jools&jim Posted October 6, 2018 Share Posted October 6, 2018 (edited) I've been fascinated by these things for exactly 40 years now, and still don't have a whole lot more information about them than I did back in the day. Before we start, here's a post of mine from a few years ago which delineates the origin of my obsession with what is, at best, a footnote in BA comics history (click the "right arrow" icon in the upper right-hand corner to read it): Edited October 7, 2018 by jools&jim Get Marwood & I 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jools&jim Posted October 6, 2018 Author Share Posted October 6, 2018 (edited) There is precious little information available on-line about this publisher, or their relationship with Charlton. Here's the extent of what I found: http://www.ramonschenk.nl/charltoncomics/moderncomics.htm https://brevoorthistoryofcomics.tumblr.com/post/173425009044/another-of-the-modern-comics-reprints-of-classic https://www.comics.org/publisher/1825/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Comics Edited October 6, 2018 by jools&jim Gravin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jools&jim Posted October 6, 2018 Author Share Posted October 6, 2018 Even an expert like Doug Sulipa lumps them in with his Charlton listings with no explanation... http://dougcomicworld.com/inventory/INVENTORY-CharltonSite.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jools&jim Posted October 6, 2018 Author Share Posted October 6, 2018 (edited) So here's my first question: does anyone remember seeing these for sale, as single issues and at cover price (35¢), in traditional retail outlets for comics (i.e., drugstores, convenience stores, newsstands, etc.) back in the late 1970s? Second question: does anyone else remember seeing them for sale or buying them in bagged 3-packs (as Tom Brevoort claims he did) during the same period? Edited October 6, 2018 by jools&jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShieldAgent Posted October 6, 2018 Share Posted October 6, 2018 They came in three packs. I have one and have been following some on ebay over the years. Are you still looking for any? I have a whole stack of duplicates that I would give you someday after work.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jools&jim Posted October 6, 2018 Author Share Posted October 6, 2018 (edited) 4 minutes ago, ShieldAgent said: They came in three packs. I have one and have been following some on ebay over the years. Are you still looking for any? I have a whole stack of duplicates that I would give you someday after work.... Thanks Harry! Do you have a picture or link to one of the 3-packs? And did you ever see a 3-pack for sale back in the late '70s? If so, where? Edited October 6, 2018 by jools&jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShieldAgent Posted October 6, 2018 Share Posted October 6, 2018 Maybe metarog will chime in. He wrote an article about these things over at STL a long time ago and got me into them. I would like to tell you I have a complete run of them, but after all these years, I do not. I am still searching for one book. It is not that I cannot find it, is that I cannot find one in the grade that meets my requirements... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShieldAgent Posted October 6, 2018 Share Posted October 6, 2018 just for you, I will scan my three pack. No, I don't remember them for sale in the 70's. I was a marvel guy and never paid attention to anything else back then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ShieldAgent Posted October 6, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted October 6, 2018 bronze_rules, Jayman, icp004 and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jools&jim Posted October 6, 2018 Author Share Posted October 6, 2018 (edited) Quote 16 hours ago, ShieldAgent said: just for you, I will scan my three pack... Thanks man! Edited October 6, 2018 by jools&jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jools&jim Posted October 6, 2018 Author Share Posted October 6, 2018 1 minute ago, ShieldAgent said: WOW! Awesome...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShieldAgent Posted October 6, 2018 Share Posted October 6, 2018 the logo on the three pack is pretty compelling that they were made by modern and sold by modern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jools&jim Posted October 6, 2018 Author Share Posted October 6, 2018 (edited) 27 minutes ago, ShieldAgent said: the logo on the three pack is pretty compelling that they were made by modern and sold by modern. The price sticker on the bag definitely confirms that this is one of the ways they were intended to be distributed, and that it was priced at the point of sale. Very, very cool! But, the printed logo on the bag itself tells us NOTHING meaningful about Modern itself...i.e., who they were, what their relationship to Charlton was, and why they were able, or wanted, to reprint an oddball batch of '60s & early '70s comics from a 2nd/3rd tier publisher, nor why they thought it was potentially profitable to do so. Maybe the Superman movie had something to do with it? Kind of a pre-modern "movie bump" for all things comics? Edited October 6, 2018 by jools&jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShieldAgent Posted October 6, 2018 Share Posted October 6, 2018 I should also mention that I was fortunate once to buy a (I believe) distributors case of these books. It contained about half of the entire set (which makes sense since they are reprints), and they were as fresh and as minty as these books got. Anybody that dabbles in these things know that their production was horrible. Staples were all over, inks smeared, cut with dull equipment, and no evidence of QC. I was able to upgrade probably every person who even remotely cared about these books. Shameless request- I am looking for a Monster Hunters 2 in NM. I am also interested In a Judo Master 93 and a Midnight Tales 17 in NM. Might consider VF depending on why they are VF and how they present. Can anybody help me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jools&jim Posted October 6, 2018 Author Share Posted October 6, 2018 3 minutes ago, ShieldAgent said: Shameless request- I am looking for a Monster Hunters 2 in NM. I am also interested In a Judo Master 93 and a Midnight Tales 17 in NM. Might consider VF depending on why they are VF and how they present. Can anybody help me? Pretty sure I have both of them, but they're Fine at best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jools&jim Posted October 6, 2018 Author Share Posted October 6, 2018 7 minutes ago, ShieldAgent said: I should also mention that I was fortunate once to buy a (I believe) distributors case of these books. If you found it locally, that makes a lot of sense. The (now long gone) Woolworth's where I first ran across a HUGE stash of these back in the summer of '78 (see the link in my first post) is currently the large (and I think still vacant) property between the old drug store to the south and the pizza joint to the north... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Readcomix Posted October 6, 2018 Share Posted October 6, 2018 These Moderns are how I first discovered the Charlton characters. I was in grade school in the 70's and I remember finding them available as singles at the local K-Mart, which come to think of it may have been a Grant's at that point in time. I do not recall coming across 3-packs there, just singles. I have to see if I have any laying handy; worth a look at the indicia to see what it says. I don't know if I ever actually checked that. But I know I always assumed it was Charlton reprinting their own, due to the obvious production values of the final printed product -- looks and feels straight outta Derby, Connecticut, after all. jools&jim and MAR1979 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jools&jim Posted October 6, 2018 Author Share Posted October 6, 2018 (edited) Anyway...the reason why I revisited all this boring arcana in the first place is that I found this book (pictured below) in a small collection I bought locally a short time ago. The comic itself is unremarkable, but the price sticker is completely consistent with my memory that these things were being blown out (in this case, at 11¢ apiece!) at discount/variety stores back in the day. The lack of a bar code on the front cover is also telling, as all "real" newsstand Charltons on sale during 1978 (the same year listed in the indicia of this book) had them -- see here: http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/newsstand.php?publisher=charlton&type=calendar&month=1&year=1978&sort=alpha Edited October 6, 2018 by jools&jim Get Marwood & I 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Readcomix Posted October 6, 2018 Share Posted October 6, 2018 46 minutes ago, ShieldAgent said: The two books pictured are the first two I purchased as singles, referenced in my above post. Immediately loved both characters. To this day I still do not understand how once DC took over the Charlton characters some writer did not immediately make the Madmen the Joker's gang of underlings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Readcomix Posted October 6, 2018 Share Posted October 6, 2018 1 minute ago, jools&jim said: Anyway...the reason why I revisited all this boring arcana in the first place is that I found this book (pictured below) in a small collection I bought locally a short time ago. The comic itself is unremarkable, but the price sticker is completely consistent with my memory that these things were being blown out (in this case, at 11¢ apiece!) at discount/variety stores back in the day. The lack of a bar code on the front cover is also telling, as all "real" Charltons on sale during 1978 (the same year listed in the indicia of this book) had them -- see here: http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/newsstand.php?publisher=charlton&type=calendar&month=1&year=1978&sort=alpha Bam! K-Mart sticker! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
