Who Had Worse QP: Blind Gorilla Printers or Charlton?

[joe_collector]

Oh man, I bought a few more Byrne Charltons, looked through my collection to see what else I had, and then opened them up for a quick grading.

 

Holy Cap! I knew the QP was bad on these issues, but some are absolutely horrific. I'm talking otherwise-pristine copies with married pages, folded-in extensions, mis-cut/off-cut covers, non-standard sizes, off-size pages, that weird "small circle cut/edge of the roll" pages, etc.

 

Reading BA Charltons is like going to a freakshow.

[MisterX]

Yes, I have a few with off-size pages and, I think, ink stains from the cover seeping into the rest of the book (or maybe from another comic stacked on top of it.)

[joe_collector]

I wonder if Charlton was so cheap that they used remainder newsprint left over from Marvel/DC productions?

[the blob]

have you EVER gotten a charlton from that era without some sort of printing error? some of them are hilarious (like, "how on earth did this ever leave the factory, only half of the cover is printed), married pages are very common (makes you wonder if anyone ever read them?) as are folded pages you unfold to realize there's a big chunk of extra paper on the page that will now stick out of the comic.

[joe_collector]

I love that folded/uncut pages stuff (and yes, I have a few of those), but my fave are those weird "page remainders" that have weird edges like they were cut with craft scissors.

 

It also does make me wonder how these could be read.

[Green]

Siamese pages? Noobs

[joe_collector]

 

Siamese pages are uncut/joined and not remainder paper that looks like it was cut with craft scissors.

 

[Logan510]

I concur. Almost all of my Byrne Charltons have the exact same issues as described. At least I know I'm not alone now

[joe_collector]

But on the positive side, the horrible QP levels certainly raise the Charlton nostalgia level, similar to the old "rough cut" OPC cards, both of which could *only* happen in the 70's.

[Bronty]

the very best of the charlton books aren't bad at all - the ditko horror/suspense, the byrne's, etc.... so the qp on teh books just pisses me off. like you said you find a nice NM looking copy and then the inside looks a 4 year old cut it with rusty scissors. annoying

[the blob]

yeah, some of the charltons are perfectly decent substance-wise

 

 

[seanfingh]

 

Siamese pages are uncut/joined and not remainder paper that looks like it was cut with craft scissors.

 

 

I was rebagging books last night and came across a Doomsday +1 #5 that looks like this picture.

[bigfiver69]

I recently picked up a few of the war titles from he 1967-1970 period, and they are about as 'high grade' as Charltons from that era get... still, the cutting was atrocious! And the actual paper quality was very, very poor, particularly the cover stock. The interior pages are reasonably off-white, but the cover stock on the books had tanned... I've never seen white pages on a Charlton book prior to 1970...

 

 

[rjpb]

Blind Gorilla Printers, weren't they a casualty of the copper age B/W glut?

[seanfingh]

I recently picked up a few of the war titles from he 1967-1970 period, and they are about as 'high grade' as Charltons from that era get... still, the cutting was atrocious! And the actual paper quality was very, very poor, particularly the cover stock. The interior pages are reasonably off-white, but the cover stock on the books had tanned... I've never seen white pages on a Charlton book prior to 1970...

 

 

One of the LCS here in town has some of the most beautiful Charltons, from a structural standpoint, I've ever seen. Including a Jetsons #1 that is as dead bang 9.8 as any Bronze book I've ever seen. But they all look like they've been in a pizza oven. The PQ is Tan to Cream and the covers are all sporting a toasty tanning ring.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Charltons from the 80's =

 

I have nightmares about ever assembling a complete set. I have no doubts that this will be the very, very last company I complete.

 

 

[Sal]

Dead Bang was a terrible movie.

[bigfiver69]

Charltons from the 80's =

 

I have nightmares about ever assembling a complete set. I have no doubts that this will be the very, very last company I complete.

 

 

My experience with Charltons is that you'll go years not seeing anything worthwhile, and then a large collection will appear. I've been at some cons where a dealer will roll in with boxes and boxes of 1970s Charltons.

 

[seanfingh]

Charltons from the 80's =

 

I have nightmares about ever assembling a complete set. I have no doubts that this will be the very, very last company I complete.

 

 

I went after these very hard for a couple of years. Have all of the Professor Coffins and Statics, most of the War books and two decent copies of Zoo Funnies.

[jools&jim]

 

Not sure if this has been mentioned before or not, but when I was a kid it always seemed to me that Charltons smelled funny--or at least different--from Marvel and DCs. Weird but true!

 

What can I say? I was a strange kid I guess...