King Comics UK Price Variants 4 4

[Aman619]

found this halftone measuring mylar overlay.   to give you an idea

[Aman619]

On 10/28/2022 at 3:38 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

It's the only Flash with a double box, but Mandrake #10 has UK/US pricing above/below the CCA code.

Here they are:

ok.  looks like more imprecise cheap and/or bad stripping.  But why on both editions?!  Could there have been a third price variant BEFORE the UK?  Otherwise one of these would be clean and NOT have an echo of the other...  Maybe the 15c 'ers went first?

Edited October 28, 2022 by Aman619

[Get Marwood & I]

On 10/28/2022 at 8:50 PM, Aman619 said:

ok.  looks like more imprecise cheap and/or bad stripping.  But why on both editions?!  Could there have been a third price variant BEFORE the UK?  Otherwise one of these would be clean and NOT have an echo of the other...  Maybe the 15c 'ers went first?

Odd, isn't it, to be on both. And no other versions that I'm aware of - just these two. 

[Yorick]

On 10/28/2022 at 12:50 PM, Aman619 said:

ok.  looks like more imprecise cheap and/or bad stripping.  But why on both editions?!  Could there have been a third price variant BEFORE the UK?  Otherwise one of these would be clean and NOT have an echo of the other...  Maybe the 15c 'ers went first?

I'm more knowledgeable about press printing rather than film printing.  What is the color sequence of printing in film?

[Aman619]

I didn't actually remember so ILTUFY  (I looked that up for you)   Ive seen progressive proofs of comic covers and seem to recall that they were light to dark:  YMCK.  and generally remember K as last. but going first may cement the K on the paper rather than it not stick to the other inks already laid down as well.  (like a coloring book, you can paint over the lines but they still hold up. Comicbook coloring is mostly "fill in the lines at heart.)  A press person can fill in the facts.

"As noted, the ISO standard specifies that the chromatic inks are laid down in CMY sequence with K being either the first or last ink down. Traditionally, for most offset applications, the ink sequence has been KCMY."

...by press printing you mean letterpress?

[Yorick]

On 10/28/2022 at 1:11 PM, Aman619 said:

...by press printing you mean letterpress?

Yes.  Letterpress.  Thank you.

With the above Mandrake example, it seems they printed the color plates first and black plate last.  Both exhibit plate/film modifications.  Following the light to dark application, they only changed the cyan and black plates which would be the last part of the operation.  They could run the whole batch (both "c" and "d" pricing) the same for yellow and magenta, then run the rest of the plates/films at their discretion. 

[Yorick]

Hey @Get Marwood & I, try to find some King price variant issues with severe off-register printing.  I don't recall ever seeing one, but you have quite the image catalog...

[Get Marwood & I]

On 10/28/2022 at 9:28 PM, Yorick said:

Hey @Get Marwood & I, try to find some King price variant issues with severe off-register printing.  I don't recall ever seeing one, but you have quite the image catalog...

I've not seen any on my travels, alas (poor Yorick). If I had, I'd surely have bought them. I love printing calamities 

[Aman619]

On 10/28/2022 at 4:24 PM, Yorick said:

Yes.  Letterpress.  Thank you.

With the above Mandrake example, it seems they printed the color plates first and black plate last.  Both exhibit plate/film modifications.  Following the light to dark application, they only changed the cyan and black plates which would be the last part of the operation.  They could run the whole batch (both "c" and "d" pricing) the same for yellow and magenta, then run the rest of the plates/films at their discretion. 

many if not all covers were ganged up 4 at a time back then, I wonder if (and why not) print all price variants on the same sheet?  they were 4 up, fronts and backs

[Yorick]

On 10/28/2022 at 9:08 PM, Aman619 said:

many if not all covers were ganged up 4 at a time back then, I wonder if (and why not) print all price variants on the same sheet?  they were 4 up, fronts and backs

I have one a little more recent than that example...

 

[Aman619]

Thanx I scoured Google and eBay and only found that one on heritage…

[Get Marwood & I]

Morning 

I picked up a second copy of Popeye #89 a few weeks back - a bit better than my previous copy and only the second one I've seen during the last five years of looking:

Note that someone helpfully added a 10d handwritten price to what already had a 10d printed price. High grade copies are just not allowed to exist, it seems. 

There are a few of what I call 'the usual suspects' in the 24 issue King UKPV run - books that turn up reasonably frequently if you look hard enough. But then there are a good number for which the copy I own is the only one I've ever seen. They're a bit like Charlton in that respect, King. A very, very hard run to collect.

By way of recap, the King UKPVs have a short four month cover date run and I often wondered why it was so brief. The transition from 12c to 15c may have had a bearing on them stopping:

I've gathered evidence elsewhere where a price increase coincides with a change in UK distribution status, so maybe that US price increase was just too much for the UK distributor to bear. Then again, on the coincidence front, the King UKPVs stop at the same time as the Marvel ones, mirroring neatly with the latter's third UKPV hiatus:

Maybe that's something I'll look into a little deeper at some point. That Marvel hiatus went on for 17 months by which time the King imprint line had ceased. So there are three possible reasons in the mix I suppose for the short lived run - the UKPV cessation in general, the King cover price increase and King's demise. The demise would be the most obvious candidate as a rule (heh heh) but the UKPVs stop before the cents copies leaving room for another possibility. I don't suppose history is that fussed either way but I do like to be in there pontificating where others are not, as regular readers of my threads will no doubt have worked out by now.

Scraping the barrel of wider interest still further, I must get around to doing a piece on these 35c variants at some point:

And the comps, too:

Which go from King to Charlton:

How cool is that? King to Charlton....

Is that the sound of snoring I hear....?

All good fun 

[Get Marwood & I]

A single like from OtherEric, lover of the EsotEric 

[Redshade]

On 8/28/2023 at 5:31 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

A single like from OtherEric, lover of the EsotEric 

We're still reading, and enjoying your posts Steve, don't worry. 

[OtherEric]

On 8/28/2023 at 9:31 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

A single like from OtherEric, lover of the EsotEric 

I love all the info you share on the various books, I just so rarely have anything to actually add to your extensive discussion.  And when I do, I don't hesitate to comment.  And when I don't, I sometimes throw in a Flash Gordon reference just so you know you're not whistling in the dark completely.

 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 8/28/2023 at 6:15 PM, OtherEric said:

I love all the info you share on the various books, I just so rarely have anything to actually add to your extensive discussion.  And when I do, I don't hesitate to comment.  And when I don't, I sometimes throw in a Flash Gordon reference just so you know you're not whistling in the dark completely.

 

If I was on my desktop, I'd do a Ming picture thing. But I'm not, so the EsotEric OtherEric thing will have to do  

[OtherEric]

On 8/28/2023 at 10:21 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

If I was on my desktop, I'd do a Ming picture thing. But I'm not, so the EsotEric OtherEric thing will have to do  

Whoops, wrong one...

Amazingly, I don't seem to have any of my King Comics issues of Flash Gordon scanned, and I'm just about to head out the door to work so I can't find something more fitting for this thread.  (Not that I have UK versions of the Flash issues, anyway.)

[Yorick]

My King Pence Copies from Flash Gordon will be in my next CGC submission batch.  I might achieve an 8.0 on one or two, but I'm prepared to accept 6.0's   I was just looking one last time through Silver-Acre's Flash Gordon listings to see if they had any higher grade books, but I think I've cleared them out.  #10 is a difficult issue to find in pence, and I've always wondered if there was an #11 dual price or pence (that empty white box up in the right corner).

[Get Marwood & I]

On 8/28/2023 at 9:56 PM, Yorick said:

My King Pence Copies from Flash Gordon will be in my next CGC submission batch.  I might achieve an 8.0 on one or two, but I'm prepared to accept 6.0's   I was just looking one last time through Silver-Acre's Flash Gordon listings to see if they had any higher grade books, but I think I've cleared them out.  #10 is a difficult issue to find in pence, and I've always wondered if there was an #11 dual price or pence (that empty white box up in the right corner).

Stop wondering Yoz, there wasn't. And why should you believe me?

Spoiler

 

[Get Marwood & I]

@Yorick