sfcityduck Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 (edited) I'm just curious what comic book racks were extant in the Golden Age. My own research reveals the existence of racks (wire spinner, wooden shelf, and flat wire) by DC, Dell, and Ziff-Davis [Correction: and King Comics and Classics Illustrated]. I've never seen a rack by any other publisher. I'd love to increase my knowledge of this subject. In the interest of sharing, here's some info on D.C. I believe the first D.C. comics rack came out in 1939 and featured seven slots for Action, Detective, Adventure, Superman, Flash, All-American, and More Fun: Another example: This was followed in short order by a seven slot rack for Action, Detective, Adventure, Superman, Flash, All-American, and All-Flash/World's Finest (sorry More Fun): The last of this sort of GA rack was a ten slot rack for Action, Detective, Superman, Batman, Flash, Adventure, All-American, More Fun, All-Star, and World's Finest/All-Flash. Some of these early DC racks also included an extra plate stating: After that, DC had so many titles that they switched to racks which did not identify specific comics for the slots. I'll post more later if anyone's interested or has their own info to share on GA racks. Edited June 22, 2017 by sfcityduck Yorick and OtherEric 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batman_fan Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 38 minutes ago, sfcityduck said: I'm just curious what comic book racks were extant in the Golden Age. My own research reveals the existence of racks (wire spinner, wooden shelf, and flat wire) by DC, Dell, and Ziff-Davis [Correction: and King Comics and Classics Illustrated]. I've never seen a rack by any other publisher. I'd love to increase my knowledge of this subject. In the interest of sharing, here's some info on D.C. I believe the first D.C. comics rack came out in 1939 and featured seven slots for Action, Detective, Adventure, Superman, Flash, All-American, and More Fun: Another example: This was followed in short order by a seven slot rack for Action, Detective, Adventure, Superman, Flash, All-American, and All-Flash/World's Finest (sorry More Fun): The last of this sort of GA rack was a ten slot rack for Action, Detective, Superman, Batman, Flash, Adventure, All-American, More Fun, All-Star, and World's Finest/All-Flash. Some of these early DC racks also included an extra plate stating: After that, DC had so many titles that they switched to racks which did not identify specific comics for the slots. I'll post more later if anyone's interested or has their own info to share on GA racks. Thanks for posting. Definitely plan on reading more carefully tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woowoo Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 (edited) 1 hour ago, sfcityduck said: I'm just curious what comic book racks were extant in the Golden Age. My own research reveals the existence of racks (wire spinner, wooden shelf, and flat wire) by DC, Dell, and Ziff-Davis [Correction: and King Comics and Classics Illustrated]. I've never seen a rack by any other publisher. I'd love to increase my knowledge of this subject. In the interest of sharing, here's some info on D.C. I believe the first D.C. comics rack came out in 1939 and featured seven slots for Action, Detective, Adventure, Superman, Flash, All-American, and More Fun: Another example: This was followed in short order by a seven slot rack for Action, Detective, Adventure, Superman, Flash, All-American, and All-Flash/World's Finest (sorry More Fun): The last of this sort of GA rack was a ten slot rack for Action, Detective, Superman, Batman, Flash, Adventure, All-American, More Fun, All-Star, and World's Finest/All-Flash. Some of these early DC racks also included an extra plate stating: After that, DC had so many titles that they switched to racks which did not identify specific comics for the slots. I'll post more later if anyone's interested or has their own info to share on GA racks. i got the movie and the Fantasy 15 looks bright From 1955 tv superman Inlarge the pic and see early Batman's back wall Edited June 22, 2017 by woowoo BuscemasAvengers, MAY1979, comicquant and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RareHighGrade Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 When I saw the title of this thread, I expected to see lots of postings of Phantom Lady covers. sacentaur and Yorick 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfcityduck Posted June 22, 2017 Author Share Posted June 22, 2017 I think those pictures of newsstands show that publisher specific racks were very rare -- at least at newsstands. I have seen very few vintage pictures of publisher specific racks. I have seen a flyer depicting a King Comics countertop display rack: Tbone911t 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
143ksk Posted June 23, 2017 Share Posted June 23, 2017 (edited) Early '50s Archie rack Edited June 23, 2017 by 143ksk Badger, archiecomicscollector and MrBedrock 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfcityduck Posted June 23, 2017 Author Share Posted June 23, 2017 Love the "TEEN-AGEY" LOL! That's awesome and exactly what I was hoping to see. Thanks for posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woowoo Posted June 23, 2017 Share Posted June 23, 2017 2 hours ago, 143ksk said: Early '50s Archie rack What where is the Pep 22 jackpot Archie 1 come on maaaaaaaan Great rack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfcityduck Posted June 23, 2017 Author Share Posted June 23, 2017 (edited) Continuing with DC racks, it doesn't appear they came out with any new wire racks beyond the above during WWII. There are some surviving cardboard rack toppers from the early GA: The rest of the DC racks I've seen all date to the post-war period. Hakes sold this incredibly beautiful DC wood rack: And I've seen another version of this same rack, identical except it does not have the blue and yellow logo on the side, in the collection of a guy here in SF. But we know this rack dates to after the adoption of CCA in 1954, and uses the DC logo for the 1949-1971 time period. This one probably dates from 1954 to early 60s. A DC spinner rack dating to probably the early 1950s, didn't mention the CCA: Part of the reason we can date this fairly plain logo spinner rack to the 1950s is that in the 1960s DC racks got a little weird, using the go-go checker designs: Campy Batman graphics: And Superman graphics: Edited June 23, 2017 by sfcityduck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N e r V Posted June 23, 2017 Share Posted June 23, 2017 I'd like to be able to identify one day what the spinner racks used around 1973 in 7-11 stores looked like. So far I haven't found any sites that track spinner racks use to their time periods only certain racks with dates attached. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfcityduck Posted June 23, 2017 Author Share Posted June 23, 2017 32 minutes ago, N e r V said: I'd like to be able to identify one day what the spinner racks used around 1973 in 7-11 stores looked like. So far I haven't found any sites that track spinner racks use to their time periods only certain racks with dates attached. Based on my memories, the "Hey Kids, Comics" spinner would be a good bet. I think the "Richie Rich/Spidey/Archie/Supes" racks came later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N e r V Posted June 23, 2017 Share Posted June 23, 2017 Would that be this one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfcityduck Posted June 23, 2017 Author Share Posted June 23, 2017 (edited) 16 minutes ago, N e r V said: Would that be this one? I definitely remember that one and this one from that time period: I think red/white/blue is the more common of the two. Edited June 23, 2017 by sfcityduck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenPRGuy Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 On 6/22/2017 at 8:13 PM, 143ksk said: Early '50s Archie rack I do love your rack, Steve. Been a while since you gave everyone a peek! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfcityduck Posted June 28, 2017 Author Share Posted June 28, 2017 (edited) Continuing on with the DC GA, Jon Berk's rack sold for $3,433: Billed as a "1950s rack," the presence of the CCA stamp reveals it is a Silver Age rack. This rack, on the other hand, has no CCA stamp, so I think it is a GA rack from the early 50s (repainted blue): Edited June 28, 2017 by sfcityduck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfcityduck Posted June 28, 2017 Author Share Posted June 28, 2017 My knowledge of DC GA racks is now exhausted. Moving on, here's a great Ziff-Davis rack: I've seen two of these. Really really cool to me because I've never thought of Ziff-Davis as aiming for the "Wholesome" market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frisco Larson Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 GREAT idea for a thread!!!! I have one comic rack which I believe to be from the 70's, but have no available pics of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfcityduck Posted June 28, 2017 Author Share Posted June 28, 2017 I keep waiting for Robotman to drop by. He's got a nice Dell rack, which is where I'm going next, as well as a collection of the "slot signs" used on racks. These include not just some of the DC "slot signs" seen above, but also slot signs for Joe Palooka and "Boy Illustories" (Boy Comics). So I guess we need to add Harvey and Lev Gleason to the list of publishers who had a rack presence, although I've never seen anything other than these slot signs from those publishers. Could have been used in countertop racks: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfcityduck Posted June 28, 2017 Author Share Posted June 28, 2017 Quick digression back to DC for a minute, with kudos to Robot Man again (who I hope drops by), here's a different, very rare countertop spinner, version of the DC GA rack I posted up above which I believe is owned by him: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamstrange Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 1 hour ago, sfcityduck said: Quick digression back to DC for a minute, with kudos to Robot Man again (who I hope drops by), here's a different, very rare countertop spinner, version of the DC GA rack I posted up above which I believe is owned by him: Great comics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...