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

[Get Marwood & I]

Just for fun, here are the tables for the first ten 1-9 cycles for Action Comics only.

Click to enlarge, and the numbers in the brackets are the number of issues I have captured with the same stamp. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If we ignore the first cycle stamp 6 (possibly late second cycle books), and start with stamp 8, the first issue captured is #258 (November 1959), the last one #336 (April 1966). That represents:

• 78 consecutive issues
• 78 cover months
• 83 stamps

That's reasonably close, and supports the monthly stamp / shipment cycle theory.

The spread of issues starts off quite consistently and then starts to drift around the eighth cycle with lots of missed months and bunching. If we take the 9th cycle as a fictional, literal 9 month period, then the experience in the newsagent would have been:

1. Action #322 
2. Action #323 
3. Action #324 
4. Nothing  
5. Action #325 (new and old style 10d stamps) 
6. Action #326 / 327 
7. Nothing 
8. Action #328 
9. Action #329 

Seven issues over a possible 9 month period. I found 9 examples of Action #328 with an 8 stamp. No issues with a 7 stamp. So again, if translated literally in monthly shipment cycles, there would have been months where you couldn't get a latest Action (). 

I did this all the way up to cycle 18 for Action and will try to post the rest later. The learning from this for me, just for this title as an illustration, is:

• From the off, the issues run broadly consecutive with the stamp numbers, supporting the monthly shipment theory
• It starts to degrade around cycle 8 - approximately 4 to 5 years into the process, around 1964/5

[Get Marwood & I]

...and the other eight cycles for Action Comics.

Five issues over nine stamps:

Five issues over nine stamps:

Fifteen issues over nine stamps (six in stamp 8 alone):

Nothing for the first three stamps!

They've give up!:

In the eight cycles above we have:

• Issues 337-388 (52)
• May 1966 - May 1970 (49 months)
• 52 stamps

52 stamps for 52 issues over 49 calendar months - still broadly tracking but with gaps and bunching all over. 

Why did it get worse instead of better? If the above eight cycle tables are in any way illustrative of actual sequential monthly shipments, then the kids would be going nuts - no issues for months on end then six arrive in one go!

Logic says that the numbering lost it's link to monthly UK issue arrivals long before the tracking shown in these tables. Either that or it was a rotten time to be collecting sequential comics.

[Get Marwood & I]

@Malacoda Rich, there's eighteen plotted 1-9 cycles there for DC's Action Comics covering ten years of the title. 149 stamps within an 127 month window.

Can you see in any of that where your industry knowledge fits?

[Get Marwood & I]

The above period in days by the way, from Nov 59 to May 70 is 3,863. Divide that by the 149 stamps and that's one stamp (shipment?) roughly every 26 days. 

Anyone bored yet? 

[themagicrobot]

Quote

 

The above period in days by the way, from Nov 59 to May 70 is 3,863. Divide that by the 149 stamps and that's one stamp (shipment?) roughly every 26 days. 

Anyone bored yet? 

 

Today I'm the Chairman of the Bored, hence my mucking about here instead of doing something useful. 

Quote

and that's one stamp (shipment?) roughly every 26 days. 

So perhaps things actually happened every 4 weeks rather than a precise monthly cycle so sometimes comics ended up in the next batch?

[Get Marwood & I]

On 6/14/2022 at 6:17 PM, themagicrobot said:

Today I'm the Chairman of the Bored, hence my mucking about here instead of doing something useful. 

It's about time we had a Bored Meeting, Chairman. Can I take the minutes? 

On 6/14/2022 at 6:17 PM, themagicrobot said:

So perhaps things actually happened every 4 weeks rather than a precise monthly cycle so sometimes comics ended up in the next batch?

That would be 40,320. Minutes, I mean. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 6/14/2022 at 6:17 PM, themagicrobot said:

So perhaps things actually happened every 4 weeks rather than a precise monthly cycle so sometimes comics ended up in the next batch?

Mebbe. Being returns, it stands to reason that books would straddle shipments. The overlaps went a bit wild in the end though, so something changed after five years of reasonable sequencing.

[Get Marwood & I]

@Malacoda Rich liked my table posts so he's read them Robot @themagicrobot. I can feel a tidal wave of a post brewing.

Can you feel it....? 

 

300 Robot Posts!

 

[OtherEric]

On 6/14/2022 at 10:44 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

It's about time we had a Bored Meeting, Chairman. Can I take the minutes? 

That would be 40,320. Minutes, I mean. 

Before we let you take the minutes we need to know where you plan to take them.  Goodness knows you’ve taken the rest of this thread all sorts of weird and interesting places.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 6/14/2022 at 7:02 PM, OtherEric said:

Before we let you take the minutes we need to know where you plan to take them.  Goodness knows you’ve taken the rest of this thread all sorts of weird and interesting places.

Would to task be acceptable? 

[OtherEric]

On 6/14/2022 at 11:05 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Would to task be acceptable? 

I’m slightly suspicious of what task would leave you bored, but I’ll conditionally allow it

[Get Marwood & I]

On 6/14/2022 at 7:11 PM, OtherEric said:

I’m slightly suspicious of what task would leave you bored, but I’ll conditionally allow it

I may have to hand that off to the Task Master.

[Get Marwood & I]

WTF is going on! 

[OtherEric]

On 6/14/2022 at 11:15 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

WTF is going on! 

You'll have to either ask Thorpe or Porter, or keep speculating, because none of us are sure yet...

[Get Marwood & I]

On 6/14/2022 at 7:20 PM, OtherEric said:

You'll have to either ask Thorpe or Porter, or keep speculating, because none of us are sure yet...

Asking Porter might be tough, not being an actual person. Thorpe too though, not being alive.

[OtherEric]

On 6/14/2022 at 11:22 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Asking Porter might be tough, not being an actual person. Thorpe too though, not being alive.

Details, details...

[Get Marwood & I]

On 6/14/2022 at 7:24 PM, OtherEric said:

Details, details...

...we don't do details here!

 

Spoiler

 

[themagicrobot]

Allow me one more off topic post before I slope off to the pub at the bottom of the garden.

Over the last umpteen years I have found Marvel comics covers of the period covered by this thread to be rather colourful but usually just hero and villain in a pose about to punch each other. (yes I'm sure you can find exceptions) whilst DC comics had covers that often made me say WTF I must find out what happens next, such as Strange Adventures, Lois Lane. many Supermans etc. I'm waiting for eBay to send me this comic because I really want to know what is going on here....

[Get Marwood & I]

"Boss?" 

 

"Boss!"
 

"What, Barry, what?"

 

"This blokes heavy"

 

"Shut up and keep walking"

 

"Why do I have to carry him and the TNT though?"

 

"Shut up"

 

"Why can't Dave take a turn?"

 

"Shut up!"

 

 

~

 

 

 

"Boss?"

 

"WHAT NOW?!"

 

"Are we there yet?"

 

"If you don't shut up I'm going to personally dismantle your sensory receptors and shove them up your fing "

 

"No need to be narky boss, I was just asking"

 

 

~

 

 

"Boss?"

 

"Oh, for f sake, what now?!"

 

"Why do we have to walk the TNT to the British Ammunition dump? Why can't we take the hover car?"

 

"......"

[Albert Tatlock]

On 6/14/2022 at 7:56 PM, themagicrobot said:

I really want to know what is going on here....

Let me take a guess, a wild stab in the dark.......

Goodies win, baddies lose.

Just a hunch, could be miles wide of the mark, but you never know.

Let me know if that is what happened, I am on the edge of my seat