Malacoda

Hi All, apologies, as this has probably been covered somewhere in the last 15 years, but does anyone have a scan/pic of a UK copy of Daredevil #4? I believe there are no UKPV's ( i.e. pence printed copies), but allegedly there might be some ink stamped ones out there? Sgt Fury came over as a stamped one that month, so it's possible. Many, many thanks.

Indeed. I think the first time I encountered it, it was called Cents to Pence 1951 - 2011. It's had some re-titlings since then. I know he interviewed Ray Wergan in some depth, that's the bit I'm gagging for.

Imagine trying to be a Miller completist. You'd basically have to round up every copy of every issue imported.

OK, so no printed pence, no stamp, no sticker residue, no scribbled biro price.....and yet the Miller indica. Nice. And the fact that other people have similar copies means it wasn't just a one off that missed the stamp while Ethel was staring out the window dreaming about Tony Curtis. So.......do we know if there are other titles from this month that were distributed without a price? Also, given the propensity of collectors now to describe anything they can from the Timely vaults as a 'Marvel prototype', we should note this issue has the origin of Doctor Droom.. Also, while these gentlemen are saying 'nothing can be so huge' 'Torr can' if you look at the size of his hands and his head compared to the size of the blokes, Torr actually has surprisingly dainty feet.

I can't find any trace of either of those, but many thanks. I love Transworld. They were a fully global company of which there is virtually no trace now. They make the Illuminati look like Apple.

Do you reckon that Jonathan Shatter is the guy who looks like Morten Harket on the 1st cover and James Bond's hairdresser on the 2nd one? I feel like those girls are barking up the wrong tree.

Wow. So those are UK reprints of Tower stories? Does it mention Transworld anywhere in the indica? Could I ask you please to post it? Thanks

So T&P imported the originals, but Transworld actually had the worldwide distribution rights to reproduce the material. I know Alan Class reproduced these, but were there any other UK reprints of Tower?

Getting back to this, I always feel like the real story of T&P (also Marvel, DC and everyone else) is off page. 39 UBS is a £5m gaff, with small but palatial interiors and original frescos on the walls. If this was warehousing for MAD comics, it was the most expensive warehouse on the planet. An accommodation address makes a lot more sense, but then how many foreign dignitaries were they entertaining? How many awards ceremonies did they attend? If Fred had a fancy woman, I would have thought she'd be in Leicester. The only time he ever left the place was world war two (and that's only because Hitler refused to hold it Leicester).

Same month as ST 101, which was the first Human Torch solo story.....also in very short supply. Brutal month for FF fans!

Fair enough. I captured some of them last year. Out of date, but still indicative vs the US numbers. There were none for 7 as of 2014 (out of 412 graded US copies). The only other one from the first 15 that had zero was #15 (280 graded US copies).

Hey Albert, were you asking about slabbed copies of UKPV's somewhere? FF 7 ? Something else? I can't find it. Maybe it was a dream.

For anyone who wants, 30th century are still selling these plate sets. Alan Class Reprints (30thcenturycomics.co.uk)

Lois interviewing Superman | Superman (3 Hour TV Version) - YouTube

Surely you have an activity / place / person / thing that always lifts your mood? Even if it's only a particular movie / song / NM-copy-of-Avengers#1-that-you-almost-never-get-out-of-the-fireproof-safe ?

Can I just say, these montages you do are really fantastic. This one is particularly good.

Literally the only animal that hasn't been turned into some sort of super hero. You fiend!

What can I say. The window was open.....there was no one around....it's your own fault, really.

Also, this DD 22 which fits in nowhere. Yay.

Helps I would say. If we believe they were held somewhere for financial reasons for 6 months and then dumped onto a secondary supplier as a job lot, it would be pretty weird if someone was separating them out and saying 'ooo, that's a November one, put that over there and we'll send it out in 4 weeks time'. I mean who and why are the first 2 questions. Secondly, I'm not convinced they did all arrive at once. I mean, I believe they arrived in two's, but I think some of the backlog rocked up later after the price had increased to 1/-. I suspect T&P may have ended up with some that they released on the market after the increase, which is why a T&P style round stamp is there, at an increased price, but without the usual number on the stamp (because, being distressed inventory a year after the fact, they don't fit into the T&P top-bit-of-the-stamp-numbering-system). That's probably a load of old billhooks, but it's pleasingly neat, isn't it?

Wouldn't surprise me. If Mr. Wilson had just told me I could add 14% to my prices, I'd be getting busy. To be fair to Harold, it actually didn't affect the pound in your pocket. As long as it stayed there. It was only when you took it out and tried to spend it it was worth less.

Right, but Dell fell off a cliff in 1962. They were the outright biggest (15% of titles, but a third of the entire sales market) in the 1950’s. Helen Meyer’s response to the Senate and Wertham is fascinating. They really took a different approach to the situation to everyone else, which given their size is hard to ignore. But of course Wertham did ignore it because he was a man on a mission. Dell were the biggest because of their deal with Western – which was really odd. Whereas Marvel and DC and our friends produced their own material and then looked for distributors, Dell handled the finance and the distribution and out-sourced the creative bit to Western. This was unusual, but they totally battered everyone else in the market. However, Western got into some trouble round about 61-62. They invested in Golden Press, which produced an initially successful encyclopaedia in 1960, but lost money in 61 and 62. They also went public and bought a new printing plant, so they were stretched. When Golden got into trouble, they had to go one way or the other and they jumped ship with Dell and bought Golden out.

Fascinating. Do you think Iain MacLeod is using 'honourable man' in the Shakespearian sense? So maybe my theory about the change of printers is not the reason for the 67-69 cover stamp era. I noted before that price changes always seem to be the precursor to periods of CS and even non distribution. I think Steve proved that that ain't necessarily so, but it does seem to happen a lot.

When I was gathering these last year, I found, without trying, about 30 examples of FM#4 (T&P cover stamp), but literally only 1 of FM#5 and I had to look for that. Some time later, I found another FM#5 but on close inspection it turned out to be the same copy again. Also, with regard to MCIC 4 (sale date May 10, 1966) there are loads of T&P stamped issues, as you'd expect, but also.....

I think this is timing. Do you remember that before, I posted how the 67-69 cover stamps coincided with the move from Eastern to Sparta? That's when the price increased to a shilling....in November 1967. So either this is totally random and they did price them differently, or the missing comics were turning up throughout 67 (or at least in 2 batches) and some arrived after the prices had gone up. When did DC go up to 1/- ?