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

[Get Marwood & I]

I mentioned earlier how prolific, or otherwise, some UK price stamps are and whether it is worth gathering and plotting them, to see what they might tell us. For me, there are only four stampers worth their weight in investigation:

1. Thorpe & Porter
2. L Miller
3. Roberts & Vinter
4. Goldstar

These are the only ones that I have been able to gather enough examples of to prove something meaningful, and systematic, and each has a variety of types that makes for interesting gathering and assessment.

There are other stamp types that crop up here and there, with various levels of interest attached, but those four above, which encompass the full stamping era, are the only UK distribution stamps worth writing about in my book. 

I put this table below together a while ago to show other stamps that exist in multiples - I could probably add quite a few extra ones now:

I love finding new types of stamp, and file or buy them when I do, but none of them ever amount to anything and I don't expect to ever again find a type that has any significance attached. They're just a fun foot note in the overall UK distribution window.

[themagicrobot]

There are as many stamps and stickers as there are old comics. Not so much these days, sadly, since the invention of the bar code.

 

I keep meaning, and forgetting, to find out more about the shortlived Australian Federal comics

 

 

Finally completed this run of (six) magazines 5 minutes ago. The price when new of 20p seems cheap for a $1 comic. Today a $1 comic (if such a thing existed) would cost £1.

 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 11/2/2023 at 2:25 PM, themagicrobot said:

There are as many stamps and stickers as there are old comics. Not so much these days, sadly, since the invention of the bar code.

Indeed - all stamps fascinate me, even the non-UK ones. I love collecting the Milano ones that turn up every now and again, usually in bulk:

 

Distribution marks add to a comic, I feel. When I was Spidey completisming, I used to pass T&Ps over for clean US copies. It would be the other way around now. A stamp-free comic hasn't lived!

 

 

[Get Marwood & I]

I know I've posted it before, several times, but I just love this one:

Knowing that most collectors would recoil in horror adds to the fun of having it 

[Get Marwood & I]

And just look at that:

A positive enhancement!  

[Get Marwood & I]

The only T&P I've ever seen on a Harvey 

[Get Marwood & I]

The only Miller one and six I've ever seen on a comic (but not on a magazine) 

 

 

[Get Marwood & I]

3p T&P  

[OtherEric]

On 11/2/2023 at 7:48 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

3p T&P  

Who the heck published that, anyway?

[Get Marwood & I]

On 11/2/2023 at 3:00 PM, OtherEric said:

Who the heck published that, anyway?

The Orstralians 

[OtherEric]

On 11/2/2023 at 3:58 AM, themagicrobot said:

I just typed "November 1966" into eBay and came across this. Seymour Distribution are apparently currently the largest importer of foreign magazines into the UK. They were around as Seymour Press Ltd  in 1966 importing (in this case an edited) versions of Playboy. Would they have imported any comics too?

Now I'm wondering if this was a separate print run, or if they just razored out the pages in question.  PLAYBOY was definitely printing multiple versions of any given issue at this point, going by the stars next to the P this is version 4 or 5 (I'm not sure if they did a 0-star version or not.)

[Malacoda]

On 11/2/2023 at 3:51 PM, OtherEric said:

Now I'm wondering if this was a separate print run, or if they just razored out the pages in question.  PLAYBOY was definitely printing multiple versions of any given issue at this point, going by the stars next to the P this is version 4 or 5 (I'm not sure if they did a 0-star version or not.)

I recall there was a MAD paperback where the US edition printed something that couldn't be distributed here (something about the royal family), but it got reprinted, so they ripped out a single page from every one of 25,000 copies by hand.  Logic would tell you the Playboy was a different version, but logic was so seldom in the driving seat.  

That said, the UK was an absolute gold mine for Playboy, so I could easily believe they fell over backwards to keep on the right side of the line here. 

[themagicrobot]

DC forgot to put the 10 cents price on the cover so T&P made up for it by giving us a choice of how much we paid for Bob Hope 60.

[Albert Tatlock]

On 11/2/2023 at 2:05 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

There are other stamp types that crop up here and there, with various levels of interest attached, but those four above, which encompass the full stamping era, are the only UK distribution stamps worth writing about in my book. 

What's your book called?

Where can I rush out and buy it from? ISBN number?

Reading this stuff online is fine, but nothing beats the impact of the printed page.

Of course, if the copy I buy is shrink wrapped, I will just not be able to bring myself to desecrate it by tearing off the plastic, so I will not be able to read it until second-hand copies, well thumbed, I doubt not, begin to appear on ebay.

[Yorick]

I'm going to cheat a bit here.  Not within the timeline and not stamped, but 1984 is close and a sticker is pretty much the same as a stamp, right?!!!

SUPER POWERS!!  Mini comic included with the figure.    And check out that sticker on the back!

I don't recall seeing any other character with the UK sticker, but they're probably out there.

[Malacoda]

On 11/4/2023 at 9:24 PM, Yorick said:

I don't recall seeing any other character with the UK sticker, but they're probably out there.

Well, you know the rules.  We confidently assume it doesn't exist. And then @Garystar logs in and sends us a picture (from deep in his labyrinth) of the whole collection sitting on a shelf.  And even the shelf is an autographed limited edition. 

[Malacoda]

Seriously? 

 

[Albert Tatlock]

# 1 1960

 

Edited November 6, 2023 by Albert Tatlock
scan added.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 11/6/2023 at 9:30 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

# 1 1960

 

I see that you were following the Chaucer auction schedule too then, Albert 

Only two titles missing from the first four stamp cycles now:

[Albert Tatlock]

On 11/7/2023 at 1:06 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Only two titles missing from the first four stamp cycles now:

I knew the Dobie Gillis would turn up one day, as I espied one cluttering up a tumbledown shack posing as a stamp dealer's premises on the edge of the local railway line in the dim and distant past, probably 1963.

At the time, however, my interest was confined to the more mainstream titles, so even though it could have fallen into my clutches for 3 old pennies, I spurned it.

Never saw any issues of the two outstanding cartoon titles, though.

The next to fall may be Unexpected # 43, which I added to my collection in about 1965. Alas, it was a victim of a lapse of judgement when I pruned my holdings a few years later. It has since been replaced, but by an unstamped copy.