New Discovery: Unique Canadian Golden Age Comic? 1 1

[eccomic]

Lucky Coyne Comics Volume 1 # 1 was published by the Globe and Mail Printing Company in Toronto, for distribution in Great Britain at Manchester, England. The cover sports a Six Pence price under the ten cent price. All copies of this book to come to light have the six pence cover price and the indicia indicating Super Publications Ltd and are readily available on Ebay and not entirely uncommon.

There are two versions of this with one in which the indicia say it’s a Rucker Publication and the other where the indicia say it’s a Super Publication. The Super Publications version has an added 6 pence price tag on the front cover beneath the ten cent logo, whereas the Rucker version had Vol 1 # 1 in the little yellow box beneath the 10 cents logo. This indicates that the Super version was intended primarily for export to the U.K. and the Rucker version was intended for Canadian distribution.

However, a copy has recently come to light that has Vol 1 # 1 under the ten cent cover price, in lieu of the six pence price, and stipulates in the indicia that it was published by Rucker in Toronto with NO UK address and intended for distribution nationally only in Canada. The interior is COMPLETELY back and white and is the interior of Chesler’s Dynamic Comics # 11, versus the Pence Copy that was distributed in the UK which is a blend of colour Chesler reprints of Dynamic Comics and black and white “News of the Day” articles on the interior.

This is the first copy of the Canadian distributed copy of Luck Coyne to come to light, and could possibly be the ONLY KNOWN COPY EXTANT!. The book surfaced in Montreal, Quebec and was owned by a Pauline Cohen who wrote her name not only on the front cover, but she also wrote her Montreal address on the coupon on the back cover.

I've never seen another Canadian distributed copy with the volume one number one on the cover, that was not replaced by sixpence and was not distributed in the UK, unlike the more common version which has the distribution address of the UK in the indicia

The question is:  What happened to all the other Canadian distributed copies of this book?

I've been collecting Canadian golden age comics for over 20 years and I've seen at least 100 copies of Lucky Coyne comics, and every single one of them has the six pence cover price with the colour and black and white interior, and the UK distribution address on the indicia.

It is also interesting to note, per the CGC Census, that THREE copies are listed by Rucker Publishing and ONE copy listed by Super Publishing.

I have attached pictures of THREE GRADED copies and ALL of them sport the SIX PENCE price in the box beneath the ten cents, yet two of them state Rucker Publishing and one by Super Publishing, conclusively showing that all three were distributed in the UK and not nationally in Canada accordingly.

I will now present my findings

 

Edited July 10, 2019 by eccomic

[eccomic]

Interior of front cover and splash pages for both Canadian distribution copy and UK distribution copy

[eccomic]

Interior splash pages to the Canadian distributed Rucker Publishing copy and back cover with Pauline Cohen's Montreal, Quebec address.

 

Edited July 7, 2019 by eccomic

[eccomic]

Sample of interior splash pages from the Super Publishing UK distribution copy

 

Edited July 7, 2019 by eccomic

[eccomic]

CGC Census reports and three certified copies of Lucky Coyne Comics published by Rucker Publishing and one copy certified by Super Publishing.  Please note that  irrespective of the Publishing data on the CGC label, ALL three certified copies exhibit the SIX PENCE price below the ten cent cover price. 

Edited July 7, 2019 by eccomic

[comicnoir]

Nice work.

[Mmehdy]

Cong...great book...thanks for sharing 

[telerites]

5 hours ago, eccomic said:

CGC Census reports and three certified copies of Lucky Coyne Comics published by Rucker Publishing and one copy certified by Super Publishing.  Please note that  irrespective of the Publishing data on the CGC label, ALL three certified copies exhibit the SIX PENCE price below the ten cent cover price. 

That is cool. 

The 5.0 you show is my copy.  I bought it raw to go along with my Dynamic 10 below.  I had no idea of any variants but I am barely literate in US GA comics let alone Canadian ones.

[OtherEric]

I have nothing useful to add to the discussion... but I gotta say, what an awesome discovery!

[AJD]

Great stuff - a Canadian reprint of an American comic for distribution in the UK appearing under two different publisher's imprints is interesting enough to start with but this find adds another curiosity.

I haven't yet dived into the Australian reprints of US books for the New Zealand market, but I suspect there will be similar oddities to be found there.

[Get Marwood & I]

One down, two to go (Super Publications Ltd version) 

 

I like how you can see the imprint of another copy on the back cover of this copy:

@eccomic

There is a very faint residue from what was likely a sticker on the front of my copy. I noticed that many other copies online also have what could have been a sticker removed:

 

Even though they are dual priced, do you think the UK six pence copies may have had one shilling stickers applied at some point - perhaps like those we see on Bell Features books, from the same period?:

 

The location of the cover damage on the Lucky Coynes obviously doesn't line up with covering the cover price, but it does seem odd to me that so many copies have that sort of damage.