Albert Tatlock

12 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

he hasn't kept any of the old books

At least he was spared the ordeal of his mother chucking them out, telling him it's time to grow up.

All mine were stamped copies back in the day, too. If only I had known then what I know now.................................

5 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Is that sufficient anecdotal evidence to indicate that the first use of the number 6 stamp -

5 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Is that sufficient anecdotal evidence to indicate that the first use of the number 6 stamp -

Unlikely to have been the Number 6 stamp, if there were only 2 items in that batch.

More likely the Number 7 stamp, on a bundle of October 1959 issues, on sale 3 months after their cover date.

Maybe Bob did not notice the first trickle of Number 6's a month earlier, or, more likely, T & P held those back until they could provide a decent range.

I know - ask Bob what number stamp was on that boxful back in January 1960 Southend. They are probably on top of his wardrobe somewhere.

5 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

The First Use seems much more likely doesn't it based on the cover date alignments?

Sounds reasonable, in which case DC did not let the grass grow under their feet. They recalled these (or gathered up copies that had not been sent out), chucked them on a ship and told the captain to get his foot down. They would have been in the shops here by the end of 1959, possibly.

On a tangent, any hiccups in misalignment of stampings v cover date would possibly have been likeliest around Christmas/New Year break.

1 hour ago, Get Marwood & I said:

One of the two number 2's, one is stamped an 8, the other a 6.

Pat Boone 2 should be an 8. If a 6 (please check to see whether it could be a smudged 8), then it arrived 2 months early or several months late. Both are problematical.

3 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Any thoughts / comments on this earlier post

You have done a great job, Marwood on digging out some very obscure stuff, a very praiseworthy effort.

We have enough info on the DCs to establish the trend, and as more data is added we should soon be able to come up with a best fit for the sequence.

In the early 1960s, the cover date on DCs was sometimes 2 months, but more usually 3, behind real time. I can fix this from my own recollections of what I bought matched to birthdays, Christmas, school holidays, etc, and there should be some other collectors with similar tales to tell.

Those pesky Charltons, though.............

A few more 1960 stamps.

W. Finest 107 = 1, Batman 129 = 1, W. Woman 114 = 6, Batman 132 = 7, MGA 47 = 9, Showcase 28 = 1

Figthin Air Force 12, price 1/3. Cannot be sure of stamp, but looks like a 2.

Dated 1958, available on ebay in quantity, not all stamped, though, so remaindered copies likely dumped on T & P back in the day.

And a March 1960 Brave and Bold behaving itself quite nicely.

Here is another batch:

111 = 3, 113 = 8, 114 = 8, 115 = 9 (twice)

So the number 4 of 115 is on the naughty step.

1 hour ago, Kevin.J said:

small DC sample to get some more data on the stamp numbers

A few more examples:

In case they are not showing, the numbers are:

109 = 7, 110 = 1, 111 = 3, 112 = 6, 113 = 8, 114 = 8, 115 = 4(!) 116 = 3 and 117 = 4

So the 115 is the odd man out, it should have been a 9.

Maybe a late arrival, or possibly a short-sighted T & P stamper who could not tell 4 and 9 apart.

But I am sure T & P's rigorous staff selection procedure would have weeded out any Magoo applicants.

1 minute ago, Get Marwood & I said:

wont get to a cover month v stamp uniformity position

Quite correct. There will never be a 1 to 1 correlation between the observations under consideration, but there will a close enough fit to draw a general conclusion, that the number stamp progressed in step with the dates of the comics found in the content of successive shipments. 

I think it will settle down as we push on into 1960 and 1961, and these are just teething troubles.

Remember that the USA is a vast landmass, so the scope for all the returns arriving on schedule is limited, so there will always be anomalies.

Who in the warehouse would have been bothered to check that all the cover dates in a shipment to Europe matched? Near enough would have been good enough.

4 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

4 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Colindale has a library of periodicals, newspapers, etc going back a long way.

George V's collection of bound volumes of football programmes found its way there.

Hmm, not too far from me...

Periodicals can now be ordered into any Reading Room at St Pancras,

1 hour ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Let's use this table as the starting point for now maybe

How about this, which applies to DC only, not Charlton or anything else:

REAL TIME                 DC COVER DATE        T & P STAMP NUMBER

JULY 1959                         mags only                                 1

AUG 1959                          mags only                                 2

SEPT 1959                        mags only                                 3

OCT 1959                          mags only                                 4

NOV 1959                         mags only                                  5

DEC 1959                         mags only                                  6

JAN 1960                           OCT 1959                                 7

FEB 1960                           NOV 1959                                 8

MAR 1960                          DEC 1959                                 9

APR 1960                          JAN 1960                                   1

MAY 1960                          FEB 1960                                  2

JUNE 1960                        MAR 1960                                  3

JULY 1960                         APR 1960                                  4

AUG 1960                          MAY 1960                                 5/6

SEPT 1960                        JUNE 1960                                7

OCT 1960                         JULY 1960                                  8

NOV 1960                         AUG 1960                                   9

DEC 1960                          SEPT 1960                                 1

The bimonthlies would have a stamp number lower by 1, and because of the US publishing schedule, which meant that one cover date was split across 2 shipments, some titles will be 1 higher or lower than expected.

5 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Let's use this table as the starting point for now maybe

I would suggest moving them all back by 1 month, making stamp 1 first time around April 1959 and stamp 1 second time around January 1960. I have a Flash 110, cover date January, with a number 1.

Also Mystery in Space 56 (Dec) with a 9, same as yours.

6 would then correspond to September, fitting with Pat Boone being Sept-Oct.

All of your entries above for January 1960 are cover dated 1959. It would fit better to move them all back 1 month, I think.

21 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Can you check that Albert - every DC I have in the files has been added to my table below.

Will do, but it will take a while

In July 1959 (real time), T & P were stamping first magazine arrivals with a number 1. No comics had yet arrived, maybe the Charltons were just about to.

By January 1960 (real time, 6 months later), the stamp had advanced 6 places to 7, and was applied to the recently arrived October 1959 cover dated DCs.

The bimonthly Pat Boone arrived in December 1959, so received a number 6 stamp. Presumably any other bimonthly DCs (eg Showcase 22) would also have been stamped with a 6, but I have seen it mentioned that only a very few, if any of that item arrived. Can we find any October 1959 cover dated bimonthlies stamped 6? If so, they would share with Pat Boone the status of earliest officially distributed T & P DCs to be available in Britain.

1 minute ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Colindale has a library of periodicals, newspapers, etc going back a long way.

Sorry, info out of date.

British Library now housed at Boston Spa near Wetherby.

Mr Google will assist.

4 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

what did you mean by the 'Colindale' comment earlier on

Colindale has a library of periodicals, newspapers, etc going back a long way.

George V's collection of bound volumes of football programmes found its way there.

A few pages earlier, you uploaded a scan of Detective 274 with a number 9 stamp, I reckon Batman 127 with a 9 stamp is one delayed on its journey.

2 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Charlton's could be the first books to come over, ahead of the DCs?

Certainly possible

9 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

January 1960 - first ever 9 stamp - Batman #127 (DC)

There are 9 stamps on some December 1959 issues.

This copy of Batman 127 is possibly a late arrival. There should be some with a 7 stamp.

17 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

If comics and magazines followed the same date - as Google suggests they did - then the actual UK stamping would have had to have started from June 1959 at the earliest to be legal. Wouldn't it?

See my earlier posting on George Pumphrey.

A little earlier in the article I quoted is a passage from a legitimate publisher moaning about the apparent ease with which the importers of comics could obtain their material in spite of paper rationing.

This exactly mirrors the well-documented exasperation of football club programme editors of the time, hamstrung by curbs on their ability to obtain supplies of paper, but seeing the hawkers of pirate programmes outside their stadiums apparently operating under no such handicaps.

There was a loophole in the legislation which could be, and indeed was, exploited by the distributors of juvenile literature. Imports from Canada, a Commonwealth nation, were not subject to the same restrictions as the USA.

How about this for a timeline:

Early 1959, Government announce end of restriction on importation of US magazines to follow in a few months.

T & P strike deal with US publishers to import unsold stock.

June 1959, first batch is shipped, arriving July 1959 (surely 1 month is sufficient for a crossing, even by a slow cargo vessel).

July 1959 consignment clears Customs, goes to T & P who stamp it with a 1.

December 1959 first batch of DCs are shipped, arriving January 1960, by which time the stamp number has advanced as far as 6 or 7.

1960 - each succeeding month advances the number stamp by 1.

2 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

If comics and magazines followed the same date - as Google suggests they did - then the actual UK stamping would have had to have started from June 1959 at the earliest to be legal. Wouldn't it?

See my earlier posting on George Pumphrey.

A little earlier in the article I quoted is a passage from a legitimate publisher moaning about the apparent ease with which the importers of comics could obtain their material in spite of paper rationing.

This exactly mirrors the well-documented exasperation of football club programme editors of the time, hamstrung by curbs on their ability to obtain supplies of paper, but seeing the hawkers of pirate programmes outside their stadiums apparently operating under no such handicaps.

There was a loophole in the legislation which could be, and indeed was, exploited by the distributors of juvenile literature. Imports from Canada, a Commonwealth nation, were not subject to the same restrictions as the USA.

10 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Here are a few more 2/- diamond.

Are these all number 5 stamp? Any variations?

3 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

an unusual stamp - a numbered two shilling diamond -

Here are a few more 2/- diamond.

I believe they are recycled T & P stock. 

Cover date is 1974, so obviously the diamond stamp was applied after they had passed through T & P's hands.

The Charlton 20 cents are post-decimal too, so the 2 shilling stamp is an anachronism, but it must have been applied for a reason.

Bought the Superman from an old mill on Bradford Road in Manchester in late 70s or early 80s. They were lying in the open air in an alcove in the mill yard.

Filled my car boot up, had to leave a few behind, paid the little man (presumably not the legitimate owner) a few bob, worked out at approx nuppence each.

Still selling the odd one on ebay. Also in the parcel were Detective 438 or 439 and Batman 255, plus an assortment of others, Prez, Secret Origins, etc.. Will try to dig out a fe more.