AJD

I might be late to the party here (people don't usually tell me about their parties, don't know why...) but why the three different puzzle pages? That doesn't seem to be something that needs to change for different markets.

On 11/1/2023 at 1:05 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Another Dot just dashed in from a UK seller 

It has a '6' written in pencil. 6 for 6p, the prevailing UK price of the time. Which is why it's 15c, and not 25c. So it could be priced 6p.

That's my theory, anyway, and it's still holding....

Hmm, if I was back managing intelligence analysts I'd say that we can be sure it's a '6', but have no further information regarding the significance. If it was a price, why not '6p'? I'd file this under 'inconclusive'.

Years from now boardies will remember where they were when Steve announced that he had found a Spooky #130 15c PV. 

Mind you, that's not so hard - "I was in my mom's basement" is the answer to most of those.

I've heard it said that you love a good doodle Steve.

On 7/28/2023 at 8:32 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

I think I've seen that film

I might have missed it, but how much did that restored X-Men #1 actually sell for? Did somebody get hosed on that?

One of the things I love about this hobby is the variety of items we can get excited about. The fact that somebody can say (and mean it) "fan-bloody-tastic, I got a slabbed midgrade 1962 Charlton" is kind of awesome.

Well, that's a very nice one to start with! Here's mine, so you can see how the other half live.

Cool arcana, as ever. But that Little Dot Dotland image you have is marked page (7) - allowing two pages for the covers, it seems to be the 9th page. Why do you say that's page 11 - is there an unnumbered ad page in between?

On 9/14/2022 at 5:04 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

So those two Rangers have the same cover dimensions, but differing, targeted back cover ads? I take it you have them in hand - the AusReprints site has no details on the 6d 'UK' copy - are you able to determine whether the books came from the same print run? A plate change or two for the price slug and ad swap, maybe? Or are there any indicia notes that contradict that possibility (e.g. the words "printed somewhere else" being on one of them )?

Apart from the cover price and the back cover ad, they are identical, down to the different paper stock on the covers compared to the interiors (that wasn't always the case with these FH reprints, but Rangers from #22(ish) had a better quality cover stock - which I'm now wondering if it is related to the export market? )

6d copy (note the address in Surrey in the ad)

8d copy (Stamina clothing was widely advertised in Australian comics and other publications in the 1950s)

Both copies have TWO indicia - this one inside the back cover

And this one on the bottom of the page preceding, with more information

So I reckon these came off the same presses, with only a swap of price and back cover between, a bit like the UK Marvel variants.

I'm not quite sure what I'm being asked here, but I'll make a few probably unhelpful remarks.

The 'tall' issues are likely from the Australian home market. I have quite a few different titles like that, including 'home grown' titles like Crimson Comet as well as reprints. I think it's a rainforest canopy type thing - if there are a few tall books on the rack then shorter ones run the risk of not getting enough exposure if they don't grow to the same height. When exported into other markets (see the next point), the same selection pressure wouldn't necessarily apply and you could save some paper by going shorter.

There are plenty of examples of Australian printings of books for markets overseas, even of reprints of American material. I have some Australian printed NZ and UK editions, usually with different pricing and sometimes with ads for the intended market. Here's an example of Australian (8d) and UK (6d) issues of a US Wings Comics, under the Rangers title. (they are the same size - the scans are just different res.) The back cover ads differ.

Finally, I don't think printing plates were routinely shipped around. I'm pretty sure that photostats of some kind were sent to overseas publishers, which could explain the lower quality reproduction in some cases - maybe second generation 'copies of copies'?

I really like this book, even though it's a collection of reprints of the strip (I think). Here's the opening page from my coverless copy.

An excellent result. Thanks for this informative thread.

On 3/9/2022 at 8:17 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Might be a while yet Andy, sorry. I've got too many plates twirling at the moment. 

It is possible - just - that my quest to better understand the distribution of Harvey comics for a brief period in the UK in the early 1970s can wait.

On 3/8/2022 at 8:04 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

I've been tracking the Harvey UK distribution aspect a little more, either side of the variants, and will post more about it soon. It's a bit like a jigsaw, as it turns out. 

On 2/18/2022 at 8:29 AM, JollyComics said:

Even it's first time to see Charlie with full hair.  Maybe he is a victim of alopecia.

That's Shermy with the full head of hair. I didn't realise he was such an early character, but he was there from the start - one of the first three.

On 2/11/2022 at 2:19 PM, dover said:

 

Great, now I've got this stuck in my head.

Bushmiller! No, we will not let you go
(Let him go!) Bushmiller! We will not let you go

etc.
 

Those are great, thanks for scanning them. I recognise many of them as Peanuts Sunday strips. But I think the golf story might be original to the comics?

Spotted on a folder in this thread: "I have issues"... erm, yeah.

This is all very familiar looking, like the Australian printed FH titles sold in the UK - 8d for the Australian market, 6d for the UK. But it does beg the question - if these variants were meant for the UK market, to be sold at 6p, why on earth print "15c" on them??

Oh, and I notice at least two different fonts in the '6p' stamp on those Harveys, while other issues lack a stamp. That suggests that the stamping was not done at the distributor level. (I think.)

1. Ah... right. The eBay pic wasn't clear enough to let me see the dual pricing.

2. Yes, I think it's a sticker too, I was just speculating that it might have been a UK price underneath.

AJD - bringing up irrelevant shyte on the boards since 2008.

Hi Steve - dunno if this is a "find" but there's a UK Charlton in this photo that doesn't seem to be on your list: E-Man #1 (I think that's the number). And maybe the Black Fury is a UK edition with a price change for Oz, though it could also be a US -- > AU price change.

17 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Bay searches can be erratic, but I do get them as a rule, yes. When looking for AUS copies on eBay.com.au I select 'Australia Only' and it works:

Having spoken to a few people about this kind of thing I do think that search results vary widely depending on which country you are in. Maybe Australia has some kind of block in place. We should try duplicate searches next time we're both online, and compare the results. 

"advanced search"

Thanks Steve.

Just wondering, Steve. When you look at eBay Oz from the UK, can you see the items that aren't available for international shipping? I've tried searching UK eBay for Australian GA books and I only ever see ones that will ship here - which I'm pretty sure isn't all of them.

Those are my favourite EC books. Kurtzman was a superb visual story teller.

I dropped in here hoping for a better outcome. IIRC, one of the few pieces of advice I offered was to cut up that credit card when it arrived.

Good luck and good bye.