'PLANET COMICS' (is deserving of its own thread) 29 29

[Zolnerowich]

7 minutes ago, Artboy99 said:

Would depend on how it was printed. I would think you would print all of one side of a cover ( front and back opened up ) then the inside covers ( inside front and inside back with the cover opened up )

Fair point. Then it would depend on how many copies of the "front cover" facing pages of a book would have been printed before the "inside cover" facing pages were printed.

[buttock]

8 hours ago, Zolnerowich said:

 

The question of different cover colors for the same book is a recurring theme on the FH boards. There seems to be consensus boardie opinion that there was poor quality control and oversight of the printing and color strike process at FH. Not to mention that the quality of the paper, and probably the quality of the inks, was not high, especially from about issue 12 to issue 50 (May '41 to Sept '47). Many of the other FH titles around this period also suffered from uneven color strikes. All probably driven by "market factors" and wartime paper and printing shortage/restrictions. I suppose the question is, why was the color variation so much more prominent at FH but not with other publishers...?  Interesting, there is much less color variation in the issues (roughly) between 1-11 and 51-73.

As sacentaur says, general fading per se doesn't seem to be the obvious explanation, since it is often the case that while some colors on the cover have lost their lustre (usually blues or reds), other colors on the cover are still strong. That said, it wouldn't surprise me if the blue or red inks were more susceptible to fading than the yellow inks. In this way, the explanation might be fading, i.e., sun bleaching, only that certain colors faded more in the sun than others. At the same time, as shown by Flex above, some of the more zany colorful Planet covers could have occurred precisely because the color in one of the inkwells was running low during printing. 

I wonder if the FH upper management even knew or cared about these color variations, or if there was a specific color balance they were going for from the beginning of a print run.

The idea that the FH full-color interior ads should resemble those on the cover is a good one, and in my experience, the interior ad and the cover do match up, but not always. I've seen cases where the cover colors are "faded" but the interior ad is still glowing with color. If I can track one of these examples down, I'll post it.

One issue I have with using the interior ads as an ideal is that if color variations were due to printing-related issues then the interior ads should be every bit as subject to variation as the outer covers.  

[sacentaur]

22 minutes ago, buttock said:

One issue I have with using the interior ads as an ideal is that if color variations were due to printing-related issues then the interior ads should be every bit as subject to variation as the outer covers.  

Dan, when comparing a front cover to an interior ad do you mean the same variant or a different variant?

(I checked an issue of Planet I have handy and the exterior cover is the same color variant as the interior front cover ad)

[buttock]

1 minute ago, sacentaur said:

Dan, when comparing a front cover to an interior ad do you mean the same variant or a different variant?

(I checked an issue of Planet I have handy and the exterior cover is the same color variant as the interior front cover ad)

The same.  To clarify, what I hear people saying is that an interior cover (or back cover) ad should be a better representation of what the colors of a particular book should look like.  But that assumes that the interior colors are the books "true" colors, which, in the FH world, seems to be only a 10% chance at best.  

[Flex Mentallo]

5 hours ago, buttock said:

The same.  To clarify, what I hear people saying is that an interior cover (or back cover) ad should be a better representation of what the colors of a particular book should look like.  But that assumes that the interior colors are the books "true" colors, which, in the FH world, seems to be only a 10% chance at best.  

The first clues I gleaned that 'red is the new orange' came from a couple of interior ads in my early days of FH collecting. Very occasionally,  the intensity of the colors would differ between ad and cover, particularly disconcerting when the ad showed the self same cover of the book in hand.  And as Dan says, others would be arbitrarily recolored, so what to believe? [NB I'm racking my brains here - was Rangers #14 one of those?]

 

Being in the UK, with relatively little access to golden age books in the early nineties, it was quite a few years before I came across an actual example of an FH book with colors that popped. (No idea now what book that was - it's lost in the mists of time.)

[Paul © ® ⚽️💙™]

For anyone interested in such things, PLANET COMICS # 2 has been posted in its entirety over in the GRR.  

[Robot Man]

On 2/17/2017 at 0:40 PM, comicjack said:

Stunning

The covers and the interiors were printed on different paper stocks and at different times then bound together. The ink fountains were full of fresh ink at the start of the run then ran down as the run continued. These were printed on large fast moving web presses. If you are not careful there will be a lot of variation. I doubt much quality control was excercised during the run. There were 10 cent throwaway comic books and I doubt the publisher cared that much about quality over saving money. It might have been one printer who printed Friction House and another that did DC and still another that did say Dell. Some publishers cared a little more and spent a little more on their books.

[kelholt]

54 minutes ago, Grantley Goddard said:

For anyone interested in such things, PLANET COMICS # 2 has been posted in its entirety over in the GRR.  

Thanks,

I will definitely check it out.

I've never seen/read the inside of # 2. 

[Paul © ® ⚽️💙™]

2 hours ago, kelholt said:

Thanks,

I will definitely check it out.

I've never seen/read the inside of # 2. 

Enjoy! 

[Ricksneatstuff]

Happy to finally have a mid grade copy of this book.

65 and 71 are especially tough in even 5.0 or better it seems 

 

[october]

Pretty copy of a true classic!

[Zolnerowich]

On 3/23/2017 at 2:33 PM, Robot Man said:

The covers and the interiors were printed on different paper stocks and at different times then bound together. The ink fountains were full of fresh ink at the start of the run then ran down as the run continued. These were printed on large fast moving web presses. If you are not careful there will be a lot of variation. I doubt much quality control was excercised during the run. There were 10 cent throwaway comic books and I doubt the publisher cared that much about quality over saving money. It might have been one printer who printed Friction House and another that did DC and still another that did say Dell. Some publishers cared a little more and spent a little more on their books.

Thanks Robot Man! Definitely one of the more coherent explanations.

There is still the question of why FH had so much more color variation than all of the other publishing companies? Or is it just that no one was minding the store?

Oh, and also:  why "Friction" House  ? Or is it best not to ask...

[Sqeggs]

1 hour ago, Ricksneatstuff said:

Happy to finally have a mid grade copy of this book.

65 and 71 are especially tough in even 5.0 or better it seems 

 

Probably my favorite FH cover.

[Sqeggs]

On 3/21/2017 at 3:01 PM, Zolnerowich said:

 

The question of different cover colors for the same book is a recurring theme on the FH boards. There seems to be consensus boardie opinion that there was poor quality control and oversight of the printing and color strike process at FH. Not to mention that the quality of the paper, and probably the quality of the inks, was not high, especially from about issue 12 to issue 50 (May '41 to Sept '47). Many of the other FH titles around this period also suffered from uneven color strikes. All probably driven by "market factors" and wartime paper and printing shortage/restrictions. I suppose the question is, why was the color variation so much more prominent at FH but not with other publishers...?  Interesting, there is much less color variation in the issues (roughly) between 1-11 and 51-73.

As sacentaur says, general fading per se doesn't seem to be the obvious explanation, since it is often the case that while some colors on the cover have lost their lustre (usually blues or reds), other colors on the cover are still strong. That said, it wouldn't surprise me if the blue or red inks were more susceptible to fading than the yellow inks. In this way, the explanation might be fading, i.e., sun bleaching, only that certain colors faded more in the sun than others. At the same time, as shown by Flex above, some of the more zany colorful Planet covers could have occurred precisely because the color in one of the inkwells was running low during printing. 

I wonder if the FH upper management even knew or cared about these color variations, or if there was a specific color balance they were going for from the beginning of a print run.

The idea that the FH full-color interior ads should resemble those on the cover is a good one, and in my experience, the interior ad and the cover do match up, but not always. I've seen cases where the cover colors are "faded" but the interior ad is still glowing with color. If I can track one of these examples down, I'll post it.

I'm not an FH guy, so take this as just a stray thought.  I've been taken with how vibrant the colors are on many of the end-of-run (or near end-of-run) FH covers.  Maybe the most vibrant GA (although really Atomic Age by then) covers there are. Makes me wonder if they didn't finally decide to put a little more money into the printing process, or maybe it was just the result of switching to a different printer. 

[Zolnerowich]

7 minutes ago, Sqeggs said:

I'm not an FH guy, so take this as just a stray thought.  I've been taken with how vibrant the colors are on many of the end-of-run (or near end-of-run) FH covers.  Maybe the most vibrant GA (although really Atomic Age by then) covers there are. Makes me wonder if they didn't finally decide to put a little more money into the printing process, or maybe it was just the result of switching to a different printer. 

Though it would be a bit sad/pathetic if they had finally decided to invest in a better printing company, and then go out of business. 

Interesting, up until Sept '49 (Planet #62), they'd been publishing every other month. Then #63 in Winter '49, then #64 in Spring '50. Then after a long gap, a single "1951" issue, #65, comes out, which begins the really vibrant neon covers, and (probably not coincidentally) also begins the all-reprint issues, which appear on a quarterly (4 seasons) schedule until #73 in Winter '53. Then poof! no more Fiction House. 

Clearly something major happened at the company between issues #64-65 in 1950-51. Maybe there is a historical record from that time period that could shed some light?

[Robot Man]

55 minutes ago, Zolnerowich said:

Thanks Robot Man! Definitely one of the more coherent explanations.

There is still the question of why FH had so much more color variation than all of the other publishing companies? Or is it just that no one was minding the store?

Oh, and also:  why "Friction" House  ? Or is it best not to ask...

FH was cheap, like Charlton. They set up the press, put on a roll of paper and pushed the button. If they could "water down" the inks they did so. When it got bad enough, they put in more ink. Nobody cared, it was a disposable media.

"Friction House" should be obvious if you have any many of them as I do.  Nuff said...

[Flex Mentallo]

3 hours ago, october said:

Pretty copy of a true classic!

Yes, nice copy Rick! I first came across this issue in 1991 or thereabouts - in a longbox otherwise full of Silver Age. It confused me because the sophistication of the cover seemed very 'modern' to me - more modern in fact than the Silver Age I was collecting at the time. The dealer wanted £20 (about $30), and it was at best a VG, so I passed on it, thinking I would eventually hunt down a better copy, or a cheaper one... 15 years went by, before I landed one... There are very few covers I dont eventually tire of, but this one has never lost its luster for me.

[Sqeggs]

1 hour ago, Flex Mentallo said:

Yes, nice copy Rick! I first came across this issue in 1991 or thereabouts - in a longbox otherwise full of Silver Age. It confused me because the sophistication of the cover seemed very 'modern' to me - more modern in fact than the Silver Age I was collecting at the time. The dealer wanted £20 (about $30), and it was at best a VG, so I passed on it, thinking I would eventually hunt down a better copy, or a cheaper one... 15 years went by, before I landed one... There are very few covers I dont eventually tire of, but this one has never lost its luster for me.

Beautiful copy.  You would never guess from the cover that the pages are Light Tan.  Makes me wonder if perhaps they're just a gnat's eyelash away from cream. 

[jimjum12]

4 hours ago, Zolnerowich said:

Though it would be a bit sad/pathetic if they had finally decided to invest in a better printing company, and then go out of business. 

Interesting, up until Sept '49 (Planet #62), they'd been publishing every other month. Then #63 in Winter '49, then #64 in Spring '50. Then after a long gap, a single "1951" issue, #65, comes out, which begins the really vibrant neon covers, and (probably not coincidentally) also begins the all-reprint issues, which appear on a quarterly (4 seasons) schedule until #73 in Winter '53. Then poof! no more Fiction House. 

Clearly something major happened at the company between issues #64-65 in 1950-51. Maybe there is a historical record from that time period that could shed some light?

I can't remember which exact issues, but I think a couple of the "all reprint" issues may have new stories with Benulis art.....a fave of mine from the Atlas stable. GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[Flex Mentallo]

6 hours ago, jimjum12 said:

I can't remember which exact issues, but I think a couple of the "all reprint" issues may have new stories with Benulis art.....a fave of mine from the Atlas stable. GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

Yep. #71 - #73 were mostly - if not all - new material. This story appeared in an IW reprint that was in circulation in the UK when I was a  kid, circa 1960. I had no notion of an earlier age of comics so the downbeat tone, and the overlay of horror, caused me to remember this story long after. Eventually I tracked down the source to Planet #72, so of course I had to spend many more years finding a nice copy...