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

[Get Marwood & I]

Is it me, or is that bloke's head enormous?

[Yorick]

On 4/19/2024 at 12:10 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Is it me, or is that bloke's head enormous?

Could be she IS that small.  I have gained an extreme appreciation for the Andru/Esposito team after staring at these pages for HOURS. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/19/2024 at 8:19 PM, Yorick said:

Could be she IS that small.  I have gained an extreme appreciation for the Andru/Esposito team after staring at these pages for HOURS. 

You can't beat a bit of MIKEROSS 

[Malacoda]

On 4/19/2024 at 8:03 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

There's a number of incidences of companies using names or slogans that later became unfortunate, but calling yourself 'the Big C' ....?

 

[Yorick]

On 4/20/2024 at 5:36 AM, Malacoda said:

There's a number of incidences of companies using names or slogans that later became unfortunate, but calling yourself 'the Big C' ....?

 

Careful.  Don't read the rest of the cover....

[Malacoda]

On 4/20/2024 at 6:00 PM, Yorick said:

Careful.  Don't read the rest of the cover....

I see it's Charlatan, not Charlton, but the reference to cancer must be unintentional, surely?  I mean, they're bad, but not that bad. 

[Yorick]

On 4/20/2024 at 10:30 AM, Malacoda said:

I see it's Charlatan, not Charlton, but the reference to cancer must be unintentional, surely?  I mean, they're bad, but not that bad. 

You'd need to go digging to find the source... 

 

Posted December 22, 2020

  JUST MARRIED* 

Well, how else do I get a roof over my head and rubbish sex for the next twenty years?

Our eyes met, Perry's and mine, and it wasn't as it used to be!
There was no silent message of love across that span, no unseen caress, as there was when we were first married!
Something was gone between us, something vital and necessary....
With that said, he still had that massive cock of his so.....

 

This was what every young couple dream of...My love and I alone on a lovely horse, sorry, island...
Sea, sky and sun! 

Oh, that fing seagull. It's sht all over me trousers again the little fer  

 

My Love was so fierce that I wanted to control his every moment... My love for him was driving him from me...
"My heart was my betrayer!"

"Daphne"

"Yes Dave?"

"Shut up"

"Yes Dave"

 

What else did I have apart from these rotten shoes...?
Only my dreams of past romances...!
This was my only escape - the wet dream to end all wet dreams. That's right - Frigathon Friday. Get me the Kleenex and the Smilemaker 3000. Now!

 

All of the wonder and joy of true love was theirs...
But destiny had a cruel joke to play!
"Change of heart"

"Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold, from this day forward, in sickness and in health and until death do you part?"

"No"

"No?"

"No. I've had a change of heart"

"Well that's that bolloxed then isn't it"

 

No pence copies were harmed in the making of this horseshine*

 

  JUST MARRIED* 

He might be smiling now, but just wait until I've got bingo wings and an arse the size of Deptford!

 

 

ps. I don't know why I'm unable to create a link to that thread.... 

[Malacoda]

On 9/3/2022 at 6:42 PM, Malacoda said:

So in the 70's, World distributed to newsagents (via local & national wholesalers) on a SOR basis.  Obviously, their comics were non-returnable to Marvel (and it would have been financial insanity to send them back across the Atlantic), but the newsagents could send back what returns there were to World and World would bundle them up in bags of 6 or so, shrink wrap them (relatively new technology for newsprint) and re-sell them to newsagents on a non-returnable basis.  They did this under several names, but the main one (or certainly most remembered) is Marvel Lucky Bags. 

I am pretty sure the reason I never saw one is because newsagents used to tear them open, reprice them with stickers and put them back on the shelves.  In the inflation-ravaged 70’s, this was obviously too good to be true – you could buy bags of comics for pennies and then re-price them to 10x what you paid for them. And, of course, you had little Herberts like me, delightedly finding comics from a year or more ago and excitedly asking ‘hey Mister, got any more like this?’.

I have previously shared with the group my copy of Astonishing Tales #34 (cd March 1976) bought from a spinner rack more than a year later, repriced to the then current UK price of 12p.  It’s demonstrably more than a year later because comics only went up to 12p in March 1977.

But for an even better example, here’s Thor 233 (cd March 1975) cunningly repriced with a mere +50% uplift at least 2 years after it’s original sell by date.  

 

The only person I know who consistently refers to Marvel Lucky Bags is Steve Walker (Steve Does Comics), both on pinterest and he has a regular feature on his blog called ‘the Marvel Lucky Bag’. I did write and ask him what his memories of Lucky Bags were but didn’t get an answer (or maybe I lost which thread it was on), so if anyone is on good terms with Steve, I’d love to know. He probably has a photo of one. 

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/61783826126104690/

https://stevedoescomics.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-marvel-lucky-bag-august-1982.html

 

 

 

Update on this.  I had always assumed it was my newsagent who was opening the Lucky Bags and repricing them (if, indeed, that was happening), because I only ever saw it at this one newsagents (though it seems very unlikely to me that that was the only one doing it, given what we know about returns never finding their way into the pulper).  

Recently, I finally found another one of these for sale. Ghost Rider 11 from April 1975, repriced all the way from 8p to 12p (+50%, nice work if you can get it) some time after March 1977.  So the same as the Thor above.  Why am I telling you this? Because, unless he happened to shop at the same newsagent to me, it might well indicate it was the sales rep, not the newsagent.  I checked the seller.  He was from Slough (about 13 miles from my newsagent, so almost certainly the same rep). But then I got chatting with the seller (lovely chap) and he told me that he bought his comics on the way to school from a kiosk on Osterley station which is less than 3 miles from my newsagent.  So pretty much certainly the same world rep.  

Can we agree, it would be an almost impossible coincidence for two different newsagents miles apart to unearth three different comics, years apart and re-price them to the then-current price of 12p with the same stickers.  This has to be the world rep, doesn't it? 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/20/2024 at 6:56 PM, Malacoda said:

It’s demonstrably more than a year later because comics only went up to 12p in March 1977

Don't know if this helps Rich, but Charltons were repriced from a 10p printed price to a 12p sticker price on a fairly systemic basis in late 1976, as the extract / examples below show:

I've been plotting the UK distribution status throughout Charlton's UK lifetime for many years now, but have yet to spend any meaningful time drawing conclusions from all the data that I've gathered. Your 12p stickers look different, and your theory sounds reasonable on an isolated basis. I just wanted you to know that 12p stickers were a thing as early as cd August 1976, for Charlton at least, 8 months earlier than the date in your quoted post.

[Malacoda]

Interesting.  Noted.  Thank you.  If I understand, this is PV Charlies (duals) rocking up in the UK at first importation and,  due to bonkers inflation since they were printed, being repriced to 12p directly from 10p before even hitting the spinners, right?  So it's the same environment, but a key difference is the Marvels were seemingly distributed at cover price up to 2 years earlier, then re-circulated with stickers, having jumped straight across 3 price increases.  

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/21/2024 at 2:29 AM, Malacoda said:

Interesting.  Noted.  Thank you.  If I understand, this is PV Charlies (duals) rocking up in the UK at first importation and,  due to bonkers inflation since they were printed, being repriced to 12p directly from 10p before even hitting the spinners, right? 

Yep, that's my understanding Rich.

On 4/21/2024 at 2:29 AM, Malacoda said:

So it's the same environment, but a key difference is the Marvels were seemingly distributed at cover price up to 2 years earlier, then re-circulated with stickers, having jumped straight across 3 price increases.  

Yes, agreed. The point of my post was to point out that your two posts below both base their dates on an assertion that comics 'went up to 12p from March 1977':

On 9/3/2022 at 6:42 PM, Malacoda said:

I have previously shared with the group my copy of Astonishing Tales #34 (cd March 1976) bought from a spinner rack more than a year later, repriced to the then current UK price of 12p.  It’s demonstrably more than a year later because comics only went up to 12p in March 1977.

 

On 4/20/2024 at 6:56 PM, Malacoda said:

Recently, I finally found another one of these for sale. Ghost Rider 11 from April 1975, repriced all the way from 8p to 12p (+50%, nice work if you can get it) some time after March 1977. 

The Charlton scenario indicates that comics were being stickered at 12p much earlier, from August 1976. Perhaps your newsagent was stickering that early too. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/20/2024 at 6:56 PM, Malacoda said:

Can we agree, it would be an almost impossible coincidence for two different newsagents miles apart to unearth three different comics, years apart and re-price them to the then-current price of 12p with the same stickers.  This has to be the world rep, doesn't it? 

Could be, Rich. Nice thought, isn't it. I can think of other scenarios though, and we are only looking at three examples to be fair (unless you have more unposted). Maybe both newsagents had lousy stock control, and both bought their stickers from the same WH Smiths  

I like it when you find common patterns or events, where there are just enough examples to suggest a thing, but just not enough to suggest anything concrete or systematic. This is why I have so many abandoned folders in my files, the starting point of investigations for which no further examples materialised. There's nothing for it - you'll have to make a folder, keep looking, and report back in a few more years 

[Get Marwood & I]

While we're on this subject, Rich, I wonder why there are so many 10p printed price / 12p stickered Charltons out there, in that late 76 early 77 window, but no Marvel equivalents? Have we covered this before? If all those inflation impacted Charltons did get repriced sequentially on arrival, and not in bulk at some later point, why don't we see 10p printed Marvels, which would have arrived at the same time, with 12p correcting stickers too?

[Get Marwood & I]

This made me smile - an eBore seller with four copies, no less, of Marvel Tales Annual #2 up for bidding:

The two UKPVs have T&P stamps and the two cents copies don't.

Love it 

 

 

[Malacoda]

On 4/21/2024 at 7:40 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Yes, agreed. The point of my post was to point out that your two posts below both base their dates on an assertion that comics 'went up to 12p from March 1977':

Right, but I think your post also opens up the much wider conversation that distributors as well as probably sales reps and newsagents were all scurrying in all kinds of ways to stay ahead of 27% inflation.  I can remember being infuriated that every time comics went up by a penny it put them further away from my meagre pocket money, but really 2p and 3p increases would have been more in line with inflation. 

[Malacoda]

On 4/20/2024 at 8:55 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

I just wanted you to know that 12p stickers were a thing as early as cd August 1976, for Charlton at least, 8 months earlier than the date in your quoted post.

Thanks.  And those 12p stickers look very much like T&P stickers. Do we know that T&P were distributing Charltons in 1976? 

 

[Malacoda]

On 4/21/2024 at 7:50 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

(unless you have more unposted).

I definitely remember buying Iron Man 75 long after (years after) it was out and with a re-price sticker.  Can't access my comics at the moment, but will find it at some point. However, that was the same newsagent again, so doesn't add anything. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/21/2024 at 2:49 PM, Malacoda said:

Thanks.  And those 12p stickers look very much like T&P stickers. Do we know that T&P were distributing Charltons in 1976? 

We do.

[Redshade]

I'm not sure how to find old posts in this system so apologies in advance if this missive is in an incorrect place. 
There has been discussions in the pages about the Canadian Century comics (Skunky, Dr Mercy and others which I have) and when I saw this on eBay UK I had to have a pop.
Alas my bid of £32 was not high enough. Was it one of you bounders?

 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 4/22/2024 at 7:10 PM, Redshade said:

I'm not sure how to find old posts in this system so apologies in advance if this missive is in an incorrect place. 
There has been discussions in the pages about the Canadian Century comics (Skunky, Dr Mercy and others which I have) and when I saw this on eBay UK I had to have a pop.
Alas my bid of £32 was not high enough. Was it one of you bounders?

 

Over here Stephen:

Funnily enough, my last post there is a copy of that very book!

I might have had a go at that ebay copy if it had come up in my searches. The seller likely lost out by not including 1946, Century etc. I'd probably have lost though too. Love the price sticker.