The Switch from Eastern Color Printing to World Color Press at Sparta 2 2

[LowGradeBronze]

Does anyone have any hard data or a web link that documents the changeover, please? I assumed (rather simplistic but I assumed,) that there would be a sharp cut off point where one month Marvel's books were all produced at Eastern Color, Waterbury Conn and the next they were all printed at World Color Press in Sparta. Not so. Examples:

Strange Tales 167, April 1968 was printed at Eastern yet FF 73, also April 1968 was printed at World Color Press. So there was an overlap, or actually a split. (ST continued for its last issue to be printed at Eastern in May 1968.)

Anyone know when the last books were printed at Eastern and what they were? 

Likewise, anyone know which were the first books to get printed at World Color Press and when ? 

So many questions I know, but this has me fascinated. Sadly I don't have unbroken runs of titles that would enable me to pin this down. 

All contributions greatly appreciated! 

Edited March 28, 2023 by LowGradeBronze

[bc]

I love these kind of questions. Since I have some time between meetings, let's see what we can find....

 

Looking at the GCD, it seems FF71 (cover date of 2/68) was printed by Eastern:

Starting with FF72 (cover date of 3/68) they switched to World Color Press

For Avengers, last Eastern issue was 48 (1/68)

Avengers 49 (2/68) we get World Color Press

TOS ended at 99 (3/68) and stayed at Eastern.

TTA 100 (2/68) was Eastern

TTA 101 (3/68) was World Color Press

Captain America is an outlier. Issues 100-109 were Eastern. #109 came out in January 1969!

Cap #110 (2/69) starts the World Color Press time

 

Gotta run to a meeting, but will add some more data later.

-bc

[bc]

Sub-Mariner is similar to Cap, issues 1-9 were Eastern. Subby #9 again made it to 1/69

#10 switches to World Color Press (2/69)

-bc

[bc]

Incredible Hulk 102 goes to World Color Press (4/68)

-bc

[bc]

Marvel Tales were Eastern to issue #15 (7/68)

issue #16 starts at World Color Press (9/68)

-bc

[bc]

Thor is Eastern through issue 159 (12/68)

then switches to World Color Press for #160 (1/69)

-bc

[bc]

Starting to see a bit of a pattern here...

Iron Man 1-9 (1/69) are Eastern

issue 10 (2/69) starts at World Color

-bc

[bc]

Captain Savage 1 was Eastern (1/68)

but switches to World Color with issue 2 (3/68)

-bc

[bc]

Spider-Man #57 (2/68) is Eastern

#58 goes to World Color (3/68)

-bc

[bc]

Silver Surfer 1 (8/68) is World Color

Likewise, Captain Marvel 1 (5/68) starts at World Color

 

Nick Fury 1-8 (1/69) are Eastern

issue #9 switches to World Color (2/69)

-bc

 

 

[bc]

Doctor Strange 169-176 (1/69) are Eastern 

#177 (2/69) switches to World Color

 

The one shot Tales of Asgard 1 (10/68) is World Color

 

Might Marvel Western 1 (10/68) is World Color 

 

Daredevil 36 (1/68) is Eastern

DD 37 (2/68) is World Color

-bc

 

[bc]

X-Men #40 (1/68) is Eastern

#41 (2/68) goes to World Color

 

Sgt Fury makes it to issue #61 (12/68) with Eastern

then switches to World Color with issue #62 (1/69)

-bc

[bc]

Marvel Collectors Item Classics #13 (2/68) is Eastern

but goes to World Color with #14 (6/68)

 

Marvel Super-Heroes #12 (12/67) is Eastern

issue #13 switches to World Color (3/68)

 

Not Brand Echh #6 (2/68) was Eastern

issue #7 (4/68) goes to World Color

 

Not sure if there are any other titles I've missed...

-bc

[LowGradeBronze]

A tour de force, bc! Thanks!!! I'm going to be investigating GCD in earnest. 

[bc]

Going back to the OPs questions:

On 3/28/2023 at 12:12 PM, LowGradeBronze said:

Anyone know when the last books were printed at Eastern and what they were? 

Looks like it was this group from January 1969:

• Captain America #109
• Sub-Mariner #9
• Iron Man #9
• Nick Fury #8
• Dr. Strange #176

According to Mike's Amazing World of Comics, all these hit the newsstand on October 3, 1968.

-bc

 

[LowGradeBronze]

On 3/28/2023 at 8:01 PM, bc said:

According to Mike's Amazing World of Comics, all these hit the newsstand on October 3, 1968.

-bc

 

Of course, there's also the fact that cover date doesn't directly correlate to when books became available. 

Edited March 28, 2023 by LowGradeBronze

[bc]

on to question #2

On 3/28/2023 at 12:12 PM, LowGradeBronze said:

Likewise, anyone know which were the first books to get printed at World Color Press and when ? 

Looks like these books with a cover date of February 1968

• Avengers #49
• Daredevil #37
• X-Men #41

According to Mike's Amazing World of Comics, all these hit the newsstand on December 12, 1967.

-bc

[bc]

On 3/28/2023 at 3:04 PM, LowGradeBronze said:

Of course, there's also the fact that cover date doesn't directly correlate to when books became available. 

Mike's Amazing World of Comics lets you lookup which books where on the newsstand (not the actual cover date)

http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/newsstand.php?publisher=marvel&type=calendar&month=12&year=1967&sort=date

 

Occasionally, Marvel would put out 2 sets of books per month - I wanted to see if any of these were part of a later publishing schedule to adequately answer your questions.

-bc

[LowGradeBronze]

The better quality cover stock of books printed by World Color was immediately apparent and put an end to Marvel chipping. (Judging from books in my collection.) Does this tally with others' findings?

[AJD]

The burning question for me is how a thread filled with discussion of indicia details has gone @Get Marwood & I free for over 8 hours?