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Fiction house anyone?
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Started by Apotheosis,

9,638 posts in this topic

Mr.Fantastic

Mr.Fantastic

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On 4/21/2024 at 12:57 AM, Spyder! said:

From my quick research, it looks like it’s from a Planet Stories pulp with a publication date of September 1951

Are you sure the publication date is correct for the pulp?  I feel like the comic was published before that.

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Mr.Fantastic

Mr.Fantastic

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Posted (edited)
On 4/21/2024 at 10:27 AM, MattTheDuck said:

MCS has that issue of the Planet Stories as Nov 1950.

Thanks, I was about to post that as I was looking through the dates at MCS as well.  Seems like Fiction House was putting out pulps every other month at that time, and Planet #65 was the only comic released in 1951. It appears in 1952 and 53 they released comics quarterly before they stopped the title altogether. Odd that #65 was the only release of the entire year in 1951.

Edited by Mr.Fantastic
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MattTheDuck

MattTheDuck

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On 4/21/2024 at 8:36 AM, Mr.Fantastic said:

Thanks, I was about to post that as I was looking through the dates at MCS as well.  Seems like Fiction House was putting out pulps every other month at that time, and Planet #65 was the only one released in 1951. It appears in 1952 and 53 they released comics quarterly before they stopped altogether. Odd that #65 was the only release of the entire year in 1951.

There's a lot of that intermittent publication in the pulps especially.  It's almost like they had to scrape together the money and when they had enough, they'd publish the next issue.  Someone around here knows the actual reasons.

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adamstrange

adamstrange

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On 4/21/2024 at 11:36 AM, Mr.Fantastic said:

Thanks, I was about to post that as I was looking through the dates at MCS as well.  Seems like Fiction House was putting out pulps every other month at that time, and Planet #65 was the only comic released in 1951. It appears in 1952 and 53 they released comics quarterly before they stopped the title altogether. Odd that #65 was the only release of the entire year in 1951.

Sci-Fi as a genre was not the big seller that it became after Star Wars.   Bill Gaines was proud of his sci-fi line, but had to subsidize it with the profits from his horror books.

The timid publishing rate of Planets is most likely due to declining sales and concern for profitability.

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Mr.Fantastic

Mr.Fantastic

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On 4/21/2024 at 1:49 PM, adamstrange said:

Sci-Fi as a genre was not the big seller that it became after Star Wars.   Bill Gaines was proud of his sci-fi line, but had to subsidize it with the profits from his horror books.

The timid publishing rate of Planets is most likely due to declining sales and concern for profitability.

In the case of Fiction House, I believe that it thrived off the popularity of its "big six" titles. Jumbo, Jungle, Fight, Wings, Rangers, and Planet Comics, with the first five being primarily war and jungle-themed titles.  Once the popularity of these main titles waned after WWII and horror and crime gained popularity I don't think the company was able to pivot and come out with a popular horror or crime title to successfully produce enough profit to remain viable. However, it appears they may have tried with the introduction of the Ghost title and The Spirit, but it wasn't enough to compete with the fantastic gorry covers of EC and others.  Just my two cents.

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