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

[Get Marwood & I]

On 10/28/2023 at 11:10 PM, Redshade said:

Not after last time! 

 

I'm telling you that man in the gimp mask wasn't mine. 

[Redshade]

On 10/28/2023 at 11:09 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Actually, I think I dress quite cool for a comic bod. Well, that is if you think Catweazle meets The Crowman is cool. 

It's the sweaty vest and bum crack brigade that I steer clear of.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 10/28/2023 at 11:13 PM, Redshade said:

It's the sweaty vest and bum crack brigade that I steer clear of.

You leave @Malacoda out of this. 

[Redshade]

On 10/28/2023 at 11:12 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

I'm telling you that man in the gimp mask wasn't mine. 

We agreed never to speak of such things again. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 10/28/2023 at 11:14 PM, Redshade said:

We agreed never to speak of such things again. 

Shall we quit while we're behind?

[Get Marwood & I]

There's a Lulu concert on BBC2 I'm trying to concentrate on.

[Get Marwood & I]

Oh, she's doing To Sir With Love.

Gotta go now. I'm doing a Biden (laptop on 5%)

Nighty night pence brethren 

[Redshade]

On 10/28/2023 at 11:16 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

There's a Lulu concert on BBC2 I'm trying to concentrate on.

I'm old enough to remember when such jollifications were broadcast live. I remember a certain Mr Hendrix being cut off prematurely, as it were.
Actually I gave up buying comics in 1968 at 13/14 because I wanted to save up and buy one of Jimi's albums.

 

[Redshade]

On 10/28/2023 at 11:18 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Oh, she's doing To Sir With Love.

Gotta go now. I'm doing a Biden (laptop on 5%)

Nighty night pence brethren 

Say goodnight Sweep. Bye-bye everybody, bye-bye.

 

[Malacoda]

On 10/28/2023 at 11:09 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Actually, I think I dress quite cool for a comic bod. Well, that is if you think Catweazle meets The Crowman is cool. 

You had me at Catweazle.

[Get Marwood & I]

Somebody post something about a pence comic, quick 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 10/25/2023 at 10:29 PM, Malacoda said:

This probably isn't the moment to pitch Unified Stamp Theory, right?

[Malacoda]

On 10/29/2023 at 9:14 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Somebody post something about a pence comic, quick 

OK.  I know you love the ones that are missing for years and years and then suddenly turn up, but how often do you get two different ones at the same time ?  Cap 117 was one I'd never seen (and believe me, I've looked).  However, both Alan Austin and Duncan MacAlpine said it existed as a stamp, though Alan Austin had it on his wants list for years and Duncan said he took years to find one.  

And here it is.  In both unknown roundy format and classic T&P.   The roundy format suggests (as does Duncan) that it wasn't actually distributed at the time.  

You're going to say you've got a hundred of these now, aren't you? 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 10/29/2023 at 10:21 AM, Malacoda said:

You're going to say you've got a hundred of these now, aren't you? 

No, just that same roundy shilling one as you. It's an interesting aspect, the presence of books for which T&P stamps don't exist in large numbers, or at all, but for which other 'of the time' stamp types can be found. It sort of indicates that an issue did not come across in the usual way in 'regular' numbers, but had a stray or two arrive in a later shipment. Does one example negate a previously stated ND status?  And if the non-T&P (as far as we know) stamp is of the time, it does make you wonder how that issue came to be here.

That's why, in the number cycle work, I tried to gather multiples of each issue, to prove as far as we can 60 years later that the issue arrived 'normally'. The more you find....

A single T&P stamped example could be the only example, after all, but then we have to consider the nature of the title (popular vs less so, boy title vs girl) and consider whether preservation would be as likely.

The one thing I find in my research - in all aspects - is the 'glut issue' scenario. The issue for which there are an uncommon amount of copies in circulation and for which there is no obvious explanation. That happens a lot in Charlton. The evidence you gather seems to indicate a much higher extant prevalence of one issue over another but with no obvious reason. Warehouse finds, maybe.

All good fun though Rich and a nice return the subject matter after last night's shenanigans 

  

[Get Marwood & I]

On 10/29/2023 at 11:31 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

A single T&P stamped example could be the only example, after all, but then we have to consider the nature of the title (popular vs less so, boy title vs girl) and consider whether preservation would be as likely.

Remember when I finally found this stamped Superman #132?

 

It's the only one I've ever seen. There are lost of Superman #133's to be found, with logical 8 and 9 stamp numbers. They are likely the first to arrive, and the '1' stamped 132 may well have arrived out of date sequence in a subsequent shipment.

So we can say that Superman #133 was a distributed issue, as there a lots of examples extant. Can we say that Superman #132 was 'distributed' though, if we only have one example (so far) and the numbering implies latecomer?

And perhaps more importantly, does anyone care? 

[Get Marwood & I]

Two! Two Amazing Spider-Man number forty 10d UK price variants with T&P 10d 3-numbered stamps with big circles around them! Ah-ha-ha-ha-hah! 

 

[Malacoda]

On 10/29/2023 at 11:31 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Does one example negate a previously stated ND status?

Definitely not. If the pattern we see is, for example, around 100 copies of each issue of a title coming on sale each year, except one of them which never shows up and then 100 issues start showing up, you'd have to conclude that they were distributed the same as the others and wonder what happened in the years that none were on the market.  But if one never shows up for years and then a single issue rocks up, potentially with an anachronistic price or stamp number on it, it almost proves that it was ND, or certainly underlines it, because the ONLY example you can find is one that should not be there.  What we really need to is monitor the sales now of a run of something for several years, because at the moment, it's more an impression than a fact.  We need a table like this.  

On 10/29/2023 at 11:31 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

And if the non-T&P (as far as we know) stamp is of the time, it does make you wonder how that issue came to be here.

Yes it does. Each scenario you think of comes unglued almost immediately.  

[Get Marwood & I]

On 10/29/2023 at 6:12 PM, Malacoda said:

Definitely not. If the pattern we see is, for example, around 100 copies of each issue of a title coming on sale each year, except one of them which never shows up and then 100 issues start showing up, you'd have to conclude that they were distributed the same as the others and wonder what happened in the years that none were on the market.  But if one never shows up for years and then a single issue rocks up, potentially with an anachronistic price or stamp number on it, it almost proves that it was ND, or certainly underlines it, because the ONLY example you can find is one that should not be there.  

The exception that proves the rule, I think they call it.

On 10/29/2023 at 6:12 PM, Malacoda said:

Yes it does. Each scenario you think of comes unglued almost immediately.  

Well there was this fella....

[Malacoda]

On 10/29/2023 at 11:31 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

The one thing I find in my research - in all aspects - is the 'glut issue' scenario. The issue for which there are an uncommon amount of copies in circulation and for which there is no obvious explanation. That happens a lot in Charlton. The evidence you gather seems to indicate a much higher extant prevalence of one issue over another but with no obvious reason. Warehouse finds, maybe.

Could also be makeweights.  Wouldn't surprise me that much with DC or Charlton. It would be interesting if there were gluts of Marvel as the supply seems a lot more consistent, therefore the glut would be down to something else.

Also consider our question about where the returns came from. If DC, for example, sent 20,000 copies of Superman to a local wholesaler who then broke them up and mixed up the batches for the retailers, but 5,000 of the Supermans never made it out of the wholesaler's warehouse and went back to IND unopened, they might go 'Yeah, fine, Superman, T&P can always shift those', and lob the whole 5,000 in, which would create a glut that would still be reverberating today.  For instance, in 1967, Superman was averaging half a million returns per month, where Wonder Woman was averaging 157k.  Now, you would hope that every month, an American Ethel (Martha?) would be sorting them out into even batches, but I bet it was actually bloody chaos. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 10/29/2023 at 6:29 PM, Malacoda said:

Could also be makeweights

Don't, don't make weights!