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Show Us Your Atlas Books - Have A Cigar
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Started by Silver Surfer,

9,319 posts in this topic

RICK STARR

RICK STARR

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Spellbound definitely ROCKS. :headbang:

Here are few from my collection.

 

This is the River City collection copy.

 

SPELLBD 1

 

SPELLBD 5

 

This is just a terrific cover by Everett.Plus artwork by Krigstein, Colan and Sinnott.

10 cents well spent in 1953.

 

SPELLBD 17

 

This issue has an early 5 page Ditko sci/fi story. Plus an excellent Severin cover. Check out Severin's monogram on the guy's shirtcuff.

 

SPELLBD 29

 

 

 

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adamstrange

adamstrange

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This is actually a Maneely cover but that Ditko inside is sweet! :applause:

 

SPELLBOUND29.jpg
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RICK STARR

RICK STARR

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Adam, check out the Atlas Tales website. The Spellbound 29 cover is by Severin.I agree it looks alittle like Maneely except for the guy coming out of the wall and again Severin put his monogram J.P.S. on the man's shirtcuff. Like your Spellbound postings!!!

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adamstrange

adamstrange

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Adam, check out the Atlas Tales website. The Spellbound 29 cover is by Severin.I agree it looks alittle like Maneely except for the guy coming out of the wall and again Severin put his monogram J.P.S. on the man's shirtcuff. Like your Spellbound postings!!!
None of that looks like Severin's work. John and Joe were good friends and would joke around with each sometimes adding elements to the other's artwork to have fun with Stan Lee. My eyes tell me that Joe drew that cover and put John's initials on the cufflink. John was talented enough that perhaps he imitated Joe's style but I would want to see confirmation from records or from John before I would be confident that was true.
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buttock

buttock

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Adam, check out the Atlas Tales website. The Spellbound 29 cover is by Severin.I agree it looks alittle like Maneely except for the guy coming out of the wall and again Severin put his monogram J.P.S. on the man's shirtcuff. Like your Spellbound postings!!!
None of that looks like Severin's work. John and Joe were good friends and would joke around with each sometimes adding elements to the other's artwork to have fun with Stan Lee. My eyes tell me that Joe drew that cover and put John's initials on the cufflink. John was talented enough that perhaps he imitated Joe's style but I would want to see confirmation from records or from John before I would be confident that was true.

 

I agree that it looks nothing like Severin. I'm not good enough to say that it's Maneely or Burgos or whoever, but the style is just not Severin. Possibly layouts/pencils?

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jimjum12

jimjum12

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For those who don't already know....Robert Rogovin has revamped and updated his website www.fourcolorcomics.com and all the books are actually for sale. Quite a few Atlas titles with plenty of pics. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

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Scrooge

Scrooge

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Here's some Sunday morning musings I've sent the Timely / Atlas list. I figured I'd share here hoping for feedback:

 

"Thanks for that link.

 

Re: Will testimony from the business manager before the UnitedStates Sentate suffice? Froehlich Senate Testimony

 

The tax consideration has to be important in the picture. As similar situation changed the way the Studio System evolved in Hollywood. When the Revenue Act of 1941 came into effect, the top bracket came down to $200,000 and the marginal tax rate was 90%. For the highest paid stars, that was a significant bite out of their earnings. As a result, top talents started to “pursue profit-sharing and one-picture deals whereby their salaries could be invested into a picture and taxed at capital gains at a rate of only 25 percent” (as per Thomas Schatz in The Genius of the System, p. 299).

 

Consequently, it’s easy to assume that having one company own all other companies in the Goodman system allowed profits from each of the outfit to be passed relatively unscathed by a tax bite into the main entity.

 

If one wants to estimate how much money is involved, Froehlich provides some good information.

 

We know that in the ‘50’s the profits from a comic book were split as follows: Publishers charges the Distributors 5.5¢ who charges the wholesale 6.5¢ who charges the retailer 7.5¢.

 

The unknown number here is the publisher cost. Looking at the Bible Tales exposition of Froehlich, we can infer that the printing cost might be 3.5¢ per comic.

 

With that in mind, a sole publisher’s profit margin is 2¢ / 3.5¢ or about 57% and a publisher-distributor like the Marvel Comics Group is 3¢ / 3.5¢ or about 86% (hence the importance of having your own distribution arm).

 

Now take Froehlich’s print run and sell through numbers: 350,000 print run and average sell through of 62%. Assume no advertising revenue for simplicity and a cost of production of the book itself at $1,080, i.e. 36 pages of content at a total cost of $30 a piece (to pay all talent: editor, penciler, inker, writer, … I might be off on that). For the average comic book selling 62%, revenue is $14,105 (350,000 * 0.62 * 0.065) and costs are $1,080 for content and $12,250 for printing cost, leaving you with a net of $775 per average title.

 

Atlas distributed about 60 titles, so on any given month, that’s about 50 books (counting quarterlies and bi-monthlies) or $38,750 and on an annual basis $465,000. The tax structure now plays an important part in trying to shelter as much of that profit as possible.

 

If a title is popular and, let’s say, warrants a 500,000 print run and still sells through 62%, the profit off that one book is $1,570 per month or $795 more than the average title. Publishers could easily afford to pay that talent more than other talent!

 

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rjpb

rjpb

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A couple of Atlas war books i picked up recently - the cover to War Combat #3 is one of Maneely's best war covers IMHO. Anybody know who did the cover for the Battle #8?

 

Atlas pre-code war covers were much grittier than DC's for the most part, I'm glad they are so much cheaper.

 

 

battle8.jpg

 

warcombat3.jpg

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adamstrange

adamstrange

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That is a terrific Maneely cover on the War Combat! :applause:

 

Atlas war covers lost some of their bite with the advent of the Comics Code.

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