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

[Get Marwood & I]

Morning 

When I started this thread almost three years ago Rudolph was one of the first books I gathered as a candidate for 'earliest stamped DC' and the copy I purchased below has remained the only example I've seen up until this week:

Here's a second copy, currently on eBore, stamped a nine to my eight (so I still have the 'earliest' if my eight was the first eight boat and not the second. Or third / nineteenth ):

  

It's a good example of how they might have stacked them back in the day - we debated this a bit at some point in the thread - and you can clearly see the stamp smudges where it was placed on top of another still wet stamped book:

Only two copies seen in three years. Well, by me anyway.

All good fun 

[Get Marwood & I]

I bought this Dell in the week, just for the fun of it, because it has an obliterator / unbranded 10d stamp combination:

How cool is that. Good looking ghost. 

I must get around to making sense of all the Dell stamped Tee and Pees in my Dell Stamped Tee and Pee folder at some point, and to then post some drivel about it. I've made quite a few notes about them, but can't be arsed to turn them into something worth reading. Is that wrong of me? Probably. It's an affliction I'm struggling to shake off, currently. Wish me luck with it. Or not, depending on your quality viewpoint.

 

[Malacoda]

Just flipping back to the subscription / indicias conversation: in a spare moment, I plotted all of the US, Canadian & foreign subscription charges, where the second class postal privileges were authorised, where the second class postage was paid and when any of the indicia details changed against the cover dates, release dates, sales lead windows, circulation figures, cover prices, additional postage costs, changes of printer and changes of head office address for the entire 402 issue run of Avengers volume 1.   

The table is a bit scary to try to post here, but here are some highlights (keeping in mind this is just one title, over 36 years).  

• Changes to US, Canadian & foreign subscription rates are generally synchronised with increases to cover prices (rather than fluctuations in exchange rates or changes of Marvel head offices). 
• Up to August 1965, there is no mention of Canadian subscriptions being available.
• Up to July 1966, there is no mention of where the postage is paid.  This starts in July 66, including a second entry at Meriden, which is 20 miles from Waterbury where the comics were printed.  Might be that domestic mailing was sent by ECP from Meriden and international by Marvel from NY.
• Up to Feb 1968, postage is paid in New York.  Then, at this point, where printing switches from ECP to Sparta, all postage is paid in Sparta for the next 6 months.
• In August 1968, postage is paid in NY again and at 'additional mailing offices' which presumably means Sparta.  This does not coincide with any price changes and occurs while other titles are still being transferred from ECP to Sparta. 
• In May 1979 cover price increased to 40c, but subscription rates remained $4.50 for 1 month, so subscribers got the old price for an extra month.
• In August 1980, ahead of a price cover change, sub rates change.
• Then in September 1980, the cover price increases and the postage changes to 'application to post at controlled postage rates is pending at Sparta Illinois' for one month.  Then it's confirmed in Sparta for 1 month, then reverts back to NY.  This increase also wipes out any cover charge for posting.   From this point, subscription charges only cover the cover price.  This lasts for 14 years.
• In Feb 1986 cover price increased to 75c, but subscription rates remained $7.80 for 2 months, so subscribers got the old price for an extra 2 months.
• In Aug 1989, the foreign subscriptions rate dropped from $15 to $14. This did not coincide with a US change. This seemingly causes the need to reapply for second class postage status the following month.  Postage address remains NY.  There was a substantial drop in reported subscription sales from the previous year so this may have been to recover sales. 
• On Jan 1st 1991, Canada replaced its MST (manufacturer's sales tax) with GST (Goods & Services tax).  This didn't get reflected in Marvel's subscription charges until October 1991
• In August 1995, sub rates increase to $4 per year above the cover price, so for the first time there was an appreciable postage cost over the cover price (in the 60's, the cost above cover price was 31c for the year). 

[David Buck]

RE: DC subscriptions - there happens to be a letter relating to resuming subscriptions with October 1971 coverdates(?) on ebay right now

 

Link

Edited April 22, 2023 by David Buck

[David Buck]

On 4/22/2023 at 8:46 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Morning 

When I started this thread almost three years ago Rudolph was one of the first books I gathered as a candidate for 'earliest stamped DC' and the copy I purchased below has remained the only example I've seen up until this week:

Here's a second copy, currently on eBore, stamped a nine to my eight (so I still have the 'earliest' if my eight was the first eight boat and not the second. Or third / nineteenth ):

  

It's a good example of how they might have stacked them back in the day - we debated this a bit at some point in the thread - and you can clearly see the stamp smudges where it was placed on top of another still wet stamped book:

Only two copies seen in three years. Well, by me anyway.

All good fun 

well...

Now you've seen 3 !

Edited April 22, 2023 by David Buck

[Malacoda]

On 4/22/2023 at 11:14 PM, David Buck said:

RE: DC subscriptions - there happens to be a letter relating to resuming subscriptions with October 1971 coverdates(?) on ebay right now

 

Great spot, thank you.   Surely there cannot actually have been someone called Kent Wayne working for DC comics?  If I didn't believe in nominative determinism before, I sure do now 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/23/2023 at 12:02 AM, David Buck said:

well...

Now you've seen 3 !

Another nine! We only need Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen and Comet for the set now 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/23/2023 at 2:50 AM, Malacoda said:

Great spot, thank you.   Surely there cannot actually have been someone called Kent Wayne working for DC comics?  If I didn't believe in nominative determinism before, I sure do now 

Indeed. If it was a made up name, you'd have thought they'd have gone for something a bit less obvious, wouldn't you. Like 'Luther Cobblepot'.

[LowGradeBronze]

On 4/22/2023 at 11:14 PM, David Buck said:

RE: DC subscriptions - there happens to be a letter relating to resuming subscriptions with October 1971 coverdates(?) on ebay right now

 

Link

That seller has all sorts of letters to a Joel Thingvall received in response to his fan letters to comics. He also badgered artists for original art pages and asked for a job as editorial assistant at DC. 

Edit: I get the feeling he may have made a nuisance of himself, writing and calling:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/225521265730?hash=item34821d6c42:g:gbQAAOSwheRj~sn5

Edited April 23, 2023 by LowGradeBronze

[Malacoda]

On 4/23/2023 at 9:10 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Indeed. If it was a made up name, you'd have thought they'd have gone for something a bit less obvious, wouldn't you. Like 'Luther Cobblepot'.

Yes, but literally. I can see it being done as a joke, but a completely straight, hand-signed, official response to correspondence on letter headed note paper? It's like having Irving Forbush submit Marvel's tax returns.  I exaggerate, obviously, but given how formal they had to be to stay within the legislation to qualify for 2nd class mail, printing the address and location where it was printed in every single comic, the statement of ownership circulation data every year, etc, it's kind of weird that the subscriptions correspondence is signed off by a fictitious employee.   

[LowGradeBronze]

Bob Kane became a fictitious artist in the end, with so many ghosting for him....

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/23/2023 at 12:57 PM, Malacoda said:

Yes, but literally. I can see it being done as a joke, but a completely straight, hand-signed, official response to correspondence on letter headed note paper? It's like having Irving Forbush submit Marvel's tax returns.  I exaggerate, obviously, but given how formal they had to be to stay within the legislation to qualify for 2nd class mail, printing the address and location where it was printed in every single comic, the statement of ownership circulation data every year, etc, it's kind of weird that the subscriptions correspondence is signed off by a fictitious employee.   

Wayne King would've been better 

[Get Marwood & I]

Remember this lot, Rich? That shop was one of your haunts wasn't it?

[Malacoda]

On 4/23/2023 at 1:20 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Remember this lot, Rich? That shop was one of your haunts wasn't it?

To this day, pretty much the definitive comic shop.  Run by geeks for geeks, but had everything.  And I mean everything.  I remember it as being huge, and you always think that your memory plays tricks, but it actually was the largest SF bookshop in Europe (though it claimed the world).  My big regret is that I have practically no memory of the upper (street level) floor.   It was a head shop, populated by Tolkien freaks and fantasy nutters and it was magic (possibly literally).  The Fortean Times was printed above the shop.  Everyone who was anyone worked there at some point, including Paul Hudson, Nick Landau, Mike Lake and I think Dez Skinn, but perhaps more impressively, the staircase to the original property was designed by Dave Gibbons (who was a surveyor, training to be an architect at the time), the place was re-wired by Frank Dobson - whose day job was electrician.  The ads & decor were designed by Brian Bolland and Bryan Talbot.   According to legend, everyone got paid in comics. 

Of course, I was oblivious to all that as I streaked past it all (hey, it was the 70's), and bolted straight down the stairs to the absolute wonderland of comics that filled the whole bottom floor.  Weird to think I was probably rubbing elbows with the likes of Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore & Jonathan Ross.

Even their paper bags were the business. 

 

 

Edited April 23, 2023 by Malacoda

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/23/2023 at 2:14 PM, Malacoda said:

Weird to think I was probably rubbing elbows with the likes of Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore & Jonathan Ross.

Whereas I was rubbing shoulders with Vince, Tall Barry and a dodgy bloke called Glynn in the infinitely less salubrious Rodney's in Barking:

That whole parade has gone now I think. Somewhere out there, lost in all of space and time, are me and my brother, excitedly picking up UK Weeklies with massive 2p inked prices on them, laughing and joking all the way home.

[Malacoda]

On 4/23/2023 at 2:49 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Whereas I was rubbing shoulders with Vince, Tall Barry and a dodgy bloke called Glynn in the infinitely less salubrious Rodney's in Barking:

Nothing wrong with a Rodney's type establishment (except possibly Glynn). Keep in mind that DTW was in deepest, darkest 70's Soho, so salubrious was not the first word that sprang to anyone's mind (lugubrious, possibly).  Also, salubrious is more of a minus in my opinion.  I mean....what makes you want to pile in more?  This.....

 

Or this.....

 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/23/2023 at 3:23 PM, Malacoda said:

Nothing wrong with a Rodney's type establishment (except possibly Glynn). Keep in mind that DTW was in deepest, darkest 70's Soho, so salubrious was not the first word that sprang to anyone's mind (lugubrious, possibly).  Also, salubrious is more of a minus in my opinion.  I mean....what makes you want to pile in more?  This.....

 

Or this.....

 

OK, so I chose the wrong word in salubrious. I must remember to give every word and every thought 100% consideration before posting from now on 

[David Buck]

On 4/23/2023 at 2:14 PM, Malacoda said:

To this day, pretty much the definitive comic shop.  Run by geeks for geeks, but had everything.  And I mean everything.  I remember it as being huge, and you always think that your memory plays tricks, but it actually was the largest SF bookshop in Europe (though it claimed the world).  My big regret is that I have practically no memory of the upper (street level) floor.   It was a head shop, populated by Tolkien freaks and fantasy nutters and it was magic (possibly literally).  The Fortean Times was printed above the shop.  Everyone who was anyone worked there at some point, including Paul Hudson, Nick Landau, Mike Lake and I think Dez Skinn, but perhaps more impressively, the staircase to the original property was designed by Dave Gibbons (who was a surveyor, training to be an architect at the time), the place was re-wired by Frank Dobson - whose day job was electrician.  The ads & decor were designed by Brian Bolland and Bryan Talbot.   According to legend, everyone got paid in comics. 

Of course, I was oblivious to all that as I streaked past it all (hey, it was the 70's), and bolted straight down the stairs to the absolute wonderland of comics that filled the whole bottom floor.  Weird to think I was probably rubbing elbows with the likes of Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore & Jonathan Ross.

Even their paper bags were the business. 

 

 

Posted July 4, 2021 (edited)

 

Was I right in identifying this as "Dark They Were And Golden Eyed" in the comics in Film & Tv thread? 

Iron Maiden members being interviewed in a comic shop for british TV show 20th Century Box in 1980 - screened in 1981; viewable on youtube

It seems likely this would be "Dark They Were And Golden Eyed" due to it;s proximity to the Marquee club also featured - but I can't see their familiar price stickers on the books - had they stopped stickering copies by late 1980? - a little befiore my time. 

 

 

Edited July 4, 2021 by David Buck

[Malacoda]

@David BuckWow, well first off many thanks for posting this.  

Yes, I think you're right.  DTW was practically next door to the Marquee (though Denmark Street was only 500 yards away).   Forbidden Planet was new and relatively small.  Dark They Were was uber famous and absolutely massive (bearing in mind the size of 1970's TV cameras, you'd have your work cut out for you filming in FP). 

Also, DTW had a whole wall, the length of 3 shops, filled with racks of the latest (not yet out in the shops in some cases) comics.   FP had nothing like that area of vertical real estate to my memory.   There seems to be almost an entire year of titles on the wall (I can see Cap 233 to 242 for starters and several months of Avengers).  So I think you're right: DTW. 

The 1981 broadcast date the You Tube poster gives for this I think might raise an eyebrow.  Iron Maiden played Reading in Aug 1980 ( I was there, still got the T shirt),  and I think this gig is 3rd April 1980 (Harold & Barbara Pendleton who owned and ran the Marquee used the club to audition / book bands in the run up to the festival).   The comics on the wall that I can see date up to about Feb 1980 cover date, so it ties in pretty well with having been filmed in April 1980 at the time of their Marquee gig and then edited and broadcast as part of the series in August 1980, as DB says, just before Reading which was Aug bank holiday 1980. 

Additionally, 20th Century Box was only broadcast in 1980 and 1981 and according to DB's bio, this piece was in the first series, so I reckon has to be 1980, which makes it still more likely to be DTW.  (Of course, the YT poster may have recorded it repeated in 1981). 

DTW definitely had stickers on to the bitter end.   I think you can just about make them out on some of the comics (but I wouldn't put the mortgage on it).  

Again thanks for posting this.  Really superb. 

 

 

[Albert Tatlock]

Has this one cropped up before?