1939 NEWSSTAND PIC TIME MACHINE JOURNEY INTO THE PAST 18 18

[Robot Man]

On January 1, 2019 at 10:56 AM, jpepx78 said:

Here is a photo from the past for the new year. How many of you remember the old days of box diving for comics that had no bags or boards in packed orange boxes?
This is a photo of kids box diving for comics at a California flea market from the late 70s or early 80s. Could this be at the Rose Bowl flea market? Maybe Robotman or members from southern California might recognize the background. I don’t think you’ll find too many 9.8 books in those boxes. Look at those magazines, Treasury editions and mid 70s DC & Marvels.

I hope all of you will find what you are looking for in the new year like these kids and have a safe and happy new year!

 

 

Yep, looks like Long Beach Veterans Stadium monthly show. I either sell or go buying there every month. Used to see a lot of comic booths like those. Not so much any more. Like all flea markets all over the country, it is getting harder to find cool stuff. 

[telerites]

5 hours ago, Robot Man said:

Like all flea markets all over the country, it is getting harder to find cool stuff. 

 

[jpepx78]

Picture time!
There is a saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. When I saw this photo I believed I could write a thousand words about it since I could see so many details. When this photo was taken, World War 2 was coming to an end since fighting in the European theater ended when Germany surrendered in May 1945. Japan was severely weakened militarily but many people believed it would require a land invasion to defeat Japan. The dropping of atom bombs on Japan in August 1945 to shorten the war in the Pacific would usher in a new era. The end of the war would change the demographics of comic readers as veterans return home and storylines about fighting war villains would start to disappear.

This great World War 2 era picture of the Readmore newsstand in Evansville Indiana was taken around July 1945. This high quality wide shot has the most number of identifiable comics I have ever found in a vintage newsstand photo so far. I have identified 80 different issues but there are 6 or 7 comics that I can’t identify yet. I marvel at the variety and number of comics, pulps and magazines shown here. There are probably a lot more comics not seen to the right of the photo. Just look at the stacks of comics! Some issues have up to 20 copies all minty fresh. One could spend hours browsing at this newsstand.

Here is a challenge for you guys- see if you can identify all the comics or the ones I missed and how many of these do you have?

Spoiler

4 Favorites 19, Action 87, All-Surprise 7, Big Shot 58, Black Hood 14 Black Terror 11, Blue Beetle 39, Blue Bolt 59, Book of All Comics1945 Bouncer 14, Boy 23, Calling All Girls May-June 45, Capt America 49 Capt Flight 8, Capt Marvel 47, Capt Marvel Jr 31, Cisco Kid 1 Classic Comics 22 Pathfinder, Comics for Kids 1, Comic Capers 4 Contact 7, Crown 1, Daredevil 31, Daring 11, Detective 102 Everybody’s Comics 1944, Exciting 40, Famous Funnies 132, Feature 91 Fighting Yank 13, Four Color 77 Felix the Cat, Four Color 78 Porky Pig, Funny Frolics 1 Gay 20, Giggle 21, Golden Lad 1, Goofy 10, Grand Slam Aces 44, 45 Grit Grady 1, Hap Hazard 4, Ideal 3, Jingle Jangle 16, Joker 19 Komik Pages 1(10), Krazy Komics 18, Laugh Comix 48, Leading 15 Looney Tunes 46, Marvel Mystery 65, Military 42, Miss America 5 Monkeyshines 4, National 49, New Funnies 101, Pep 53, Police 45 Real Life 25, Ribtickler 1 (1945), Scream 4, Smash 60, Sparkler 45 Spirit 2, Spiritman 2, Spotlight 3, Sub-mariner 16, Super 86 Super Magician v4 #4, Super-Mystery v5 #1, Super Rabbit 4, Startling 35 Target 62, Treasure 2, USA 16, Western Thrills with Billy the Kid 1 Wings 60, Witty 2, World’s Finest 18, Young Life 2, Ziggy & Silly Seal 4

I notice there are many western, detective and romance pulps but I don’t see any sci-fi or fantasy pulps however there might be one Weird Tales pulp.
I want to comment on some of the unusual comics seen on the racks.

Shortly after Canada declared war against Germany in September 1939, the Canadian government imposed foreign exchange controls to conserve Canada’s reserves so they might be used for purposes in the national interest. Another objective related to wartime financing was to prevent panic sales of Canadian securities by non-residents in moments of crisis. In December 1940, as Canada’s trade deficit with the US grew and British gold shipments were curtailed, the Canadian government introduced the War Exchange Conservation Act to conserve American dollars by restricting the importation of non-essential goods. Among the items banned were fiction periodicals such as pulps and other newsstand magazines including American comics. This allowed the growth of the World War 2-era Canadian comics industry and these Canadian comics called Canadian Whites had non-glossy color covers and black and white interiors.

When Germany surrendered in May 5 1945, Canadian comic publishers were anticipating the lifting of government restrictions on the importation of American comics which would end their Canadian monopoly and greatly affect their sales. As the war ended, some publishers closed up shop but a few like Anglo-American adopted US production values, switching to color interiors and glossy covers to try to penetrate the lucrative American market. Anglo-American merged two of their titles Grand Slam and Three Aces to form Grand Slam Aces and numbering started after the Grand Slam title with number 44. What you see on this newsstand are the first two issues of Grand Slam Aces 44 & 45. Since the publisher had unfamiliar characters and limited selection of titles, they encountered poor sales in America and titles were discontinued in 1946. Anglo-American became a reprint house of American comics for the Canadian and British markets.

The Grand Comics Database says Spiritman was a promotional comic but here it is sold next to the regular Spirit comic. It contains Spirit strip reprints and lasted 2 issues.

There was paper rationing during WW2 affecting book, magazine and newspaper publishers. Comic publishers were forced to reduce the number of pages and used only one staple. Around August 1945 paper restrictions were lifted and publishers were able to print more titles or copies. A few publishers used their increased paper allotment to print some short lived or oddball titles with unused material or reprints to capitalize on the comic demand. Grit Grady (Holyoke reprints from Capt Fearless) and Witty (Chicago Nite Life News) are a few of those short lived titles that appeared in 1945.

It is unusual to see these jumbo sized comics like Everybody’s Comics, Book of All Comics & Ribtickler on the rack. These jumbo sized comics probably were not good sellers since they may not be a good deal at 50 cents per copy with second or third rate characters. One could spend 50 cents on five other comics with better characters and get more pages.

How about a comic that is not in the price guide? At the right of the picture is Western Thrills with Billy the Kid from Fawcett. Billy the Kid is a horse in a cowboy outfit. From a Google search one copy was sold on eBay but there was no picture. Does anyone here have a copy of this?

word count: 1083

 

[Arkadin]

Amazing picture and great research - thanks! Wonder where the DC's are...

[Primetime]

14 hours ago, jpepx78 said:

Picture time!
There is a saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. When I saw this photo I believed I could write a thousand words about it since I could see so many details. When this photo was taken, World War 2 was coming to an end since fighting in the European theater ended when Germany surrendered in May 1945. Japan was severely weakened militarily but many people believed it would require a land invasion to defeat Japan. The dropping of atom bombs on Japan in August 1945 to shorten the war in the Pacific would usher in a new era. The end of the war would change the demographics of comic readers as veterans return home and storylines about fighting war villains would start to disappear.

This great World War 2 era picture of the Readmore newsstand in Evansville Indiana was taken around July 1945. This high quality wide shot has the most number of identifiable comics I have ever found in a vintage newsstand photo so far. I have identified 80 different issues but there are 6 or 7 comics that I can’t identify yet. I marvel at the variety and number of comics, pulps and magazines shown here. There are probably a lot more comics not seen to the right of the photo. Just look at the stacks of comics! Some issues have up to 20 copies all minty fresh. One could spend hours browsing at this newsstand.

Here is a challenge for you guys- see if you can identify all the comics or the ones I missed and how many of these do you have?

  Hide contents

4 Favorites 19, Action 87, All-Surprise 7, Big Shot 58, Black Hood 14 Black Terror 11, Blue Beetle 39, Blue Bolt 59, Book of All Comics1945 Bouncer 14, Boy 23, Calling All Girls May-June 45, Capt America 49 Capt Flight 8, Capt Marvel 47, Capt Marvel Jr 31, Cisco Kid 1 Classic Comics 22 Pathfinder, Comics for Kids 1, Comic Capers 4 Contact 7, Crown 1, Daredevil 31, Daring 11, Detective 102 Everybody’s Comics 1944, Exciting 40, Famous Funnies 132, Feature 91 Fighting Yank 13, Four Color 77 Felix the Cat, Four Color 78 Porky Pig, Funny Frolics 1 Gay 20, Giggle 21, Golden Lad 1, Goofy 10, Grand Slam Aces 44, 45 Grit Grady 1, Hap Hazard 4, Ideal 3, Jingle Jangle 16, Joker 19 Komik Pages 1(10), Krazy Komics 18, Laugh Comix 48, Leading 15 Looney Tunes 46, Marvel Mystery 65, Military 42, Miss America 5 Monkeyshines 4, National 49, New Funnies 101, Pep 53, Police 45 Real Life 25, Ribtickler 1 (1945), Scream 4, Smash 60, Sparkler 45 Spirit 2, Spiritman 2, Spotlight 3, Sub-mariner 16, Super 86 Super Magician v4 #4, Super-Mystery v5 #1, Super Rabbit 4, Startling 35 Target 62, Treasure 2, USA 16, Western Thrills with Billy the Kid 1 Wings 60, Witty 2, World’s Finest 18, Young Life 2, Ziggy & Silly Seal 4

I notice there are many western, detective and romance pulps but I don’t see any sci-fi or fantasy pulps however there might be one Weird Tales pulp.
I want to comment on some of the unusual comics seen on the racks.

Shortly after Canada declared war against Germany in September 1939, the Canadian government imposed foreign exchange controls to conserve Canada’s reserves so they might be used for purposes in the national interest. Another objective related to wartime financing was to prevent panic sales of Canadian securities by non-residents in moments of crisis. In December 1940, as Canada’s trade deficit with the US grew and British gold shipments were curtailed, the Canadian government introduced the War Exchange Conservation Act to conserve American dollars by restricting the importation of non-essential goods. Among the items banned were fiction periodicals such as pulps and other newsstand magazines including American comics. This allowed the growth of the World War 2-era Canadian comics industry and these Canadian comics called Canadian Whites had non-glossy color covers and black and white interiors.

When Germany surrendered in May 5 1945, Canadian comic publishers were anticipating the lifting of government restrictions on the importation of American comics which would end their Canadian monopoly and greatly affect their sales. As the war ended, some publishers closed up shop but a few like Anglo-American adopted US production values, switching to color interiors and glossy covers to try to penetrate the lucrative American market. Anglo-American merged two of their titles Grand Slam and Three Aces to form Grand Slam Aces and numbering started after the Grand Slam title with number 44. What you see on this newsstand are the first two issues of Grand Slam Aces 44 & 45. Since the publisher had unfamiliar characters and limited selection of titles, they encountered poor sales in America and titles were discontinued in 1946. Anglo-American became a reprint house of American comics for the Canadian and British markets.

The Grand Comics Database says Spiritman was a promotional comic but here it is sold next to the regular Spirit comic. It contains Spirit strip reprints and lasted 2 issues.

There was paper rationing during WW2 affecting book, magazine and newspaper publishers. Comic publishers were forced to reduce the number of pages and used only one staple. Around August 1945 paper restrictions were lifted and publishers were able to print more titles or copies. A few publishers used their increased paper allotment to print some short lived or oddball titles with unused material or reprints to capitalize on the comic demand. Grit Grady (Holyoke reprints from Capt Fearless) and Witty (Chicago Nite Life News) are a few of those short lived titles that appeared in 1945.

It is unusual to see these jumbo sized comics like Everybody’s Comics, Book of All Comics & Ribtickler on the rack. These jumbo sized comics probably were not good sellers since they may not be a good deal at 50 cents per copy with second or third rate characters. One could spend 50 cents on five other comics with better characters and get more pages.

How about a comic that is not in the price guide? At the right of the picture is Western Thrills with Billy the Kid from Fawcett. Billy the Kid is a horse in a cowboy outfit. From a Google search one copy was sold on eBay but there was no picture. Does anyone here have a copy of this?

word count: 1083

 

Amazing research and picture Jeff! That newsstand was filled with good books to choose from. 

[telerites]

16 hours ago, jpepx78 said:

Dang it, now where did I put the key to my time machine

[catman76]

On 1/15/2019 at 12:27 AM, jpepx78 said:

Picture time!
There is a saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. When I saw this photo I believed I could write a thousand words about it since I could see so many details. When this photo was taken, World War 2 was coming to an end since fighting in the European theater ended when Germany surrendered in May 1945. Japan was severely weakened militarily but many people believed it would require a land invasion to defeat Japan. The dropping of atom bombs on Japan in August 1945 to shorten the war in the Pacific would usher in a new era. The end of the war would change the demographics of comic readers as veterans return home and storylines about fighting war villains would start to disappear.

This great World War 2 era picture of the Readmore newsstand in Evansville Indiana was taken around July 1945. This high quality wide shot has the most number of identifiable comics I have ever found in a vintage newsstand photo so far. I have identified 80 different issues but there are 6 or 7 comics that I can’t identify yet. I marvel at the variety and number of comics, pulps and magazines shown here. There are probably a lot more comics not seen to the right of the photo. Just look at the stacks of comics! Some issues have up to 20 copies all minty fresh. One could spend hours browsing at this newsstand.

Here is a challenge for you guys- see if you can identify all the comics or the ones I missed and how many of these do you have?

  Reveal hidden contents

4 Favorites 19, Action 87, All-Surprise 7, Big Shot 58, Black Hood 14 Black Terror 11, Blue Beetle 39, Blue Bolt 59, Book of All Comics1945 Bouncer 14, Boy 23, Calling All Girls May-June 45, Capt America 49 Capt Flight 8, Capt Marvel 47, Capt Marvel Jr 31, Cisco Kid 1 Classic Comics 22 Pathfinder, Comics for Kids 1, Comic Capers 4 Contact 7, Crown 1, Daredevil 31, Daring 11, Detective 102 Everybody’s Comics 1944, Exciting 40, Famous Funnies 132, Feature 91 Fighting Yank 13, Four Color 77 Felix the Cat, Four Color 78 Porky Pig, Funny Frolics 1 Gay 20, Giggle 21, Golden Lad 1, Goofy 10, Grand Slam Aces 44, 45 Grit Grady 1, Hap Hazard 4, Ideal 3, Jingle Jangle 16, Joker 19 Komik Pages 1(10), Krazy Komics 18, Laugh Comix 48, Leading 15 Looney Tunes 46, Marvel Mystery 65, Military 42, Miss America 5 Monkeyshines 4, National 49, New Funnies 101, Pep 53, Police 45 Real Life 25, Ribtickler 1 (1945), Scream 4, Smash 60, Sparkler 45 Spirit 2, Spiritman 2, Spotlight 3, Sub-mariner 16, Super 86 Super Magician v4 #4, Super-Mystery v5 #1, Super Rabbit 4, Startling 35 Target 62, Treasure 2, USA 16, Western Thrills with Billy the Kid 1 Wings 60, Witty 2, World’s Finest 18, Young Life 2, Ziggy & Silly Seal 4

I notice there are many western, detective and romance pulps but I don’t see any sci-fi or fantasy pulps however there might be one Weird Tales pulp.
I want to comment on some of the unusual comics seen on the racks.

Shortly after Canada declared war against Germany in September 1939, the Canadian government imposed foreign exchange controls to conserve Canada’s reserves so they might be used for purposes in the national interest. Another objective related to wartime financing was to prevent panic sales of Canadian securities by non-residents in moments of crisis. In December 1940, as Canada’s trade deficit with the US grew and British gold shipments were curtailed, the Canadian government introduced the War Exchange Conservation Act to conserve American dollars by restricting the importation of non-essential goods. Among the items banned were fiction periodicals such as pulps and other newsstand magazines including American comics. This allowed the growth of the World War 2-era Canadian comics industry and these Canadian comics called Canadian Whites had non-glossy color covers and black and white interiors.

When Germany surrendered in May 5 1945, Canadian comic publishers were anticipating the lifting of government restrictions on the importation of American comics which would end their Canadian monopoly and greatly affect their sales. As the war ended, some publishers closed up shop but a few like Anglo-American adopted US production values, switching to color interiors and glossy covers to try to penetrate the lucrative American market. Anglo-American merged two of their titles Grand Slam and Three Aces to form Grand Slam Aces and numbering started after the Grand Slam title with number 44. What you see on this newsstand are the first two issues of Grand Slam Aces 44 & 45. Since the publisher had unfamiliar characters and limited selection of titles, they encountered poor sales in America and titles were discontinued in 1946. Anglo-American became a reprint house of American comics for the Canadian and British markets.

The Grand Comics Database says Spiritman was a promotional comic but here it is sold next to the regular Spirit comic. It contains Spirit strip reprints and lasted 2 issues.

There was paper rationing during WW2 affecting book, magazine and newspaper publishers. Comic publishers were forced to reduce the number of pages and used only one staple. Around August 1945 paper restrictions were lifted and publishers were able to print more titles or copies. A few publishers used their increased paper allotment to print some short lived or oddball titles with unused material or reprints to capitalize on the comic demand. Grit Grady (Holyoke reprints from Capt Fearless) and Witty (Chicago Nite Life News) are a few of those short lived titles that appeared in 1945.

It is unusual to see these jumbo sized comics like Everybody’s Comics, Book of All Comics & Ribtickler on the rack. These jumbo sized comics probably were not good sellers since they may not be a good deal at 50 cents per copy with second or third rate characters. One could spend 50 cents on five other comics with better characters and get more pages.

How about a comic that is not in the price guide? At the right of the picture is Western Thrills with Billy the Kid from Fawcett. Billy the Kid is a horse in a cowboy outfit. From a Google search one copy was sold on eBay but there was no picture. Does anyone here have a copy of this?

word count: 1083

 

The Billy the Kid is one of those fawcett paper toys, not a comic

Edited January 16, 2019 by catman76

[woowoo]

[N e r V]

15 minutes ago, woowoo said:

Looks like that’s at the time of the Yugoslav coup d'état?

If so, poor old Subby #1 had been hanging there for weeks by a clothes pin.

Such torture the GA comics endured...

[Robot Man]

2 hours ago, woowoo said:

Here’s my dime mister. Can I please have a copy of Submariner #1?

[lpsunburst]

2 hours ago, Robot Man said:

Here’s my dime mister. Can I please have a copy of Submariner #1?

those are all May 1941 books so there should be a cap 3 up there as well. I see Superman 10, which isnt too bad for a dime. I would love to have the Wonderworld 24 which is also sitting too long but the Subby was published quarterly so maybe not so odd for it to be there.

[Primetime]

1 hour ago, lpsunburst said:

those are all May 1941 books so there should be a cap 3 up there as well. I see Superman 10, which isnt too bad for a dime. I would love to have the Wonderworld 24 which is also sitting too long but the Subby was published quarterly so maybe not so odd for it to be there.

Clearly Cap 3s outsold Subby 1s at that newsstand 

[woowoo]

Look how cheap this would be Than look at all these good books find the Marvel 1

[Primetime]

39 minutes ago, woowoo said:

Look how cheap this would be Than look at all these good books find the Marvel 1

 

SMART kid 

[Bat34]

7 hours ago, lpsunburst said:

those are all May 1941 books so there should be a cap 3 up there as well. I see Superman 10, which isnt too bad for a dime. I would love to have the Wonderworld 24 which is also sitting too long but the Subby was published quarterly so maybe not so odd for it to be there.

I think that is Tec 50, which is also slightly "leftover"...we should go in the time machine and take those old books off that guys hands for a nickel each so he can be current...

Edited May 28, 2019 by Bat34

[woowoo]

9 hours ago, Primetime said:

SMART kid 

You know who that kid is Right ?

 

Edited May 28, 2019 by woowoo

[comicdonna]

When my time machine is finished, I will be visiting some of these places.

[Primetime]

4 hours ago, comicdonna said:

When my time machine is finished, I will be visiting some of these places.

Cool Mike. It’s really nice in 1939 

[Chaos_in_Canada]

May 13th, 1940, Toronto, Canada (from City of Toronto Archives)

Superman #5 & Detective Comics #40 

[Sekowskyfan10]

From calisphere. org: Security Pacific National Bank Photo Collection

Caption: "A Southland News Co. magazine sales rack in 1947."