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

[Albert Tatlock]

No thanks. Thankfully I'm cured now having reached peak comics.

Edited November 23, 2022 by Albert Tatlock
scan added.

[themagicrobot]

Makes a change from Great Scott!

My favourite non-swearing exclamation is Patsy's Cheese and Crackers! which isn't perhaps the first thing you'd think to say if you found you'd been re-incarnated.

But I may well have said Cheese and Crackers or words to that effect when I purchased Amazing Spider-Man 102 with a spelling mistak of the name of one of the villains featured.

Edited November 23, 2022 by themagicrobot

[Albert Tatlock]

On 11/16/2022 at 12:51 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

I'd like to pull everything together at some point, in one sequential post / journal entry, as all the data gets lost in this thread and others, and I find myself forgetting about a lot of it. 

'nother 'un.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 11/24/2022 at 10:51 AM, Albert Tatlock said:

'nother 'un.

Sooper. So while it's clear the 10d oblongs filled up the second Marvel UKPV hiatus issue gaps (Oct-Dec 1966), they clearly extended to issues across a wider time frame, and included other publishers too. Who knows what was in that first Goldstar suitcase, on what basis, and when....

[Albert Tatlock]

On 11/24/2022 at 11:00 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Sooper. So while it's clear the 10d oblongs filled up the second Marvel UKPV hiatus issue gaps (Oct-Dec 1966), they clearly extended to issues across a wider time frame, and included other publishers too. Who knows what was in that first Goldstar suitcase, on what basis, and when....

Were the 1965 Charltons latecoming stragglers, like the 1958 and 1959 T & P stamped examples that we reckon arrived in early 1960, or were Goldstar importing a range of publishers already before they got the chance to grab the late arrival Marvel '66ers.

I never saw that oblong stamp until the summer of 1967, but I could have failed to notice it on the output of smaller publishers.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 11/24/2022 at 12:21 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

Were the 1965 Charltons latecoming stragglers, like the 1958 and 1959 T & P stamped examples that we reckon arrived in early 1960, or were Goldstar importing a range of publishers already before they got the chance to grab the late arrival Marvel '66ers.

I never saw that oblong stamp until the summer of 1967, but I could have failed to notice it on the output of smaller publishers.

I've got about twenty Charlton examples, ranging from July 64 to November 1966 cover dates. Not enough to make any meaningful observations of course, but my money is on them being just a group of unsold books rather than anything more systematic. I'm too young to remember the time, but Charltons were regional anyway, so you may have missed them even if you were old enough to have seen them. Given how often I look for all publishers, the one or two Dell/Gold Key and Archie 10d oblong examples sort of indicate that there was nothing meaningful going on there. If there was, they have conspicuously failed to remain extant.

For Marvel however, the arrival of the stamps to fill the precise UKPV absence issues has enough examples to now be considered intentional / uncoincidental. It would appear that someone at Goldstar either anticipated the gap to come or, more likely, noted the Marvel absence and arranged to fill it possibly months after the books would otherwise have been due as UKPVs. Maybe they just gathered up some other unsold Charltons and Marvels at the same time, and a handful for the other publishers. As usual, Albert, it's all speculation!

[Albert Tatlock]

On 11/24/2022 at 1:46 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Charltons were regional anyway, so you may have missed them even if you were old enough to have seen them.

My financial resources at the time were limited, and did not stretch far enough to purchasing Charltons from the newsagents. The only ones I bought were secondhand at more affordable prices, so they could have come from anywhere, although there were enough around to suggest that they had originally been distributed locally.

[Get Marwood & I]

40% off!

[Malacoda]

On 11/20/2022 at 5:42 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Not as nice as my earlier TGK, but still nice 

Wallop !!!!!!>>>>.

 

[Malacoda]

On 11/21/2022 at 3:44 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

I thought at first that Goldstar's involvement at this time was limited to the 2 month Marvel gap, but so many others have shown up recently that have demonstrated that the net was cast a lot wider.

Anyone know when the oblong 10d stamps first appeared, and when they dried up?

It would make a lot of sense for that relationship between David Gold and Marvel to pre-exist anyway.  We think about Goldstar having the relationship with Marvel for Deadly Hands of Kung Fu and the B&W magazines in the 70's, but of course it would make plenty of sense if Gold had a relationship with Goodman not for Marvel but for Magazine Management.  If you know what I mean....

[Malacoda]

On 11/23/2022 at 6:56 PM, themagicrobot said:

I'm surprised anything consisting of paper and not bagged (or slabbed) can survive in a barn. I recall the fate that befell some boxes of comics owned by a friend that were placed in a garage for just a few weeks between house moves.

I suspect a big part of the reason that T&P got hammered so badly by the OP branch in the years after Fred left was the lack of a barn. 

Fred was a very canny operator. In addition to being the Grand High Wiz of a Wiz at his local Handshake Club, he employed at least 3 senior ex-coppers in key roles. One of whom was actually in charge of the 'obscene publications'.  He rented a barn in Oadby, which was actually quite central but had been part of a farm.  Whilst all the socially acceptable product was stored at East Street, the higher-altitude publications were stored at the barn.  This meant that when the police swooped, the only stuff confiscated was the stuff that was meant to be (though I strongly suspect that (a) there was a phone call before any raid to say 'clear the barn, just leave us a couple of palettes to find' or (b) having pinched the whole lot and flagged it for destruction, it was accidentally loaded back onto T&P trucks rather than the ones marked Acme Incinerators). 

Later, when everything decamped to Thurmaston, this rather useful separation of business interests disappeared, leading to hundreds of thousands of publications being confiscated in the early 70's when Robert Mark took over as Top Cop and rather unreasonably set about purging the Sweeney and the Dirty Squad, leading to some genuine enforcement of...oh, what's it called? Oh yes....the law. 

In their dying years, Warner Commnications UK tried to bring back Fred's solution.  They introduced the GBD (General Book Distributors) imprint to separate off everything bound for the spice rack. The T&P warehouse in Thurmaston actually became the GBD warehouse, but focussing the raids into one place didn't convince Warner's back in the States that having a UK subsidiary that was constantly being raided for porn was a good look when you were running Bugs & Daffy as wholesome competitors to Mickey & Goofy. And that was the end of that. 

Should've bought a barn. 

[Malacoda]

On 11/23/2022 at 9:34 PM, themagicrobot said:

My favourite non-swearing exclamation is Patsy's Cheese and Crackers!

I love this too.  Although Luke Cage's 'Sweet Christmas' always made me smile too. 

[OtherEric]

On 11/23/2022 at 1:34 PM, themagicrobot said:

Makes a change from Great Scott!

My favourite non-swearing exclamation is Patsy's Cheese and Crackers! which isn't perhaps the first thing you'd think to say if you found you'd been re-incarnated.

But I may well have said Cheese and Crackers or words to that effect when I purchased Amazing Spider-Man 102 with a spelling mistak of the name of one of the villains featured.

It’s spelled right, but every other appearance of the character spelled it wrong, perhaps?

[Malacoda]

On 11/23/2022 at 9:34 PM, themagicrobot said:

But I may well have said Cheese and Crackers or words to that effect when I purchased Amazing Spider-Man 102 with a spelling mistak of the name of one of the villains featured.

Brilliant.  And it's on the US and UK variants too, shame really. If only the pence version had it, it would pretty much end the 'which got printed first' debate. 

At some point, it seems to have been retconned. 

[Malacoda]

On 11/25/2022 at 11:52 PM, OtherEric said:

It’s spelled right, but every other appearance of the character spelled it wrong, perhaps?

Good shout.  People think moribund means dead, but it actually means on the point of death, which is perfect for a living vampire. 

[Redshade]

On 11/25/2022 at 10:47 PM, Malacoda said:

Wallop !!!!!!>>>>.

 

They spelled "Pharaoh" incorrectly.

[themagicrobot]

I don't spend all my time searching for spelling mistaks but some are so "in your face" that you can't help but notice them and shout Cheese and Crackers!. Like that Batman cover where they spell Dinosaur wrong or, even worse the many many thousands of 2014 Marvel Calendars spelt Calender. Like buses come along in threes once your brain is attuned you focus on the errors especially when they are on covers. Like this Weird War Tales I saw just the other day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_the_gauntlet

 

 

[OtherEric]

On 11/26/2022 at 1:30 AM, themagicrobot said:

I don't spend all my time searching for spelling mistaks but some are so "in your face" that you can't help but notice them and shout Cheese and Crackers!. Like that Batman cover where they spell Dinosaur wrong or, even worse the many many thousands of 2014 Marvel Calendars spelt Calender. Like buses come along in threes once your brain is attuned you focus on the errors especially when they are on covers. Like this Weird War Tales I saw just the other day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_the_gauntlet

 

 

To quote the article you linked to:

"For the punishment, the spelling gantlet is preferred in American English usage guides by Bryan Garner and Robert Hartwell Fiske[8][9] and is listed as a variant spelling of gauntlet by American dictionaries.[1][10] British dictionaries label gantlet as American.[11][12]"

 Admittedly, it would have been fun if they changed the spelling for the pence version.  But my reaction is exactly opposite yours- "Yay!  It's one of the rare times they got it right!"

[themagicrobot]

"As for the sinister Dr Strange who among us can resist the devilish cunning of this maniac magician, gifted with the evil power to conjure up hideous spirits at his every whim!

Yeah right. Can anyone decypher what the yellow word says?? This odd page appeared in an issue of the odd UK comic Target.

 

[OtherEric]

On 11/26/2022 at 1:48 AM, themagicrobot said:

"As for the sinister Dr Strange who among us can resist the devilish cunning of this maniac magician, gifted with the evil power to conjure up hideous spirits at his every whim!

Yeah right. Can anyone decypher what the yellow word says?? This odd page appeared in an issue of the odd UK comic Target.

 

The Super-Men.