Malacoda

Rest assured I will be quoting that out of context at every opportunity.

Mmmmmm. Usually stamps just widen and deepen mysteries and throw up anomalies. It's super satisfying when they cough up some answers.

Imagine what a full one minute commercial would cost to air now.

Yes. Oh dear God yes. I found this only helps you isolate to print screen it or take a pic of it, you can still only save it as web file. If you 'magnify image', you can save it as a png file. That's fine for me, but of course, if you reopen it in whatever picture viewer you use, you should then be able to save it as a jpg or other format too.

Exactly this, I think, though, as ever, it's nicely complicated. Odhams finished, after which IPC had the Marvel licence. However, they only reprinted Spider-Man, the Silver Surfer, the Western strips Ghost Rider and the Ringo Kid and Homer the Happy Ghost in TV21 magazine, probably because those strips were the closest to TV kind of fare. It's hard to tell when IPC actually lost the licence for Marvel because they stopped doing reprints a full year before MWOM came on the scene, so I suspect they may held some vestigial rights. Of course, you get the Martspress debacle in late 71 / 72, but Leonard Matthews (Martspress) was ex-Fleetway (IPC) anyway, and they packaged comics for IPC, so the distinction between Martspress and IPC is a fuzzy one. One point of interest is that World distributors were the publisher/distributor for Marvel annuals in 1968, 1970 and 1971 (when IPC had the UK reprint rights), and then Fleetway (IPC) became the publisher for the 1973 and 1974 annuals (published in 1972 and 1973). World Distributors were surely the logical candidates for the annuals from the get go because (a) annuals were their bread & butter (b) they were Marvel's distributor for the US titles and (c) they were the distributors for the annuals from 1968 - 1971 and 1975 - 1979, so there's a strange break for these 2 annuals that went to Fleetway. It might have been that this was the deal for giving up the distribution rights, or it might have been the distribution rights for the annuals were a completely different kettle of fish to the weeklies or it might have been the arrival of Al Landau and his determination to take the annuals away from the Pembertons, but either way, it's weird that those 2 annuals were diverted to Fleetway - there's some story there. Whatever the case, there was definitely a lack of anyone reprinting Marvel with any conviction from 1969 to 1972 so I can well believe Alan saw his chance.

Yes, of course, you're right. With paper rationing/shortages here, they were printed all over the place. Amazing to think it was cheaper to get it printed in Italy and shipped back than printed here. That said, Transworld lived up to their name when it came to getting the UK Marvels printed in the 70's (Spain, Belgium and, bizarrely, Finland).

That's weird. The two people I first thought of looking this image were the puppet master (plump version) and Inigo Pipkin, who, of course, was also a puppet master. That must be an association from childhood, but I never made it before.

And this also says printed in Italy for Publishers in Italy, so presumably other countries in Europe too.

Indeed. It does have a whiff of.... Good spot. Probably means they were distributed by Surridge Dawson, John Menzies or one of the other national newspaper distributors. If Tommy Tompkins was setting out on his delivery round from Hackney every morning, he'd have been knackered by the time he got to Glasgow.

Wow. Are we really doing this? OK. There's a Derek Robert Wright who was born in June 1944 which would make him the (w)right age for this lad. Now (or in 2010 anyway) living in Rayleigh. Plenty of East End lads moved to Essex after the war (and became car dealers and named their daughters Sharon....not that I'm stereotyping here).

For a second there, I thought you meant all three on one comic. Now that would be a beautiful mess!

LOL, in fairness to Millers, I think that was horror comics. I'm not convinced there ever was a bankruptcy as such (despite what wikipedia says). Bankruptcy is a pretty slippery thing anyway. T&P most definitely were declared bankrupt, involuntarily, but the receivers put the comic distribution business into one of the company's subsidiaries [T&P(Sales) Ltd] sold it to their chief creditor and main supplier (IND) and carried on with barely a break in distribution (2nd hiatus). So their bankruptcy was, to the untrained eye, pretty much just on paper. With regard to Millers, I suspect Len became ill or died in 1963 and the company ownership was restructured, so the original company on paper may have been changed. @themagicrobot this article pretty specifically says that the company went into final voluntary liquidation on 24 September 1974, the decision having been made at a meeting of directors (Florrie Miller, Arnold Miller and Doreen Lewis) on 21 June 1972. @Get Marwood & I Steve, I suspect this is what you remember reading? Bear Alley: Marvelman in the news

Yes please. I tried to find some info about Irving Mannheimer and Worldwide Distributors, but, of course, all I could find was a court case for porn. As usual.

“When I die, I want to go peacefully like my grandfather did–in his sleep. Not yelling and screaming like the passengers in his car.” Though probably most famous is: When I said I was going to become a comedian, they all laughed. Well, they're not laughing now.

Is it me or has Johnny faded this stamp off with his blazing fingertips?

Bob Monkhouse, Roy Rogers & Lucy Ball. 2,000 toffees, please.

Indeed. Wikipedia has it that Millers went bankrupt in 1963 and ceased publication in 1966, which might be correct, but of course publication is not importation or distribution. To my understanding, when Parliament passed the Not In Front Of The Children Act in 1955, it was supposed to lead to a rash of prosecutions, but actually publishers just toned down the content or got out of the biz. Having been black sheeped by Daddy, Arnold Miller did what any self respecting prodigal would do and took his business to the competition - ABC becoming an imprint of T&P in 1953. However, after the 1955 act it all got a bit fraught and the Arnold Book Company shut down. T&P and Millers also steered clear of reprinting the kind of EC material that had been waved about in Parliament and nobody, but nobody was ever prosecuted under the 1955 act. The Act had a sunset clause meaning that unless reviewed it would expire on 31/12/65. I suspect largely to prevent this happening, the CPS were prevailed upon to launch a couple of almost completely gratuitous cases against T&P and Miller. Both prosecutions came to nothing, but the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955 was entered as one of the acts under The Expiring Laws Act 1969, which removed the sunset clause and made it permanent, which was surely the real objective. The prosecutions which came to a head in 1969 and 1970 respectively ( I think T&P was 69, I have it somewhere) caused Florrie Miller to cancel the importations of these magazines. I reckon this is probably the smoking gun. I'm not sure what more harmless material they continued to distribute or for how long, but this feels like game over to me.

@Get Marwood & I Blimey, when you come back, you're really back.

If they can forgive us for burning the White House down, it's probably time to let go of this one, Albert.

While we're on DG and his Ethels ( I think I called them Donna, but Candy & Crystal seem about right), something that does throw up a couple of interesting factoids: he was sued for unfair dismissal specifically by some of his Ethels in 1976. The case is actually Noble vs David Gold (so I guess Donna sits better with Noble?). Weirdly, the company is actually called David Gold & Son, although he had no son. In 1976, there were lay offs in which women were made redundant (but not men) which were contested as sexually discriminatory. The case was found for Gold (and again on appeal) because of the division of labour. The men were used for the heavy lifting and the women for "sorting, distributing, arranging and labelling and so forth - which had diminished" which is why it was only women who were laid off. The interesting facts that surface for us are: They worked in a warehouse on a trading estate in the East End of London. Books and magazines came into the warehouse from publishers in England and in the United States. They were unloaded from vans, and carried in forklift trucks on pallets to benches where they were unpacked, sorted, arranged, priced and labelled. They were then packed again for distribution to some 600 outlets in England and Wales. There were about half a dozen women and somewhat more men doing this work. In the middle of 1976 the employers found that the work had fallen off and made redundancies. Specifically it was the lighter side of the work - the sorting, distributing, arranging and labelling and so forth - which had diminished. They therefore decided that some of the people doing that lighter work would have to be made redundant. Quoting from the tribunal: "… for various reasons it was the lighter work that had diminished by the autumn of 1976, and … this was caused by the fall-away of the importation of the United States 'pulp' magazines, as a result of currency problems, the higher cost of transport, and the improved competition of United Kingdom producers, who could put the prices in English money on their products at their factories, thus reducing the volume of work …" So the tribunal found that it was the lighter work which had diminished - the work of sorting, distributing, arranging and labelling - which was done on the benches in the warehouse. On appeal, it was decided that if the ladies could prove that women had been discriminated against in competing for the heavy manual labour jobs, then that would indeed have been discriminatory but as they had only ever applied for the packing & labelling jobs, there was no case to answer. So what we learn is that Gold collated all the magazines together (US & UK) in a central warehouse in the East End. They were re-priced and labelled as necessary by a team of about 6 Ethels there and then distributed to 600 outlets in England & Wales (not NI or Scotland). I assume outlets means local wholesalers not retailers as 600 would be a tiny number. I know that Gold was still putting stickers on US imported comics up to 1977: Deadly Hands of Kung Fu 32 - Jan 1977, I think the last issue of Savage Sword of Conan which was imported was 24 in November 1977. This is the exact point where the UK reprints in magazine form begin, so to Gold's point about being pushed out by UK priced editions this would seem to tie up exactly. Does anyone have idea which are the last issues of anything with Goldstar price stickers on them?

I hate to say it, but your best bet might be find some UK-located ebay auctions ending around the right time and get them sent to where you're staying. Man, that is a depressing state of affairs.

They closed involuntarily during covid, but found they made more revenue and profit working from home and they both had some health issues, so it was a no brainer to close the shop (or rather, not to reopen it). Gutted. Whilst shopping in comic stores is always more expensive than online, the joy of 30th was that they were such strict graders that a comic someone else would have passed off as FN, they would have called VG if there were the slightest issue about calling it FN. You could pick real bargains, not in terms of pure cheapness, but quality/condition vs price.

Indeed, and pretty much everything was there. All the Marvel, DC etc at street level in extraordinary abundance, and then down in the basement, an Aladdin's cave of old British comics, annuals, paperbacks. Also, Rob and Will were great to talk to, though I always found Will more approachable for a chat. Recalled the glory days of Dark They were and Comic Showcase. I never left there spending less than £100 and could always have spent a lot more. If Forbidden Planet is the O2, then 30th Century was the Marquee club. Notting Hill is worth visiting just because it's the last of the classic old LCS's. If you're out west, you can have a look at Ray Gun in Richmond, but the store is now mostly collectibles and TPB's as silver & bronze comics are mostly sold on online these days (They Walk Among Us on ebay is Ray Gun). I would definitely give Piranha Comics in Kingston Upon Thames a swerve. I was out of there in literally two minutes. Trying to spend money in there is like Brewster's Millions - you just can't do it. The Holy Trinity of survivors, if you can have a Trinity of four, were Gosh, Mega City, Orbital and 30th Century, but the latter two are now gone and gone online respectively. As Steve says, if you're in central London at the same time as the comic mart in Russell Square this coming Sunday, that really is your best bet. I find it overpriced, but you won't walk in and out in 2 minutes, that's for sure.

Hi Steve, so sorry to hear that and I know you're not out of the woods yet. We'll all be here debating vital issues of the day (the day in question being some time in 1971) when you're back. In the meantime, here's a virtual hug from the group.

Whereabouts were you? I was in West London, so yes there at least half a dozen newsagents in walking distance. That, of course, didn't help with the tracking down of back issues, which required miles of bike riding to neighbouring towns.