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Golden Age distributors

Started by KingOfRulers,

37 posts in this topic

KingOfRulers

KingOfRulers

Posted
Posted

Anyone have info on the different distribution companies around the country from the Golden Age (or Silver/Bronze age)? There were numerous distributors out there, and if anyone has info on their names, location, origins etc. I'd love to hear it. :)

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MrBedrock

MrBedrock

Posted
Posted

Your inquiry will get a response from Bob Beerbohm for sure.

He knows the history of comic distribution all the way back to the Stone Age (pre-victorian, pre-superhero,pre-Robin).

He knows, cause he was there!

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Robert Beerbohm

Robert Beerbohm

Posted
Posted

they have some young whipper-snappers down in Houston, this is fer sure.

 

I have some adverts for the association of "Independent" distributors back in the 1940s, of which there were quite a few - and once i locate that file-folder, make some scans, i could post some tantalizing data

 

It was American News VS EveryBody Else

 

 

 

 

 

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Theagenes

Theagenes

Posted
Posted

Great thread topic. Hi Bob - I look forward to seeing those scans. I would love to know more about the distributors and how the system worked throughout the different eras.

 

Looking at a bunch of Church markings recently has me thinking about distributor marks. There are many cases where you see the same letters, written in the same hand on different books. Has any effort been made (by you or others) to try and link certain marks with a particular distributor? In other words, create a typology for distributor marks. It would great, for example, to be able to see a mark and be able to say "Oh that book was distributed by So-an-So Company and so it was probably sold in the Midwest region" or whatever. Ultimately it would be wonderful, from a social history perspective, to be able to get some understanding of what titles were being sold (and presumably read) in different eras around the country.

 

Jeff

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Robert Beerbohm

Robert Beerbohm

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Posted

I have a 2.5 foot stack to go thru wherein lies some trade magazine distribution adverts detailing listings of which companies made up the net work of Independent Distributors, of which Independent News was a member company - they are pretty neat. Memory tells me there are some five different ones, from different years and the members list of names varies from ad to ad

 

that all said, this is some of the kind of stuff my comics business history book tome will be covering and teaching about - i have gathered some amazing data together. Sure wish i could just save up enough dough to sit at my computer and finish compiling and fine tuning my book. It surely would knock the socks off, err, expand the consciousness, of the 166 year history of the comic "book" magazine business in America.

 

What i present in Overstreet for the last decade is just the tip of the ice berg, constrained by space limitations from which there is probably little hope of an easily accomplished major expansion

 

hence, i have been focusing on my book as of late, trying to peck at it here and there. Leaving me a lot more time to work on it is keeping off most all the discussion lists i am on, ones like the TimelyAtlas one over on yahoogroups.com much less my own PlatinumAgeComics one i started back in 1999.

 

I have TONS of distributor data on the comics business dating back into the dawn of the comic "book" magazine business eminating out of New York City beginning in 1842.

 

The the time we get to the 1930s, 1940s, my main problem is simply figuring on what to leave out as this is what i have concentrated on collecting with a passion for 35 years now since opening my first comic book store with then-partners John Barrett and Bud Plant, and we began dealing with Gilboy Agency as their first customer who wanted to buy "all" their comic books from them when they would let us

 

The first time i remember taking an active interest in all things magazine distributors was realizing the strangle hold they had on the books getting out onto the market place

 

I got to know the term "affidavit return" when i was 20 years old in 1972. Soon thereafter, i began hearing the term "affidavit return fraud"

 

When we opened up the 2nd Comics & Comix store in May 1973 at 728 Columbus Ave in San Francisco, we then began dealing with Golden Gate Distribution, and things began to get more complicated

 

The two companies thought we could steal books from one place, and return them to the other - we kept insisting we did not want returns, we sold them for months after they came out, distribution on comic books being so spotty

 

I remember major "ID" distributor ARA HQ'd out of Philly back in this time period becoming a de-facto monopoly of over 16% which made them subject to then-existing Sherman Anti-Trust Laws (gutted by the last 7 years of R control) by swallowing a few more faltering little out post distribution companies, like far-flung out of the way landing sites for smaller cities serviced by a large air line, and then it stops, consolidation being the name of the game as the distribution game continued to evolve, most saying devolve, all agreeing something had to be done as the comic "book" magazine industry reeled from the after effects of the monumental Batman TV show craze massive glut of epic proportions

 

By the early 1970s ARA in Philadelphia exerted influence on our ID distributors out in the San Fran Bay Area -

 

I am still analyzing this confluence as it relates to the rise of the "underground" comix distribution system begun in early 1968 when Print Mint took ZAP COMICS national.

 

We tried out 1000 copies of THE FIRST KINGDOM #1 first printing back in 1974 - an arm of the company i was as in love with as the old comic book sales. Twas the nuts & bolts of doing the middle part of controlling the flow of products onto our racks which frustrated the hell out of an otherwise fascinating way of life known as comics fandom.

 

But back in the day, before the DM, Before the Code, from WW2 thru the late 50s, there were upwards of 900 ID distributors built up in a labor intensive network system, think of mighty rivers, smaller tributaries, sometimes some acted like lakes with huge back stock to ply in the secondary back issue market, selling for less than cover price, all part of on-going fraud which forever ate into the net profits of the people more closer to the creation of the idea in the first place

 

but i digress - i could be going thru the various research boxes of files to find this one in particular - see, i had moved my warehouse in early 2007 - some stuff is still being sorted out. This is as good a reason as any to have some fun going thru all this research i have built up here. For instance, i own a complete run of the American News Trade Journal 1919-1957 monthly - a lot of data to be sure.

 

Every distributor issued trade journals on a steady basis. I have samples of every one, longer runs of some, enough to learn the nuts & bolts of the industry any given decade going way back.

 

And i have taken it upon myself to learn much bio data on many of these players, quite a few of nefarious lot

 

People will be amazed to discover just how much of the industry Harry Donenfeld secretly owned, all made possible from the massive profits he was controlling by being majority owner of Detective Comics Inc since its inception in Dec 1936, when the corporate seal was made.

 

Irwin Donenfeld showed it to me a couple times during my quite a few taped interview sessions - we covered a lot of ground - he made quite a few concessions to his father's past known business associates and partners.

 

Harry had been involved with Paul Sampliner since 1932 in Independent News.

 

The lists of names and where they are located are interesting

 

what amazed me as I uncovered data on many of them was the behind the scenes origin stories of how some of these companies came about - and the different levels these companies perceived the product, comic "book" magazines, much less the talent they employed on whatever level to create same for them.

 

anyway, my memory jogged a bit on a few subjects - probably boring to many of you, i dunno

 

the scans will come out of MIA soon enough, there is "other" fascinating stuff way better than those lists - so, back to the salt mines of buying and selling old comic books.

 

It does weigh heavy some times to realize one has been in this fascinating hobby over 40 years now, since 13, made many fantastic friends along the way, handled some fantastic mind-boggling stuff along the way, many many have passed on now. One can feel lucky to still be standing all these years later.

 

So, KofR, actually what you seek is one of the main facets of the diamond i am polishing into existence of my history book i have been researching and compiling for a spell now.

 

But soon enough i will uncover the few sheets of what i spoke of, scan and post them, and maybe some other younger ones of you who read this will help out in the research - specks of data are scattered all over the country.

 

Tis merely a matter of basic archeology - my dear Watson(s)

 

Once i post a couple of these lists of distribution companies, i would love to see some one in a listed city partake of some sleuthing to see if there are any remnants of their existence in any given said city. Thanks in advance to any who undertake for the common good of recovering some otherwise lost records of the existence of by-gone eras. We benefit as a group unit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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gifflefunk

gifflefunk

Posted
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Here is a quick list I found in my notes:

 

******************************************

ACE: Ace News Corp.

------------------

Ace Fiction Group

******************************************

ANC: American News Co., Inc.

----------------------------

Archie Comic Group

Dell Comic Group

Famous Funnies Group

Fiction House, Inc.

Jay Jay Publications

Magazine Enterprises

Preferred Comics Group (St. John)

Quality Romance Group

Standard Comics Group

Star Publications

Toby Press Group

United Feature Comic Group

Ziff-Davis Publishing Co.

******************************************

CDC: Capital Distributing Co.

-----------------------------

Charlton Comics Group (late)

******************************************

CCC: Curtis Circulation Co.

---------------------------

Famous Authors, Ltd.

Gilberton Co., Inc.

Marvel Comic Group (1970s-1990s)

******************************************

FDC: Fawcett Distribution

-------------------------

Fawcett Publications, Inc.

Charlton Comics Group (early)

******************************************

ICC: International Circulation Co.

----------------------------------

David McKay Publications

******************************************

ICD: Hearst Magazine

--------------------

Avon Comics Group

******************************************

IND: Independent News Co.

-------------------------

American Comics Group

Marvel Comic Group (early Marvel Era 1960s 1970s)

National Comics Group

Prize Comic Group

******************************************

K: Kable News Co.

-----------------

Allen Hardy Associates

Farrell Comic Group

Marvel Comic Group (Timely Era)

Premier Magazines, Inc.

Stanley P. Morse

******************************************

LN: Leader News Co., Inc.

-------------------------

Entertaining Comics Group (late)

Master Comics, Inc.

Mikeross Publications, Inc.

Sterling Comics, Inc.

Story Comic, Inc.

******************************************

M-DIS: MacFadden Distribution

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Entertaining Comics Group (early)

******************************************

PDC: Publishers Distributing Corp.

----------------------------------

Harvey Comics Group

Lev Gleason Comics

Our Publishing Co.

******************************************

SDC: ?

-----------------------------

Charlton Comics Group (early)

******************************************

[globe]: Atlas Magazines, Inc.

------------------------------

Marvel Comic Group (Atlas Era)

******************************************

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Robert Beerbohm

Robert Beerbohm

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Here was one of those list adverts of which i wrote about above - i have half a dozen others from various years here - in file folders i had not looked at in some time - and i am getting bogged down looking at equally cool other pages of data i have accumulated as i research my book

 

This one is from 1949.

 

By this time, the Indies had wrested venerable Street & Smith away from American News Company. This was the beginning of the end for ANC which would soldier on for another eight years, a veteran of the trenches of the American Civil War of the 1860s, but in its final decades full of corruption to the point the US Senate and Dept of Justice began looking into them in the early 1950s, with ANC signing a consent decree divesting themselves of their distribution aspect of their business in 1957, screwing over more than just Martin Goodman and George Delacorte Sr.

 

With some 95,000 retail outlets outright owned, ANC merely went into the real estate business as well as keeping key lucrative retail magazine/book store outlets.

 

BIPAD-Newsdealer1949-02.jpg

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Robert Beerbohm

Robert Beerbohm

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With the Batman TV craze consuming many Americans for a couple years there, comic "book" magazine sales hit their last major all-time peak, with Batman approaching a million sold per ish for a period there

 

- and many rode on the coat tails while it lasted.

 

By 1968 they be singing the blues, the demise of the comic "book" magazine was soon to be upon us the doom sayers were wont to express

 

RETURNScomics-Newsdealer196.jpg

 

 

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Theagenes

Theagenes

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Posted

I'll second that - Great stuff! :applause: It sounds to me like the story of magazine distibution is large enough and interesting enough to justify its own book.

 

I'm still curious about the various markings on the books themselves. Where in the process do they come in? Arrival dates for example - are those put on by the wholesaler's delivery guy when he drops off his bundles at the local drugstore or by the retailer himself? The distributor codes that are usually just a single penciled initial like an "A" or "C" or "L" - when are they put on the book? Thanks again Bob for sharing your research - this really is interesting stuff. (thumbs u

 

Jeff

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