Qalyar

Short answer:

Registry scoring in general is likely on the way to a major revamp, because the current system isn't maintainable for the folks who manage it. That's complicated by the fact that there's a programming error resulting in some label problems with newsstand and multipack editions.

On 6/8/2022 at 7:17 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Afternoon 

I haven't forgotten about this thread, if anyone was wondering, and still have a good number of issues to work through when I get some free time.

In the meantime, I spotted this pulp while scouring online for more Pictorial Romances and found it very reminiscent of the early Streamline versions:

 

Sure enough, it's one of theirs:

Curtain Road 

Olive Baxter sounds quintessentially English, doesn't she. The author of "Journey into Danger" and "etc." would you believe.

The "etc." made me smile, suggesting somewhat that they couldn't really be bothered.

"Yeah, you know - Olive Baxter. Her that done that book. And them other ones" 

Anyway, it's something to read later. I'll report back on Olive's story telling proficiency later.....

 

Interesting! Apparently Streamline reprinted more than just comics.

Olive Baxter is a pseudonym for British author Helen Eastwood, who also published under her own name and as Fay Ramsay. She was best known as a romance novelist, but also dabbled in mystery/thrillers. She was a prolific writer, publishing dozens of books in a career that spanned four decades: from Cinderella's Sister in 1934 to A Letter for Veronica in 1974 (and perhaps books before and after those as well, as there's not a comprehensive list that I'm aware of).

For much of her career, the vast majority of her books were initially published as hardcovers by London publisher Wright & Brown (later on, she moved to Robert Hale). WorldCat confirms this one was no exception -- the first printing of Reluctant Hero is a 1949 Wright & Brown book that was almost certainly a hardcover novel. I assume this Streamline paperback is a late '50s or possible early '60s reprint.

No idea whether the cover art here reproduces art from the original dust jacket or whether it's a Streamline creation. Unfortunately, the Olive Baxter hardcovers are fairly scarce now, and I've had no luck tracking down an image of the original. If you're so inclined, the British Library in London appears to have a copy (as does Oxford and the NLS), although no idea if it has the original dust jacket.

On 5/11/2022 at 2:29 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

That Star book is sticking out a bit. 

So, there are a few possibilities here:

• It was just a one-off, like the couple of random Marvel books that have shown up in Double Doubles.
• Our identification only seems Fox-centric because a lot of the Fox books actually have good documentation. As we fill in the blanks, we'll see more publishers.
• Not all of Star's romance books were first publications; it's possible that Popular Teen-Agers #14 may have itself been a Fox reprint book that simply hasn't been identified because the antecedent is so rare.

On 5/11/2022 at 11:49 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

@Qalyar @OtherEric

Thinking about it boys, do you think Streamline were doing it illegally?

Thorpe & Porter hid remaindered Marvel and DCs in their 'Double Double' compendium comics and 1967 annuals. Maybe Streamline were crossing their fingers no one would notice ten years or so later - especially with the original content hidden under new covers 

I think it's very possible that by the time Streamline was "republishing" Fox books, there was no one around to enforce the copyright. Fox -- and its affiliated companies, including Central Color Press, its vertically-integrated printer -- went bankrupt in 1950. Fox's assets got pieced out to several other publishers. Charlton bought rights to some of their superhero material. Star Publications (not the later Marvel imprint) ended up with most of their "jungle" stuff, like Jo-Jo and Rulah. I'm really not sure who -- if anyone -- ended up with the rights to their romance titles. Since they're all one-off stories, it's very likely that no one thought there was any intellectual property of value there.

I find it unlikely that someone bought the rights to the Fox romance books, then actually licensed those rights to a dodgy little British company for republication.

On 5/11/2022 at 11:29 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

That's a really good point Eric - maybe they were using some coverless copies as the source material, hence the absence of the inside cover splash. I recall Alan Class saying something along those lines about his UK reprint titles. Another possibility to add into the 'what on Earth were they doing' mix. 

In favor of this theory, I checked the stories where we do have the splash page intact. None of them appear to have been the first feature in their original book (which would -- often -- have had the splash page on the inside front cover). So it's very possible Streamline was working from remaindered or otherwise coverless copies. It'll be interesting to see if that observation holds through the rest of the books.

On 5/11/2022 at 11:10 AM, OtherEric said:

Fox put a lot of effort into being extraordinarily cheap even by golden age comic publisher standards.

Rural Home would like a word with you about what counts as being "extraordinarily cheap"!

Anything that even suggests physical violence seems to have been culled, and I suspect they had some sort of "maximum sexiness" level that they dared not cross.

Also, for the record, I have absolutely no idea what the two unidentified stories are in I Dared Not Love. I haven't even been able to find likely candidates that aren't scanned online.

"For Mother's Sake" from, well, For Mother's Sake, doesn't appear to be online in its original format either. Based on story titles, and ruling out stories where we know the contents don't match, my two best guesses right now are "I Sold My Soul" from My Story, True Romances in Pictures #8 (Fox, 1949) or "I Bartered With Marriage" from My Love Memoirs #11 (Fox, 1950). It might not be either of those, but that's where I'd start looking if, you know, it was actually possible to just grab raw copies of these Fox books and peek inside.

On 5/11/2022 at 9:05 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

So we have two possibilities - the missing pages may be down to simple overall page count constraints, or because they featured inappropriate content (given the other amendments that we see).

Or both!

There's clearly some "both", because we've also seen reprinted pages with amended text or entirely expurgated panels.

On 5/11/2022 at 8:38 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

I just updated the entry - quite a title leap as a title isn't it, from 'Unfaithful Wife' to 'My Security'.

What do you think of my earlier page count theory, as a reason for the splash page absences, Qalyar?

 

I think that's pretty likely. These Streamline books have 27 pages of story available, because they use the inside front cover, inside back cover, and outside back cover (!!) for story pages. Most of the original Fox stories are 10 pages long, although there are some 8- and 9-pagers from time to time (for example, "Unfaithful Wife" was a 9 page story). Obviously, they have to make room somewhere to get that page count down to 27, so I assume that's why we're losing the splash page (and potentially an extra page here or there).

Plus, Streamline really seemed to hate the original Fox story titles, and that's a convenient way to get rid of them!

On 5/11/2022 at 8:21 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Story #2: My Security 

This story originally appeared in TBC

This was originally published as "Unfaithful Wife" in Women in Love #3 (Fox, 1949). We've now seen reprints of all three stories from that issue!

In this one, Neal self-identified as being responsible for: The Swing's the Thing, Slaying Song, De-horned Cow, Live Wire (as you suspected), Lost Cause (and the untitled material on that page), Cow-ward, and A Drink to Reflesh.

On 5/4/2022 at 1:42 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

You're on a roll Qalyar! 

I'll update this one tomorrow now - and the other, if you find it (no pressure...)

The "Second-Rate" origin escapes me, at least for now.

Assuming for the moment it's a Fox reprint, it's almost certainly from one of the less common books that hasn't had its contents indexed by any of the usual sources online. There's no prima facie reason to believe that all three reprints in this book would have originally been from the same narrow time period. But Women in Love #3 was a late 1949 book, so I've mostly been looking at other 1949 Foxes to try to find this one. Potential candidates include "Deserted Twice" from My Love Affair #3 or one of the "other thrilling love stories" (as the cover tells it) printed in My Desire, Intimate Confessions #32. Of course, if the source material for "Second-Rate" is considerably older than Women in Love #3 then, well, the universe of candidates swells quickly.

On 5/4/2022 at 1:09 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Story #1: His Love (the comic's title):

This story originally appeared in TBC

"His Love" is also from Women in Love #3, where it began life as "His Kind of Love". This one was pretty easy, because I was pretty sure the title wasn't completely replaced -- those letters looked too professional to be Streamline originals!

On 5/4/2022 at 1:09 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Story #2: That Fortune of Mine:

This story originally appeared in TBC

Got one! This was previously published as "My Reckless Fling" in Women in Love #3 (Fox, 1949). As with several of these, the splash page has been removed from the start of the story. See scans here.

EDIT: The panel removed from the right-hand page was a catfight slap.

On 5/3/2022 at 1:37 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

To be confirmed, Yorick. I couldn't match the content to an original book despite looking up every comic I could find with a similar title. The GCD record suggests that the title was changed - that seems to be a good call as the 'flirt' wording has clearly been changed in the story text so it follows that the title would have been too. It's quite interesting comparing content actually, and seeing what has been either changed or omitted completely. Anything suggesting domestic violence seems to be out. 

I don't have a scan of this one (and definitely don't own a copy), so I can't confirm, but my suspicion is that "They Called Me a Flirt" may have begun life as "They Called Me Worthless", the third of three stories from the fairly scarce My Confession #7 (Fox, 1949). That's a great book with early Wally Wood art and a fantastic GGA cover. Skimming over the list of late 40s Fox romance titles (because I'm clearly being constructive this morning...), it also stood out as a reasonable likely candidate.

On 5/2/2022 at 5:58 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

The indicia is a 'Streamline Publications Ltd' one, 105, Curtain Road, London, printed by The New Avenue Press Ltd, 3/4 Sherwood Street, London W.I. I must Google those locations at some point, and see whether there are any signs remaining that they were ever there:

There sure aren't. The former location of Streamline Publications on Curtain Road, is now part of trendy "nightclub in a ball pit" Ballie Ballerson. Meanwhile, The New Avenue Press address -- which was a public house before that -- now hosts the Blanca Bar restaurant on its ground floor.

Really excited to see the rest of these, by the way. I ... did not expect there to be quite this many of them.