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

[Get Marwood & I]

On 5/4/2023 at 5:07 PM, Malacoda said:

Apparently, I'm an explorer. 

I'm thinking this: 

                                                                                             You're thinking this, right?

 

 

 

No, I was thinking this 

[OtherEric]

I seem to have lucked out, as far as it goes.  The circle works well enough with my avatar.

 

[Yorick]

On 5/4/2023 at 8:31 AM, themagicrobot said:

 

 

They broke the red plate at the end of the run?  They forgot to omit the red plate text at the start? 

I see the yellow print glowing around the "30".

[Malacoda]

@Garystar  This is on the bay at the mo for the princely sum of a fiver, if you're interested.   https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166074255757?hash=item26aacc098d:g:r5MAAOSwb19kTV2h

Everyone else, a novel old money / new money? 

Edited May 5, 2023 by Malacoda

[themagicrobot]

I think it will go for more than the fiver starting bid if this one is anything to go by. It may be almost 60 years old but if anyone pays £600 for this they want their head examined. You can still get old Power comics such as Fantastic and Terrific for a fiver. They are far more interesting (and possibly scarcer now) than most Alans. We live in very strange times. 

I like the back cover though. Printed in the days before Astounding and Uncanny were born. 

 

[Garystar]

On 5/5/2023 at 3:11 PM, Malacoda said:

@Garystar  This is on the bay at the mo for the princely sum of a fiver, if you're interested.   https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166074255757?hash=item26aacc098d:g:r5MAAOSwb19kTV2h

Everyone else, an novel old money / new money? 

Thanks for the heads up, I have that one though. I think £5 is probably about right. Alan Class key reprints seem to have gone mad, but run issues still affordable. 

[Malacoda]

@themagicrobot Indeed.  I think once the grails went off the scale, people speculated that the investment money would move down a rung. This is now sellers speculating about what the speculators will speculate about next.  The interesting question is: will this take some of the heat out of price inflation on the grails as the money seeks other targets or will it just push them up further?

It's also a weirdly UK thing.  The US reprint titles (Marvel Adventure, Greatest Comics, Super Action, Spectacular, Triple Action etc) don't attract anything like this. 

Edited May 5, 2023 by Malacoda

[Garystar]

On 5/5/2023 at 5:19 PM, themagicrobot said:

I think it will go for more than the fiver starting bid if this one is anything to go by. It may be almost 60 years old but if anyone pays £600 for this they want their head examined. You can still get old Power comics such as Fantastic and Terrific for a fiver. They are far more interesting (and possibly scarcer now) than most Alans. We live in very strange times. 

I like the back cover though. Printed in the days before Astounding and Uncanny were born. 

 

I don’t think it’ll get £600 in this condition either but not a stupid starting point. The last one sold in February for best offer on £599 asking price, not much better looking than this. Alan Class creepy FF#1 reprint sold in April for £556. 
I don’t understand either why these Alan’s fetch so much when, as you say, Power Comics and MWOM and Spider-Man Weekly reprinting the same comics get a small percentage. 

[Malacoda]

On 5/5/2023 at 6:13 PM, Garystar said:

I don’t understand either why these Alan’s fetch so much when, as you say, Power Comics and MWOM and Spider-Man Weekly reprinting the same comics get a small percentage. 

I suspect rarity, or at least perceived rarity is a factor.  MWOM #1 reprints 3 grails, but it shifted half a million copies. Even if 90% got binned or destroyed, there's still 50,000 copies out there. And by that point, there were definitely Marvel collectors, far more than in the Odhams day...and MWOM was under a very distinct Marvel banner (don't say it). I suspect (please correct me)  that no one really knows how many copies AC printed, or were sold, or were re-sold in subsequent redistributions, or were pulped and how many survived. Most of it was not Marvel reprints and even when they were, they were so non-sequential that no one could have been collecting & reading the MU that way.  The AC ones may actually be literally a thousand times rarer than the Transworld ones.

What's your take on the AC volumes, Gary? I suspect you know a thing or two.  

[themagicrobot]

I got the 1968 Pow! Annual Xmas 1967. Over the years I picked up a few more at Car Boot sales and Charity shops never paying more than 50p. Suddenly it is selling for £100 plus and they are making a big thing about the "Peter Palmer" typo from Amazing Spider-man No1.

 

 PS: There were times when I struggled to find Marvel comics in the 1960s/70s but never had any trouble bumping into Alan Class comics. Oddly (even for me) for a long time I collected Alan's Astounding Stories (but not any of the other five main titles) for the simple reason that I had been there from the beginning and had purchased the first issue new at the time. I couldn't justify 6/- a month on six Alans but one comic was doable. There were far better things out there for the other 5/-.

Edited May 5, 2023 by themagicrobot

[themagicrobot]

No doubt I missed this last year and it has already been commented on.   https://blog.gocollect.com/the-legend-of-ballast-comics/ Who is Luke Smith? Does he visit these forums?

I'm sure a very small amount of comics did arrive here unofficially by boat. I think more paper ballast would consist of pulps and magazines, even paperbacks than comics. I think "ballast" of paper was mostly a pre/post war thing. I think ships would surely aim to return with saleable goods rather than be empty apart from "ballast". I can't see them throwing any stuff over the side if it would have a saleable value no matter how small.

[Yorick]

On 5/5/2023 at 11:22 AM, themagicrobot said:

"Peter Palmer" typo from Amazing Spider-man No1.

[Garystar]

On 5/5/2023 at 6:58 PM, Malacoda said:

I suspect rarity, or at least perceived rarity is a factor.  MWOM #1 reprints 3 grails, but it shifted half a million copies. Even if 90% got binned or destroyed, there's still 50,000 copies out there. And by that point, there were definitely Marvel collectors, far more than in the Odhams day...and MWOM was under a very distinct Marvel banner (don't say it). I suspect (please correct me)  that no one really knows how many copies AC printed, or were sold, or were re-sold in subsequent redistributions, or were pulped and how many survived. Most of it was not Marvel reprints and even when they were, they were so non-sequential that no one could have been collecting & reading the MU that way.  The AC ones may actually be literally a thousand times rarer than the Transworld ones.

What's your take on the AC volumes, Gary? I suspect you know a thing or two.  

No idea what the print run of Alan’s was although I suspect a lot less than MWOM (which I understood to be about 350,000) and would have been much harder (impossible) to collect. I never knew anywhere that sold any titles regularly, just saw ad hoc issues all over the place. I never knew anyone who collected them, not even me although I would buy Marvel ones, read them and then bin them.

I think the prices some now fetch is only incredulous to us old timers who remember when you could pick them up for pennies and that wasn’t too long  ago. 

[Garystar]

On 5/5/2023 at 7:22 PM, themagicrobot said:

I got the 1968 Pow! Annual Xmas 1967. Over the years I picked up a few more at Car Boot sales and Charity shops never paying more than 50p. Suddenly it is selling for £100 plus

Although there are eBay sellers asking £100+, only one of the last four sold listings made it to £10 mark. (Shame I was about to dig mine out and list it for sale).

[Albert Tatlock]

On 5/3/2023 at 1:15 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Time permitting, I'll see if I can overlay the 10d oblongs for all the other publishers I've gathered to date, to see what, if anything, jumps out.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to complete a table with all stamps from all publishers from Action # 1 to date. As always, should you or any member of your team be caught or killed, CGC will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This post will self-destruct in five seconds

[Get Marwood & I]

On 5/6/2023 at 7:42 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to complete a table with all stamps from all publishers from Action # 1 to date. As always, should you or any member of your team be caught or killed, CGC will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This post will self-destruct in five seconds

I spent an hour looking for Daredevils, if that helps. Found Gold Stars and some other similar stamp types for #20 through to 33 give or take one or two issues. It makes your eyes ache after a while. There are definitely many more to find in and around the UKPV hiatus months. 

[Albert Tatlock]

On 5/6/2023 at 7:50 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

There are definitely many more to find in and around the UKPV hiatus months. 

That's the spirit!

Remember that the journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step.

[OtherEric]

On 5/6/2023 at 11:42 AM, Albert Tatlock said:

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to complete a table with all stamps from all publishers from Action # 1 to date. As always, should you or any member of your team be caught or killed, CGC will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This post will self-destruct in five seconds

Why starting so late?  I've got at least a dozen comics that predate Action #1.  None of them stamped, though...

[Get Marwood & I]

On 5/6/2023 at 8:06 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

That's the spirit!

Remember that the journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step.

I know, I've been doing it for over ten years Albert, seven of them here. Maybe someone else could do some of the heavy lifting for once. 

[Albert Tatlock]

On 5/6/2023 at 8:10 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Maybe someone else could do some of the heavy lifting for once. 

If only my arthritis and lumbago could give me some respite.

I will keep an eye out for anything lesser spotted, though.

I have started going through a few bits looking at the back covers in case there is any info there.

And there is a pile of fanzines to check through, not looked at them for donkeys years.