Question concerning golden age books' sizes

[Shield]

After collecting for a while I've happened to pick up a few copies of the same golden age books.

 

I've noticed a few of them are maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch wider than the other identical copies, and ironically enough the "smaller" copy had been CGC'd as unrestored, so I don't think there was any trimming involved. How hard would it be to tell if a golden age book is trimmed, and do you think CGC is as strict about this on Gold as they are Silver?

 

2nd observation:

 

I've had a copy of Sub-Mariner #16 (1945) and Captain America #4 (1941). The Subby book seemed so much smaller (not just because of a lower page count) than the Cap. Heck, the Subby almost seemed to be the same size as a silver age book.

 

All of my MLJ's are similar in size to the Cap #4...When did Timely begin making their books smaller? I've held a Cap #40 that seemed much smaller than other golden age as well.

 

Thanks!

[rob_react]

As I and FF both posted examples of here:

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=196644&page=5&view=collapsed&sb=4&o=&fpart=1

 

Silver Age books of the same title and issue # were produced in varying widths/ heights. I can't imagine that quality control in the Golden Age was any better (GA books have also had even more time to be exposed to varying levels of humidity, which will, over time, vary the dimensions of the books...) That leads to this thread where povertyrow goes into detail on effective methods for detecting a trimmed book, none of which involve a ruler...:

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=39734&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=4&o=&fpart=1

 

The second observation I have no answer for...

 

[ghoulaid]

I know what you mean about later Timelys being smaller than the earlier ones. Because of that, I only concentrate on the big, fat books from the early 1940's. I wish I could tell you EXACTLY when the size change happened but I don't know for sure. Stick with PRE 1943 books and you should be OK.

[FlComicFan]

seems like around 1944 most Golden Age publishers went to a smaller size Nedor/Standard books really vary i width a lot too and many suffer from horrible centering and sometimes appear trimmed even though they arent

[bitman2]

Books were smaller due to WorldWar II. Less paper and 1 staple on Many Titles

[Shield]

That's a little too vague. WWII started in 09/39, and the 1941 Timelys were still the larger size. All of my MLJ remained the same size until 1947 or so.

[bitman2]

World war II for the US( Where the Comics were produced started DEC 7 1941.) When War materials (paper, Rubber, Steel, Tin, etc) became Vital to US War effort.

[drbanner]

As far as a couple Timely titles I have good runs of consecutive issues overlapping the size change, Sub-mariner 11 is big (Fall 1943), Sub-mariner 12 is narrower (winter 1943), Marvel Mystery 51 is big (January 1944), Marvel Mystery 52 is narrower (February 1944).