Infinite Bronze War Thread 11 11

[MisterX]

In terms of comic book history, who is a more significant:

 

Enemy Ace or the Unknown Soldier?

 

I've often wondered why the Enemy Ace isn't more popular. Is it because he's a morbid weirdo? Even his fellow Germans don't like him very much.

 

What's funny is that while I'm guessing the Unknown Soldier was more popular at the time (with the sales to prove it), he seemed to have vanished from Comic Book Memory for a couple of decades. At least until recently. (Although a Vertigo reboot seems sacreligious to me.)

 

Meanwhile, the Comic Book Critics continue to gush over the Enemy Ace stories. I never encountered much praise for the Unknown Soldier, except for maybe the Michelinie stuff.

 

I wonder if Michelinie would have been able to do his interpretation of the Unknown Soldier without Enemy Ace paving the way first.

 

Harvey Kurtzman did war stories through the eyes of the enemy, but never with a reoccuring character. I think Kanigher and Kubert really did push the envelope with the Enemy Ace stories.

 

So...even though I'm a diehard Unknown Soldier fan, I'm going with the Ace.

[bigfiver69]

Without a doubt, Unknown Soldier.

 

I love Enemy Ace, but to me he was a much more one-dimensional character than US.

 

US carried a book as the title character for well over 100 issues... Enemy Ace, for about 15.

 

And remember... as critically acclaimed as Enemy Ace was, it was a near-disaster at the newsstand. Keep in mind that All American Men of War had just been cancelled, and the poor sales on Star Spangled War Stories with the Enemy Ace issues meant that book was on the chopping block too...

 

What saved the book?

 

The Unknown Soldier. I have the sales data on that title from that era, and there is a pretty significant spike in sales once US came on the scene.

 

Shep

[whisp]

Picked up some Weird War Tales today and finally got a copy of a book I have had my eye on in a friends collection which is the WWT #76 which in my opinion has a awesome cover. This one is in really nice condition since from Don Rosa Collection and it is my first book from any sort of collection that is named. Also grabed WWT #15, 22, and 28 since they are fun covers.

 

[Jeffro.]

That 22 is really sharp. It's one of my favorites from way back.

 

Imo, Joe Kubert did some of his best covers on WWT. Great stuff.

[whisp]

That 22 is really sharp. It's one of my favorites from way back.

 

Imo, Joe Kubert did some of his best covers on WWT. Great stuff.

 

The #76 is a Joe Kubert so I agree. My friend said that he did very few covers for WWT but he knocked that one out of the park in my opinion.

 

That #22 is low grade but the cover is pretty cool too so I grabbed it.

[Jeffro.]

My friend said that he did very few covers for WWT but he knocked that one out of the park in my opinion.

 

More than you think. Kubert did covers for 1-7, 36, 38, 39, 42, 44, 51, 52, 55, 58, 60, 62-69, 72, 75-81, 84-88, 90-96, 100, 103, 104, 106, 107, and 123

[whisp]

My friend said that he did very few covers for WWT but he knocked that one out of the park in my opinion.

 

More than you think. Kubert did covers for 1-7, 36, 38, 39, 42, 44, 51, 52, 55, 58, 60, 62-69, 72, 75-81, 84-88, 90-96, 100, 103, 104, 106, 107, and 123

 

Thanks for the info. Maybe I missheard my friend but I will let him know.

 

[bigfiver69]

I remember buying WWT #76 from the stands. Great memories...

 

The 40 cent WWTs are sometime tough to find in really high grade... but not as hard as the 35 centers. I've just found those implosion-era books really, really tough. Finally got 'em all a few years back, but those were much tougher than the 20 and 25 centers.

 

Shep

 

 

[Jeffro.]

I tend to agree Shep. Print runs on those early issues must have been high.

[bigfiver69]

Hey Jeff,

 

We'll probably never know, as the sales data does not seem to appear in the early issues. Once a year, the publisher was obliged to print the previous years sales and circulation data (largely to cover legal requirements of the US Postal Service). For some reason, these do not appear in WWT until the mid-1970s.

 

Here's the complete available circulation data:

 

 

1971 - 1974 Not available

1975 - 361,000 printed 158,000 sold (#47)

1976 - 335,000 printed 135,000 sold (#53)

1977 - 308,478 printed 121,697 sold (#63)

1978 - 353,648 printed 113, 513sold (#74)

1979 - 239, 185 printed 85,628 sold (#86)

1980 - 243,857 printed 83,401 sold (#99)

1981 - 226,757 printed 79,078 sold (#111)

1982 - 220,120 printed 67,278 sold (#123)

 

 

A few interesting things are illustrated by this data. Even though the sales data isn't available on the earlier years, if you work the data back, it's a good bet that sales of the book in 1971-74 probably ranged from 160,000 to perhaps as high as 200,000 a month.

 

Keep in mind, the data largely reflects the previoius year from the noted date. And the year that sales really fell off a cliff were 78-79 (in actualilty, 77-78). These were, of course, the DC implosion years largely with the 35 and 50 cent covers.

 

I have found really high grade issues of the last year or so also quite hard to find, but not as hard as the 1977-78 books. The reason for this might well be that, while circulation was lower in 81-82, fandom was stronger and more of these books were likely saved in higher condition.

 

Also surprising is that in the printed data, sales never topped 50% of print run. In the later years, they barely topped 25% of print run! In retrospect, it's sort of amazing that the title wasn't killed off in the mid-70s.

 

Interesting stuff.

Shep

 

 

[Jeffro.]

 

Also surprising is that in the printed data, sales never topped 50% of print run. In the later years, they barely topped 25% of print run! In retrospect, it's sort of amazing that the title wasn't killed off in the mid-70s.

 

Interesting stuff.

Shep

 

 

Interesting indeed. Thanks Shep.

 

I've always wondered why so many were printed but considerably less were actually sold. Sounds like a tremendous waste of money to print so many comics that would never sell.

[bigfiver69]

 

Also surprising is that in the printed data, sales never topped 50% of print run. In the later years, they barely topped 25% of print run! In retrospect, it's sort of amazing that the title wasn't killed off in the mid-70s.

 

Interesting stuff.

Shep

 

 

Interesting indeed. Thanks Shep.

 

I've always wondered why so many were printed but considerably less were actually sold. Sounds like a tremendous waste of money to print so many comics that would never sell.

 

Back in the 1950s-60s, many of DCs titles reportedly sold 90%+ of print run.

 

When you fall to 30% of print run, that just cannot be justified from a business perspective.

 

I actually believe that the pull of Joe Kubert, and perhaps even Paul Levitz who edited the title for a while and then ascended to the top of DC management, may have kept this book alive long after it ceased being viable.

 

Shep

 

 

[Dmac538]

Here are a few HG Bronze war i picked up this weekend at WW Philly.

 

 

[Jeffro.]

Those are killer! Nice pick ups

[RockMyAmadeus]

 

Also surprising is that in the printed data, sales never topped 50% of print run. In the later years, they barely topped 25% of print run! In retrospect, it's sort of amazing that the title wasn't killed off in the mid-70s.

 

Interesting stuff.

Shep

 

 

Interesting indeed. Thanks Shep.

 

I've always wondered why so many were printed but considerably less were actually sold. Sounds like a tremendous waste of money to print so many comics that would never sell.

 

Because the additional per unit cost essentially becomes next to nothing after certain amounts are printed. It was more important to keep the presses running continually, so publishers would get tremendous breaks for larger runs.

 

Strange but true.

[OV]

Here are a few HG Bronze war i picked up this weekend at WW Philly.

 

 

Very awesome (thumbs u I really like the Batman and Sgt Rock one.

[bigfiver69]

Here are a few HG Bronze war i picked up this weekend at WW Philly.

 

 

Great books.... I notice that your 254 is slightly miscut, which is a really common thing on that book. I see 3 miscut for every 1 nicely centred one. Pressman must have been sleeping off a bender!

 

Also notice no #245. Was there one there? It is one of the single toughest BA war books to find in 9.0 or better.

 

How much did you pay, if I might ask? Always interested in prices/grades on convention books.

 

Shep

 

 

[Dmac538]

Here are a few HG Bronze war i picked up this weekend at WW Philly.

 

 

Great books.... I notice that your 254 is slightly miscut, which is a really common thing on that book. I see 3 miscut for every 1 nicely centred one. Pressman must have been sleeping off a bender!

 

Also notice no #245. Was there one there? It is one of the single toughest BA war books to find in 9.0 or better.

 

How much did you pay, if I might ask? Always interested in prices/grades on convention books.

 

Shep

 

These were acquired from a dealer that i had purchased a bunch of books from, so he cut me a sweet deal on these. I did see one #245, but it would be hard pressed to make a 9.0, I am on the lookout for that one as well.

[thirdgreenham]

Gorgeous books there, Dmac!

 

 

Andy

[whisp]

I get a kick out of that brave and the bold 108 .