The Distribution of US Published Comics in the UK (1959~1982) 16 16

[Malacoda]

On 12/13/2022 at 7:40 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

"Mum! I'm just popping down to Gays"

"OK Dear"

We called them sweetshops in my day 

Yes, I thought you'd enjoy that. Even the guy up the ladder seems to know that history has plans for that word. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 12/13/2022 at 7:46 PM, Malacoda said:

Yes, I thought you'd enjoy that. Even the guy up the ladder seems to know that history has plans for that word. 

Remember the newsagent in Operation Third Form?

Nice mix of books there. 

[OtherEric]

On 12/13/2022 at 11:54 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Remember the newsagent in Operation Third Form?

Nice mix of books there. 

Never heard of it before.  But agreed, nice mix of books on the stand there!

[Get Marwood & I]

On 12/13/2022 at 7:58 PM, OtherEric said:

Never heard of it before.  But agreed, nice mix of books on the stand there!

We pulled it to pieces a while back - either in this thread, or somewhere - to see how the books matched UK arrival expectations. 

[Get Marwood & I]

Here we go:

https://boards.cgccomics.com/topic/471133-the-distribution-of-us-published-comics-in-the-uk-1959~1982/?do=findComment&comment=11736984

https://boards.cgccomics.com/topic/320610-list-of-comic-books-seen-in-movies-and-television-shows/?do=findComment&comment=11722688

I can't remember what we concluded now!

[OtherEric]

On 12/13/2022 at 12:03 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Here we go:

https://boards.cgccomics.com/topic/471133-the-distribution-of-us-published-comics-in-the-uk-1959~1982/?do=findComment&comment=11736984

https://boards.cgccomics.com/topic/320610-list-of-comic-books-seen-in-movies-and-television-shows/?do=findComment&comment=11722688

I can't remember what we concluded now!

Thank you.  I somewhat remember the discussion but had forgotten the source of the image.

When it comes up again in a couple years I'll probably claim I had never heard of the film yet again, knowing me!

[Get Marwood & I]

On 12/13/2022 at 8:05 PM, OtherEric said:

Thank you.  I somewhat remember the discussion but had forgotten the source of the image.

When it comes up again in a couple years I'll probably claim I had never heard of the film yet again, knowing me!

I know, it's terrible getting old isn't it 

[Get Marwood & I]

Back to newsagents and the like, I only recall buying my comics as a kid from my local corner shop (the UK weeklies) and then second hand from Rodneys, a toy shop in Barking where I lived. That became a proper comic shop so I graduated on from there. Everything else was from comic shops and fairs in town - I don't ever recall buying Marvel comics - original or UK reprints - from Woolworths, WH Smiths or anywhere like that. And never from an actual newsstand. 

Too young to have caught the likes of these:

 

[Albert Tatlock]

On 12/13/2022 at 5:02 PM, Malacoda said:

Fascinating.  Seems to indicate that whoever they went to was supplying newsagents nationally. I think the chief suspect is still David Gold. 

Are we aware of magazines that were published by Magazine Management that were distributed here?  Apart from the porn, there were celebrity magazines, film review, humour, romance, puzzle books, all kinds of things. My suspicion for how GSP became the distributor for the Marvel B&W magazines in the 70's has always been that they distributed magazines for Magazine Management initially.  Those Marvel B&W's (Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, Vampire Tales, Savage Sword of Conan, Planet of the Apes and even Marvel Preview) which we think of as the Marvel black & white magazines, because they featured Marvel characters and were created by Marvel staff and freelancers, familiar names to us, were actually published by Magazine Management, not by Marvel.  If GSP were distributing magazines for MM in the 60's, it's an absolute no brainer that they'd be the most likely recipient  of the leftover 66'ers.  That FM #8 (April 67) which the Robot posted is a bit of a smoking gun, isn't it? 

 

Looks like Goldstar's participation in distributing for Marvel was a flash in the pan.

The oblong stamps only cover 6 months or so, most at end of 1966, and the ones at the tail end, (June 1967 is the latest cover date unearthed so far, I believe) just peter out.

This episode gave them a foot in the door, but once the dust had settled, the publishers had to decide who to go with long term.

Who was shifting the most units, Goldstar (not a lot), or T & P (quite a few)?

With T & P back on their feet, they had the leverage to become once more, as their indicia states 'SOLE distributors for the United Kingdom'.

Plus T & P had already got back on track a couple of months before the missing 66ers put in an appearance.

Goldstar probably did not attempt to order any more Marvels, maybe they were watching from the sidelines in case an opportunity presented itself in the future.

And the fact that other publishers' output display the oblong stamp means, I think, that the shipment or shipments came through a middle man.

[Malacoda]

On 12/14/2022 at 5:27 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

The oblong stamps only cover 6 months or so, most at end of 1966, and the ones at the tail end, (June 1967 is the latest cover date unearthed so far, I believe) just peter out.

Indeed.  Well, July, but close enough for jazz. 

[Malacoda]

On 12/14/2022 at 5:27 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

Plus T & P had already got back on track a couple of months before the missing 66ers put in an appearance.

I think there was a period where T&P got into payment difficulties which Marvel were slow to react to. This was because, as one of their many, many Balance of Payments policies, the government changed payment requirements for imported goods in 1965 which meant exporters got paid later in the day, which I believe made T&P's cash flow problems less immediately apparent to Marvel who were getting delayed payments anyway.  Only when T&P actually declared bankruptcy in June or July 1966 did the dashboard light up at Marvel and they restricted the supply, but with everything taking months to clear, by the time Marvel threw the anchors on, things had actually been resolved.  Mr. J.D. Spooner was appointed the official receiver for Porpe and Thorter in July 1966.  Somewhere, back in the early Triassic period of this thread, I worked out the dates for when Marvel would have pulled the PV's and it pretty neatly tied up.  

 

 

[themagicrobot]

I'm afraid I wouldn't know where to start looking for my UK Eeries. In an unlabelled box no doubt. I wonder why Gold Star didn't continue after issue 4. I'm sure they would have sold.

 

 

 

[Malacoda]

On 12/14/2022 at 5:27 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

Goldstar probably did not attempt to order any more Marvels, maybe they were watching from the sidelines in case an opportunity presented itself in the future.

And the fact that other publishers' output display the oblong stamp means, I think, that the shipment or shipments came through a middle man.

Mmmmmm. I very much agree, but that's a really big statement. Another interesting question: whatever the reason for the mysterious numbers on the T&P imported comics, these ones did not have them. Had these very issues been imported by T&P, as they were clearly intended to be, they would have acquired the T&P numbers, but Mr. Oblong Stamp does not feature a numbering system. Why would that be?   

[Redshade]

On 12/14/2022 at 7:36 PM, Malacoda said:

 Why would that be?   

Possibly Goldstar, being opportunists, didn't implement proper stock rotation policies as T&P did?

[Albert Tatlock]

On 12/14/2022 at 8:02 PM, Redshade said:

Possibly Goldstar, being opportunists, didn't implement proper stock rotation policies as T&P did?

Or maybe they knew the batch they had secured was just a one-off.

[Albert Tatlock]

On 12/14/2022 at 7:36 PM, Malacoda said:

Mmmmmm. I very much agree, but that's a really big statement.

The alternative would be that Goldstar negotiated separately with each publisher. My money is on them being sourced through a Stateside wholesaler/distributor who had bought up job lots from various publishers. Only speculation, though, I admit.

[Malacoda]

On 12/15/2022 at 6:18 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

The alternative would be that Goldstar negotiated separately with each publisher. My money is on them being sourced through a Stateside wholesaler/distributor who had bought up job lots from various publishers. Only speculation, though, I admit.

In the 70's, World's deal was direct with Marvel, Curtis were not involved. I assume that means there was some kind of shipping agent / exporter involved in getting them from Sparta to Newark, containered up and shipped to Felixstowe.  This is earlier, but I think you're right about some kind of wholesaler / distributor sending over job lots from various publishers.  Later, once you're actually in the age of containerisation you've got very large & specific spaces to fill.

[Malacoda]

On 12/14/2022 at 7:36 PM, themagicrobot said:

I'm afraid I wouldn't know where to start looking for my UK Eeries. In an unlabelled box no doubt. I wonder why Gold Star didn't continue after issue 4. I'm sure they would have sold.

Round about this time, Gold was in business with his brother and his dad.  They were having massive cash flow problems had far too much stock and Gold wanted to reduce the imports from the US suppliers as a solution, so I suspect that might be your answer. 

In fact, his Dad was trying to swindle him & his brother out of the business and on the day that he discovered his Dad had conned his brother out of his shares and tried to take control of the business, he was so upset at having lost his family and his business on the same day that he broke the habit of a lifetime and drove home in the middle of day only to find his best friend banging his wife in the swimming pool.  

I think even Jack Bauer would be ready to throw the towel in on that day. 

[themagicrobot]

To have a house with a swimming pool in the UK in 1972 business/pornography must have been pretty lucrative in previous years. Hustling a few comics and horror magazines wouldn't have been the most important things on his mind. He's done well what with football and enough money to be in the Sunday times Rich List. His Autobiography is much cheaper than an Alan Class comic these days but still not on my Xmas list.

 

[Albert Tatlock]

On 12/17/2022 at 10:12 AM, themagicrobot said:

To have a house with a swimming pool in the UK in 1972 business/pornography must have been pretty lucrative in previous years. Hustling a few comics and horror magazines wouldn't have been the most important things on his mind. He's done well what with football and enough money to be in the Sunday times Rich List. His Autobiography is much cheaper than an Alan Class comic these days but still not on my Xmas list.

 

From David Gold's autobiography:

My brother would sell fresh mint – quick and easy to grow - down the market whilst I would be helping my mother to make the garlands, or getting on a bus to the wholesaler to buy comics  to sell as we began to add products to our stall. This was a further sign of our entrepreneurial spirit. It wasn’t the regular comics like Beano and Dandy I chose because those could be purchased in any newsagent. Instead I bought the newly available American comics with superheroes like Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel and Spiderman. These were the very early imports; colourful and highly collectable.

His memory is letting him down, though, as he is talking here about the immediate post-war period, over a decade before Spider-Man made his debut.

His sources would have been, as well as the genuine Golden Age articles arriving with US service personnel,  the Thorpe & Porter reprints and, more probably, Miller's output.

Millers would wholesale to street and market traders. Enterprising locals found a ready stream of customers at their place of employment, some factories had a workforce of thousands.

I have an article somewhere which gives Miller's trade prices, will dig it out soon.