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

[OtherEric]

On 7/31/2021 at 12:43 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Good man Eric. Are you a Brit, Eric? I hope so, as not one of my brethren has said a damn word about it. Party cancelled!

I am not, although I do have some ancestry from over there.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 7/31/2021 at 5:40 PM, OtherEric said:

I am not, although I do have some ancestry from over there.

We've adopted you regardless. A man of rare taste 

[OtherEric]

On 7/31/2021 at 10:06 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

We've adopted you regardless. A man of rare taste 

I thank you.  I've definitely developed a taste for UK books, at least:

[Get Marwood & I]

[nmtg9]

That smile is just plain wrong. 

 

[Get Marwood & I]

Another 3p T&P stamped Awstraylien:

I missed the bidding on this one, alas, so won't be able to say (Gordon and) Gotcha!

 

 

 

 

 

[Get Marwood & I]

Another 'M.M.' sighting....

[shadroch]

Came across this last week and it was strange enough to pick up.

not familiar with the publisher- WDL and it says This is a World Distributors Comic.

Appears to be from 1954

Edited August 9, 2021 by shadroch

[Garystar]

On 8/9/2021 at 6:06 PM, shadroch said:

not familiar with the publisher- WDL and it says This is a World Distributors Comic.

WDL = World Distributors Limited. This was a UK publishing and distribution company who, among other things, reprinted American material in b&w for the UK market. So this is a UK published reprinting of US material. 

[Get Marwood & I]

"Close friends get to call him Tee-Cee, pro-vi-ded the cost is three-pee...."

[Malacoda]

On 8/25/2021 at 12:59 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

"Close friends get to call him Tee-Cee, pro-vi-ded the cost is three-pee...."

Wow, that has no publisher or distributor logos, which would make you think it's a freebie or a supermarket giveaway, yet it has a price in cents and was distributed by T&P.  Is that another Aussie one, cobber?

Edited September 1, 2021 by Malacoda

[Malacoda]

The end of this is pure Naked gun. 

 

 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 9/8/2021 at 12:12 AM, Malacoda said:

The end of this is pure Naked gun. 

Lingers a bit, doesn't it. I like to think the kid is pissing into Adam's utility belt and the Director - a bit of a Joker - has spotted it and isn't calling cut on purpose. 

 

[Malacoda]

Just read a blog by a collector (Ian Baker) who posted

"[our] experience of comic collecting had been scouring the local newsagents and second-hand shops in our native Portsmouth, on the last Thursday each month for DCs and the 2nd Wednesday for the limited set of 16 Marvel titles that World Distributors imported."

Does anyone else remember it this specifically, down to the day of the month? 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 9/8/2021 at 12:50 PM, Malacoda said:

Just read a blog by a collector (Ian Baker) who posted

"[our] experience of comic collecting had been scouring the local newsagents and second-hand shops in our native Portsmouth, on the last Thursday each month for DCs and the 2nd Wednesday for the limited set of 16 Marvel titles that World Distributors imported."

Does anyone else remember it this specifically, down to the day of the month? 

What time period are they referring to Rich?

[Malacoda]

On 9/10/2021 at 12:23 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

What time period are they referring to Rich?

He's talking about the summer of 74 being the point where they discovered DTW, so early 70's,  but I'd be interested if anyone remembers a specific day of the month that either Marvel or DC used to rock up at any point in time.   Somewhere else I read that the delivery days were staggered to prevent 25 or more titles all arriving at the newsagents on the same day, which makes perfect sense to me, BUT I don't believe they were shipped across the Atlantic in multiple batches, which means that they were staggered either at the importer (World/T&P) or by the local wholesaler (if they were staggered at all).  It sounds logical that they were staggered, but I don't remember it like that.  To my memory, some shops got the new months comics sooner than others, but when they changed, they changed all together (implying, equally logically, that the returns got sent back en masse when the new batch arrived). 

[nmtg9]

In the late seventies my dad was young policeman and worked a lot of night shifts. 

Can't remember which day of the week it would be but he would leave a pile on the TV for me when I woke up for school. The wholesalers was on his beat so when they came in he would get first pick of titles. 

So that sounds to me like they would arrive weekly at the wholesalers, at least in Middlesbrough in the late seventies. 

[Get Marwood & I]

Too young to remember much about the early 70's, alas.

I do remember this double bill though, which I saw at the Odeon in Barking in 79:

I'd forgotten all about it until I saw the poster on eBay just now. The memory came flooding back - the sheer excitement of a Spidey film. Although the rather odd smile on his face on the poster always troubled me.... 

[Garystar]

On 9/13/2021 at 7:00 AM, nmtg9 said:

In the late seventies my dad was young policeman and worked a lot of night shifts. 

Can't remember which day of the week it would be but he would leave a pile on the TV for me when I woke up for school. The wholesalers was on his beat so when they came in he would get first pick of titles. 

So that sounds to me like they would arrive weekly at the wholesalers, at least in Middlesbrough in the late seventies. 

In Gloucester where I lived in the 70s Marvels became available in most newsagents from August 1974 (immediately after the 4 month period when no Marvels were distributed). I used to spend my pocket money buying every issue each month. Whilst I can’t recall what day of week they arrived I can say with certainty the whole months worth turned up on the same day monthly and bi-monthly titles. This was the case throughout the 70s. 

[Malacoda]

On 9/13/2021 at 2:23 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Too young to remember much about the early 70's, alas.

I do remember this double bill though, which I saw at the Odeon in Barking in 79:

I'd forgotten all about it until I saw the poster on eBay just now. The memory came flooding back - the sheer excitement of a Spidey film. Although the rather odd smile on his face on the poster always troubled me.... 

 

I used to love it when movies would come back round as double bills, usually linked by absolutely nothing except that they were made by the same studio or had the same distributor (as here, Columbia).  Sometimes the films married up didn't even have the same certificate. 

I distinctly remember seeing the first 2 Spidey 'movies' (they were actually episodes of the TV series bolted together), but I don't know anyone who saw this one: 

 

 

Edited September 14, 2021 by Malacoda