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

[themagicrobot]

ETHEL WINS!

 

I always did wonder what her surname was.

Edited July 3, 2023 by themagicrobot

[themagicrobot]

Another one of yours? My Pows! were defaced by the newsagent writing the house number on the top edge of the covers but it never occurred to me to tell him to stop doing it.

Edited July 3, 2023 by themagicrobot

[themagicrobot]

It looks like the last few visitors to this thread must be off on their summer holidays. When I first started buying comics they cost 10d. This was a perfect price point as it meant I got three comics each week for my 2/6 pocket money. I almost had a nervous breakdown when prices increased to 1/- and my allowance didn't increase. Fifty years later I almost had a nineteenth nervous breakdown when I realised comics had reached the heady sum of 85/- each.

[Redshade]

On 7/8/2023 at 12:50 PM, themagicrobot said:

It looks like the last few visitors to this thread must be off on their summer holidays. When I first started buying comics they cost 10d. This was a perfect price point as it meant I got three comics each week for my 2/6 pocket money. I almost had a nervous breakdown when prices increased to 1/- and my allowance didn't increase. Fifty years later I almost had a nineteenth nervous breakdown when I realised comics had reached the heady sum of 85/- each.

Welcome to the Krusty Old Git's Komplaints Korner. A quick search of the 'net tells me that ten old pennies (10d) in 1970 is worth the equivalent of 60 new pence today (60p). So perhaps if comics (UK and US) were 60p instead of whatever it is that they now cost then the industry wouldn't be in the terminal decline that it is in today..

[themagicrobot]

Grumpy old men dept. I've been sorting through some old paperwork. I found an invoice for my father's first brand new car in 1965. It was a 850cc red Mini (named Speedy) and cost precisely £400 with no part exchange. (He'd taken the bus to work for the previous year to save up!) 

£400 in 1965 is the equivalent of £6000 today. But the cheapest new car in the UK is £12000 now. So looking at a number of items I calculate we are paying twice as much for everything than we ought to be. And what a mere five years ago were worthless Alan Class comics are selling today for almost as much as a car once cost. Ever feel you're currently living in an alternate reality?  

[Redshade]

On 7/8/2023 at 8:04 PM, themagicrobot said:

Ever feel you're currently living in an alternate reality?  

I wish I could find an alternative reality because anywhere else must be an improvement on the sh*tstorm that we're living in today.

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Redshade

[themagicrobot]

Someone told me there are these new-fangled things called "computers" that they actually use to create comics in the C21st. No big sheets of paper or ink (or skill) required. New-fangled they may be but these "computers" are too old-fashioned for the kids. They use phones to (not) read comics. Back in the day even fanzines were must-buys. I'll let you know if I ever find a portal that leads to a better time and place.

[Yorick]

On 7/8/2023 at 12:04 PM, themagicrobot said:

I don't think it's fair that CGC labels these "United Kingdom".  I want my US books to have an equivalent "United States of America" label. 

[LowGradeBronze]

Photographed in the bag as it was in my LCS: This J&P stamp is quite a big bigger than a T&P. Seen here on Not Brand Ecch 11. Any info on a J&P stamp? (The Baron clearly likes it!)

 

Edited July 10, 2023 by LowGradeBronze

[Get Marwood & I]

On 7/10/2023 at 12:20 PM, LowGradeBronze said:

Photographed in the bag as it was in my LCS: This J&P stamp is quite a big bigger than a T&P. Seen here on Not Brand Ecch 11. Any info on a J&P stamp? (The Baron clearly likes it!)

I've only seen a handful of J&Ps myself so assume it's a single outlet stamp and not indicative of anything systematic - another example here from the files:

 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 7/8/2023 at 9:02 PM, Yorick said:

I don't think it's fair that CGC labels these "United Kingdom".  I want my US books to have an equivalent "United States of America" label. 

Don't start. 

[OtherEric]

On 7/10/2023 at 4:20 AM, LowGradeBronze said:

Photographed in the bag as it was in my LCS: This J&P stamp is quite a big bigger than a T&P. Seen here on Not Brand Ecch 11. Any info on a J&P stamp? (The Baron clearly likes it!)

 

Being that it's on a "Not Brand Echh" issue, I want it to be a gag name, like Japes & Puns.  But then @Get Marwood & I had to show us a version of the stamp not on a non humor title...

[Get Marwood & I]

On 7/10/2023 at 4:44 PM, OtherEric said:

not on a non humor title

[OtherEric]

On 7/10/2023 at 9:00 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Sorry, not enough caffeine yet today. Delete either "not" or "non" but not both, please.

[themagicrobot]

On 7/10/2023 at 5:00 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

  On 7/10/2023 at 4:44 PM, OtherEric said:

a version of the stamp on a non humour title

I dunno. Fantasy Masterpieces 11 makes me laugh now we've reached 2023. Time seems to have expanded and to many of us here any comics produced within the last 30 years are classed as/totally dismissed as "modern". That silver age comic of 1967 talks of the golden age of comics from the distant past. What do we have within its pages? A reprinted story from Strange Tales that was a mere 5 years old. A 12 year old Black Knight story. A 13 year old Submariner one. The Torch and Captain America stories were the oldest reprints at 27 and 25 years. They were all from yesterday to any adult living in 1967. But they were new and wonderful to those of us living in the UK where Marvel comics began just 7 years earlier. They were as old and exotic to me at the time as an issue of Ally Sloper's Half Holiday from Victorian times.

[Albert Tatlock]

Places like this were an inestimable boon when I was trying to complete my early collection, before the advent of dealers or t'internet.

The date of 1972 given is probably off by a decade or so, though.

It is local, so I would certainly have spotted it and paid a visit, even though it would seem to cater for a more mature clientele than myself at the time.

The only other explanation I can come up with is that it was open only very briefly. There is a large police station just along the road, and maybe the proprietor had insufficient funds to keep its inhabitants at bay.

The shop next door has an interesting name. Couldn't be, could it?

We wonders, yes we wonders.

Not me peering at the display while playing pocket billiards, by the way.

Edited July 13, 2023 by Albert Tatlock
add 1 line

[Albert Tatlock]

On 7/13/2023 at 9:23 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

Places like this were an inestimable boon when I was trying to complete my early collection, before the advent of dealers or t'internet.

The date of 1972 given is probably off by a decade or so, though.

It is local, so I would certainly have spotted it and paid a visit, even though it would seem to cater for a more mature clientele than myself at the time.

The only other explanation I can come up with is that it was open only very briefly. There is a large police station just along the road, and maybe the proprietor had insufficient funds to keep its inhabitants at bay.

The shop next door has an interesting name. Couldn't be, could it?

We wonders, yes we wonders.

Not me peering at the display while playing pocket billiards, by the way.

There is a better image here, with some cars outside.

Maybe some anorak could use them to date the photo.

 

[Albert Tatlock]

On 7/13/2023 at 9:44 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

There is a better image here, with some cars outside.

Maybe some anorak could use them to date the photo.

 

And I think the little sign on the door reads 'back in 6 months, or 4 with good behaviour'.

 

[Albert Tatlock]

On 7/13/2023 at 9:47 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

And I think the little sign on the door reads 'back in 6 months, or 4 with good behaviour'.

 

Just noticed, shop to left has decimal prices, so could be 1972-ish.

Amazed I never noticed the place at the time.

[themagicrobot]

That looks like a Mark 1 Ford Capri produced between 1969 and 1974 so 1972ish is a good call.

Quote

It is local, so I would certainly have spotted it and paid a visit, even though it would seem to cater for a more mature clientele than myself at the time.

I frequented a similar shop that sold "Books Mags Films Photos" in my home town despite only being 11 years old. The window displayed numerous Monster mags and the more innocuous paperbacks which was basically a cover for the more profitable stuff sold there. The soft porn was inside and there was a counter with a grille like a post office or a betting shop. Serious stuff was produced from a rear room to that counter for adults on request. Some of the regulars headed straight for the back room. In the front were tables stacked with Famous Monsters of Filmland, paperbacks  and similar. Underneath the table was three or four cardboard boxes full of comics. That was where I purchased X-Men No 1 and early Fantastic Fours. Or I just went in with 10 comics and emerged with 5 different ones. Alas he was shut down in 1968 as the local magistrate didn't like porn, pulp paperbacks. horror magazines OR comics.