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

[themagicrobot]

Gold Star appear to have distributed Skywald and Eerie Publications magazines in the UK. Young Donna was given UK price stickers to apply to the gruesome covers (porn) and the Horror mags too. And it is possible that Gold brought in some Warrens at some point. They had a working relationship and produced their own version of Eerie for a time. Perhaps later on the same people that distributed the Marvel/Curtis magazines (Comag?) were involved with Warrens. They always appeared together at my friendly neighbourhood newsagents in the 1970s. But the Marvels usually had UK price stickers and the (Warren) Eeries didn't so how did I know what to pay? They only displayed dual prices for a short while.

 

This is a Warren Eerie

 

This isn't a Warren Eerie

Then again here is a Weird with a T&P ink stamp.

And I can't make out what this 3/- stamp says.

 

 

Edited February 23 by themagicrobot

[Malacoda]

On 2/23/2024 at 8:56 AM, themagicrobot said:

Gold Star appear to have distributed Skywald and Eerie Publications magazines in the UK.  But the Marvels usually had UK price stickers and the (Warren) Eeries didn't so how did I know what to pay? 

Might be that GSP had first run imports hot off the presses and T&P had returns. Given that T&P were stamping and GSP were stickering, we'd never know the difference.  The dual pricers are clearly first them, but then without the sticker/stamp we don't know who distributed them.  They do feel more up DG's line though don't they? 

[Malacoda]

On 2/23/2024 at 8:56 AM, themagicrobot said:

Perhaps later on the same people that distributed the Marvel/Curtis magazines (Comag?) were involved with Warrens.

Possible for a couple of years with Warren.  Skywald folded 2 years before Comag existed.  Warren overlap Comag by 4 years. 

[Malacoda]

So, as you were asking, I've been reading the original X men in these TPB's. 

I do have the originals but I don't want to get my jammy fingers on them.  It got me to thinking, how many times did Marvel manage to sell us UK-heads X men 1 before these TPB's started rocking up.  Would you like to know the answer?  And so you shall!

So, not to be afraid of the obvious, X men 1 was a PV, so we bought it in Sept 63 or thereabouts. 

Then 2 years later, the reprints in Marvel Tales were also PV's. And stamps. Sometimes both. 

 

Two years after that, it gets an actual UK reprint by Odhams.   Mmmmmm.  This scar could be yours.....

 

Then you have to wait a whopping 6 years until you buy it again. This time is very cool.  Having blasted straight through the first 6 Hulks, all of TTA and starting on Hulk 102,  Tony Isabella's team decide they'd better start eking out old jade jaws, so they print FF 25 and 26 (which should have been the FF back up stories) in their entirety as the Hulk story (because the FF fight the Hulk in these issues).  Then this gets really cool, because next in FF 26 ("The Avengers Take Over") what happens is that the Avengers take over. Strangely, as a complete one-off, they decide to supplement these FF reprints with reprints of X men 1 (only number 1 is reprinted at this point).  What I thought was really cool about this, and probably the reason they chose Xmen, is that it means you have all 3 Marvel teams in the same comic. 

 

 

Less than 2 years later, the X men start their new home in the Super Heroes, a very strange UK title that seems to specialise in retired titles. A sort of Last of the Summer Wine in spandex. 

 

Barely had you put down your copies of Super Heroes 1, than the super-hyped and super exciting Son of Origin appeared, not so much in newsagents, but in comic shops, bookshops and other retail outlets.  Inexplicably, I saw one brand new in the window of an electrical retailer behind Centrepoint.  

A little wait until December 79, when you get buy it for a 7th time.  Amazing Adventures volume 3 was also not in newsagents, but there were a lot of comic shops, marts, cons and the like by this point. 

 

Hope you read that quickly, because in your Christmas stocking are this year's annuals, available everywhere from September 1980. 

 

Having bought it for the 8th time in a nice big glossy hardback, I'm not sure why you're going to buy it again in a b&w pocket digest size only a few weeks later, but apparently you are.....

And finally, to celebrate the 20th anniversary, it gets its own full colour reprint (even spelt with a U) in it's own UK comic for the first time.  But really the 10th time. 

None of that counts other reprints in the US, nor reprints in France, Spain & Germany.  It really drives home how unfair the work-for-hire thing was when you see how many times all that one-paycheck material was cashed in on.  

Edited February 25 by Malacoda

[Yorick]

On 2/25/2024 at 11:13 AM, Malacoda said:

how many times did Marvel manage to sell us UK-heads X men 1

suckers.

 

[themagicrobot]

Yes that was me. I bought every single one of those. Apart from Amazing Adventures. Never saw that. Now I’m going to have to go and look for one ….

[Malacoda]

On 2/25/2024 at 7:34 PM, Yorick said:

suckers.

 

Indeed, though I have to say hats off to the yearly hardback annuals for printing stuff we weren't going to get any other way.  Some particular highlights: 

This one reprints FF 22 - 24 which were 6 years old by this point. 

This one reprints the classic 'Prisoner'  run in it's entirety so it's really like a TPB. 

This 79 annual reprints annuals 4 and 10 which were both ND. 

This one reprints GS 4 which was ND and FF 28 which was old and LD. 

This Cap annual reprints the Steranko issues. 

T/A/P Xmen. 

I was gutted by this Hulk annual as the great Gary Brodsky cover led me to expect good things and inside are the early Ditko Hulks which I hated.  Of course, years later you realise that you actually just bought the Ditko Hulks in full colour in hardcover for £1.35 and you're never going to own the originals. 

This Spidey annual reprints ASM annual (KS special) #5, which, surprisingly was distributed but I still think it was a rarity and ASM #11, which I certainly didn't own. 

This one reprints GS ASM 1 which was ND. 

 

This golden oldie has, believe it or not,  Hulk 1 (but only the last part!),  Hulk 4, TOS 57, which is the first Hawkeye, ASM 23 (3rd Goblin), JIM 105 (the first teaming the Cobra and Mr. Hyde) and also Golden Age reprints for Captain America and the Sub Mariner. All in full colour and in hardback, but for the high, high price of 12/6 (comics cost a shilling at this point, so 12/6 was a lot of pocket money. Good job it was a Christmas pressie).  

[Albert Tatlock]

On 2/20/2024 at 8:59 AM, Mr Thorpe said:

Those '5's haven't come out so well above.

Here they are in their full cover glory!

Finally managed to dig out a few of my batch.

I know there were others, including Flash, Shazam, Batman and Detective 100 pagers, Mister Miracle, The Shadow, Secret Origins and so on, maybe they are still with me, maybe I sold them in the distant past.

The ones with circular stickers at top centre are from when I tried, and failed, to dispose of them at comic fairs.

Why there are only DCs, and why they cover such a narrow date window is still a mystery to me.

At the time I bought them, they were maybe 5 years out of date, so I would have expected a wider date range.

[themagicrobot]

Yikes! @Malacoda What are you doing to me. I have all those. Apart from the Hulk Annual. Now I’m going to have to look for that too.

[OtherEric]

I think I have less than a dozen UK hardcover annuals.  Which isn’t bad for someone in the US, I suppose.

 

 

The 1985 Batman is even signed by Jose Luis García Lopez.  He said he had never seen a copy before.

[Malacoda]

On 2/26/2024 at 10:16 PM, OtherEric said:

I think I have less than a dozen UK hardcover annuals.  Which isn’t bad for someone in the US, I suppose.

 

Amazing. I'd imagine they'd be murder to acquire.  And, as you say, it would be very unlikely that even the creators would ever have seen them. 

[Kevin.J]

Just seeing them makes me wanna dig mine out and read them, they remind me of Christmas as a kid, I didnt usually get much as we were poor but I always got an Annual 

Edited February 27 by Kevin.J

[Malacoda]

On 2/26/2024 at 9:30 PM, themagicrobot said:

Yikes! @Malacoda What are you doing to me. I have all those. Apart from the Hulk Annual. Now I’m going to have to look for that too.

Mwahahahahahahahahahahaha!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two Hulk annuals in the same year is especially weird.   Also, the Spider Woman annual?  I mean, just, what? 

I don't think this is even the full strength of the 20th century ones, let alone recent stuff. 

Edited February 27 by Malacoda

[Malacoda]

On 2/27/2024 at 3:08 AM, Kevin.J said:

Just seeing them makes me wanna dig mine out and read them, they remind me of Christmas as a kid, I didnt usually get much as we were poor but I always got an Annual 

Somewhere there's a pic of me reading the Avengers annual 1977 at my Gran's house. I was so engrossed I didn't even know the pic was taken.  I might recreate it for its 50 anniversary. 

[themagicrobot]

The sturdy UK Annuals will survive long after all the UK newsprint comics have crumbled away. There is a bewildering array of Annuals covering everything/everyone you can think of as well as the Marvel ones.

Often the Annuals contain what our Annualless (is that a word?) friends in the US would call "neat stuff".

 

[Malacoda]

On 2/26/2024 at 9:28 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

Finally managed to dig out a few of my batch.

I know there were others, including Flash, Shazam, Batman and Detective 100 pagers, Mister Miracle, The Shadow, Secret Origins and so on, maybe they are still with me, maybe I sold them in the distant past.

The ones with circular stickers at top centre are from when I tried, and failed, to dispose of them at comic fairs.

Why there are only DCs, and why they cover such a narrow date window is still a mystery to me.

At the time I bought them, they were maybe 5 years out of date, so I would have expected a wider date range.

Thank you so much for pulling all these together, Albert.  That must have been quite a project.  If you stumble across any more, they would definitely be of interest.  It might be that if we can nail down the time frame it will give us a clue. Also, geography may be an issue. I never saw any of these at the time down south, and I trawled many second hand shops & books shops in west London, plus the comic marts and all the London comic shops. Maybe it's a Northern thing.

Re the date range it's intriguing that they seem to fall between 1965 and 1974 (haven't checked them all yet).  If you'd picked these up in 74, I'd say it doesn't mean anything, but the fact that you picked them up 5 or 6 years later makes me think that 1974 could be the cut off.   Also, they seem to be 90% DC as you say, but there's quite a few randos in there. As you & Steve and the Robot and others have demonstrated, just about every publisher seems to get a look in somewhere. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Albert Tatlock]

Not sure if this sticker has turned up before.

10d to 9d is a trifling discount, hardly likely to sway a prospective purchaser to put hand to pocket.

And the one the guy is reading is still priced at the full 12 cents. which seems to have annoyed the creature.

Edited February 27 by Albert Tatlock
add 1 line

[themagicrobot]

The Diamond stamps are a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. I can understand a 1971 Giant being stamped  with the old £sd coinage of 2 Shillings as Decimalisation was still new and a novelty then. (Beginning in 1971 my local Grocers (we didn't have a supermarket until the 1990s) displayed dual prices until 1974. He featured in the local newspaper threatening to only accept the old "real" currency). But I can't understand why a 1973/1974 20 cent comic would be stamped with the rather expensive 2/- price when even new (and not sale price) it should have cost 7 or 8 Englandville pees, (explaining here that 2/- = 10p for any Martians reading this).

PS: Have you noticed how poorly the Diamond stamps are executed. After years of practice/tedium, Gladys had perfected a clear stamp with the price (usually) the right way up and (usually) to the top right of a comic. The Diamond stamps appear randomly across covers and often upside down. Perhaps they were done by a trainee or the warehouse cat? 

Edited February 27 by themagicrobot

[Albert Tatlock]

On 2/27/2024 at 6:16 PM, themagicrobot said:

The Diamond stamps are a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. I can understand a 1971 Giant being stamped  with the old £sd coinage of 2 Shillings as Decimalisation was still new and a novelty then. (Beginning in 1971 my local Grocers (we didn't have a supermarket until the 1990s) displayed dual prices until 1974. He featured in the local newspaper threatening to only accept the old "real" currency). But I can't understand why a 1973/1974 20 cent comic would be stamped with the rather expensive 2/- price when even new (and not sale price) it should have cost 7 or 8 Englandville pees, (explaining here that 2/- = 10p for any Martians reading this).

PS: Have you noticed how poorly the Diamond stamps are executed. After years of practice/tedium, Gladys had perfected a clear stamp with the price (usually) the right way up and (usually) to the top right of a comic. The Diamond stamps appear randomly across covers and often upside down. Perhaps they were done by a trainee or the warehouse cat? 

If the comics were never meant to be sold in the expired currency they were priced in, it hardly matters how slipshod the application was.

I am still sticking to my guns and believe that the diamond stamps were the last rites, the final nail in their coffin, and represent the end of the road for their SOR status.

Whoever had bought them, presumably at a hefty discount, hoped to sell enough of them to recoup the outlay before disposing of them to a waste paper merchant.

[Malacoda]

On 2/27/2024 at 4:24 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

10d to 9d is a trifling discount, hardly likely to sway a prospective purchaser to put hand to pocket.

Though it does make it the cheapest comic in the spinner and you could spend the extra penny on some Fruit Salads and Blackjacks.