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

[themagicrobot]

And with the demise of T&P we had the demise of the spinner racks. By now they were getting old and wobbly. My local shop didn’t have the shelf space to spread out the comics like they did the magazines. Through the 1980s each new batch of comics was just placed in a pile on the bottom shelf next to the evening papers and the Racing Post

[themagicrobot]

interesting to note that 40 odd years ago you could get 3 Dollar comics for a Guinea (£1.05)

This week at one point $1.00 equalled £1.06 which must be an all time low

Edited September 29, 2022 by themagicrobot

[Garystar]

On 9/29/2022 at 3:25 PM, themagicrobot said:

This week at one point $1.00 equalled £1.06 which must be an all time low

I’ve been following a Steranko poster I want but was, I considered, priced high on eBayUSA. At the start of the month it converted to £551, with no price increase it’s now £605.

[Albert Tatlock]

Lot 695 from today's A & G sale.

Batman 161 from 1964, repriced with a sticker from at least 6 years later.

T & P.s warehouse must have been a goldmine.

[Malacoda]

On 9/29/2022 at 3:00 PM, themagicrobot said:

And with the demise of T&P we had the demise of the spinner racks

Indeed. I remember vividly when I went to the usual spinner rack and found it suddenly full of porn.  The newsagent shouted at me 'hey you, come away from there, there's nothing for you there' and I most aggrieved as she obviously knew that had always been the comic book rack.  I wish I knew the date that happened. 

[Malacoda]

On 9/23/2022 at 11:52 PM, Kevin.J said:

Yes please, I have seen all the films and a few series like Wanda vision etc but a list to work through sounds great  

OK, here comes Kevin's list: all of Marvel in watching (chronological) order.  Spoiler alert:  it references a ton of stuff that happens in the MCU/ABC/Netflix-verse and all Marvel related projects for the last 24 years, so if you don't want to see the result, look away now. 

 I am not endorsing any of this, in fact, I strongly recommend giving Mutant X and Runaways a hard swerve.  Where something is set at a point in time other than 'now', I have used the time it's set in, but where things appear to occur purely in the then-present, I have assumed it was set in the year it was produced. 

You can probably find websites that dispute some of these points. You know what Marvel fandom is like.  I particularly like the point where Disney announced that Moon Knight was set in 2025 and someone calculated that, by the phases of the moon (which are obviously critical to the plot), it must actually take place in 2024.  Excellent.  I'm proud to say I've gone nowhere near that level of accuracy. Obviously, things like DOFP, Endgame and Loki which jump around in time are dealer's choice really. 

Kev, the 3rd table gives you the Netflix series and where they fit in.  The way I've laid it out means you can either watch just the Netflix series in the right order, or Netflix + the MCU, or everything. Whatever you like. 

     

 BTW, the She Hulk/Shang Chi thing is disputed, which is why it makes no sense.  It doesn't matter what order you watch these in. 

Edited September 29, 2022 by Malacoda

[Kevin.J]

On 9/29/2022 at 5:47 PM, Malacoda said:

OK, here comes Kevin's list: all of Marvel in watching (chronological) order.  Spoiler alert:  it references a ton of stuff that happens in the MCU/ABC/Netflix-verse and all Marvel related projects for the last 24 years, so if you don't want to see the result, look away now. 

 I am not endorsing any of this, in fact, I strongly recommend giving Mutant X and Runaways a hard swerve.  Where something is set at a point in time other than 'now', I have used the time it's set in, but where things appear to occur purely in the then-present, I have assumed it was set in the year it was produced. 

You can probably find websites that dispute some of these points. You know what Marvel fandom is like.  I particularly like the point where Disney announced that Moon Knight was set in 2025 and someone calculated that, by the phases of the moon (which are obviously critical to the plot), it must actually take place in 2024.  Excellent.  I'm proud to say I've gone nowhere near that level of accuracy. Obviously, things like DOFP, Endgame and Loki which jump around in time are dealer's choice really. 

Kev, the 3rd table gives you the Netflix series and where they fit in.  The way I've laid it out means you can either watch just the Netflix series in the right order, or Netflix + the MCU, or everything. Whatever you like. 

     

 BTW, the She Hulk/Shang Chi thing is disputed, which is why it makes no sense.  It doesn't matter what order you watch these in. 

[Malacoda]

On 9/29/2022 at 6:30 PM, Kevin.J said:

You're welcome.  So let's meet back here when you're finished and compare notes. Next Tuesday? 

[Garystar]

On 9/30/2022 at 1:19 PM, Malacoda said:

You're welcome.  So let's meet back here when you're finished and compare notes.

Nice piece of work, couple on here I haven’t seen (mutant x, Gifted) and Legion I tried but gave up after a few episodes. 
Do I see Helstrom listed? I’ve not seen that series either. 

[Malacoda]

On 9/30/2022 at 3:03 PM, Garystar said:

Nice piece of work, couple on here I haven’t seen (mutant x, Gifted) and Legion I tried but gave up after a few episodes. 
Do I see Helstrom listed? I’ve not seen that series either. 

Good luck with Mutant X. If you make it to the 2nd series, let alone the 3rd, I will be impressed with your stamina.

Gifted is quite Claremonty. It's more like you'd imagine the New Mutants to be than the New Mutants movie actually was.

Helstrom I completely forgot about.  Will have to add it.  There's a few errors on that list (as it was never really made for public consumption). Will probably tidy it up, delete the old one and re-post it.   I guess it should include the I am Groot one-shots.  Werewolf By Night is imminent as well.  Not to mention the Guardians Holiday Special. 

Never imagined a day when there would be too much Marvel stuff to even keep track of it all. What a time to be alive.  (I usually say that ironically, but I really mean it). For anyone who wants a more digestible list, I have never grown tired of watching this....

 

 

[nmtg9]

Haven't seen that before but it's very cool. 

I never dreamed as little kid they could have done what they have with the MCU. It was just me and my dad back then who had any interest in these silly little comics from America. 

[Kevin.J]

On 9/30/2022 at 1:19 PM, Malacoda said:

You're welcome.  So let's meet back here when you're finished and compare notes. Next Tuesday? 

 

Just finished Daredevil season 1, I will follow your list and move on to Jessica Jones even though I want to watch DD S2.

I cannot sit through Agents of shield again, it was a decent series but not outstanding. I have seen all the films except Dark Pheonix & Thor 4, some films I could watch again, some I couldn't but I really haven't seen a lot of the older TV shows and thats what I am really looking forward to when she is at work 

She wants to re-watch Game of Thrones  I thought it was great but if she gets that, then I vote Sopranos next  for the maybe 4th time.

The compromise may be the Blade films, never really saw them since they were out and wonder how they stand up after your comments.

[Malacoda]

On 10/1/2022 at 6:50 AM, nmtg9 said:

Haven't seen that before but it's very cool. 

I like the way it's edited to give you the impression that it's all of them (it's actually only 10).  

On 10/1/2022 at 6:50 AM, nmtg9 said:

I never dreamed as little kid they could have done what they have with the MCU. It was just me and my dad back then who had any interest in these silly little comics from America. 

I agree. It was impossible to imagine it would ever be put on the screen as well as it could be put on paper, but here it is. I also think that most of it will age well. If you re-watch Raimi's Spider Man films, they still look great (esp. Doc Ock) and those are 20 years old now.  I think if they were going to age badly, they'd have done it by now. 

[Malacoda]

On 10/1/2022 at 11:01 AM, Kevin.J said:

Just finished Daredevil season 1, I will follow your list and move on to Jessica Jones even though I want to watch DD S2.

Dealer's choice, my friend. Obviously, if you watch it in this chronological running order, you are flipping about between series and movies, so you lose the flow of each series (which, as you say, is a nice way to watch it).  Personally, I think it's like eating. When you take the first few bites of something it's delicious.  If you then binge-eat, by the end, you can't even taste it anymore.  Whenever I have binge-watched about 10 seasons of anything, it just becomes like wallpaper in the end.  So jumping around with something like this list keeps things fresh.  I really enjoyed JJ. It has my two favourite character reveals.  I loved Krysten Ritter's performance as well.  It used the longer form of the series well too.  There's no real time for any layering or character exploration in the movies. 

On 10/1/2022 at 11:01 AM, Kevin.J said:

I cannot sit through Agents of shield again, it was a decent series but not outstanding.

I couldn't keep up with the way E4 showed it.  They did a 'first look' late night showing, followed by the regular slot and then the repeat, which was hard to keep track of, then they split the 2nd season in half while Cap 2 was in cinemas and I missed when it came back. Gave up watching and decided to park it until it was done.  

On 10/1/2022 at 11:01 AM, Kevin.J said:

I have seen all the films except Dark Pheonix & Thor 4

I think DP is better than the drubbing it got, but yes, that's two failed attempts to tell that story now.  Thor 4....my advice is to keep your expectations low. I think it's a Taika Waititi movie first and a Marvel movie second.  The comedy elements that worked brilliantly in Ragnarok have been turned up to 11. And not in a good way.  Christian Bale is absolutely brilliant, but unfortunately he's playing MacBeth while everybody else is in a Mel Brooks movie. 

On 10/1/2022 at 11:01 AM, Kevin.J said:

The compromise may be the Blade films, never really saw them since they were out and wonder how they stand up after your comments.

The plot & direction are fine, the action scenes are great. They're just ruined by the cheese-tastic effects. It's like LXG - the effects looked rubbish then. God knows what they look like now.  The guy who drinks the potion at the end probably looks like he was drawn onto the negative with a crayon.  I will be interested to hear what you reckon to Blade. 

[Garystar]

50 years ago today!!!! Where has it gone?

I have read that comics were actually on sale a week before cover date so I may be a week late. My first issue was #2 so I might be spot on but the wrong issue. Either way a looooong time ago. 

[Malacoda]

On 10/7/2022 at 9:45 AM, Garystar said:

I have read that comics were actually on sale a week before cover date so I may be a week late. My first issue was #2 so I might be spot on but the wrong issue. Either way a looooong time ago. 

Those 'week ending' dates were the end of the week they came out. MWOM #1 came out Sept 30th, but yup, this is the week.  It always gives me a jolt seeing that cover.  Now that you can see everything on the net, we all know what every comic looks like. Back then, if you had never been in the same room as an actual, physical copy of the comic itself, you had no idea what it looked like (unless you saw an ad).  Seeing the cover of MWOM #1 for the first time was quite a moment, I recall.  I think it made collecting a very different experience. 

Also, I really hated those spot colour pages at the time, but now (of course), I love them. 

[gadzukes]

How often do you UK collectors see the older US content items like this?  I recently bought a "lot" of interesting Fawcett and other items that came out of a barn in the UK.  These are three of them that are similar.  I was expecting black & white on the inside but it's all in color.

I'm guessing there's not a lot of these around any more.  GCD says 1940s.  They're smaller than normal comic size.

Edited October 12, 2022 by gadzukes

[themagicrobot]

The Len Miller reprints are rare Golden Age survivors from the late 1940s. I suspect that the number of people in the UK collecting them is small and diminishing. 

The Buffalo Bill was published by T V Boardman and consists of UK content. The comic appeared in the late 1940s/early 1950s. Far easier to find are the hardback annuals which appeared once a year (?!? didn't I just say that) in the run up to Xmas until as recently as 1960 I believe. These are still fantastic bargains and contain some meticulous artwork by Denis McLoughlin. Western comics unlike superhero fare appear to have a more limited collector base on both sides of the Atlantic.

[OtherEric]

On 10/12/2022 at 1:24 AM, themagicrobot said:

annuals which appeared once a year (?!? didn't I just say that)

Not in comic book terms, actually.  At the very least, the Superman and Batman annuals in the US appeared twice a year in the early 60's.

Comics are weird but I really wouldn't want them any other way.

 

[themagicrobot]

But they didn't seem to call them "Annuals" all that often. They soon turned into mere 80 Page Giants and mixed in with the normal numbering. UK Annuals are great survivors because of their sturdy card covers. They are books rather than comics and thus have survived in far greater numbers than their newsprint counterparts. Every US comic collector that likes to own a variety of material should own some UK Annuals. If only to show other collectors they know just what bonkers stuff is out there in the world.