• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

On the stands with Action 1

Started by Weird Paper,

60 posts in this topic

Weird Paper

Weird Paper

Posted
  • Author
Posted

This is great. Imagine yourself as an 11-year-old kid walking into the corner drugstore/soda fountain and seeing a rack of these things. What do you pick? You know who Tarzan is. You know who some of the comic strip characters are. Sharks are cool. Who's this guy with the funny suit beating a car against a rock? Man...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Aces

Aces

Posted
Posted
Man, Mark, that's a nice 4.0!

 

Something wrong with the back? It's obviously better than the FF 48 4.5 that's in this thread.

 

Are you referring to the Action 1?

It's a beaut, but check the lower spine corner. Old tape stain and piece out.

Christo_pull_hair.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Theagenes

Theagenes

Posted
Posted
This is great. Imagine yourself as an 11-year-old kid walking into the corner drugstore/soda fountain and seeing a rack of these things. What do you pick? You know who Tarzan is. You know who some of the comic strip characters are. Sharks are cool. Who's this guy with the funny suit beating a car against a rock? Man...

 

 

So here is something like what you might see. Which one do you spend your hard earned dime on? 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

 

 

rack03.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Aces

Aces

Posted
Posted
This is great. Imagine yourself as an 11-year-old kid walking into the corner drugstore/soda fountain and seeing a rack of these things. What do you pick? You know who Tarzan is. You know who some of the comic strip characters are. Sharks are cool. Who's this guy with the funny suit beating a car against a rock? Man...

 

 

So here is something like what you might see. Which one do you spend your hard earned dime on? 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

 

 

rack03.jpg

 

I'll take the stack of Action 1s for a buck please! hail.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Theagenes

Theagenes

Posted
Posted
This is great. Imagine yourself as an 11-year-old kid walking into the corner drugstore/soda fountain and seeing a rack of these things. What do you pick? You know who Tarzan is. You know who some of the comic strip characters are. Sharks are cool. Who's this guy with the funny suit beating a car against a rock? Man...

 

 

So here is something like what you might see. Which one do you spend your hard earned dime on? 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

 

 

rack03.jpg

 

I'll take the stack of Action 1s for a buck please! hail.gif

 

I don't know... sharks are pretty cool and Popeye kicks butt. 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

 

Seriously, though it's interesting to see Action 1 in context, next to the other books on sale at the time. It really does stand out as something new and different, doesn't it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tth2

tth2

Posted
Posted
Seriously, though it's interesting to see Action 1 in context, next to the other books on sale at the time. It really does stand out as something new and different, doesn't it?

Exactly! thumbsup2.gif

 

Great "picture"! 893applaud-thumb.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ciorac

ciorac

Posted
Posted
This is great. Imagine yourself as an 11-year-old kid walking into the corner drugstore/soda fountain and seeing a rack of these things. What do you pick? You know who Tarzan is. You know who some of the comic strip characters are. Sharks are cool. Who's this guy with the funny suit beating a car against a rock? Man...

 

 

So here is something like what you might see. Which one do you spend your hard earned dime on? 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

 

 

rack03.jpg

 

I'll take the stack of Action 1s for a buck please! hail.gif

 

I don't know... sharks are pretty cool and Popeye kicks butt. 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

 

Seriously, though it's interesting to see Action 1 in context, next to the other books on sale at the time. It really does stand out as something new and different, doesn't it?

 

Nice work theagenes!! This is classic, as it demonstrates how dramatic the difference was, and gives a hint of what was to come. 893applaud-thumb.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Scrooge

Scrooge

Posted
Posted

Excellent. I love this. It does clearly show that despite how attractive the image on the Adventure Comics is, it gets lost on the newsstands. It doesn't stand out and all is the underwater scene muddles its effect!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Theagenes

Theagenes

Posted
Posted
keep filling up that newstand....I think that is a great display you've made there....I need to do the same thing for the month I was born....very cool.

 

Actually, that's one of the other interesting things that I realized yesterday when I was putting this together (it was a slow Satuday afternoon smirk.gif) -- there were very few titles on the stands in spring of 1938. What you see here is about it. There were of a couple more titles that I know of, Mickey Mouse Magazine #??, Star Ranger #12 and Circus Comics #1, and maybe a couple that I'm forgetting, but that's all. Most of the titles are strip reprints of well-known characters like Tarzan, Popeye, Tracy, Lil' Abner etc. or knock-offs of famous strips. Really only the DC books have non-funny covers.

 

Scrooge makes a good point about cover composition.The simplicity of the Action cover with its basic color scheme really "pops" out when stuck in the middle of a bunch of other comics, especially when many of those covers have very similar themes. This was a really interesting exercise. What might be even more interesting (though more time consuming) would be to put together a June 1939 virtual newstand and compare the two -- just to see how much of an impact Action 1 had on the industry.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Scrooge

Scrooge

Posted
Posted
Scrooge makes a good point about cover composition.The simplicity of the Action cover with its basic color scheme really "pops" out when stuck in the middle of a bunch of other comics, especially when many of those covers have very similar themes. This was a really interesting exercise. What might be even more interesting (though more time consuming) would be to put together a June 1939 virtual newstand and compare the two -- just to see how much of an impact Action 1 had on the industry.

 

acclaim.gif

 

June 1939 893scratchchin-thumb.gif If I have the time later tonight, I might try to get a list together unless you guys whip one up quickly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tb

tb

Posted
Posted
keep filling up that newstand....I think that is a great display you've made there....I need to do the same thing for the month I was born....very cool.

 

Actually, that's one of the other interesting things that I realized yesterday when I was putting this together (it was a slow Satuday afternoon smirk.gif) -- there were very few titles on the stands in spring of 1938. What you see here is about it. There were of a couple more titles that I know of, Mickey Mouse Magazine #??, Star Ranger #12 and Circus Comics #1, and maybe a couple that I'm forgetting, but that's all. Most of the titles are strip reprints of well-known characters like Tarzan, Popeye, Tracy, Lil' Abner etc. or knock-offs of famous strips. Really only the DC books have non-funny covers.

[...]

 

Don't have a hires scan handy but here's the June '38 Mickey Mouse Magazine. The premiere of "Snow White" was in December '37 so this probably hit the stands a few months later.

 

CE_M3-9_s.jpg

 

It might also be interesting to compare the "newstand" images with the print runs of some of the titles. I remember that Action took off right from #1 but believe most of the humor titles had stagnant circulation in the late 1930s.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
esquirecomics

esquirecomics

Posted
Posted
Man, Mark, that's a nice 4.0!

 

Something wrong with the back? It's obviously better than the FF 48 4.5 that's in this thread.

 

Are you referring to the Action 1?

It's a beaut, but check the lower spine corner. Old tape stain and piece out.

Christo_pull_hair.gif

 

Imagine what it would have graded had those defects been absent!

 

I never held the book raw. I just brokered the sale.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tth2

tth2

Posted
Posted
Actually, that's one of the other interesting things that I realized yesterday when I was putting this together (it was a slow Satuday afternoon smirk.gif) -- there were very few titles on the stands in spring of 1938.

I think that might have something to do with the fact that Action #1 is the comic that popularized comics. gossip.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ciorac

ciorac

Posted
Posted
Actually, that's one of the other interesting things that I realized yesterday when I was putting this together (it was a slow Satuday afternoon smirk.gif) -- there were very few titles on the stands in spring of 1938.

I think that might have something to do with the fact that Action #1 is the comic that popularized comics. gossip.gif

 

cloud9.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Theagenes

Theagenes

Posted
Posted
Actually, that's one of the other interesting things that I realized yesterday when I was putting this together (it was a slow Satuday afternoon smirk.gif) -- there were very few titles on the stands in spring of 1938.

I think that might have something to do with the fact that Action #1 is the comic that popularized comics. gossip.gif

 

Yeah I know, but I guess knowing that intellectually is one thing, but actually seeing how sparse a comic rack would have looked in spring of 1938 really drove that point home.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tth2

tth2

Posted
Posted
Actually, that's one of the other interesting things that I realized yesterday when I was putting this together (it was a slow Satuday afternoon smirk.gif) -- there were very few titles on the stands in spring of 1938.

I think that might have something to do with the fact that Action #1 is the comic that popularized comics. gossip.gif

 

Yeah I know, but I guess knowing that intellectually is one thing, but actually seeing how sparse a comic rack would have looked in spring of 1938 really drove that point home.

Totally agree. Seeing the rack really also illustrated how derivative all the other comics looked the time--either like pulps, like the Detective or Adventure, or like collections of comic strips (all of the humor and Tarzan stuff).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go to topic listing