1977 Direct vs. Newsstand

[the blob]

There is much inaccuracy being posted here.

 

Direct distribution...entirely independent of Western/Whitman...began as early as 1974, if not earlier.

 

As noted, there is not a shred of evidence that suggests these "fat diamond" books were reprints. Marvel had never reprinted regular books before in the same format (aside from Marvel Comics #1), and wouldn't until Star Wars. Those books are CLEARLY marked "reprint", either in the indicia or on the cover.

 

(For total accuracy, it's certainly possible that Timely, like DC, DID reprint certain issues, like Marvel Comics #1 and Superman #1, but it certainly wouldn't have been a practice much after 1941-45-ish.)

 

Not a single copy of any other title has been marked "reprint."

 

Direct distribution took some time to catch on. But Marvel did not go company-wide with the Direct program in June 1979 cover date (about March of '79) out of nowhere. They had been selling to Direct distributors for several years.

 

They WERE going to comic shops in 1977....but in 1977, there weren't that many comic shops. And the Whitman 3-packs may have been going to 7-11...though that would not have made too much sense...but the point was that they were going to WHITMAN, the Direct distributor, FIRST.

 

But what version of these books made it to comic shops via the "direct" market in 1977? Seems like not having the month on the cover might be bad for comic shops, or maybe not, as they couldn't return them anyway?

[RockMyAmadeus]

There is much inaccuracy being posted here.

 

Direct distribution...entirely independent of Western/Whitman...began as early as 1974, if not earlier.

 

As noted, there is not a shred of evidence that suggests these "fat diamond" books were reprints. Marvel had never reprinted regular books before in the same format (aside from Marvel Comics #1), and wouldn't until Star Wars. Those books are CLEARLY marked "reprint", either in the indicia or on the cover.

 

(For total accuracy, it's certainly possible that Timely, like DC, DID reprint certain issues, like Marvel Comics #1 and Superman #1, but it certainly wouldn't have been a practice much after 1941-45-ish.)

 

Not a single copy of any other title has been marked "reprint."

 

Direct distribution took some time to catch on. But Marvel did not go company-wide with the Direct program in June 1979 cover date (about March of '79) out of nowhere. They had been selling to Direct distributors for several years.

 

They WERE going to comic shops in 1977....but in 1977, there weren't that many comic shops. And the Whitman 3-packs may have been going to 7-11...though that would not have made too much sense...but the point was that they were going to WHITMAN, the Direct distributor, FIRST.

 

But what version of these books made it to comic shops via the "direct" market in 1977? Seems like not having the month on the cover might be bad for comic shops, or maybe not, as they couldn't return them anyway?

 

Comic shops were still getting newsstand copies, for the most part, in 1977. Cover dates were instituted so that newsstand vendors would know when to pull the books off sale. In comic shops, that was no longer necessary...they could have them for sale as long as they wanted.

 

What version of these books made it to comic shops via the "direct" market in 1977? Whoever was buying from the Direct distributors, like Seagate. It would have been very few, and very sporadic (in terms of "Direct" copies.)

 

The Direct market was entirely independent of Western/Whitman. It was Phil Seuling's idea, and he convinced Marvel, DC, and the others to try it at all. Western/Whitman only took advantage of it when they found out about it, because it was right up their alley. Now, instead of paying wholesale newsstand rates (20-40% off cover) for books they weren't going to return anyways, they could now get 60% off cover, for the same product.

[bababooey]

I started collecting K-mart 3 packs in the summer of '77.

 

I don't think they are reprints but they were about a month or so behind newsstand copies - I had bought ASM 170-172 in July/August, my OO newsstand 176 is date stamped in Canada for Nov 10, 1977. (Mike's Amazing shows a shipping date a month earlier than my date stamp)

 

Interesting information I can share - that may or may not be related - is that in my experience the K-mart 3 packs from the summer of '77 also included some older stuff.

 

I can recall a lot of Giant Size #1's like Power Man, Iron Man, Cap, Doc Savage also GS Avengers #5, GS ManThing 5, FF GS #6 which were probably all books that didn't sell well since they were mostly reprints. The random other singles included in 3 packs were ASM 149, Avengers 138 & 145, DD 124, FF 167, Amazing Adventures 31, Hulk 197, Iron Man 84, MSH 56, MTA 28. Jungle Action 20, Defenders 26, Marvel Double Feature 11, Master of Kung Fu 38 and a few others. None of the pre '77 stuff had diamond numbers and there wasn't even a UPC box.

 

All of these older books seem random from May to Dec of '75 and even though they're from the time of some other big books GSX#1, X-men 94, WWBN 32 but I never saw any of those in three packs. Of course I wasn't looking for any of those at the time but in those days GS ManThing #5 was a good one to have.

 

[01TheDude]

I don't recall ever seeing the three packs at any 7-11's but clearly remember them for sale at Jewel/Osco grocery stores (south suburbs of Chicago). K-Mart had the packs as well (never single copies) in addition to the Power Records. I bought most of my books new stand style from 7-11 racks. I could not get the magazines or treasury size books anywhere but the Osco racks.

 

I recall always being on the lookout for new places to find comics of any type. The first TPBs I bought were in a book store in the mall (MARVEL Origins, Son of Origins etc and the Steranko history volumes plus the 1976 OSPG).

 

I do remember that even then, we tried to avoid the Diamond copies as they were seen as second class to the news stand. My thoughts on that have changed over time but back then it seemed the only place those came from was the three packs. And I don't knock the three packs at all as sometimes it was the only way to find a copy of a book I needed for my runs. Not sure why but I noticed I hung on to both versions if I had them - perhaps the beer can collector in me where all variations were deemed important.