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

[themagicrobot]

Quote

Imagine doing that years ago. Stamping up some sixties books with a 9d 'GM&I' branded stamp, releasing them into the wild and then watching insufficiently_thoughtful_persons like me try to work out who they were 60 years later as they slowly cropped up on eBay.....

Imagine doing that today?!? There are companies that will make any ink stamp you can dream of.  11d stamps within a circle (and perhaps a "10" at the top) on a few hundred comics would have the next generation of comic collectors scratching their heads and debating for years. (I assume there actually will be a next generation of comic collectors?)

[Get Marwood & I]

On 8/7/2022 at 9:54 AM, themagicrobot said:

Imagine doing that today?!? There are companies that will make any ink stamp you can dream of.  11d stamps within a circle (and perhaps a "10" at the top) on a few hundred comics would have the next generation of comic collectors scratching their heads and debating for years. 

I know. It's a good job that few people care about the things we discuss here, or someone would likely have done it by now. If they were to now of course, we'd be wise to it. It's one of the reasons I look for patterns before getting excited about any unusual post production elements and markings that I come across. There are quite a few vintage branded stamps out there in circulation that I have saved images of down the years, but none have sufficient examples to warrant researching or making any observations about. Miller, T&P, Goldstar and RV are the only ones prolific enough to warrant tracking in my view.  There are similar scenarios of doubt in other areas of the hobby of course - who can be sure that their double cover is authentic, their price sticker vintage or their insert original to the book? I always found that graded attempt at a Spidey #121 with a Mark Jewelers insert a funny one. It was patently obvious that it was a construct but they authenticated it anyway.

You can't beat the certainty of the printed ink difference really, can you.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 8/7/2022 at 9:54 AM, themagicrobot said:

(I assume there actually will be a next generation of comic collectors?)

Some of the market report writers in the latest Overstreet seem to think so, but I don't think the likes of us will be replicated much as the years move on and all the 'off radar' stuff gradually disappears. I've said it often, I personally think everything exciting about comics happened in the twenty or so years from 1959 - certainly from a UK perspective. The actual comics were simple and charming with stories and art of their time. The world is too advanced now for comics, and superheroes. In that 20 years were the first UK arrivals, price variants, stamped copies, inserts and a whole host of production quirks and differences. The fact that US cents priced books exist with multiple fonts just because UKPVs were run off is, I think, bloody marvellous (no pun in 10did). And of course it was all affordable back then. That age will never be replicated, alas, but I'm glad I lived through it and can still just about eke a hobby out of it 50 years later in these dying days of diminishing collecting venues and availability. 

I've not finished Overstreet, but you wouldn't think we existed, reading it. Everything that appeals to me is absent. Interest in UKPVs and overseas books has never been higher yet you wouldn't know it from that tired old 'US only' format. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 8/7/2022 at 11:13 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

There are quite a few vintage branded stamps out there in circulation that I have saved images of down the years, but none have sufficient examples to warrant researching or making any observations about. Miller, T&P, Goldstar and RV are the only ones prolific enough to warrant tracking in my view. 

This will interest you, @themagicrobot, and to illustrate my point above, I've identified over a hundred of the Roberts & Vinter stamped Charltons now, just under a third of the issues that existed in my projected date window. Here's a screen shot of my tracking page, if you can make it out (click to enlarge):

The likelihood is that they distributed all the Charlton titles of the time after the Miller UKPV arrangement ended and I hope to one day prove just that. Here's a nice dark one, albeit a bit smudged:

This RW stamp below however, which I think may be the work of Roberts & Warburton, given what I've read here and there, has only three examples known (to me):

I like how it's battling it out with the RV stamp there 

I've been looking for both stamp types for years now, so with 106 RVs and just 3 RWs, my conclusion at this stage is that the RW stamp wasn't prolific or used for any significant purpose. Just one of those little quirks.

Damn interesting, though - to me at least!

 

15/08 Edit: But clearly to no one else 

Edited August 15, 2022 by Get Marwood & I
I'm changing the seasons, and I'm putting my demons, putting my demons to bed.

[Malacoda]

On 8/7/2022 at 11:23 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

The world is too advanced now for comics, and superheroes.

Comics, yes. Superheroes, I’m not so sure.  I think human beings are always fascinated by the idea of humans with extraordinary powers.  Before we were monotheists, we believed in demi-gods and humans who were part-man, part-God with a variety of super powers.  In the middle ages, we explained crop failures and maladies not by bacteria and diseases, but by evil witches and supernatural powers.  When we discovered horrific murders, did we invent criminal psychology or did we invent vampires and werewolves? I think super-powered beings are a natural go-to of the human imagination. That’s why people who have never picked up a comic book in their lives still say things like ‘it’s my Kryptonite’ or ‘my Spidey sense is tingling’ ....because those things have a cultural resonance far beyond their source material.  I think for a long time, super heroes were the mainstay of comic books because it was impossible to realise such fantastic stories in other media. As soon as cinema was finally up to the job, look what happened. Super heroes are bigger than ever in the 21st century. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 8/7/2022 at 2:29 PM, Malacoda said:

Comics, yes. Superheroes, I’m not so sure.  I think human beings are always fascinated by the idea of humans with extraordinary powers.  Before we were monotheists, we believed in demi-gods and humans who were part-man, part-God with a variety of super powers.  In the middle ages, we explained crop failures and maladies not by bacteria and diseases, but by evil witches and supernatural powers.  When we discovered horrific murders, did we invent criminal psychology or did we invent vampires and werewolves? I think super-powered beings are a natural go-to of the human imagination. That’s why people who have never picked up a comic book in their lives still say things like ‘it’s my Kryptonite’ or ‘my Spidey sense is tingling’ ....because those things have a cultural resonance far beyond their source material.  I think for a long time, super heroes were the mainstay of comic books because it was impossible to realise such fantastic stories in other media. As soon as cinema was finally up to the job, look what happened. Super heroes are bigger than ever in the 21st century. 

They've had to change to adapt though. No such thing as a secret identity now. Spidey works in his sixties / seventies setting. He works now of course, in a way, but it's so different that he's no longer himself. At least he's not the character that was originally conceived. I know you're right Rich, I'm just talking out loud. Things move on and we can't live in the past, I suppose. Much that I'd like to. 

[Malacoda]

On 8/7/2022 at 2:37 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

They've had to change to adapt though. No such thing as a secret identity now. Spidey works in his sixties / seventies setting. He works now of course, in a way, but it's so different that he's no longer himself. At least he's not the character that was originally conceived. I know you're right Rich, I'm just talking out loud. Things move on and we can't live in the past, I suppose. Much that I'd like to. 

Agree, but also, wasn’t it weird when you saw Tom Holland as Spidey having got used to Maguire & Garfield? I thought ‘well, he’s just ridiculously young’ and then realised that that was actually the age Spider Man was supposed to be.  They actually did go back to his 60’s incarnation.  And, of course, Marisa Tomei seemed ridiculously young as Aunt May, and then you remember that teenage Peter having an octogenarian aunt was almost biologically impossible (particularly as women never had babies that late in the 1940’s) and Marisa is actually the logical age for Peter Parker’s aunt to be. 
I’m also not sure about secret identities.  Don’t we all have secret identities now, Marwood?
Love
Malacoda.
 

[Malacoda]

On 8/7/2022 at 11:23 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

I've not finished Overstreet, but you wouldn't think we existed, reading it. Everything that appeals to me is absent. Interest in UKPVs and overseas books has never been higher yet you wouldn't know it from that tired old 'US only' format. 

Completely agree. And I'm surprised that his young researchers haven't clued him up about UK, Canadian, Aus etc variants. 

Mind you, Overstreet was never what it's cracked up to be.  It's supposed to be based on actual sales, but in 99% of cases, the VG value is GD x 2 and the FN value is GD x 3 (or sometimes 4, but exactly 4), so demonstrably not based on sales, except by self-fulfilling prophecy (i.e. comic dealers price based on Overstreet, so that price relationship becomes reality).  That said, you would imagine that ebay and other internet sales have exploded any influence dealers were exerting. 

[Malacoda]

On 8/7/2022 at 2:37 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Things move on and we can't live in the past, I suppose. Much that I'd like to. 

Indeed. I was thinking earlier that Millennials could do with a bit more living in the past.  I think we (Gen X'er's, which I appreciate not everyone on here is), were brought up by Boomers, so we share a lot of their values.  Millennials were brought up by social media, so they live in a certainty vacuum where they don't know what today's principles, facts and realities are until they've logged on. Alan Coren once said that there were 2 Wikipedia contributors who had created his entry, but did not agree about his DOB, and they continually 'corrected' each other.  He said that until he had logged on in the morning and checked, he never actually knew what age he was on any given day.  I imagine this must be what it's like to be a Millennial. 

[Malacoda]

On 8/7/2022 at 8:33 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Imagine doing that years ago. Stamping up some sixties books with a 9d 'GM&I' branded stamp, releasing them into the wild and then watching insufficiently_thoughtful_persons like me try to work out who they were 60 years later as they slowly cropped up on eBay.....

I'm pretty sure this is actually happening with TOS 71. I've seen 3 weirdo stamps on IM's punch flare now.  Here's 2 of them. 

[OtherEric]

As is the case more often than not, I have nothing to contribute right now.  But as I occasionally do, I want to thank everybody who is contributing... this thread remains fascinating 145 pages in.

[themagicrobot]

@OtherEric By virtue of having read all 145 pages you must surely qualify for a no-prize

@Malacoda Unlikely I know but odd stamps may have come from other countries that used our currency...Rhodesia?? Jamaica?? Stranger things have happened.

@Get Marwood & I The Golden Age of comics for me wasn't the 1940s but 1964 to 1983. From Julius Schwartz updating Batman from the madness of visiting alien planets and time travelling until the demise of the Warren magazines which coincided with me disposing of my collection for the second time and "moving on".

Off topic again, here is a quiz.

1. What comic does this scrap of cover come from. I don't want the issue number or even the title. What publisher is it from and roughly when. If you guess the genre too you get bonus points.

2. We know Gladys used a round stamp. What was the name of the person who used the Diamond shaped one? Bonus points if you recognise the title/issue number too.

[Yorick]

On 8/7/2022 at 11:03 AM, themagicrobot said:

Bonus points if you recognise the title/issue number too.

Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane #123 - of course.

[themagicrobot]

Bonus points to @Yorick and extra bonus points for his logo, But shouldn't that comic cost 7 and a half pees? 

[themagicrobot]

As I never saw any Charlton comic prior to 1967 by which time Thorpe and Porter were distributing them I suspect RV, as with L Miller being based in London they didn't distribute Charltons to all four corners of our sceptred isle.

.

[Albert Tatlock]

On 8/7/2022 at 3:35 PM, Malacoda said:

I'm pretty sure this is actually happening with TOS 71. I've seen 3 weirdo stamps on IM's punch flare now.  Here's 2 of them. 

Top one is a Republic of Ireland import stamp.

Bottom one has me scratching my head, though.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 8/8/2022 at 11:30 AM, Albert Tatlock said:

Bottom one has me scratching my head, though.

Same here. I've seen J&Ps, and J.A.E.s, but not a JB

 

 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 8/7/2022 at 7:44 PM, themagicrobot said:

As I never saw any Charlton comic prior to 1967 by which time Thorpe and Porter were distributing them I suspect RV, as with L Miller being based in London they didn't distribute Charltons to all four corners of our sceptred isle.

.

Cool. There are quite a few rogue shilling stamps like that - I pick up nice copies when I see them. Sometimes they're easy to miss on busy covers:

[Get Marwood & I]

On 8/7/2022 at 2:59 PM, Malacoda said:

Agree, but also, wasn’t it weird when you saw Tom Holland as Spidey having got used to Maguire & Garfield? I thought ‘well, he’s just ridiculously young’ and then realised that that was actually the age Spider Man was supposed to be.  They actually did go back to his 60’s incarnation.  And, of course, Marisa Tomei seemed ridiculously young as Aunt May, and then you remember that teenage Peter having an octogenarian aunt was almost biologically impossible (particularly as women never had babies that late in the 1940’s) and Marisa is actually the logical age for Peter Parker’s aunt to be. 

Don't bring logic into this!

I wasn't a fan of Tom Holland and Zenyatta Mondatta to start with but they did sort of win me over a bit in the last film with a bit of youthful exhuberance. I think you have to be in the right mood sometimes. I couldn't work out whether the foes bickering in the lift was hilarious or disrespectful. Best not to over think it, eh. It's just a film. 

On 8/7/2022 at 2:59 PM, Malacoda said:

I’m also not sure about secret identities.  Don’t we all have secret identities now, Marwood?
Love
Malacoda.
 

I don't know what you mean...

On 8/7/2022 at 3:09 PM, Malacoda said:

Completely agree. And I'm surprised that his young researchers haven't clued him up about UK, Canadian, Aus etc variants. 

I was introduced by an existing advisor (Jon McClure) a few years back and hoped to put a feature together about the pence copies but they never replied. I only chase once in life, just in case there's been a mishap, but they clearly weren't interested. Jon did include some of my research in his own report though, so at least some of the things I've been working on, like the Miller Marvels, got a first printed airing.

On 8/7/2022 at 3:20 PM, Malacoda said:

Indeed. I was thinking earlier that Millennials could do with a bit more living in the past.  I think we (Gen X'er's, which I appreciate not everyone on here is), were brought up by Boomers, so we share a lot of their values.  Millennials were brought up by social media, so they live in a certainty vacuum where they don't know what today's principles, facts and realities are until they've logged on. Alan Coren once said that there were 2 Wikipedia contributors who had created his entry, but did not agree about his DOB, and they continually 'corrected' each other.  He said that until he had logged on in the morning and checked, he never actually knew what age he was on any given day.  I imagine this must be what it's like to be a Millennial. 

I read somewhere that we are a fortunate generation as we lived through the introduction of the internet and know what it was like before. Today, I can pop online in a bus queue, find a rare comic on eBay, buy and pay for it as the bus arrives and it's on the door mat from the other side of the world a week later. Great though that is, I do miss the days of typed up catalogues and postal orders. 

[Malacoda]

On 8/7/2022 at 7:03 PM, themagicrobot said:

 

 

On 8/7/2022 at 7:03 PM, themagicrobot said:

 

Off topic again, here is a quiz.

1. What comic does this scrap of cover come from. I don't want the issue number or even the title. What publisher is it from and roughly when. If you guess the genre too you get bonus points.