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

[Malacoda]

On 4/7/2024 at 6:25 PM, themagicrobot said:

As it displays a Miller ink stamp it must have been one of the last comics they distributed?? Discuss.

 

On 4/8/2024 at 7:56 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Nice. 1966 is often mentioned but I have stamped books going all the way up to 1970. I started this table a few years ago - never finished it - and I've likely got earlier and later examples now:

 

On 4/8/2024 at 7:56 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Florrie clearly carried the company on in some capacity. There are also letters dated in the 1970s to be found online, with the Miller office masthead.

Indeed.

Wikipedia has it that Millers went bankrupt in 1963 and ceased publication in 1966, which might be correct, but of course publication is not importation or distribution. 

To my understanding, when Parliament passed the Not In Front Of The Children Act in 1955, it was supposed to lead to a rash of prosecutions, but actually publishers just toned down the content or got out of the biz.  Having been black sheeped by Daddy, Arnold Miller did what any self respecting prodigal would do and took his business to the competition - ABC becoming an imprint of T&P in 1953.  However, after the 1955 act it all got a bit fraught and the Arnold Book Company shut down.   T&P and Millers also steered clear of reprinting the kind of EC material that had been waved about in Parliament and nobody, but nobody was ever prosecuted under the 1955 act.  The Act had a sunset clause meaning that unless reviewed it would expire on 31/12/65. I suspect largely to prevent this happening, the CPS were prevailed upon to launch a couple of almost completely gratuitous cases against T&P and Miller.  Both prosecutions came to nothing, but the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955 was entered as one of the acts under The Expiring Laws Act 1969, which removed the sunset clause and made it permanent, which was surely the real objective. 

The prosecutions which came to a head in 1969 and 1970 respectively ( I think T&P was 69, I have it somewhere) caused Florrie Miller to cancel the importations of these magazines.  I reckon this is probably the smoking gun.  I'm not sure what more harmless material they continued to distribute or for how long, but this feels like game over to me. 

 

 

 

 

 

[themagicrobot]

On 4/8/2024 at 8:32 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

But even on the reprint front, so little is known. My task now is to try to find out what Captain Tornado actually reprints if, indeed, it does. The only other Captain Tornado I can find (in Dell's Popular Comics) doesn't look a whole lot like the Miller content:

I own just one Miller Captain Tornado. It appears to be a band dessinee (ie: French in origin). The small print says it comes from SNPI 22 Rue Bergere Paris. I think if you look closely you can see where they changed text/word balloons. (See also Pango and Sergeant O'Brien). Your copy mentions Agence Arcadie also of Paris.

[Malacoda]

Bob Monkhouse, Roy Rogers & Lucy Ball.   2,000 toffees, please. 

[Malacoda]

Is it me or has Johnny faded this stamp off with his blazing fingertips? 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/8/2024 at 4:34 PM, Malacoda said:

 

 

 

 

 

That's one of the letters I was referring to earlier, yes. I think I saved something about the bankruptcy somewhere where you can go and view the actual record. It was during Covid, so I parked it. Will have a hunt around.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/9/2024 at 2:20 AM, Malacoda said:

Is it me or has Johnny faded this stamp off with his blazing fingertips? 

It looks like there was a sticker there at some point, too. 

We could probably do a separate 'well placed stamps' thread and have no trouble keeping it going.

Do you remember my moon montage? I can't find it in the files 

I always liked my old ASM #25 copy too, balancing the tee&pee...

Someone start a new thread. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/9/2024 at 1:35 AM, Malacoda said:

Bob Monkhouse, Roy Rogers & Lucy Ball.   2,000 toffees, please. 

My favourite Bob joke:

"I still enjoy sex at 68. Well, I live at number 66 it's no distance"

[Malacoda]

On 4/9/2024 at 9:58 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

My favourite Bob joke:

"I still enjoy sex at 68. Well, I live at number 66 it's no distance"

“When I die, I want to go peacefully like my grandfather did–in his sleep.

Not yelling and screaming like the passengers in his car.”

Though probably most famous is:  When I said I was going to become a comedian, they all laughed. Well, they're not laughing now.

 

Edited April 9 by Malacoda

[Malacoda]

On 4/9/2024 at 9:50 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

That's one of the letters I was referring to earlier, yes. I think I saved something about the bankruptcy somewhere where you can go and view the actual record. It was during Covid, so I parked it. Will have a hunt around.

Yes please.  I tried to find some info about Irving Mannheimer and Worldwide Distributors, but, of course, all I could find was a court case for porn. As usual. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/9/2024 at 1:45 PM, Malacoda said:

Yes please.  I tried to find some info about Irving Mannheimer and Worldwide Distributors, but, of course, all I could find was a court case for porn. As usual. 

 Sorry Rich, the memory cheats - it was the porn!

[Get Marwood & I]

A nice Roberts & Vinter ~ Thorpe & Porter ~ L Miller stamp triple from Sunday's fair 

[Malacoda]

On 4/9/2024 at 2:09 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Sorry Rich, the memory cheats - it was the porn!

LOL, in fairness to Millers, I think that was horror comics.  I'm not convinced there ever was a bankruptcy as such (despite what wikipedia says).  Bankruptcy is a pretty slippery thing anyway.  T&P most definitely were declared bankrupt, involuntarily, but the receivers put the comic distribution business into one of the company's subsidiaries [T&P(Sales) Ltd] sold it to their chief creditor and main supplier (IND) and carried on with barely a break in distribution (2nd hiatus).  So their bankruptcy was, to the untrained eye, pretty much just on paper.  

With regard to Millers, I suspect Len became ill or died in 1963 and the company ownership was restructured, so the original company on paper may have been changed. 

@themagicrobot  this article pretty specifically says that the company went into final voluntary liquidation on 24 September 1974, the decision having been made at a meeting of directors (Florrie Miller, Arnold Miller and Doreen Lewis) on 21 June 1972. 

@Get Marwood & I  Steve, I suspect this is what you remember reading?  

Bear Alley: Marvelman in the news

[Malacoda]

On 4/9/2024 at 2:11 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

A nice Roberts & Vinter ~ Thorpe & Porter ~ L Miller stamp triple from Sunday's fair

For a second there, I thought you meant all three on one comic.  Now that would be a beautiful mess! 

[paqart]

I'm thinking of buying the comic in the attached image. My question is whether it is a UK edition or a UK reprint. My guess is that it is a b&w reprint on the inside. Anyone know which?

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/9/2024 at 5:08 PM, paqart said:

I'm thinking of buying the comic in the attached image. My question is whether it is a UK edition or a UK reprint. My guess is that it is a b&w reprint on the inside. Anyone know which?

What are you doing in here, Paq! 

The GCD entry here indicates it's a UK publication which reprints original US content:

"Seems to be taken from the splash panel of Captain Marvel Battles the World's Maddest Ghost! from Fawcett's Captain Marvel Adventures #138 (November 1952)."

Like all 1950s Millers, it will definitely be B&W inside. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/9/2024 at 3:54 PM, Malacoda said:

For a second there, I thought you meant all three on one comic.  Now that would be a beautiful mess! 

Shhh. Don't tell Yozza, or he'll make one.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/9/2024 at 3:53 PM, Malacoda said:

@Get Marwood & I  Steve, I suspect this is what you remember reading?  

Bear Alley: Marvelman in the news

Yes! I have that bookmarked as 'L Miller demise'.

I've got quite a few Miller websites bookmarked as it goes. Not sure why, but I find I lose interest a bit when reading what others have researched and written about him. I realise that I like to do the discovering myself. I'll never forget that well known UK expert dealer who scoffed "There are no Charlton pence copies!" that time, when I enquired after his stock. He soon shut up when I showed him the several hundred confirmations (at the time) within the 834 possibilities....

[themagicrobot]

Whilst everyone is still in a Miller frame of mind, here is No 17 and a glimpse of what it contained (apart from the Fawcett strips). I wonder if any of the "kids" featured are still alive??

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/9/2024 at 6:08 PM, themagicrobot said:

I wonder if any of the "kids" featured are still alive??

Given her address, I'm not hopeful:

 

And Kitto looks like he could've been problematic in later life:

 

[themagicrobot]

Wow. I hadn't noticed that. Vaccines for TB/Consumption only rolled out slowly for school age children in the UK from the mid 1950s. So in 1953 Norma was in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stannington_Sanatorium  Who says comics aren't educational.