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

[gadzukes]

On 1/6/2023 at 11:44 AM, OtherEric said:

My guess... and it's purely a guess... is that the interiors were printed with the US editions, then the cover was added at another stage.  Maybe they shipped the interiors over and printed the covers in the UK?  It's not remaindered, given that the cover matches the interior correctly.

That seems like a really good guess.

The one advertisement on the inside is a US ad.

Anyone have any knowledge of this type of thing happening (insides being shipped over)?

The cover's size is a little wonky too in relation to the insides, so I don't think they were trimmed at the same time.

[Yorick]

On 1/5/2023 at 12:34 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

I wanna read what happens next.  It was just getting exciting!!!

[Get Marwood & I]

On 1/6/2023 at 4:29 PM, gadzukes said:

Picked up this UK Cow Puncher 4 with some nice GGA on the cover.

I noticed that the innards have 2 staples and then the cover was added with 1 staple later (so 3 staples total).  Was that common for some UK titles in the 40's?  Or is this just a freak manufacturing defect.

I don't see this comic in the GCD..... is this super rare?

That's nice. In one of my journal entries I assessed some coverless, UK stamped 1940s books to see if they could qualify as UK variants of original books published in other countries. In some instances with Canadian books, that initially looked like original innards stamped up, it turned out that the UK copies actually had reprinted guts. So I'd compare your book's innards to a US original to see if they match in size, print quality, staple alignment etc. Here's an image of the original Avon book's interior lifted from the web - I'm on my tablet, and it's cropped at the right, but it looks like a match to me. I see the same print mark at the foot of the splash image, so Eric might be right:

As for scarcity, all these old UK reprints are very hard to find. I often see books not on the GCD from the 1940s and 50s. It doesn't mean they're worth anything of course, but if they reprint or contain original valued content, there'll always be someone interested in them. 

[gadzukes]

On 1/6/2023 at 5:48 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

That's nice. In one of my journal entries I assessed some coverless, UK stamped 1940s books to see if they could qualify as UK variants of original books published in other countries. In some instances with Canadian books, that initially looked like original innards stamped up, it turned out that the UK copies actually had reprinted guts. So I'd compare your book's innards to a US original to see if they match in size, print quality, staple alignment etc. Here's an image of the original Avon book's interior lifted from the web - I'm on my tablet, and it's cropped at the right, but it looks like a match to me. I see the same print mark at the foot of the splash image, so Eric might be right:

As for scarcity, all these old UK reprints are very hard to find. I often see books not on the GCD from the 1940s and 50s. It doesn't mean they're worth anything of course, but if they reprint or contain original valued content, there'll always be someone interested in them. 

It's always shocking/jarring to open a comic and see nothing but white on the inside covers.  I knew about the Canadian comics with blank inside covers but I didn't know the Brits did that too.

[Malacoda]

In the late 40's, a US publisher called Richard Kravitz bought up returns of newspapers (including the funnies, so possibly including comics) and advertised them for sale by the ton as wrapping paper in, believe it or not, India.  These were the initial lots of newspapers that Fred Thorpe bought up and sold the colour supplements as US magazines to a glossy-US-mag starved post-war UK populace.  UK publishers would have been unable to import US comics or sell them as such, but there would have been nothing to stop them buying waste paper, or indeed anything importable as news media, printing new covers (thereby getting rid of the US prices, indicias and all reference to their source) and putting on a new UK cover with a UK price on it, thereby making it ostensibly a British publication. 

Certainly cheaper than paying to import the matrices and reprinting them, but you'd need a lot of each individual title (you could, of course, print up reasonably generic covers and then put varying innards into them.....i.e. exactly what they did later with the double doubles). 

Edited January 7, 2023 by Malacoda

[Malacoda]

Not relevant but incidentally, re the T&P fire, where Steve Chibnall says 'fire destroyed the Oadby headquarters and the company moved to a new complex in Thurmaston' this is misleading.  The Thurmaston warehouse was opened, as a warehouse, in 1965 but T&P were advertising for non-warehouse, main office staff as early as 1965, while still at East Street in Oadby, who would actually work in the Thurmaston location once hired. A long transition was clearly planned.  The Town Council and local planning still refer to the building very much as the T&P warehouse even after T&P had seemingly relocated to Thurmaston in 1966.  People who remember the fire universally seem to conflate it with a fire at Invicta Plastics in 1970.  In 1971, the owners of the site were 'anxious to redevelop the site which had been destroyed by fire'.  This doesn't make it sound like it had sat there burned out for 5 years. I suspect the fire happened after T&P had left and the building was empty. I've never been able to understand how they packed so many functions, departments and people into so small a space, so it makes a lot of sense that they moved out over the course of a year or more.   They moved into East Street in 1948, so they potentially had the lease until 1968 and were operating out of both premises, but the registered office became Thurmaston, hence the indicias changed. This might well have contributed to the bankruptcy as they were paying 2 leases in this period, but this always happens when you relocate a business. 

So, I don't think it's correct to say 'fire destroyed Oadby and they moved to Thurmaston'.  They had demonstrably long been at Thurmaston before the fire happened, and though it might have been a factor in moving the last functions to Thurmaston, I don't think the fire had anything causal to do with the move. 

Of course, it may still have been the old joke: 

"I'm so sorry to hear about your fire last Tuesday"

"Shhhhh! It's NEXT Tuesday"

[Albert Tatlock]

On 1/6/2023 at 6:25 PM, Yorick said:

I wanna read what happens next.  It was just getting exciting!!!

It fizzled out, sadly.

The big bloke bottled (translation for Stateside readers: The bad guy blinked first).

So no blood was spilt, although if it had been, I hope that Gold Senior would have had the presence of mind to hold the affected part over the gutter, so that nothing dripped onto the comics.

Edited January 7, 2023 by Albert Tatlock
correct typo

[Get Marwood & I]

Nice transitional Hulk run on the bay currently 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 1/5/2023 at 11:45 PM, Malacoda said:

I assume this Jerry Levine worked for Capital Distribution, which was the in-house distributor of Charlton based in Derby, Connecticut.  Does this mean that Goldstar became the UK distributor of Charlton?  

Not sure about the names, times and places, but Gold Star definitely distributed Charlton. As well as this 70s fanzine clip, I have quite a few examples with our oblong 10d friend stamped on them:

One recent example has both the 10d oblong and shilling circle on it. More to come on that in my oft promised, but rarely delivered Charlton Brent II thread.....

[Albert Tatlock]

Another FF # 57, with a 1/- circle stamp that is difficult to spot, and a Little Audrey 1/9 that is difficult to miss.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 1/16/2023 at 12:27 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

Another FF # 57, with a 1/- circle stamp that is difficult to spot, and a Little Audrey 1/9 that is difficult to miss.

I saved Audrey to the files the other day. She may be little, but that stamp can be seen from space 

[Garystar]

Way to ruin a classic cover, why use one stamp when there’s room for three;

 

 

[OtherEric]

On 1/16/2023 at 12:51 PM, Garystar said:

Way to ruin a classic cover, why use one stamp when there’s room for three;

 

 

Not the face!  Not the face!

[Albert Tatlock]

On 1/16/2023 at 8:51 PM, Garystar said:

Way to ruin a classic cover, why use one stamp when there’s room for three;

 

 

Hail Hydra! Immortal Hydra!

Erase a stamp and two more will take its place!

[Malacoda]

Another one bites the dust.  Only need a stampy stampy of #58 now.  I suppose, given that the UK price is supposed to replace the US price, it's weird that you don't see this placement more often. 

[Malacoda]

A big old 4d from the cunningly named 'Bookshop' bookshop in Geordieland.  Note how the original 9d is wonky (they're all like that). 

[Get Marwood & I]

https://www.comicpriceguide.co.uk/features.php?id=19

[Get Marwood & I]

Updated tracking docs:

All expected issues of Strange Adventures are now accounted for:

Likeliest shipment is this one, the first '1' stamp (second cycle):

There's four 'late' October 1959 cover dated books in that slot now:

    

[OtherEric]

Here's the order the DC's hit the stands in the US that month.  The Jimmy Olsen is oldest at August 13, Superboy was August 20, Strange Adventures August 25, Action August 27.  So except for the Jimmy Olsen they're all relatively late in the month.

 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 1/30/2023 at 5:35 PM, OtherEric said:

Here's the order the DC's hit the stands in the US that month.  The Jimmy Olsen is oldest at August 13, Superboy was August 20, Strange Adventures August 25, Action August 27.  So except for the Jimmy Olsen they're all relatively late in the month.

 

Cheers Eric. It can be tricky to track these DC books, where some titles have dual month indicias. Note the Oct/Nov Brave & The Bold #26 up there that has a November cover date, for example. I say the first use of the '1' stamp in the second cycle is the likely home for our newly found Strange Adventures #109 but the truth is it could be any of the early cycle uses. It could have been really late getting here. All good fun