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

[Malacoda]

On 1/25/2024 at 11:15 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

We may have covered this elsewhere in the thread, I've forgotten if we have, but the biggest head scratcher is why 6p priced comics end up with two shilling stamps on them.

Yup, the first time I saw that August 31st date, I thought it answered another head-scratcher....why did T&P introduce dual 1/- and 5p stamping for a single month before settling on just 5p.  I thought this was exactly the answer: they were on the old stamps up to July, planning to go onto dual pricing, which they did for August, but then the government ended the transition period much sooner than anyone expected on August 31st, so they just went straight to 5p only from September.  Yay. Solved. 

Only one problem:  this happened in 1970, not 1971. 

So why did they order dual stamps that they only used for one month?  

[OtherEric]

Maybe they used the obsolete Shilling stamp rather than a normal non-returnable stamp to try and catch who was returning what should have been non returnable material?  It could give them a tracking mechanism of some sort on where the books had been if they used different stamps.

Admittedly, that's a wild guess, we've shown they don't make much sense any other way, either...

[Albert Tatlock]

On 1/27/2024 at 6:46 PM, Malacoda said:

I'd love to know if the Manchester ones were around then and I'm sure I'm asking the right person.

There were plenty of second-hand bookshops which also dealt in comics, but the comic specialists (I too remember House On The Borderland) were a little later. They had the effrontery to charge above cover price, and even so, they could not have stayed in business without associated stock lines, sci-fi, trade paperbacks and so on.

I remember one in the arcade next to Victoria Station, now long since demolished and redeveloped, whose surly proprietor had latched onto the fact that his comic buying customers would still fork out cover price for old comics.

Whatever it said on the cover was what he asked for and obtained, never a penny more or a penny less. He would not even budge when I showed him that the copy of FF # 8 he was demanding 9d for had the middle pages missing. I capitulated, and my coppers disappeared into his till.

[Malacoda]

On 1/27/2024 at 7:45 PM, OtherEric said:

Maybe they used the obsolete Shilling stamp rather than a normal non-returnable stamp to try and catch who was returning what should have been non returnable material?  It could give them a tracking mechanism of some sort on where the books had been if they used different stamps.

Admittedly, that's a wild guess, we've shown they don't make much sense any other way, either...

I love this idea. I can't in all honesty imagine that it's the answer. But I want it to be. 

[Malacoda]

On 1/25/2024 at 9:15 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

I still have a couple of hundred at least, all with wear and tear, they were in no fit state to be sold in regular outlets, as well as being about 5 years out of date.

Do they all have the same number? 

[Albert Tatlock]

On 1/27/2024 at 7:56 PM, Malacoda said:

Do they all have the same number? 

I will unearth a few and check, but it might take me a while to burrow and delve that deep.

[Malacoda]

On 1/25/2024 at 8:08 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

Could T & P also have had space rented here? Maybe, maybe not, but the other mill was just a two minute stroll away.

I doubt it. T&P had a massive presence in Liverpool / Runcorn / Widnes / the Wirral so the presence in Manchester was less than you'd imagine for so big a city. 

However.....[see next post]

[Malacoda]

On 1/27/2024 at 7:51 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

I remember one in the arcade next to Victoria Station, now long since demolished and redeveloped, whose surly proprietor had latched onto the fact that his comic buying customers would still fork out cover price for old comics.

......T&P did have a RSM based at the Corn Exchange Buildings on Fennel St.  Knowing my Manchester geography as I do (i.e. not even a little bit), I have read Odyssey 7  described as "up the road from Victoria Station and a short walk from the Corn Exchange" which puts it tantalisingly near both the T&P warehouse and your described establishment.....however, I get the impression that you're talking more about a dusty second hand bookshop with a box of comics under the counter than a dedicated comic shop with a sea of short boxes proudly stretching from wall to wall. 

 

 

[Albert Tatlock]

On 1/27/2024 at 8:13 PM, Malacoda said:

......T&P did have a RSM based at the Corn Exchange Buildings on Fennel St.  Knowing my Manchester geography as I do (i.e. not even a little bit), I have read Odyssey 7  described as "up the road from Victoria Station and a short walk from the Corn Exchange" which puts it tantalisingly near both the T&P warehouse and your described establishment.....however, I get the impression that you're talking more about a dusty second hand bookshop with a box of comics under the counter than a dedicated comic shop with a sea of short boxes proudly stretching from wall to wall. 

 

 

Short boxes and long boxes were an invention yet to be thought of.

The places I am talking of stored their mags in bog standard cardboard receptacles, which had contained anything from bottles of bleach (by necessity at the sturdy end of the spectrum) to crisps and sweets (much flimsier). Anything, in fact, which was free.

Sometimes they were just hauled up from a shelf under the counter, usually not visible, in case they took away display space from the more lucrative offerings of interest to the (ahem) more mature clientele.

But Odyssey 7 was at the University, at least a mile from Victoria. The Hanging Ditch shop was much smaller, but was adjacent to the Cathedral, right next to Victoria Station and the Corn Exchange.

The Corn Exchange, until it was forced to close after the 1996 bombing, had .a sort of market inside where comics could sometimes be found, but it catered more for other collectables, model railways, etc plus vintage clothing. 

The traders there came and went, it was a pretty eclectic sort of place, but never attracted any high end dealers who were to be found more in the nearby Royal Exchange, which was also within the radius of the blast and had to be abandoned because of water getting in.

[Albert Tatlock]

On 1/27/2024 at 7:51 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

I remember one in the arcade next to Victoria Station, now long since demolished and redeveloped, whose surly proprietor had latched onto the fact that his comic buying customers would still fork out cover price for old comics.

...and here it is

[Malacoda]

On 1/27/2024 at 8:43 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

...and here it is

Wait a second.  That sign to the left says 'rubber stamps'.  Are you fiendishly using auto suggestion to seduce us into your diamond stamp conspiracy?

[Albert Tatlock]

On 1/27/2024 at 8:43 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

...and here it is

The car has a suffix H, so first registered in 1969/70. That bloke peering into the window will be in the old folks' home now, if he is not brown bread.

Still, he was a snappy dresser in his day. His plastic shopping bag is probably full of personal grooming supplies.

That's where reading second-hand comics can get you.

[Albert Tatlock]

On 1/27/2024 at 8:13 PM, Malacoda said:

T&P did have a RSM based at the Corn Exchange Buildings on Fennel St

Don't remember him being there, just as well, I suppose, he would have had me doubling round the block for having the crease in my trousers out of line.

I did rent a room on the first floor of the Corn Exchange in the 1980s, where I stored my stock of old T shirts, while  I waited for someone to invent ebay.

With hindsight I should have ransacked every market bookstall for miles around for comics and stashed them in there.

 

[Albert Tatlock]

On 1/27/2024 at 6:46 PM, Malacoda said:

Is that correct?  Dark They Were opened in London in 1969, but to my knowledge the other London shops didn't open til later (FP in 1978 and Comic Showcase in the 80's).  Futureshock opened in Glasgow in 1980.  I think Forever People in Bristol was early 80's.  In Manchester, House on the Borderland bookshop opened in 1972, but I don't know if it sold comics from the off.  I think Orbit in Shudehill came later? Here's an advert for Book Chain from 1977. Don't know when it opened.  I think you'd have to have done a lot of mileage round the country to have shifted a bulk of comics to the comic shops which were very few and very very far between.  I'd love to know if the Manchester ones were around then and I'm sure I'm asking the right person

Yes, I am pretty sure you are right, 1974 is too early, but there were definitely a few by 1980, which is about the time I picked up that heap of stuff from t'old mill.

[Albert Tatlock]

Here are a couple of shops from back in the day.

Paramount was run  by a chap called Les, a very knowledgeable bloke. It was called Atlantic Crossing at one time. His brother helped out on the till, even though he had prosthetic hands.

House On The Borderland was run by one Dave Britton. He also had something to do with a shop on Peter Street, just along from the Free Trade Hall, and next door to the old St Peter's Tavern, where I watched the Rumble In The Jungle live as it took place. The landlord, Frank from Macclesfield locked the door at midnight or so, as was his wont, and we all went downstairs and carried on drinking.

Dave had to break rocks or stitch mailbags for a while, as he had published something that the judge harrumphed about.

[Malacoda]

On 1/28/2024 at 5:06 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

Paramount was run  by a chap called Les, a very knowledgeable bloke. It was called Atlantic Crossing at one time. His brother helped out on the till, even though he had prosthetic hands.

I know you're trying to make me ask if he got his fingers caught in the till, but I shan't.  

Looks like Paramount is still there (as of May 23) but the comic racks are long gone.  I have to question the business-sense of placing comics outside a shop in Manchester.  Cottonopolis was literally built on wetness. 

[Malacoda]

On 1/28/2024 at 5:06 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

Dave had to break rocks or stitch mailbags for a while, as he had published something that the judge harrumphed about.

Indeed. He was the last person ever prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act. Perhaps more impressively, he was also the first person to have been prosecuted under it for 25 years.  I imagine barristers were queuing up to get that one. 

[Malacoda]

On 1/28/2024 at 4:41 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

I did rent a room on the first floor of the Corn Exchange in the 1980s, where I stored my stock of old T shirts, while  I waited for someone to invent ebay.

Hold the phone.  So you rented a room in this stately pile? Given the size of it, it's next to impossible it was the same room formerly used by the T&P rep, but you were in the same building.  Dude!

[Get Marwood & I]

Two from the latest Excalibur auction, which is, as Kevin and I were discussing this morning, awash with goodies 

Different font / style to the most prevalent 'Goldstar' circular one.

If anyone goes near the Charlies, they're dead meat 

[Kevin.J]

On 1/29/2024 at 2:15 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

If anyone goes near the Charlies, they're dead meat