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

[gadzukes]

[gadzukes]

[gadzukes]

[Malacoda]

On 11/29/2022 at 9:50 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Or Hull 

[Malacoda]

On 11/29/2022 at 12:22 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

I didn't know it, so had a peek. Will see if anyone else knows it.....

Nope. Googled it too, but I feel like we should know it. 

[Malacoda]

On 11/29/2022 at 12:40 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

and noticed a big gap between these two:

A big gap between Heart Throbs? 

 

Or....a big gap between Heart Throbs? 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 11/29/2022 at 7:07 PM, Malacoda said:

 

I can't unsee that white Hitler moustache under RDJ's Jim Shooter. 

[Malacoda]

On 11/29/2022 at 9:57 AM, themagicrobot said:

Perhaps Thorpe and Porter initially imported comics not to make lots of money but as a smokescreen. As a way in to Newsagents to offer them comics but also the far more lucrative pornography.  What was the profit margin on a 1/- comic compared with a 5/- magazine. No contest really.

 

This is a good point and completely true, but I also think they made a packet out of the comics. If you consider that when DC Thompson published the Beano, they had to create the whole thing, pay the usual bullpen of writers, artists, editors etc, physically produce the comic and print it, they did all that and sold it (using 1967 as an example) for 3d.  T&P were not doing any of that, just buying & shipping the finished mag (at wholesale prices in the case of Marvel, and as distressed, second hand inventory in the case of DC), yet they were selling it at FOUR times the price that DC Thomson were getting for comics created from scratch and printed.  And if it didn't sell the first time, they just halved the price and sent it round again.  I think the profit margins were astronomical. 

I agree the profit margins on the porn must have been significantly higher, but I imagine they sold far less copies and the amounts seized were mind-blowing.  Don't forget that T&P completely got out of the paperback business, lucrative as it was, in 1952, because of the amount of police seizures, which surely indicates that whatever the margins, the problem is that you have to actually sell it to make any money on it.  

To your point, T&P in fact sold a wide range of goods through newsagents, including comics, magazines, books, records (not just the ex-juke box records, but original LP's).  They sold ladies tights & stockings (and I'm not sure what else in that arena).  And children's toys.  I think that part of it was massive.  There was a whole toy department at Thurmaston (like Santa's workshop, except with massive amounts pornography stored next door).

I could never quite figure out how (or more importantly why), they maintained this massive operation of sales managers and regional warehouses when it was perfectly possible to distribute comics and magazines to every newsagent in the land via the national distributors, but I think this is the reason.  They operated their own stands & spinner racks at the newsagents, the sales managers themselves replenished the racks so they maintained tight stock control, saw what was selling and what was not, and, to your point, kept the high margin items well to the fore.  One envisions it as T&P supplying goods for sale to the newsagents, but actually I think it was more like T&P used the newsagents to distribute their goods and pretty much ran a business inside each of the newsagents' businesses.  

 I think your point is also very true of the US distribution network.  I think the reason that a lot of the returns came back in the same condition they went out is that they never made it onto the news stands.  If you were a news vendor with a tiny kiosk, there's no way you'd give rack space to comics on which you made a penny when you could put out Life (at 40c) or even Playboy (at 75c).  You took the stack of comics along with the newspapers and magazines because you had to take what the wholesaler gave you, but it was all SOR and it was up to you to decide what you were going to give up precious real estate to. 

[Malacoda]

On 11/29/2022 at 7:16 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

I can't unsee that white Hitler moustache under RDJ's Jim Shooter. 

Is this a reference to when he played Charlie Chaplin or are we talking about showbiz pharmaceuticals?  Because he will walk out of the interview, you know. 

[Garystar]

Wondered if any of our contributors may be interested in this;

4 x Vintage CORONATION STREET Drinking Glasses 1960s TV Series Ena Sharples etc

@Albert Tatlock

[themagicrobot]

If anyone wants to buy him a Xmas present what could be more appropriate than an old Xmas edition of MAD magazine. (The UK version naturally).

[Get Marwood & I]

I do like a vintage Corrie interlude 

I spotted this down t' road, in t' Rovers, up t' bar on eBay yesterday - we know that Daredevil's second UKPV hiatus issues are #21 and 22, and that they exist duly stamped as follows....

....and we also have #29 doing the rounds with our 'Goldstar' stamps on:

 

Here's another example, not only with the shilling stamp, but also an arrival date:

  

Mike's has as an on sale date of April 11th:

How cool is that?

I can't quite make out the full stamp wording, but it looks like something was paid. Duty, probably. 

Someone even had a go with a pen on this copy, knocking a whole 4d off the Goldstar price (well, one of them):

Comics are great, aren't they 

[Get Marwood & I]

And talking of arrival dates, here's a rare beast - an otherwise undated UK comic with an of the time owner date on it:

This came in a lot with a story attached - that'll be coming up when I finally resurrect the Charlton work 

 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 12/1/2022 at 10:14 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

we know that Daredevil's second UKPV hiatus issues are #21 and 22, and that they exist duly stamped as follows....

....and we also have #29 doing the rounds with our 'Goldstar' stamps on:

Guys, what do we think was going on here then with these UKPV gap issues? The fact that all the second UKPV hiatus issues can be found in multiples with the 10d oblong / circular shilling stamp present is a clear indication that someone noted the UKPV absence and filled it. The distinct absence of other issues seems to indicate that the primary focus was just to fill that gap. The additional issues that we've found dotted about indicate that the stamps were applied to other issues around the main UKPV gap, but not in sufficient numbers to indicate anything systematic.

As for the little gaggle of Daredevil #29s, and the apparent absence of stamped copies for the issues in between it and the hiatus issues of 21/22, do they not indicate that the hiatus filler issues must have come to the UK very late? Why would someone go to the trouble of importing the missing Daredevil UKPV issues in a timely date manner, and then waiting six months to do it again just for issue #29? That makes no sense. What makes sense to me is that someone noted the UKPV Oct/Nov/Dec 1966 gaps and arranged to fill them in one hit some time after the date that the books, as UKPVs, would've landed in the UK. That's why we see DD #29 as well, and the other books. Maybe the deal was struck six months or so after the natural arrival date, and the missing UKPV issues were sent over along with 'some other stuff' as a sweetener or whatever.

If I'm right, to the UK collector, those UKPV gaps would have stayed gaps for half a year and then one day the missing issues would suddenly pop up (where, we do not know). Goldstar must've been very confident that they would sell. And why have two stamp types, one 10d and one shilling concurrently? North/South divide pricing, perhaps? Or could they have done it in two waves?

Whaddyathink?

 

[Albert Tatlock]

On 11/30/2022 at 10:34 PM, Garystar said:

Wondered if any of our contributors may be interested in this;

4 x Vintage CORONATION STREET Drinking Glasses 1960s TV Series Ena Sharples etc

@Albert Tatlock

That's not me, it's some impostor.

I never ever go out without my cap.

Sometimes I take it off in the bath, but not always.

[Albert Tatlock]

On 12/1/2022 at 1:55 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

The point being, to the UK collector, those UKPV gaps would have stayed gaps for half a year and then one day the missing issues suddenly pop up

They did indeed arrive late.

Will try to dig out a bit of info on when and where, if I still have it written down.

[Albert Tatlock]

Just for a moment, my heart skipped a beat spotting this previously unknown price variant.

Needless to say...................

[Get Marwood & I]

On 12/1/2022 at 4:14 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

Just for a moment, my heart skipped a beat spotting this previously unknown price variant.

Needless to say...................

I wonder who owned that sticker Albert. It didn't half get about. 

[themagicrobot]

Teeny tiny 10d stamps and slightly larger Shilling stamp or am I perhaps seeing things...............

[themagicrobot]

Why do I notice things now that I never noticed at the time?? August 1981 UK Marvel comics have the month displayed. September to December 1981 comics don't display the month. Things were back to normal January 1982. What was going on there? I'm sure there must be a logical explanation. (And no doubt I'll be chastised because the topic was covered in depth 100 pages ago).