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

[Malacoda]

On 12/28/2023 at 11:45 PM, baggsey said:

I took a quick look in the phone books for Strato Publications......they only appear in the 1958, 1959 and 1960 directories for London, at 39 Upper Brook St.  No record of Strato in England in the phone books either before 1958, or after 1960.@Malacoda

Cool, thank you.  It occured to me that a lot of those phone numbers you found would be the reps. Now, I can't imagine T&P paying the 1950's cost of getting a phone installed in the house of a rep who might only stay 5 minutes, nor would you have phone lines being installed in the garages, lock ups etc.  So I reckon some of those are the private numbers of reps who have had T&P added to their name.  Does it look like that in what you're getting returned?  Many thanks again. 

[Malacoda]

On 12/26/2023 at 10:04 AM, themagicrobot said:

In fact many Classics Illustrateds are attributed to Strato of London but although they started publication in the UK in 1951/1952 as they had multiple print runs (especially of the more popular titles) those issues could be post 1956.

Ain't that the truth.  Here's the original US pressing, with a card cover, of Ivanhoe which was for sale in the UK, I mean now not then,  along with the UK variant and an unpriced version that may have been some sort of giveaway or tie in (Classic Comics were the forerunners of CI). 

Here's the 15c original  (with it numbered as 2),  along with a stickered 25c version and a re-printed 25c version

 

 

1/3 price and we're number 20 now.  Still number 20 at 2/-.  

 

OK, we're priceless now and sometimes we're bigging up Norman Nodel and sometimes not.  

 

and now we cost £3.75 and have a bar code. 

and now we've been taken over by Frawley and we're a Twin Circle giveaway...

and now we're still Twin Circle but we cost 25c

 

and now we're a T&P stampey...

 

and now we're a hardback....

 

 

and don't even get me started.....

 

If you can believe it, I found all these in ONE search, so imagine how many variants there actually are. 

 

 

 

Edited December 29, 2023 by Malacoda

[Malacoda]

On 12/26/2023 at 10:04 AM, themagicrobot said:

Last week you were asking about T&P and the Upper Brook Street address. I think you'd need a full run of Tomahawk or Kid Colt to see exactly when they adopted the Strato Publications Ltd address in the indicias rather than Thorpe and Porter or Jenson

Good shout.  Tomahawk dates back to 1954 at the earliest ( T&P's Tomahawk #3 reprints DC's number 25 from July 1954, so I assume 1 and 2 are probably 23 and 24).   I already have the UBS address confirmed in 1954.  Kid Colt seems to go back to 1953 or maybe as far as 1950, but the publisher of record is an absolute show....you can see for yourself of what variety. 

I started having a look at the pulps and digests, by which point this was just God daring me to go on living.  I looked at Galaxy because T&P numbered theirs, whereas the US ones didn't.  Oadby is all addresses up to number 49 and the first mention of UBS is no 56.   However, I think this probably dates from some time in 1957, so it's too late.  

Is anyone an expert on the T&P pulps and digests with an extensive collection to hand which happen to specify the publisher's imprint address of record in the indicias?   

Please, please, form an orderly queue, stop shoving.....

 

[themagicrobot]

There are loads of pulp experts over at https://boards.cgccomics.com/forum/98-pulp-magazines/ but I guess 99% of them are in the US. As for Classics Illustrated it was repackaged in too many languages for anyone to collect all possible variants. Was T&P responsible for this issue? If so then why a different version with a different price? It still says it is number 2.

And I knew Marvel produced their own run of Classics Comics but I must admit I had never before come across this Marvel UK series (a Digest size?) until just now.

Edited December 29, 2023 by themagicrobot

[Redshade]

On 12/29/2023 at 9:07 AM, themagicrobot said:

There are loads of pulp experts over at https://boards.cgccomics.com/forum/98-pulp-magazines/ but I guess 99% of them are in the US. As for Classics Illustrated it was repackaged in too many languages for anyone to collect all possible variants. Was T&P responsible for this issue? If so then why a different version with a different price? It still says it is number 2.

And I knew Marvel produced their own run of Classics Comics but I must admit I had never before come across this Marvel UK series (a Digest size?) until just now.

 

I have a full set of these "A Classic In Pictures", all twelve of them. From memory they were published by a firm called Amex in London. The interiors were just in one colour iirc, a rather muted red/brown. They were obviously a clone of CI but I don't know if there was any connection to T&P.
There was also another British series of a similar vein called Famous Stories in Pictures which GCD gives us the following as being the publisher(s) : 

Marx; Philmar; P.M. Productions; Amex; Bairns, 1955? Series.

 

•  

Edited December 29, 2023 by Redshade

[Malacoda]

On 12/29/2023 at 12:21 PM, Redshade said:

They were obviously a clone of CI but I don't know if there was any connection to T&P.

Interesting.  And, once again, shows that you'd really have to know your onions before you tried to prove anything with CI.  I think these had nothing to do with T&P as these were from 1949 and T&P started reprinting them in 1951.  It's hard to imagine how much money these must have generated for Gilbertons. 

[Redshade]

On 12/29/2023 at 4:26 PM, Malacoda said:

Interesting.  And, once again, shows that you'd really have to know your onions before you tried to prove anything with CI.  I think these had nothing to do with T&P as these were from 1949 and T&P started reprinting them in 1951.  It's hard to imagine how much money these must have generated for Gilbertons. 

Both titles were US comic sized, and not part of T&P. I think when the US CI series came to a stop I heard that Kantner (?) himself moved to London to oversee the Joint European series as with all the various Countries/Languages the European market was more lucrative than the US one had ever been.
 

Edited December 29, 2023 by Redshade

[baggsey]

On 12/28/2023 at 7:16 PM, Malacoda said:

It occured to me that a lot of those phone numbers you found would be the reps.

The first example below of the first Strato entry from the 1958 London phone Directory, which has two different phone numbers at different (adjacent?) exchanges (Hyde Pk and Mayfair).  Perhaps one of the phone numbers is for a rep's home and the other is a physical office?

The second example from 1959 a year later just has the one number 9521, as does the final appearance of Strato in 1960 (included below)

Incidentally, the Hyde Park 9521 number was used as the Thorpe & Porter number at the same address in 1963 and 1964.  I have no info (as yet) on the name associated with that number in 1961-1962. Certainly not T&P or Strato.

If it helps you to find out the actual phone numbers used for any entries, I'm happy to do so.....I love researching this stuff.

Edited December 29, 2023 by baggsey
additional info

[Malacoda]

On 12/29/2023 at 7:29 PM, baggsey said:

The first example below of the first Strato entry from the 1958 London phone Directory, which has two different phone numbers at different (adjacent?) exchanges (Hyde Pk and Mayfair).  Perhaps one of the phone numbers is for a rep's home and the other is a physical office?

This is a great post. Thank you. 

I think the answer to this question is probably staring straight at us.  Those old numbers worked by dialling the first three digits of the phone number from the word address of the corresponding exchange (so Hyde Park was 493, so to get T&P you could either know it was 493 9521 or you could dial keys corresponding to H,Y & D =4, 9 & 3).  Some exchanges hadn't even gone over to direct dialling so you would dial the first three digits which would connect you to the exchange and then the operator would ask you what number you wanted. 

The Hyde Park exchange only had 160 lines and it was eventually subsumed under Mayfair, so I assume the Hyde Park exchange predates the Mayfair exchange.  Given that T&P's number was Hyde Park 9521, at the point where they got that first phone number,  95% of the available numbers were already gone, so if they subsequently had a second phone line installed, it would have to have been from the Mayfair exchange (hence the far lower number).  

 

 

Edited December 30, 2023 by Malacoda

[Get Marwood & I]

Happy New Year for tonight boys!

Can you all make sure you stay alive for at least 24 hours, or I'll think I've cursed one of us 

[Albert Tatlock]

On 12/31/2023 at 11:07 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Happy New Year for tonight boys!

Can you all make sure you stay alive for at least 24 hours, or I'll think I've cursed one of us 

 

[Get Marwood & I]

A new earliest Girls' Love Stories...

...shame about the marker pen.

[themagicrobot]

If it wasn't for the cute 1/- price this comic would have been ideal for the "please grade my comic" section.

 

[Get Marwood & I]

[Albert Tatlock]

On 12/31/2023 at 5:44 PM, themagicrobot said:

If it wasn't for the cute 1/- price this comic would have been ideal for the "please grade my comic" section.

 

Another 1 shilling stamp, but unusually at the bottom.

The T & P stamp is usually found at upper right, where it would be more easily visible in the spinner rack.

Edited December 31, 2023 by Albert Tatlock
correct typo

[themagicrobot]

Here's a sticker from the other side of the Atlantic ocean. I wonder where this comic was for the first twelve months of its life? Or is this comic from Canada? Before comics displayed dual US and Canadian pricing on the covers how much did a 12 cent comic cost in Canada in the 1960s? Was it still 12 cents or more? Would they have used stickers rather than the ink stamps preferred by Gladys here in the UK. Perhaps @OtherEric knows? 

   

[Get Marwood & I]

"Kermit Comes a Cropper"

[themagicrobot]

Is that a yes or a no? Are you saying there was indeed a team consisting of Gladys and Ethels distant relations repricing comics for some other distributor in Canada? 

Edited December 31, 2023 by themagicrobot

[OtherEric]

Through the 70’s, US and Canadian prices were generally even.  When I was a kid Canadian coins were generally… not universally… accepted at face value here in Washington state.  That faded away in the 80’s.

[Redshade]

On 12/31/2023 at 11:07 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Happy New Year for tonight boys!

Can you all make sure you stay alive for at least 24 hours, or I'll think I've cursed one of us 

 

Thank you Steve. And as we await the annual Last Night of the Somme the same to each and everyone who reads these pages.