Which came first JIM 83 or AF 15

[Mister_Comics]

The one thing that many don't realize is that after AF#15, Spider-Man wasn't seen again for a good four or five months. So THOR was already being shown in comics every month during Spidey's absents. ASM#1 came out sometime in early '63.

[markseifert]

In Chicago Bridgeport were I grew up comics came out every Thursday

 

That's interesting. I grew up in Chicago also and was most active buying comics in the 1970-80 period. During that time period Thursdays were also comic book day. Does anyone know if Thursday was a national distribution day or just regional?

 

I was just wondering after seeing all the mentions of Thursday if it was so well-established in some regions that the DM kept up the tradition (for either practical distribution considerations or because it's what everybody was used to) when direct market shops started springing up. I had dropped out of collecting for a bit in the late 70's / early 80's, so I missed the earliest days of the direct market, but by the time I got back into it in the mid-80's new comic day on Thursday seemed well established in DM shops. It'd be amazing if what was for a long time a well-beloved Thursday tradition predated the DM.

 

Regardless of the exact day though, it's cool to hear that the weekly anticipation for "new comic book day" apparently dates back to at least the silver age.

[Mister_Comics]

I just remembered the grandkid of the store owner works here were I do. I should ask him if he'd have any memories of this stuff.

 

Well I talked to the guy yesterday about his grandpa's store. He couldn't tell me much about the comic stuff. He did remember that the comics were delivered usually on the same day every other week. He thinks it was on Wednsday. Remembers them being tied up in string or wire and covered with plain paper as a wrap. Sometime the comics came in a day before and sometimes a day after. But other then that he doesn't remember much about the comics. He was a young kid back then and not really into comics. But he did tell me all kinds of stuff about living there at the store. Bunch of stuff I never knew went on. I don't think you all want to here about butching up chickens. Glad I didn't know about that stuff when I was a kid.

[Aman619]

I doubt the decision was made based upon any kind of "tradition" of Thursday delivereis. But from a business standpoint, involving questions and logistics of printing shipping trucking traffic other standard delivery modes already in place, Thursdays just probably still made sense for periodicals.

[blowout]

The one thing that many don't realize is that after AF#15, Spider-Man wasn't seen again for a good four or five months. So THOR was already being shown in comics every month during Spidey's absents. ASM#1 came out sometime in early '63.

 

Even beyond that, I believe ASM didn't become a monthly book until issue #7.

[shadroch]

From my recollections,

 

pre-1983 Books are printed in Sparta begining Tuesday and finished Weds. am. Books go to distributors warehouse and are shipped via truck to NYC,arriving Thursday.Books are sorted and are available for pickup Friday after 12 noon or delivered to stores on Saturday.

1983ish- Comics Unlimited begins air-freighting books and cuts 12 to 15 hours off timeline,books are ready to go Thursday at noon.

1987ish-Diamond comes to NY and both they and Capital City open warehouses in vicinity of JFK airport.Books are delivered to NYC/LI stores Thursdays.Due to fighting over delivery routes,distributors and the fledging East Coast Comic Retailers Association reach an unofficial agreement not to sell this weeks comics until Friday.This pretty much was the case until Marvel bought out Hero's World and started UPSing their books.In the aftermath of that,Diamond pretty much did away with air-freight and went into UPS mode,making official street dates,before which you couldn't sell the books.

Books from Ronalds and other sources were held and delivered with the main books.

[markseifert]

From my recollections,

 

pre-1983 Books are printed in Sparta begining Tuesday and finished Weds. am. Books go to distributors warehouse and are shipped via truck to NYC,arriving Thursday.Books are sorted and are available for pickup Friday after 12 noon or delivered to stores on Saturday.

1983ish- Comics Unlimited begins air-freighting books and cuts 12 to 15 hours off timeline,books are ready to go Thursday at noon.

1987ish-Diamond comes to NY and both they and Capital City open warehouses in vicinity of JFK airport.Books are delivered to NYC/LI stores Thursdays.Due to fighting over delivery routes,distributors and the fledging East Coast Comic Retailers Association reach an unofficial agreement not to sell this weeks comics until Friday.This pretty much was the case until Marvel bought out Hero's World and started UPSing their books.In the aftermath of that,Diamond pretty much did away with air-freight and went into UPS mode,making official street dates,before which you couldn't sell the books.

Books from Ronalds and other sources were held and delivered with the main books.

 

I think I also remember a brief move to optional twice-weekly (Tuesday and Thursday) deliveries by Diamond somewhere in there in the early/mid-90's. I loved that.

[namisgr]

From 1971-1980, at least, new comics were sold on Wednesday. This was true in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Los Angeles all. Not only was it a well-known big day, but the rotation of books each month was fairly constant, too, so you could anticipate most of the issues that would be made available for the first time.

 

Distribution in the early '70s was not a highly synchronized thing, however, and by driving to several 7-11 stores in a 30 mile radius, one could on rare occasions find books that were "next weeks mags" a week early. Those were the days!

[shadroch]

"Newstand" comics hit the street three weeks after they appear in comic shops,although they are printed at almost the same time. I'm not really sure where they go from the printers.I can't imagine why it would take so long to ship them to the various distributors,nor can I imagine why the distributors would sit on merchandise without distributing it for a few weeks.

[nearmint]

"Newstand" comics hit the street three weeks after they appear in comic shops,although they are printed at almost the same time. I'm not really sure where they go from the printers.I can't imagine why it would take so long to ship them to the various distributors,nor can I imagine why the distributors would sit on merchandise without distributing it for a few weeks.

 

Works out nicely if you work somewhere that carries newsstand comics, though. I worked at a bookstore for 11 years, and whenever a new book hit it big at comics shops, I had first crack at the newsstand copies three weeks later.

 

In addition, some newsstands never bother to put out their comics, so when "Death in the Family" hit, I was able to ask our local distributor(who received whole copy returns) to bring me any returns he received on those books. When Batman #426 was going for $50 a pop, I was still getting them for cover. Those were the days...

[divad]

Its actually pretty funny that newsstands went to all the trouble to stamp the comics when they came in. I mean, why bother? The printed dates on the covers were set 2 months ahead just to alert the retailers when to pull them when they were old. If it's July, pull all the comics with July dates!! voila!

 

Did the storeowners have their OWN anal system that relied on the EXACT number of datys the books sat on the shelves to tell them to pull them?? Seems like way more work than was necessary. (Well, mayb enot WAY more, maybe 35% more )

 

Distribution was way different then young man, books were delivered at all different times by different sub-distributors to different locations. There was a considerable amount of variance in delivery dates across the country. It was way before direct market sales. The retailer returned the books to ITS distributor for credit. By stamping them, there was no room for argument between them - Hey, 12 cents was 12 cents back then!

 

thanx for the compliment, but if you were 7 in 1961, then I should be calling YOU young man!!!

I still dont understand why the comics needed to be stamped upon receipt, The distribs have records of what they delivered and when, no? And if the date stamps were to prove tpo the distribs when they received them, why couldnt the mom and pop stores just put any date thay want that qualified for credit at the last minute before shipping them back for credit??

 

I Still dont see any reason for the date stamps.

 

Honesty . . . a thing of the past, I see. Recordkeeping in the 60's? Yeah, hand ledgers for everything.

[divad]

...and not every stationery store etc stamped their books (obviously or ALL Silver Age books would have them!). My favorite after school job was working in one and I got to open the bundles of comics and magazines each week and put them on th eracks....and I was neer asked to put dates of any kind on them.....

 

Different strokes for different folks. That's why many are unmarked and many are hand-marked

[shadroch]

Could they have been done to prevent shop-lifting.Having a unique date stamp does away with the "I bought it down the block" excuse as well as the "I bought it last week' one as well.

I realize crime was much lesser in those G.O.D.s,but surly there were some kid with itchy fingers,even back then.

[Fan4Fan]

Dude, you're a July 26er too?

 

I've thought of trying to acquire high grade copies of every Marvel from my birthday, July 1964, but i think it would be cost prohibitive.

 

I quickly dismissed doing so for my birthday (January, 1965) and thought about recreating the spinner rack of books when I purchased my first (Justice League of America #110).

 

However, even that would be a stretch to do in high grade since it would include ASM #129... not to mention Marvel Two-In-One #1, Batman #254, Detective #439 and about 110 or 111 others (at at least $10 a pop).

 

Fascinating thread...

 

Thanks,

Fan4Fan

[Aman619]

interesting angle, but even then with prices for everything so much lower than today, I dont think they were sweating a lost 12 cent sale. And if a kid was suspected of shoplifting, hed be banned anyway without solid proof!!