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The first Canadian Golden Age Comic: Better Comics # 1 GRAIL ACQUIRED

Started by eccomic,

47 posts in this topic

eccomic

eccomic

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I have finally acquired my grail Canadian White: Better Comics # 1 :cloud9:

 

BetterComics1.jpg

 

Then along came World War II. Historically we must remember that Canada entered the war right away while America officially remained on the sideline for over 2 years. Canada’s war economy was eating up precious resources and was importing heavily from the United States. This growing deficit forced then Prime Minister McKenzie King to pass the War Exchange Conservation Act at the end of 1940, restricting the importation of nonessential goods such as comic books.

 

Things were looking bleak in early 1941 for Canadian comic book fans.

 

Business is a lot about opportunity though and four Canadian publishers saw a good opportunity in meeting this demand for comic books.

 

Maple Leaf Publishing in Vancouver and Anglo-American, Hillborough Studios, and Bell Features (called Commercial Signs of Canada at start up) all in Toronto jumped into the game.

 

In three short years Canadian publishers were producing about 20 titles on regular schedules. Titles like Dime Comics, Three Aces, Grand Slam Comics, Lucky Comics, Active Comics, Commando Comics, Rocket Comics, Big Bang and Three Aces all sold well. I was unable to find total circulation figures but I did pick up snippets of information here and there, one citing Bell Features publishing over 100 000 comics a week at this time. I can assume monthly publishing totals for the Canadian comic industry at its height was in and around one million copies. If anyone has accurate circulation figures please link in the comments field below.

 

It was the repealing of the aforementioned War Exchange Conservation Act in 1946 that spelled the end of the Canadian Whites. Canadian publishers could not compete with the resumed importation of the color American Comics.

 

 

 

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mikephoen

mikephoen

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I imagine the sell thru on Better Comics :cry: may have been quite modest since the cover price was "outrageous" at a high 15c compared to the 10c USA comics no longer allowed into Canada.

 

Some comics from the early 40s carry a "15 cents in Canada" price on the cover, and I believe at least some stores in Canada marked up ones that didn't to 15 cents as well.

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VintageComics

VintageComics

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I imagine the sell thru on Better Comics :cry: may have been quite modest since the cover price was "outrageous" at a high 15c compared to the 10c USA comics no longer allowed into Canada.

 

Some comics from the early 40s carry a "15 cents in Canada" price on the cover, and I believe at least some stores in Canada marked up ones that didn't to 15 cents as well.

 

Yup. There are some 15 cent variants from the early 1940's out there that were for the Canadian markets.

 

Batman #2 or #3 is one that comes to mind and is notated in Overstreet.

 

 

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