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How many complete Timely collections currently exist?

Started by markseifert,

81 posts in this topic

rob_react

rob_react

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I met Ms. Nolan at WW Chicago last year. She makes quite an impression with the breadth and depth of knowledge on all things GA.

 

What a great night the forum dinner was- the breadth of knowledge there was incredible.

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markseifert

markseifert

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If you are asking about all Timelys ever published my guess is 0. If you are asking about superhero titles only my guess is 1 or 2, possibly 3.

 

West

 

So the consensus seems to be that if non-hero stuff is included, there are probably a handful of people working towards it but probably nobody's there yet.

 

Anybody have a rough idea of how any Timely books there are (non-hero included), and how many GA DC books there are?

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Scrooge

Scrooge

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Anybody have a rough idea of how any Timely books there are (non-hero included), and how many GA DC books there are?

 

For the Timely books, isn't that going to be difficult to determine what book will be counted as Timely versus as Atlas? What is the generally accepted date cut-off of the Timely to Atlas switch? What would folks around here use as the cut-off. The last issue of MM? the last Cap? any other milestones? At this point, I am really simply curious to hear the consensus on this.

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markseifert

markseifert

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Anybody have a rough idea of how any Timely books there are (non-hero included), and how many GA DC books there are?

 

For the Timely books, isn't that going to be difficult to determine what book will be counted as Timely versus as Atlas?

 

Yeah, that's a good point. It might have to be just a ballpark figure.

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rjpb

rjpb

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While I can believe that there may only be 1 or 2 complete Timely collections that include all the non-hero books, I find it shocking that there would only be a 2 or 3 complete "hero" collections after 40+ years of organized fandom ( I would leave it up to the collector to decide if Atlas tiles would need to be included).

 

As to what is Timely and what is Atlas, I always figured that any non-superhero title that began in 1948 or later is an Atlas book, and nearly any title that started previous to 1948 is a Timely book until it is cancelled or there is a content/title change. Any hero book that began after 1949 is an Atlas book (I'm talking about you Marvel Boy). Venus would be an Atlas title as it didn't resemble a "hero" book until after 1949. The Witness is nominally a "hero" book so it could be considered a Timely. Captain America's Weird Tales #75 could be considered either or both. Are their any Timely titles that began before 1948, that were still around in 1950 with the same title other than Millie the Model and Miss America? I leave it up to the experts to decide when these two titles went from being Timely to Atlas (and in the case of Millie, Atlas to Marvel)

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gifflefunk

gifflefunk

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Some people go with point where the atlas globe logo appeared on all titles (Nov. 1951). Which is also the point when Timely actually stopped publishing superheroes: Marvel Boy (Astonishing #6, cd: Oct 1951). So Oct 1951/Nov 1951 seems to be a clean point that cuts across all titles and genres.

 

Others go with the point up to when the Marvel Comic bullet began to appear on some titles (the romance books had the "A Lovers Magazine" heart logo). And others prefer to go with the point when some of the old titles got changed (Marvel Mystery Comics becoming Marvel Tales).

 

I tend to go with the the Oct/Nov 1951 point as the split between Timely/Atlas and then I split Atlas/Marvel at the point where the "M over C" logo appeared on all titles, July 1961 (even though Patsy Walker #95 has an "M over C" logo with the June 1961 issue).

 

Basically, I like to go with "clean points" that cut across all titles/genres... I know others go with a peak and trough system: Timely to Marvel to Atlas to "no name" and back to Marvel.

 

*shrug*

 

To each their own.

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gifflefunk

gifflefunk

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Are their any Timely titles that began before 1948, that were still around in 1950 with the same title other than Millie the Model and Miss America?

 

I think these are all of the titles that meet the above criteria (if you allow the slight change for All-True and Hedy of Hollywood):

Official True/All-True Crime Cases (1947-1952)

Cindy Comics (1947-1950)

Georgie Comics (1945-1952)

Hedy De Vine/Hedy of Hollywood (1947-1952)

Joker Comics (1942-1950)

Justice Comics (1947-1955)

Millie the Model (1945- into the Marvel era)

Miss America (1944-1958)

Nellie the Nurse (1945-1952)

Patsy Walker (1945-into the Marvel era)

Teen Comics (1947-1950)

Willie Comics (1946-1950)

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rjpb

rjpb

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Wow that was a fast response. More titles than I would have thought. I guess the Crime books could safely be considered Atlas titles , and the Teen books that end in 1950 Timely titles, but that still leaves a few that obviously extend from what is clearly the Timely era into the Atlas era.

 

While I can appreciate the attraction "clean" date split approach to the beginning and end of eras, it seems a bit arbitrary when there is no evident content or style change to a publishers output. I think almost any pre-code collector would consider Timely/Atlas horror comics with publishing dates prior to Nov.1951 to be "Atlas" books.

 

I'll also venture that to many in this hero-centric hobby , that when they hear "Timely", they think exclusively of the company's super-hero output.

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Timely

Timely

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If you are asking about all Timelys ever published my guess is 0. If you are asking about superhero titles only my guess is 1 or 2, possibly 3.

 

West

 

So the consensus seems to be that if non-hero stuff is included, there are probably a handful of people working towards it but probably nobody's there yet.

 

Anybody have a rough idea of how any Timely books there are (non-hero included), and how many GA DC books there are?

 

Verzyl has a full superhero Timely/Atlas set. He is the only one I personally know of who currently has one.

 

Also, I once counted all the Superhero GA DC's (1938-1952) and came up with a rough number of 1300-1400.

 

West

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gifflefunk

gifflefunk

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I think almost any pre-code collector would consider Timely/Atlas horror comics with publishing dates prior to Nov.1951 to be "Atlas" books.

 

The problem there is getting around nit pickers that point out the "Timely" books that existed into the late 1950s, I'm talking about "true" Timely comics published under the Goodman imprints named Timely Comics, Inc. or Timely Illustrated Features.

 

For example, Secret Story Romances was published by Timely Comics, Inc., and ran from #1 Nov, 1953 to #21 Mar, 1956. It is rather hard to explain to someone that they aren't really Timely issues when it says so right in the indicia.

 

It seems a bit arbitrary when there is no evident content or style change to a publishers output

 

Agreed, which is the main reason I don't buy into Showcase #4 being the split between the Golden Age and the Silver Age (all the hero centric collectors may now boo and hiss). I think all pre-code books are part of the Golden Age:

http://www.bipcomics.com/showcase/docs/ages.html

 

But I don't consider Timely and Atlas to be different Style periods. I consider them to be eras within the Marvel Comics timeline.... there wasn't a style change to the above comics cited (crime and teen). The biggest changes seem to involve superhero books converting to Horror/Mystery/Suspense or Romance (which was an industry wide thing and not just with Timely/Atlas/Marvel.

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Scrooge

Scrooge

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Also, I once counted all the Superhero GA DC's (1938-1952) and came up with a rough number of 1300-1400.

West

 

If we use beginning to November 1951, there are slightly over 1,000 Timely all-genre books. A quick search at AtlasTales.com returned a number of 1,021 books which I am guessing is under-counting by a tad so there would be right around over 1,000 Timelys for a complete collection.

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gifflefunk

gifflefunk

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I came up with 1624 books from October 1939 to October 1951 (inclusive). using the bipcomics.com Timely catalog:

http://www.bipcomics.com/bip/listissues.cfm?famID=2&view=2&titleID=0

 

This includes counting two versions of Marvel Comics #1, the twelve Wisco-Klarer promo comics, two versions of Oscar #26 (#3), the 1948 Marvel Comics Survey, and the Marvel Mystery Comics Annual.

 

(I could be off +/- 2 books, it was a quick count)

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