Question of missing pages or just made that way? 0

[Hobo]

This question was asked on another board:

 

So, here's a weird one, and maybe the limited amount of folks with experience can help me.

 

I bought a Batman #84 and #86 yesterday at WWLA, for $25 and $15 respectively...both in Fair...maybe Fair/Good.

 

I pulled out the Batman #86 tonight, to do a page count....it was, after all, only $15, so I wasn't TOO worried...

 

And discovered the most bizarre thing I've ever seen in a 1954 DC comic:

 

It has 20 leaves alright, which was the standard page count of DC books since mid 1952 (which puts to lie the 1961 statement that DC "hadn't raised prices in 25+ years"...page counts STARTED at 64 pages, then went to 52, then went to 40, then went to the now familiar 32 by 1955...last time I checked, getting LESS material for the "same price" was a RAISE in price...but I digress.)

 

So, yeah, it has 20 leaves....but when I went to find the centerfold staples between leaves 10 and 11, I couldn't find them. It took me quite a few seconds to locate it, even going back to the beginning and counting pages again...

 

And then, the oddest thing happened....I counted all the way to leaf 12, and there, between leaves 12 and 13, were the centerfold staples!

 

On the opposite side of the centerfold, there are only EIGHT leaves.

 

So, I look...this is telltale for pages MISSING....

 

And sure enough....there were four missing leaves.

 

But....

 

They weren't your ordinary "let's take scissors and cut out the pages" type....they were between every odd/even leaf, all four....so, between leaves 13 and 14, 15 and 16, 17 and 18, and 19 and 20, there was a perfectly cut strip, about 3/4" wide. Perfectly cut, as if by machine.

 

Almost as if they made a mistake at the printer....

 

So, I went back to count pages in my other 1952-54 books....and sure enough, Batman #83, 84, 85, 76, 73, Detective #193, 205....all have 20 leaves, 10 on the left side of the centerfold staples, and 10 on the right. By Batman #90 (first Code, so probably well timed), the leaf count had gone from 20 to 16.

 

Curiouser and curiouser....

 

Can anyone tell me, if they know, if ALL Batman #86s are like this?

 

Indeed, all my books in that range are like this . . . historical artifact?

[catrick339]

Made that way. This question came up on a Superman of similar vintage awhile back on another forum, and so I went and pulled my Supes run and did page counts through that era, and although all of them had 40 interior pages, there was a bunch with 20 on each side of the staples, and a bunch more with a 24/16 count before and after the staples. Just another of the vagaries of printing and binding of that era.

 

Nothing to see here, move along!

[Theagenes]

I've seen these referred to as "half-wraps." My Buck Rogers 6 has them as well -- freaked me out at first.

[CAP Freak]

Oooh. I should start doing page counts. I usually just read them and that tells me if anythings missing.

[seank]

GCD can be your best friend. Batman 86 data. I freaked out that one of my early Fight Comics was missing a page until I logged on and started comparing.

[skypinkblu]

Be careful, though, some of the GCD info is wrong. I have a Hit comic, that is complete has every page listed in GCD, but their count is wrong. There are lots of 20 page books in 1952 and 1954 and lots of 28 page books in 1941 to 1943 (mostly DC)

 

VERY confusing;)

[mrmcdc]

I have several copies of Batman 31.  One copy matches GCD description exactly.  Another copy is missing 4 pages (2 leaves) and they are only ads.  Nice clean slice near the fold of the book.  Pages 33/34 and 49/50 given a 52 page book.  Has anyone else seen this happen for the same issue of a comic?  Perhaps the printers were shy a roll and finished the run without some pages.