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

[Malacoda]

So....has anyone else ever had this feeling?  

This is FF #171. I bought it off a spinner rack in June 1976 (actually off a shelf, I'm using spinner rack as shorthand here).  It was the first issue to cost 10p.  It was also the first issue to have a bar code.  But neither of those is the reason it's special to me.  It's special to me because it was the first issue of FF that I ever owned. There was a moment, in June 1976, when this was my entire FF collection. 

Today, I got FF Annual #1.  It arrived in this envelope. 

Normally, when a comic I really want arrives I can't wait to open it, but the minute I open this one,  I am no longer collecting the Fantastic Four.  I am still an FF collector in the sense that I have a collection, but I'm no longer collecting because this is the last one I need.  After 48 years. 

You know that bit in Psychoville where Lomax throws the Beanie Baby back into the sea?  (Sorry to US readers, that was a local reference) (for local people). I feel a bit like that.  I doubt I will ever afford AF 15, ASM 1 or Hulk 1.  I need a couple of Caps, a couple of X men and 1 Thor, but they're not expensive or rare ones and can be picked up any time.  I've bid on FF Ann 1 many times and lost, but this time I won and it's the last time I'll buy a key/grail and complete a run. 

I'm sitting here like Schrodinger, savouring the last moments before I open the envelope and end it all. 

Anyone else had a moment like this? 

[OtherEric]

The day this book arrived:

Beat but complete, finally getting it was at once joyful and satisfying… but also a sense that a massive project and important part of my life was done, or at least entering a new stage.

I’ve since tracked down the Whitman variants of Legion appearances.  Maybe I should start looking for the pence variants as well.

[Malacoda]

On 3/26/2024 at 11:40 PM, OtherEric said:

I’ve since tracked down the Whitman variants of Legion appearances.

So this wasn't Adventure Comics 247 per se, it was because if featured an appearance of the Legion? I would imagine being an Adventure Comics completist would be no small challenge. 

[OtherEric]

On 3/26/2024 at 8:04 PM, Malacoda said:

So this wasn't Adventure Comics 247 per se, it was because if featured an appearance of the Legion? I would imagine being an Adventure Comics completist would be no small challenge. 

It was the last book I needed for a complete run of the Legion.  It also is their first appearance, of course.

I'm not crazy enough to try for a complete Adventure Comics run, that would be borderline impossible at this point.  However... I'm currently eight issues short of having Adventure 247-529 complete.

[themagicrobot]

I once owned FF 10 - 110 and a few earlier issues. That would have been about the time @Malacoda was reading No 171. It is tempting to leave that first Annual to be opened at a later date but I would want to check the parcel did contain the right comic. I've only ever got the wrong book once out of hundreds of transactions but.......

Talking of eBay parcels. A couple of years ago there was an item on the local TV news about a guy who had passed away. When relatives visited his cluttered terraced house the front room was stacked full of hundreds and hundreds of unopened parcels. Further examination of the packages showed that every one contained comics.......

I am not a completist, apart from maybe a few titles that only ran to 10 or 20 issues. But I have started cataloguing what I do have just so an xml spreadsheet exists showing what is in the boxes. I am perhaps a quarter of the way through the task. I never had the first Fantastic Four Annual, but I expect to unearth numbers 7,9,10,11 at some point.

 

[Albert Tatlock]

On 3/26/2024 at 11:40 PM, OtherEric said:

The day this book arrived:

Beat but complete, finally getting it was at once joyful and satisfying… but also a sense that a massive project and important part of my life was done, or at least entering a new stage.

I’ve since tracked down the Whitman variants of Legion appearances.  Maybe I should start looking for the pence variants as well.

The DCs from this time are all cents only, so no variants.

The ones we got (first LSH was #267, just after the real deal, not reprints, started flooding in) were all defaced/enhanced with the familiar T & P 9d stamp).

 

[themagicrobot]

When young I loved the sdrawkcab world of Bizarro stories in Adventure Comics. In fact I have just purchased this beat up old comic to read about the Bizarro Legionnaires. It has a bonus on the cover of my favourite T&P price stamp AND a Curt Swan autograph. And all for £6.99. When I have read it I will stick it in a picture frame having just purchased a box of 20 new/old stock ones of the perfect size from a charity shop. Even tatty comics look fine (well...sort of ?!?) when framed. Who needs CGC encapsulation? Who was it that said "Books furnish a room"?

[OtherEric]

On 3/27/2024 at 7:23 AM, Albert Tatlock said:

The DCs from this time are all cents only, so no variants.

The ones we got (first LSH was #267, just after the real deal, not reprints, started flooding in) were all defaced/enhanced with the familiar T & P 9d stamp).

 

 

I know the true pence variants didn't start until much later from DC.  But at various points, the various LSH series have had Pence variants, Whitman variants, Mark Jewelers variants, Canadian variants, and Newsstand variants.  The only one of those I've actually tracked down already are the Whitman variants.

One thing I've discovered working on long-term projects:  there's always something you can figure out to add to it so the hunt isn't over.

[themagicrobot]

I have a folder containing two dozen random odd comics from other shores. Started 40 years ago the aim was to collect one example from each country (until I realised just how many countries there were with their own comic industry). Why did they (for a time) call Batman "Leather Patch" in Sweden? And here Superboy is called Cloud Kid. He's lost his "S" on his chest for reasons unknown.

[Albert Tatlock]

A few offerings from the current Excalibur sale.

Three of them are cents, but have had pence stamps applied, so they are likely to be among the few from the pre-decimal era to have arrived without the involvement of T & P.

The Kid Colt is a UKPV 9d, repriced 10d after failing initially to find a home, then repriced again by PBC at 8d.

Edited March 27 by Albert Tatlock
correct typo

[Albert Tatlock]

On 3/26/2024 at 11:28 PM, Malacoda said:

So....has anyone else ever had this feeling?  

This is FF #171. I bought it off a spinner rack in June 1976 (actually off a shelf, I'm using spinner rack as shorthand here).  It was the first issue to cost 10p.  It was also the first issue to have a bar code.  But neither of those is the reason it's special to me.  It's special to me because it was the first issue of FF that I ever owned. There was a moment, in June 1976, when this was my entire FF collection. 

Today, I got FF Annual #1.  It arrived in this envelope. 

Normally, when a comic I really want arrives I can't wait to open it, but the minute I open this one,  I am no longer collecting the Fantastic Four.  I am still an FF collector in the sense that I have a collection, but I'm no longer collecting because this is the last one I need.  After 48 years. 

You know that bit in Psychoville where Lomax throws the Beanie Baby back into the sea?  (Sorry to US readers, that was a local reference) (for local people). I feel a bit like that.  I doubt I will ever afford AF 15, ASM 1 or Hulk 1.  I need a couple of Caps, a couple of X men and 1 Thor, but they're not expensive or rare ones and can be picked up any time.  I've bid on FF Ann 1 many times and lost, but this time I won and it's the last time I'll buy a key/grail and complete a run. 

I'm sitting here like Schrodinger, savouring the last moments before I open the envelope and end it all. 

Anyone else had a moment like this? 

 

[Malacoda]

On 3/27/2024 at 3:56 AM, OtherEric said:

It was the last book I needed for a complete run of the Legion.  It also is their first appearance, of course.

Right, so it's directly comparable and moreso.  A super-key to complete the run.  (I know nothing about DC. My ignorance is actually quite wilful - when I do read a comic or see a movie, I have absolutely no history with or relationship to it.  The DCCU always therefore has the potential to completely blow me away. I'll let you know if it happens  ) 

[baggsey]

Re the recent re-opening of the discussion about distribution numbers by @themagicrobot , @Malacoda et al, has anyone done a deep dive on the distribution data held by the Alliance of Audited Media here in the US? I learned of its existence in a post on the Doc Savage Flearun, where someone had been using the archive to determine Doc Savage pulp distribution numbers back in the 1930s and 1940s. It can be found at https://sites.lib.jmu.edu/circulating/ .

The archive overview states:

"The Circulating American Magazines Project addresses the critical absence of reliable circulation information by digitizing data publishers submitted to the Audit Bureau of Circulations (A.B.C.), building a robust database of circulation data covering the period 1919 to 1972. This data was extracted from the A.B.C. Blue Book, Periodical Publisher’s Statements, copies of which are held at a handful of research institutions and the archive of the Alliance of Audited Media. "

I took a quick look at the site and on first view the comic-related data is probably insufficiently granular to yield any new insights for us comic chums, nor tell us how many comics went to T&P, but it's certainly worth a look.

[Malacoda]

On 3/27/2024 at 10:14 AM, themagicrobot said:

Talking of eBay parcels. A couple of years ago there was an item on the local TV news about a guy who had passed away. When relatives visited his cluttered terraced house the front room was stacked full of hundreds and hundreds of unopened parcels. Further examination of the packages showed that every one contained comics.......

Lots of other goodies too. Hard to ignore JLA #1, but the silver trophy surely takes the biscuit. 6,000 comics doesn't sound like THAT much in the context of this guys madhouse, but for context, it's pretty much the whole of Marvel through the Silver & Bronze ages and well into the 90's. 

Britain's biggest hoarder amassed 60,000 items worth £4m crammed into terraced house - Mirror Online

[Malacoda]

On 3/27/2024 at 8:48 PM, baggsey said:

the distribution data held by the Alliance of Audited Media here in the US?

Dude!

This looks mighty interesting. I'm just going outside. I may be some time. 

[Albert Tatlock]

On 3/27/2024 at 8:48 PM, Malacoda said:

Lots of other goodies too. Hard to ignore JLA #1, but the silver trophy surely takes the biscuit. 6,000 comics doesn't sound like THAT much in the context of this guys madhouse, but for context, it's pretty much the whole of Marvel through the Silver & Bronze ages and well into the 90's. 

Britain's biggest hoarder amassed 60,000 items worth £4m crammed into terraced house - Mirror Online

He was probably a beginner compared to some of the regular contributors here.

[Malacoda]

On 3/27/2024 at 9:16 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

He was probably a beginner compared to some of the regular contributors here.

I've basically lost 2 rooms.  (And counting). 

[Malacoda]

On 3/27/2024 at 10:14 AM, themagicrobot said:

It is tempting to leave that first Annual to be opened at a later date but I would want to check the parcel did contain the right comic

Good point, well presented. I've opened it. Actually, I'm rather pleased.  It was sold as a FN 6.0, but I reckon he could have got away with a 7.0 or even VF if it weren't for the flaw / nibble at top left.  I say that assuming one accepts that the way squarebound books are bound is not a bindery defect, just life.   What do you reckon? The corners are surprisingly non-blunted, the paper is off-white and supple, definite non-smoking house, it has clearly never been near sticky or unloving fingers, staples not rusted, no odour, no foxing, bright reflective colours, lots of eye appeal, flat, some tiny creases but you have to hold it at the right angle to see them, one small tear. Spine is in really good shape for squarebound, it doesn't have the issues from unevenness of / too much glue, but the downside of less glue is the innards are just beginning to come away from the cover at the back.  I guarantee you're all better at grading than me, so what say you? 

Edited March 28 by Malacoda

[OtherEric]

Not a comic, but since I just upgraded this I thought I would ask before I got rid of the old copy:  is the 3/2 an UK price, or just an odd stamp?

[themagicrobot]

It certainly looks like it could be a crude stamp of UK £sd old money but again, it seems rather expensive. What years are those two books? For most of the 1960s T&P were happy to sell them to you (not me....I was collecting Michael Moorcocks) for Two Shillings.

PS: There is an Ace Double D-177 written by C H Thames with the best ever title for a book I've ever come across. Violence is Golden. I wonder why no one had thought of that one before?!?