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

[themagicrobot]

Alas it’s not the first time you’ve told me to get out

Hence my reaction this week.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/13/2024 at 1:42 PM, themagicrobot said:

Alas it’s not the first time you’ve told me to get out

Hence my reaction this week.

On a couple of occasions, I've gently prompted you to stick to the subject matter in threads that I have created and kept on track for many years. I think that is reasonable.

I've been ticking along nicely here for over seven years. In all that time I've never had a problem or a cross word in a research thread that I have created. I'm not going to sit by and let you post things about me that are unfair or a misrepresentation of the truth. I have not asked you to 'get out'. I have respectfully, sometimes jokingly asked you to stay on track in threads that I have started and kept on track.

If you have more to say, I strongly suggest you consider your own mantra of 'least said, soonest mended', keep it to yourself, and stop ruining this thread for me and the Other participants that have offered me private support since you went off the rails. I don't want division, rancour or ill feeling in threads that I have created.

I'm going to avoid you from this point and would ask you to do the same. 

[Malacoda]

On 4/12/2024 at 10:47 AM, themagicrobot said:

How and why did he manage to get hold of this when most of his other stuff was from the late 1950s/early 1960s? Was it a lucky accident?  Odhams had finished with the Marvel reprints and Marvel UK was still in the planning stage so I guess the material was fair game for a period.

Exactly this, I think, though, as ever, it's nicely complicated.  Odhams finished, after which IPC had the Marvel licence.   However, they only reprinted Spider-Man, the Silver Surfer,  the Western strips Ghost Rider and the Ringo Kid and Homer the Happy Ghost in TV21 magazine, probably because those strips were the closest to TV kind of fare.  It's hard to tell when IPC actually lost the licence for Marvel because they stopped doing reprints a full year before MWOM came on the scene, so I suspect they may held some vestigial rights.  Of course, you get the Martspress debacle in late 71 / 72, but Leonard Matthews (Martspress) was ex-Fleetway (IPC) anyway, and they packaged comics for IPC, so the distinction between Martspress and IPC is a fuzzy one.  

One point of interest is that World distributors were the publisher/distributor for Marvel annuals in 1968, 1970 and 1971 (when IPC had the UK reprint rights), and then Fleetway (IPC) became the publisher for the 1973 and 1974 annuals (published in 1972 and 1973).  World Distributors were surely the logical candidates for the annuals from the get go because (a) annuals were their bread & butter (b) they were Marvel's distributor for the US titles and (c) they were the distributors for the annuals from 1968 - 1971 and 1975 - 1979, so there's a strange break for these 2 annuals that went to Fleetway.  

It might have been that this was the deal for giving up the distribution rights, or it might have been the distribution rights for the annuals were a completely different kettle of fish to the weeklies or it might have been the arrival of Al Landau and his determination to take the annuals away from the Pembertons, but either way, it's weird that those 2 annuals were diverted to Fleetway - there's some story there. 

Whatever the case, there was definitely a lack of anyone reprinting Marvel with any conviction from 1969 to 1972 so I can well believe Alan saw his chance. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 1/4/2024 at 10:39 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

When I started this thread back in 2020 my intention was to work through all the publishers of US comics and see for which of them I could find examples of systematic UK distribution, in and around the UKPV date windows. One of those publishers was IW / Super and, although I could prove that they were distributed by L Miller, it was difficult to say much more about them as none of them were dated (hence their absence on MsCN). 

One thing I was able to establish over time was when the books were likely distributed over here based on Miller's switch from the 6d stamp to the 9d one. Using Miller's extensively distributed Harvey comics I was able to match the stamp date switch to the printed Charlton UKPV price change neatly and, therefore, show when the IWs would have been in UK circulation. It's one of those nice occasions where the stamp tells you something that the comic - being undated - doesn't. The books have indicative US dates recorded here and there, and are split by price and the 'Top Quality' / 'Super Comics' blocks, but we wouldn't know anything about when and how they were distributed in the UK if not for Miller's stamps.

There you go, Miller again, distributing original US comics under the radar. 

Here's one LM 6d 'Top Quality', and one LM 9d 'Super'.

 

I pick them up cheaply when I see them and they are nice books to flick through.

As is always the case, you can also find the odd rogue stamped copy, owner unknown. I like this 9d doubled up one, which would have been either 50% dearer than a Miller, if it were timely, or bang on - but bang out of date - if it wasn't:

Where else would you find double 9d stamped fighting frogmen online today?

Answer? Nowhere. Probably.

All good fun. 

I'd have liked to have added these two Miller distributed 'Top Quality' books to my stamped collection but the bidding went higher than I expected:

They're not books that come up often, especially in that shape, but I was still surprised by the sale prices. I wonder if the bidders were oblivious to or encouraged by the LM 6d stamps? Always nice to see the stamp variations in play too - a centred 6d and one to the right of the circle.

 

Not coming home with me, alas, but still very nice to see.

[Get Marwood & I]

...has anyone else noticed that eBeegeebees no longer allows you to save listing images as editable jpgs now? It's been going on for a few weeks - I only seem to be able to save right clicked images as a web file. A pain for us image gathering researching types....

[OtherEric]

On 4/15/2024 at 11:21 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

...has anyone else noticed that eBeegeebees no longer allows you to save listing images as editable jpgs now? It's been going on for a few weeks - I only seem to be able to save right clicked images as a web file. A pain for us image gathering researching types....

I hadn't, but it's been a minute since I ran into a listing I wanted to save... For me, it's mostly Peter Wheat related books I can't afford, and they don't turn up very often.  My only workaround is to suggest "print screen" to get a screenshot can be your friend.  Opening the image in a new tab can help.

Yay for higher resolution monitors these days, so you can actually get something semi-useful like that, and my apologies if I'm just telling you tricks you already know.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/16/2024 at 7:49 AM, OtherEric said:

I hadn't, but it's been a minute since I ran into a listing I wanted to save... For me, it's mostly Peter Wheat related books I can't afford, and they don't turn up very often.  My only workaround is to suggest "print screen" to get a screenshot can be your friend.  Opening the image in a new tab can help.

Yay for higher resolution monitors these days, so you can actually get something semi-useful like that, and my apologies if I'm just telling you tricks you already know.

Snippy can be handy too..

Wasn't he a bush kangaroo?

[OtherEric]

On 4/15/2024 at 11:57 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Snippy can be handy too..

Wasn't he a bush kangaroo?

Skippy, not Snippy.  And how the heck do I, a Yank, who has never seen the show, and wasn't even alive when it originally aired, know that off the top of my head?

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/16/2024 at 8:00 AM, OtherEric said:

Skippy, not Snippy.  And how the heck do I, a Yank, who has never seen the show, and wasn't even alive when it originally aired, know that off the top of my head?

You'll be singing it all day now 

[Get Marwood & I]

Back on Len, I've posted at length, here and elsewhere, about Miller's distribution of Harvey comics from 1960 to 67, but this book below is still the only T&P stamped that I've seen on my travels for the publisher:

The exception that proves the rule, I suppose....

[OtherEric]

On 4/16/2024 at 12:02 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

You'll be singing it all day now 

No, I won't, because I've never actually heard that.

However, your comment caused a file mismatch as I pulled this up as the closest match I could find in my brain:

 

[Kevin.J]

On 4/16/2024 at 7:13 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

I'd have liked to have added these two Miller distributed 'Top Quality' books to my stamped collection but the bidding went higher than I expected:

They're not books that come up often, especially in that shape, but I was still surprised by the sale prices. I wonder if the bidders were oblivious to or encouraged by the LM 6d stamps? Always nice to see the stamp variations in play too - a centred 6d and one to the right of the circle.

 

Not coming home with me, alas, but still very nice to see.

I would have liked those too, but not at those prices, I dont care about the stamps.

I thought I was the only person collecting IW.

Whats going on ?  

[Kevin.J]

On 4/16/2024 at 8:05 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Back on Len, I've posted at length, here and elsewhere, about Miller's distribution of Harvey comics from 1960 to 67, but this book below is still the only T&P stamped that I've seen on my travels for the publisher:

The exception that proves the rule, I suppose....

I just had a quick look at my Harvey's, most of my collection is too old to fit the criteria and I only have 71 books scanned, a couple have stamps but alas not T&P  

[Malacoda]

On 4/16/2024 at 7:21 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

...has anyone else noticed that eBeegeebees no longer allows you to save listing images as editable jpgs now? It's been going on for a few weeks - I only seem to be able to save right clicked images as a web file. A pain for us image gathering researching types....

Yes.  Oh dear God yes. 

On 4/16/2024 at 7:49 AM, OtherEric said:

Opening the image in a new tab can help.

I found this only helps you isolate to print screen it or take a pic of it, you can still only save it as web file. 

On 4/16/2024 at 7:49 AM, OtherEric said:

My only workaround is to suggest "print screen" to get a screenshot can be your friend

If you 'magnify image', you can save it as a png file.  That's fine for me, but of course, if you reopen it in whatever picture viewer you use, you should then be able to save it as a jpg or other format too. 

Edited April 16 by Malacoda

[Malacoda]

On 4/16/2024 at 8:05 AM, OtherEric said:

However, your comment caused a file mismatch as I pulled this up as the closest match I could find in my brain:

Imagine what a full one minute commercial would cost to air now. 

[Malacoda]

On 4/16/2024 at 7:13 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

It's one of those nice occasions where the stamp tells you something that the comic - being undated - doesn't.

Mmmmmm. Usually stamps just widen and deepen mysteries and throw up anomalies. It's super satisfying when they cough up some answers. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/16/2024 at 4:06 PM, Kevin.J said:

I don't care about the stamps.

On 4/16/2024 at 4:06 PM, Kevin.J said:

I thought I was the only person collecting IW.

Whats going on ?  

There are three other nutters out there Kev. Maybe four. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/16/2024 at 4:40 PM, Malacoda said:

What kind of cheese is that?  Browser, sorry. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/16/2024 at 5:12 PM, Malacoda said:

Mmmmmm. Usually stamps just widen and deepen mysteries and throw up anomalies. It's super satisfying when they cough up some answers. 

I like it, because it's clean. 

[Malacoda]

On 4/16/2024 at 6:20 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

I like it, because it's clean. 

Rest assured I will be quoting that out of context at every opportunity.