Scarcity of Comics In and Around 1949-1950

[Silver Surfer]

Something I have always wondered about. In the early 40's print run for major titles were huge, in and around a million copies for some. I can understand why these books are rare given the war time paper drives probably eliminated a ton of these books from existence. Now I know that super-hero books were floundering in the late 1940's and Timely even shut down their main series as a result. I'm sure print runs decreased dramatically in those last few years but by how much? There were no paper drives at the time (that I'm aware of) but yet many of these books (speaking mostly about Timley's and some DC's like the last few Flash issues) are typically rated Gerber 7's.

 

Some of these books like Sub-Mariner #29, are virtually non-existent and I guess what puzzles me is why? Did print runs fall to 50,000 or less? Was paper recycling a post war fad?

[shiverbones]

many of Ians final DCs were late 40's/ early 50's. It is a tough era. In My quest for Funny stuff, thats the era with the most issues I don't ever see for sale.

 

Print runs would never have fallen as low as 50,000 back then, the cut off was probably around 150k or so, but that is still far less then earier. AND there is all the footage of comics being burned during Wertham's campaign, so maybe a bunch bit the dust that way

[Montezuma]

While it probably isn't the only explaintion, Wertham's writings had started a lot of problems by 1949. Here's a quote from the Dec 1949 Journal of Education by Henry Schultz

 

"In towns, villages, and municipalities throughout the country.. law makers were goaded and prodded into action, and many did their best to please and appease the angry torment which had been unleashed. Laws and ordinances, committees on legislation, censors, indeed every device to bedevil and confuse dealers, wholesalers, and publishers of comics, were created and enacted - books were banned, and finally, to cap the climax, mass burnings of comic books were publicly held in several communities."

[Silver Surfer]

Very interesting stuff, I can just imagine how these were rounded up and tossed.

[comicdonna]

One DC comics that is actually from 1951 that I don't see that often is Action Comics #158

[adamstrange]

Overall circulation kept climbing during this time but it was driven by non-Superhero comics . The supes were suffering from post WWII exhaustion and had smaller print runs. Couple that with the attrition for the reasons cited in the prior posts and some of the late run Timely and DCs are tougher than the earlier books.

[podboy66]

you mean one of these....

 

[rjpb]

The surreal cover may factor in additional scarcity on that Subby. Classic GA covers that aren't broken out or widely recognized as such always seem a little harder to find until they routinely fetch a high premium compared to surrounding issues.

[shiverbones]

thats the ONLY timely on my must buy list. I have never had the chance to buy one.

[Silver Surfer]

[ciorac]

The markings on the Subby are strangely familiar to me. They resemble the markings on the Actions in the picture below. These were from the original owner collection I bought in 1996. The markings were on most of the books, including Adventure, More Fun, Detective, etc.

 

I don't remember that Subby being in the collection, so it could have come from the same distributor in New Orleans?

 

[Durden08]

Assuming those Actions #1-10 are not just xeroxed covers sitting in Mylars ....

 

Awesome group shot! Do you still own any of them?

[skybolt]

The markings on the Subby are strangely familiar to me. They resemble the markings on the Actions in the picture below. These were from the original owner collection I bought in 1996. The markings were on most of the books, including Adventure, More Fun, Detective, etc.

 

I don't remember that Subby being in the collection, so it could have come from the same distributor in New Orleans?

 

 

[ciorac]

Assuming those Actions #1-10 are not just xeroxed covers sitting in Mylars ....

 

Awesome group shot! Do you still own any of them?

 

Not xeroxes, they were the real deal. There was an article in CBM about the collection. The Actions were the highlight to be sure, but the collection also had More Fun 14 - 51 and many other golden age books. Here is a combo picture of the Action Run.