- all featuring Tales of the Bizarro world. They were perhaps 6 years old but I thought I'd discovered treasures from the Golden Age of comics.

The thing that has changed is that back then an old comic was sold for half its original cover price. The modern equivalent of those Market stalls is the Antique Centres which have sprung up everywhere. Often containing dozens if not hundreds of different sellers many of which who now think any old comic (often in poor condition) is worth a fortune.

Many areas of London were (still are?) famous for their saturday street markets. In the regions market stalls appeared in the appropriately named Market squares often held on Fridays and Saturdays. In the 1960s I regularly visited 5 different local towns by bus or bicycle to buy (or swap two for one) old comics. Where I live the Market stalls are long gone. You bump into people you know in Tesco rather than when you're standing in the rain buying something from the Fish stall. But in their heyday every decent Market had at least one secondhand paperback book/comic stall. In this image the comic stall is just out of shot to the left and was there weekly until the early 1980s. Also in the 1960s the family made many Saturday shopping trips to Derby or Nottingham. Derby Indoor Market was a favourite haunt. The two Newsagents within had a far greater range of periodicals than my local shops. I could get exotic things like Practical Wireless or Coin Collector magazine. They also had literally stacks of new comics. Often the newest arrivals hung on pegs on rope above the vendors head and you had to point to the Adventure or Worlds Finest you required. This photo was taken in the 1950s but hadn't changed a decade or more later. In fact the interior and exterior of this Victorian building stayed the same until quite recently when it finally was updated for the C21st.