March of Comics #4 Featuring Walt Disney's Donald Duck (Carl Barks) 1 1

[JSimoes]

Hey everyone,

I'm new here and I'm wondering if anyone can help me out.  I just recently got a hold of a MINT copy of the March of Comics #4 (Featuring Walt Disney's Donald Duck - Carl Barks).  I mean this thing looks brand new.  It's such in mint condition, I'm actually wondering if it's actually an original or if there was a reprint.  Any help would be great.

George

[Randall Dowling]

Hello and welcome to the boards!

I would list this in the Newbie forum to get the best response:

https://boards.cgccomics.com/forum/93-newbie-comic-collecting-questions/

There are a bunch of very experienced collectors that regularly answer questions there.  You'll want to share a photo of the interior front cover and first page also to show publication information.

Best of luck with your collecting. 

[Randall Dowling]

@CGC Mike  Can you help with relocating this thread?

[OtherEric]

Welcome to the boards!

A picture out of the bag would help, in the picture the cover looks glossy, but could be the bag.  Authentic March of Comics from this era had covers on the same stock as the interiors.

[CGC Mike]

On 5/1/2023 at 8:46 PM, Randall Dowling said:

@CGC Mike  Can you help with relocating this thread?

Sure!

[MattTheDuck]

The MCS picture shows a "Sears" ad in the top left corner. Don't know if that was part of every copy.

Is there an indicia in the book?

 

[Jeffro.]

On 5/2/2023 at 2:13 AM, MattTheDuck said:

The MCS picture shows a "Sears" ad in the top left corner. Don't know if that was part of every copy.

Is there an indicia in the book?

 

The Sears stamp wasn't part of every copy. March of Comics was a giveaway comic distributed by many different retail outlets. Sears was merely one of those outlets. comics.org has a few more examples.

https://www.comics.org/series/482/covers/

[Kromak]

It certainly looks like a fac simile to me. The cover seems glossy, instead of using some variation of newsprint, the colors are a bit different, especially the one on the floor. That's typically because digital images does not uses the same primary colors as a traditional printing process. The book looks too perfect, staples too silver and shining.

I would also give a look and see if the inner pages are indeed made of newsprint and not something similar. On a fac simile, there would be some minor flaws due to the process used to duplicate the content. If made from digitized images, there would be small imperfections on the lines, popularly know as "jaggies" , though sometimes the original printing process produces similar imperfections, if not using a high quality printing process.

It would require a par of trained eyes to distinguish, especially if the images were digitized from a high quality scanner.

Edited May 5, 2023 by Kromak
missing information

[Shazbot]

An original print would not have been bound with staples as yours has. Sorry, must be a reprint.

[lou_fine]

On 5/5/2023 at 4:04 PM, Kromak said:

It certainly looks like a fac simile to me. The cover seems glossy, instead of using some variation of newsprint, the colors are a bit different, especially the one on the floor.

 

On 5/5/2023 at 4:55 PM, Shazbot said:

An original print would not have been bound with staples as yours has. Sorry, must be a reprint.

Well, I wouldn't be so sure about this since I just checked the Overstreet guide which states that "Early issues were full-size, 32 pages, and were printed with and without an extra cover of slick stock, just for the advertiser.  The binding was stapled if the slick cover was added; otherwise, the pages were glued together at the spine.  

Later, it goes on say that "All pre #79 issues came with or without a slick protective wrap-around cover over the regular cover .............".  

So, bottom-line...............you just MIGHT hopefully have something real good here and best for you to check it out.    

Edited May 6, 2023 by lou_fine

[OtherEric]

Here's a question:  I always read the Oversteet comment as the outer cover being something advertiser specific, not a reprint of the inner (paper) cover.  I could be very wrong, though.  Does anybody here have a slick cover copy of any of the early issues?  I've got a copy of #3 somewhere, but it's paper cover.

[Vintage_Paper]

Where did you find it and how much did you pay? Also I believe 20 or so years ago there was a March of Comics 4 done for free comic book day. I wasn't able to get one for myself and someone on the boards told me they would send one to me for free, but I never received it.

[Gaard]

Why doesn't the op just look at the indicia?

[Gaard]

Was this ever determined (conclusively)?

[Shazbot]

On 5/5/2023 at 8:36 PM, lou_fine said:

 

Well, I wouldn't be so sure about this since I just checked the Overstreet guide which states that "Early issues were full-size, 32 pages, and were printed with and without an extra cover of slick stock, just for the advertiser.  The binding was stapled if the slick cover was added; otherwise, the pages were glued together at the spine.  

Later, it goes on say that "All pre #79 issues came with or without a slick protective wrap-around cover over the regular cover .............".  

So, bottom-line...............you just MIGHT hopefully have something real good here and best for you to check it out.    

Recently spotted this example down at the Bay. I think it demonstrates well, as @OtherEric suggested, how the second cover that got stapled on would have been strictly for store promo, not a second comic book cover like the OP has.

Would be interested to see a slab with a promo cover attached & how CGC would handle it.

[Vintage_Paper]

On 7/5/2023 at 9:53 AM, Shazbot said:

Recently spotted this example down at the Bay. I think it demonstrates well, as @OtherEric suggested, how the second cover that got stapled on would have been strictly for store promo, not a second comic book cover like the OP has.

Would be interested to see a slab with a promo cover attached & how CGC would handle it.

Thanks for posting this example.

[BitterOldMan]

Here is my copy. 

The Free Comic Book Day version had a different cover.