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Laziness, Re-cycling and swiping in the GA.
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Started by Paul © ® ⚽️💙™,

269 posts in this topic

catman76

catman76

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I always have been more surprised how little swiping, recycling and reprinting there was in 40s and 50s comics than anything else. I always wondered why publishers even bothered to constantly draw new comic books when they were disposable trash to everyone and no one would know if something was a reprint or not. They could reprint stuff every year or two and almost no one would have noticed since almost no one saved comic books so there would be no way for anyone to know if something was reused. Even the lowest of the low criminal publishers like Victor Fox didn't even reprint or reuse stories ever.

Of course there were a few publishers in the late 50s and early 60s like Star, Green, Norton, I.W.  that just reprinted old comics they'd buy up old printing plates from, lots of the time illegally for comics they didn't have the rights to reprint. But even that wasn't too common and I am just always have been surprised reprinting didn't happen too often in the really early days.

Edited by catman76
bad spelling
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Bookery

Bookery

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On 1/26/2022 at 7:55 PM, szav said:

Ugh … it pains me to say this, because I’ll have to start looking for them now, but with pretty much all these swipes the pulp version is much more detailed and way better quality.

I think it all goes back to 1970.  If Overstreet had published a pulp guide then instead of a comic book guide, I suspect today, 50 years later,  pulp prices would be at 10x their comic book counterparts instead of the reverse.  Just speculation, of course.

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rjpb

rjpb

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On 1/27/2022 at 6:07 AM, Bookery said:

I think it all goes back to 1970.  If Overstreet had published a pulp guide then instead of a comic book guide, I suspect today, 50 years later,  pulp prices would be at 10x their comic book counterparts instead of the reverse.  Just speculation, of course.

There wasn't the same market for a pulp guide as a comic guide in the 1970s. Comics still sold hundreds of thousands of copies for the more popular titles, and the persistence of marquee characters fueled interest in back issues. There was a continuity of interest that stretched from the Golden Age to the current day, one that still exists. Despite the paperback revival in the 60s/70s of some of the better known pulp heroes, their appeal was largely nostalgia, as with old radio shows that might be broadcast on a Sunday night or sold on cassette. Pulps themselves were long gone, and it is the enduring appeal of some of the more famous writers who started in the pulps, the fantastic cover art on many, and the cross-over interest among Golden Age comic collectors that have kept them from the fate of dime novels, which still have some collector interest, but sell for little more than they did in the 1940s when there was still a collector base that recalled them from their youth. 

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Bookery

Bookery

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On 1/27/2022 at 12:28 PM, rjpb said:

There wasn't the same market for a pulp guide as a comic guide in the 1970s. Comics still sold hundreds of thousands of copies for the more popular titles, and the persistence of marquee characters fueled interest in back issues. There was a continuity of interest that stretched from the Golden Age to the current day, one that still exists. Despite the paperback revival in the 60s/70s of some of the better known pulp heroes, their appeal was largely nostalgia, as with old radio shows that might be broadcast on a Sunday night or sold on cassette. Pulps themselves were long gone, and it is the enduring appeal of some of the more famous writers who started in the pulps, the fantastic cover art on many, and the cross-over interest among Golden Age comic collectors that have kept them from the fate of dime novels, which still have some collector interest, but sell for little more than they did in the 1940s when there was still a collector base that recalled them from their youth. 

Oh, I know... I was having a bit of exaggeration fun.  There aren't as many characters from the pulps that could be marketed to mass-media and games markets as there are with comics.  But there is some (scaled down) validity to my point.  If an accepted guide to pulps had come out (and continued annually) in 1970 akin to Overstreet, there would have been more interest (albeit limited by unavailability), and then coupled with a slabbing service that went back 20 years akin to CGC, I would say that the art-driven pulps would price out comparatively to the golden-age comics.  There still wouldn't be any price equivalents to an Action #1 or Detective #27, but a pulp bondage-horror cover would now sell, I believe, for the same if not more than its comic book equivalent.  That may still happen.... who knows... once pulps are slabbed.  But yes... for today's audiences Tarzan, Doc Savage, G-8, The Black Bat, Secret Agent X, etc., are never going to have the popularity of Spider-Man, Batman, or even Deadpool.

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rjpb

rjpb

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On 1/28/2022 at 8:49 AM, Bookery said:

Oh, I know... I was having a bit of exaggeration fun.  There aren't as many characters from the pulps that could be marketed to mass-media and games markets as there are with comics.  But there is some (scaled down) validity to my point.  If an accepted guide to pulps had come out (and continued annually) in 1970 akin to Overstreet, there would have been more interest (albeit limited by unavailability), and then coupled with a slabbing service that went back 20 years akin to CGC, I would say that the art-driven pulps would price out comparatively to the golden-age comics.  There still wouldn't be any price equivalents to an Action #1 or Detective #27, but a pulp bondage-horror cover would now sell, I believe, for the same if not more than its comic book equivalent.  That may still happen.... who knows... once pulps are slabbed.  But yes... for today's audiences Tarzan, Doc Savage, G-8, The Black Bat, Secret Agent X, etc., are never going to have the popularity of Spider-Man, Batman, or even Deadpool.

We are starting to get there on some of the more memorable horror type covers, some of which are selling for into the four figures for even G/VG copies, and while behind the prices for the most in demand PCH covers, is in line with many "classics" of the genre, and more than what even the top horror books sold for in similar grade less than a decade ago.

Tarzan had a good run, and for much of the 20th Century was as if not more popular than any of the costumed heroes from the comics, but the whole white lord of the jungle thing is problematic going forward. I have an affection for the old pulp heroes, but they literally aren't as colorful as their comic book counterparts and generally lack superpowers, so I'd have to agree that they have little chance of revived popularity. Probably the best remembered is the Shadow, but the iconic image with the black slouch hat and cloak is so rooted in the era, that it's hard to update. It would be like trying to make Zorro contemporary. You might be able to make a successful movie now and then from these properties, but they aren't the sort of thing that can be marketed perennially. 

 

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Tri-Color Brian

Tri-Color Brian

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On 1/17/2022 at 7:35 PM, Cobbledclam said:

Does anyone remember the pulp with the cover swipe from Justice League 22?

576D0BA3-5AD4-4C07-81C0-503CE7B2FA25.webp

 

 

I don't know about any pulp that swiped a comic cover from the 60s, but DC loved to swipe their own covers...and this is where that JLA cover came from...

25674195527_a6a75ce4f0_c.jpg

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Paul © ® ⚽️💙™

Paul © ® ⚽️💙™

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This is big-time laziness.....from one of the most sought after PCH books, COC # 19.

I mean what was the thought process of the writer?  'Kids are dumb, they'll never make the Tarzan connection, I'll just change one letter to be on the safe side'.... :insane:

 

chamber_of_chills_019-21.jpg

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gadzukes

gadzukes

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On 2/13/2022 at 9:55 PM, G-G © ® ™ said:

This is big-time laziness.....from one of the most sought after PCH books, COC # 19.

I mean what was the thought process of the writer?  'Kids are dumb, they'll never make the Tarzan connection, I'll just change one letter to be on the safe side'.... :insane:

 

chamber_of_chills_019-21.jpg

He's even beating his chest and doing the Tarzan yell

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