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

[Malacoda]

On 3/20/2022 at 5:40 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

I bought this blind on eBay as it has been known to have the first Batgirl in it:

Contents vary though, from copy to copy, so I'd need to be lucky.

Drum roll please 

 

  Hide contents

 

Hooray for me! 

 

Hooray indeed.  Let's see an app duplicate that.  (Though I'll be surprised if one doesn't). 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 3/20/2022 at 5:54 PM, Malacoda said:

Hooray indeed.  Let's see an app duplicate that.  (Though I'll be surprised if one doesn't). 

appen it will...appen it won't. 

[Malacoda]

On 3/20/2022 at 5:48 PM, Garystar said:

I believe this is exactly what Rob Kirby’s “From Cents To Pence” intends to do - if it ever gets published;

https://a-distant-beacon.blogspot.com/?m=1

 

 

Did you manage to keep a straight face while you were typing that, Gary? Remind me never to play poker with you. Seriously,  I think the first time I saw Rob announce it was more or less finished and about to go to press was on Lew Stringer's blog in 2007.  I bet some of you have been waiting even longer, haven't you? 

 

[Garystar]

On 3/20/2022 at 6:06 PM, Malacoda said:

I saw Rob announce it was more or less finished and about to go to press was on Lew Stringer's blog in 2007.  I bet some of you have been waiting even longer, haven't you? 

I remember writing to Rob with the original source of some romance and Monster strips back in the days of Comics International when he was first putting the book together - so I’ve been eagerly awaiting it since day 1. 

[themagicrobot]

Rob better get a move on whilst there are still people alive who give a damn. The Panini comics must outnumber UK Marvels and will last longer having better quality covers/paper. Without a glossy cover UK comics are so fragile when they are approaching 50 years old. 

PS: As this comic contains the Spiderman origin from AF15, half of FF No 1 and half of the first Hulk comic I'm surprised it (and the other 1970s issues with all the classic Marvel stuff) are so much cheaper than Alan Class comics containing Marvel heroes. 

Luckily for Rob I can never resist a book about comics. For example, I got this yesterday. The universes may not be current but you can't call them lost.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 20, 2022 by themagicrobot

[rakehell]

On 3/20/2022 at 5:40 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Hooray for me! 

Well done, Velma!

Those buggers are getting harder & harder to find. I'm kind of wishing I kept the Aquaman one I bagged a while back.

[Malacoda]

On 3/20/2022 at 7:04 PM, themagicrobot said:

Rob better get a move on whilst there are still people alive who give a damn. The Panini comics must outnumber UK Marvels and will last longer having better quality covers/paper. Without a glossy cover UK comics are so fragile when they are approaching 50 years old. 

PS: As this comic contains the Spiderman origin from AF15, half of FF No 1 and half of the first Hulk comic I'm surprised it (and the other 1970s issues with all the classic Marvel stuff) are so much cheaper than Alan Class comics containing Marvel heroes. 

Re: people alive, I agree, but I think the opposite also applies i.e.  there must be a lot of material collected over the last 30 years from comics professionials who are no longer with us, so for those of us still ticking when he finally gives birth, it will literally be the last word on some topics. 

Re MWOM, rarity may be an issue.  Whereas with the US  AF 15,  ASM 1, FF 1, Hulk 1 etc most people simply binned them because no one knew what they were destined to become, when MWOM launched in 1972, there were thousands of established Marvelites who bought and kept their copies. Add to that the sheer volume - MWOM 1 shifted 500k copies, so even if 90% were binned after reading or destroyed subsequently, that still means there's 10 copies out there for anyone who wants one. 

 

[Pantodude]

On 10/27/2020 at 12:49 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

It will only be shot down in flames if someone can find a triangle stamp on an item which has NOT passed through the hands of Thorpe & Porter.

Until then, just leave me raving on the sidelines, I have other T & P related fish to fry, but it may take a while to follow up all the threads.

Just trying to follow up on this part of the thread.  In light of the existence of a triangular "6D SALE PRICE" stamp on the cover of a "9d" UK price variant (Type 1A), is there a consensus now on whether those triangular stamps were T&P's?   Part of me hopes it remains a huge unresolved controversy!  

Edited March 29, 2022 by Pantodude

[themagicrobot]

They may have been T&P 6d stamps or they could just possibly be Woolworths stamps. Through the 1960s until at least 1968 Woolworths sold remaindered comics at 6d a throw.

I remember sorting through stacks of Pat Boone and "boring" Dells in various branches of Woolworths, They were there for months until they either sold or the staff threw them away. In 1967/1968 Woolworths were full of King Comics still selling for 6d but luckily without any ink stamps spoiling the covers.

[Malacoda]

Lordy Mama.  So now we have the possibility that reduced price stamps applied by the retailers might have been identical to ones used by T&P! Streuth. It's almost as if they didn't realise that 50 years later there would be clusters of high-functioning sociopaths going over every ink smudge with an electron microscope. I mean...what chance does this give us? 

 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 3/31/2022 at 4:21 PM, Malacoda said:

Lordy Mama.  So now we have the possibility that reduced price stamps applied by the retailers might have been identical to ones used by T&P! Streuth. It's almost as if they didn't realise that 50 years later there would be clusters of high-functioning sociopaths going over every ink smudge with an electron microscope. I mean...what chance does this give us? 

 

I identify as a low functioning garden path. After all, I've been led up it enough times. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 3/31/2022 at 4:21 PM, Malacoda said:

He looks like he's just found a Miller indicia in a non-western 1960's Marvel 

[themagicrobot]

Quote

It's almost as if they didn't realise that 50 years later there would be clusters of high-functioning sociopaths going over every ink smudge with an electron microscope.

High functioning? I wish. Anyway did the cluster find out that the Recreational Vehicle logo definitely belonged to Roberts and Vintner? I read somewhere that they mostly dealt with "adult" publications and paperbacks though for a time they were responsible for New Worlds Science Fiction and the monthly Impulse paperback which was numbered like the Badger Books series. This looks more like it was actually printed onto this Charlton Monster mag. If it was a stamp then Iris was very good at her job.

Earlier Charlton Monster Mags look like they could have been stamped in house by Len Miller's staff (I think he had at least one).

 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 3/31/2022 at 8:14 PM, themagicrobot said:

High functioning? I wish. Anyway did the cluster find out that the Recreational Vehicle logo definitely belonged to Roberts and Vintner?

I did, and it did. No second 'n' though. 

Google says Arronvee say they were owed a bit by TeeanPee when they went bankrupt, apparently. 

On 3/31/2022 at 8:14 PM, themagicrobot said:

This looks more like it was actually printed onto this Charlton Monster mag. If it was a stamp then Iris was very good at her job.

It's printed, I think, as it's in the exact same place on every copy. No one could be that consistent, not even Ethel. She was better than Iris, you see.

On 3/31/2022 at 8:14 PM, themagicrobot said:

Earlier Charlton Monster Mags look like they could have been stamped in house by Len Miller's staff (I think he had at least one).

Mebbe. Mebbe nobbe. More likely nobbe, as also always in same placee. 

Which reminds me, I haven't updated these in a while.

[Get Marwood & I]

I found this snippet from a blog online whilst gathering Miller info - it tallies with my own feel as to how long it likely took for books to reach the UK in those early days:

If true, maybe our gaggle of 6 stamps here were those first January 1960 books....

[Malacoda]

On 4/3/2022 at 2:06 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

I found this snippet from a blog online whilst gathering Miller info - it tallies with my own feel as to how long it likely took for books to reach the UK in those early days:

If true, maybe our gaggle of 6 stamps here were those first January 1960 books....

There's certainly nothing to suggest otherwise and it ties up neatly. 

Where was this blog, Steve? Anything else that might be of interest? (Enquiring minds need to know....) 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/4/2022 at 1:38 PM, Malacoda said:

There's certainly nothing to suggest otherwise and it ties up neatly. 

Where was this blog, Steve? Anything else that might be of interest? (Enquiring minds need to know....) 

It's this one, Rich:

https://www.comicsbeat.com/poisoned-chalice-part-4-intermission-1963-to-1982/

The focus is Marvelman, but there's lots of commentary in there which will be of interest, if you haven't seen it before - I bookmarked it long ago due to the Miller content. It's in four parts, so work backwards 

I had a go at mapping out a Miller history yesterday, based on all the various references and sources I've gathered. Not one of them covers or even mentions their distribution role (in respect of original US comics).  Sad to think they're all gone now. Long gone, in some cases.  I've asked the tech team here for a second journal - if they can pull it off (no guarantees, with Invision software), a Miller history will hopefully be one of the entries 

[Get Marwood & I]

By the way, Rich - have you come across many photos of Fred Thorpe? This seems to be him:

  

I haven't found one of Porter yet 

[themagicrobot]

Fred Thorpe (and the Porter Builders merchants) probably had little or no involvement with the company named after them from 1959 and may never have seen the DC etc comics with the little 9d stamps (although Fred may well have employed Ethel and the others that did the stampering). Mr Thorpe's second career was inventing and distributing proper literature in the form of large print books.

Quote

 

In 1959, Gilberton acquired the British publisher/distributor Thorpe & Porter (which had been distributing UK editions of Classics Illustrated since 1951).^[1] In 1962, the production of new issues of Classics Illustrated shifted from Gilberton's New York offices to Thorpe & Porter, with the publisher's son Bill Kanter overseeing everything beginning in 1963.^[1] As a consequence, some of the planned, unpublished issues of the U.S. Classics Illustrated appeared in some foreign editions.

Bill Kanter was very involved with Gilberton World-Wide Productions;^[1] in 1965, Gilberton's Swedish branch, Illustrerade Klassiker, was reorganized into Williams Förlag AB^[11] — one theory is that the Williams name was derived from William Kanter.^[11]

In 1966, after going bankrupt, Thorpe & Porter was sold off to National Comics Publications (i.e., DC Comics);^[13] this sale included all the Gilberton World-Wide Productions European branches. A few years later, in 1971, all those branches — now in the hands of Warner Bros. — were renamed some variation of Williams Publishing.

 

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by themagicrobot

[Get Marwood & I]

Proper literature!?