The Distribution of US Published Comics in the UK (1959~1982) 15 15

[Get Marwood & I]

On 10/7/2021 at 5:22 PM, Malacoda said:

Like the saying goes: Make Mine.....Charlton. 

Charlton Gives You More!

 

 

Yes. Printing errors.

[Get Marwood & I]

Anyway, I'm off out now Rich. Marwood and I are taking Sparky to the vet. He said he'd have to put him down on our last visit. "Why, is he heavy?" joked Marwood. "No, because he's a tosser" he said.

Not very nice, was it. 

[baggsey]

Apologies if this video has already been highlighted in the thread, but it's an interesting tour of the Sparta plant from 1977 . It might be worth following up some of the comments to see if a lead could be found to someone knowledgable about the returns process for both DCs and Marvels back in the 60s and 70s.

 

 

[Malacoda]

On 10/7/2021 at 9:50 PM, baggsey said:

Apologies if this video has already been highlighted in the thread, but it's an interesting tour of the Sparta plant from 1977 . It might be worth following up some of the comments to see if a lead could be found to someone knowledgable about the returns process for both DCs and Marvels back in the 60s and 70s.

 

 

I think we've all seen it, but you can never watch this too many times.  My favourite part is the guy who says that one press can produce 40,000 comics per hour. That always puts everything in perspective for me.  I don't know how many presses they had, but given that comics wasn't even the core activity, the numbers are unimaginable.  I also think the thing where you see that they had $3.5m worth of paper at that moment and that that whole warehouse full of output would be gone by the next day puts the whole "DC-had-already-bought-all-their-paper-for-the-year" thing into perspective. 

[Malacoda]

Also the reason that 40k number is significant is that people get very interested in whether the UKPV's were printed first or afterwards, but given that the presses were running day & night and cranking out 40k comics per hour, it still pretty much means the PV's were printed the same day as the cents copies. 

[Get Marwood & I]

.....in 1977. 

[Malacoda]

On 10/10/2021 at 10:59 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

.....in 1977. 

Well, yes, but WCP were always state of the art. Sparta was purpose built to print comics. They were able to print tens of thousands of pages per hour by 1956, they computerised in the 60's and dominated the 4 colour market by 1970.  They continually upgraded tech & premises on scale that would be hard to imagine if one had not seen this video (bear in mind, this just Sparta....there was another plant in Effingham which was built in 1969 and then before it was even finished upgraded and almost doubled in size).  So I would say if we're talking about 59-68, the process at ECP was probably painfully slower, but from Feb 68 onwards when Marvel moved to Sparta, I could believe each title rattled off in the space of a day (if one press could crank out over a million pages in a 24 hour shift in the 50's, and they were up to 1.2 million per hour by 1977, I guess they were somewhere in between by 68). 

[Get Marwood & I]

Only the second stamped copy I've seen of this personally:

The other copy is a '6':

[Get Marwood & I]

Here's a nice little original owner lot, currently on eBay:

Brian Wood was the owner. We know this because he wrote his name on every issue:

And every one has a T&P stamp, except the last one. So did that one escape Ethel's stampede do we think, or did Brian pop to the states on holiday 

Nice to think of Brian, popping to his local newsagent 60 years ago, all excited, isn't it....

[Tghutcn]

On 11/2/2021 at 5:05 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Here's a nice little original owner lot, currently on eBay:

Brian Wood was the owner. We know this because he wrote his name on every issue:

And every one has a T&P stamp, except the last one. So did that one escape Ethel's stampede do we think, or did Brian pop to the states on holiday 

Nice to think of Brian, popping to his local newsagent 60 years ago, all excited, isn't it....

I have a couple of them from Brian woods collection as well 

[Tghutcn]

The Action comics 276 has it written on the inside I’ll take photos of it later

[Get Marwood & I]

On 11/2/2021 at 5:19 PM, Tghutcn said:

The Action comics 276 has it written on the inside I’ll take photos of it later

Brian's comics are everywhere!

[Tghutcn]

On 11/2/2021 at 5:21 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Brian's comics are everywhere!

They definitely seem to get around 

[OtherEric]

Since this thread seems to have become the general collecting ground for stamped books, I figured I would show this little gem I spotted while looking for a different book in my collection.  I know I've had the book about a decade, but the stamp never registered with me before.  A quick check of old emails shows I did buy it from the UK, which at least shows how it wound up on the West Coast of the USA...

[Get Marwood & I]

On 11/2/2021 at 10:08 PM, OtherEric said:

Since this thread seems to have become the general collecting ground for stamped books...

The brevity suggested by my original title has long since been abandoned Eric. If it relates to the UK distribution of US comics, it's at home here.

Nice 15 pee-er 

[Get Marwood & I]

We've discussed whether the October cover dated Superman #132 might exist with a T&P stamp a few times, our earliest recorded issue currently being #133.

This original owner shot shows #131 to 137 and #133 is once again the earliest stamped issue (unless the stamp is hiding on the bottom right corner):

The #133 is an eight stamp:

Of the four copies I have captured images of to date, we have three eights and one nine.

But still no stamped October #132.

I'll keep looking...

 

[Get Marwood & I]

The same owner had nice runs of Marvels populated with pence copies where they were produced and stamped cents where they were not. These two follow the pattern we've come to expect - no stamped TTA #62 (60-65 shown):

Note that 64 and 65 are both stamped with an eight, indicating that they arrived in the UK together. This is entirely in keeping with my previous (incomplete) Marvel vs DC date alignment research:

 

[Get Marwood & I]

I had a look at that same original owner collection again, this time to see which of his issues have the 'Goldstar' oblong 10d stamp / circular shilling stamps for the October - Dec 66 cover date issues.

Quite a few of the 'usual suspects' do:

Daredevil #22:

 

Fury #35 and 36:

 

Spidey #43:

 

Thor #133:

 

...and 134:

 

And Strange Tales #151:

The owner must have lived in a 'Goldstar' distribution area.

I've checked most of the Marvel listings and the collection follows so many of the known patterns - UKPV where they were printed, cents stamped when not, and a large group of the known Goldstars - but not all - in evidence. It's nice to look at collections like these and see them back up all the research findings you've posted down the years.

This FF #1 UKPV made me smile, with a subtle cover addition that the uneducated might miss. Can you spot it....?

 

[Redshade]

On 11/6/2021 at 5:58 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

I had a look at that same original owner collection again, this time to see which of his issues have the 'Goldstar' oblong 10d stamp / circular shilling stamps for the October - Dec 66 cover date issues.

Quite a few of the 'usual suspects' do:

Daredevil #22:

 

Fury #35 and 36:

 

Spidey #43:

 

Thor #133:

 

...and 134:

 

And Strange Tales #151:

The owner must have lived in a 'Goldstar' distribution area.

I've checked most of the Marvel listings and the collection follows so many of the known patterns - UKPV where they were printed, cents stamped when not, and a large group of the known Goldstars - but not all - in evidence. It's nice to look at collections like these and see them back up all the research findings you've posted down the years.

This FF #1 UKPV made me smile, with a subtle cover addition that the uneducated might miss. Can you spot it....?

 

There's a big original owner's collection being auctioned next week. Perhaps this would help with your research Steve?

[Get Marwood & I]

On 11/7/2021 at 3:25 PM, Redshade said:

There's a big original owner's collection being auctioned next week. Perhaps this would help with your research Steve?

Yep, the books in the last three posts are taken from it Stephen.