What year did Marvel stop using "cheap" paper for their books?

[ThoseBackPages]

Just wondering what year was it that Marvel switched from "traditional" paper stock to the fancy glossy like paper stock.

 

Thank you for your time and input.

[Kevin76]

it's not 'traditional stock" it's called Newsprint Stock, They started using a higher grade stock in 1990/1991 when Spider-Man #1 came out. Wish they would go back to using newsprint so we don't have to pay $3.99 for new comics. It's all high quality digital printing now.

[PovertyRow]

Don't forget the wonderful MARVEL FANFARE from 1982 where they used, if I remember right, "Baxter Paper".

[500Club]

In about 1993, IIRC, you had the option of buying issues with either type of paper stock. Nobody bought the newsprint versions, and they quietly went away. Vagoely I remember it being around the Joe Mad time on Uncanny, in the 310-320 issue range, but 20 years may have clouded my memory.

[Warren Oates]

Comics that feel like pamphlets, bleck.

 

I stopped buying books 85 or so. Sometimes after that, on impulse I bought something at the grocery store, by the early 90s newsprint was gone.

 

bb guns were gone, replaced by the newest video game ad. No longer could you sell seeds in your spare time and get a new record palyer. X-Ray specs and joy buzzers were gone. You got nice white paper though, last ya a whole lifetime and then some.

 

Maybe we should blame Warren, they started doing those "8 pages of color" inserts in the late 70s. They were printed on something that wasn't newsprint.

[Warren Oates]

Also there was small step in between, They didn't go from regular newsprint right to gloss.

For a while there was some kind of newsprint that had a much higher whiteness rating, and was smoother. probably from 88-90, I dunno, buy some drek and see.

 

 

[Kevin76]

Don't forget the wonderful MARVEL FANFARE from 1982 where they used, if I remember right, "Baxter Paper".

 

Spawn 1's were printed using that kind of stock

[songsaboutclouds]

Not sure but the cover stock on their $2.99 books has dropped to awful recently

and if rumours are to be believed, they're starting to use the same cover stock for their

$3.99 books soon.

Marvel 9.8s will be a thing of the past if thats the case

[DeliBebek]

Marvel experimented with "mando" paper in the mid-80s and got terrible results with the color quality. The paper felt nice, but didn't look good. For some reason in the late 80s they went to a thinner newsprint, and comics from that era are some of the flimsiest I've ever flipped through.

 

They did go with the deluxe edition trend around 1995, but even those slick pages were eventually downgraded to a still-healthy stock that was smoother than newsprint. It was sometime after 1999 that they went back to the slick pages throughout the line.

[Ogami]

"Baxter paper". Just hearing the term makes me happy. There were entire companies that built marketing strategies using the term heavily.

[jhutton2]

Don't forget the wonderful MARVEL FANFARE from 1982 where they used, if I remember right, "Baxter Paper".

 

Spawn 1's were printed using that kind of stock

 

So I can look forward to the rest of my life getting kijiji adds telling me that they have a "mint" copy of Spawn #1.....great

[Hammerhead]

In about 1993, IIRC, you had the option of buying issues with either type of paper stock. Nobody bought the newsprint versions, and they quietly went away. Vagoely I remember it being around the Joe Mad time on Uncanny, in the 310-320 issue range, but 20 years may have clouded my memory.

 

I had quit collecting in the early 90's (like many others) but you really had the option of what type of paper the comic was printed on? Were they priced differently?

[r100comics]

 

Are there any colour Marvel omnibus editions that use the original newspaper grade paper and reprint all the adverts and letters pages ?

[rodan57]

I'd like to see that but sans the ads. (I worry that even the reproduction covers that float around today pose a risk of fraudulent use.)

[500Club]

In about 1993, IIRC, you had the option of buying issues with either type of paper stock. Nobody bought the newsprint versions, and they quietly went away. Vagoely I remember it being around the Joe Mad time on Uncanny, in the 310-320 issue range, but 20 years may have clouded my memory.

 

I had quit collecting in the early 90's (like many others) but you really had the option of what type of paper the comic was printed on? Were they priced differently?

Yes. The basic version went to newsstands, and direct accounts could order either. There was a price difference. Again, IIRC, it lasted all of 6-12 months, at which point the deluxe editions became standard. My memory is a bit foggy, though, and I can't recall dates, or if this was done with all books in the Marvel line.

 

It was in the Perelman era, and I suspect that Marvel knew the market would shun the basic newsprint versions, thus allowing a transition to the higher margin deluxe edition paper quality.

[VintageComics]

Just wondering what year was it that Marvel switched from "traditional" paper stock to the fancy glossy like paper stock.

 

Thank you for your time and input.

 

Marvel changed their paper and ink quality several times over the years.

 

The went with one type of paper for most of the 1960's and then around the mid/late 1960's (possibly '67 or so) there was a dramatic change in production quality...inks and paper changed.

 

Then around the early 1970's they changed paper again for the bronze age and I think they kept using that similar paper and ink until well into the 1980's.

 

Baxter paper (yeah, it makes me feel all warm and fuzz inside too - much like the term "pop art" does from the 60's) started in the early 1980's with Marvel Fanfare IIRC.

 

 

[VintageComics]

In about 1993, IIRC, you had the option of buying issues with either type of paper stock. Nobody bought the newsprint versions, and they quietly went away. Vagoely I remember it being around the Joe Mad time on Uncanny, in the 310-320 issue range, but 20 years may have clouded my memory.

 

I had quit collecting in the early 90's (like many others) but you really had the option of what type of paper the comic was printed on? Were they priced differently?

Yes. The basic version went to newsstands, and direct accounts could order either. There was a price difference. Again, IIRC, it lasted all of 6-12 months, at which point the deluxe editions became standard. My memory is a bit foggy, though, and I can't recall dates, or if this was done with all books in the Marvel line.

 

It was in the Perelman era, and I suspect that Marvel knew the market would shun the basic newsprint versions, thus allowing a transition to the higher margin deluxe edition paper quality.

 

Wow, that is news to me as I too stopped collecting around 1991 or so. I had no idea.

 

Does anyone have scans or pics of the two versions side by side?

[markseifert]

Not sure but the cover stock on their $2.99 books has dropped to awful recently

and if rumours are to be believed, they're starting to use the same cover stock for their

$3.99 books soon.

Marvel 9.8s will be a thing of the past if thats the case

 

Yep, it's true -- the entire line is going self-cover in July (which in addition to the stock issue also means fewer pages of ads and/or content).

 

It's a pretty significant move from a historical standpoint when you think about it... it's the first standard (permanent, likely) format page count reduction (both Marvel & DC have been testing story page count reduction over the past couple years) from a major publisher since the standard 32 pages-plus-cover format for comics became the norm in the mid-1950s.

 

The basic standard format steadily dropped from 64 to 32 pages (with variants here and there) over roughly the first 20 years of the American comics industry. Then the 32 page format held as the primary format for the next 50 years.

[InvstmntComcSuply]

In about 1993, IIRC, you had the option of buying issues with either type of paper stock. Nobody bought the newsprint versions, and they quietly went away. Vagoely I remember it being around the Joe Mad time on Uncanny, in the 310-320 issue range, but 20 years may have clouded my memory.

 

I had quit collecting in the early 90's (like many others) but you really had the option of what type of paper the comic was printed on? Were they priced differently?

Yes. The basic version went to newsstands, and direct accounts could order either. There was a price difference. Again, IIRC, it lasted all of 6-12 months, at which point the deluxe editions became standard. My memory is a bit foggy, though, and I can't recall dates, or if this was done with all books in the Marvel line.

 

It was in the Perelman era, and I suspect that Marvel knew the market would shun the basic newsprint versions, thus allowing a transition to the higher margin deluxe edition paper quality.

I would think we would see these listed as newsprint or glossy variants if this was the case.

[IchigosSoul]

I remember when it happened. My LCS told me it was due to Marvel buying out Malibu Comics, and the only reason they bought them was to get the contract for their paper supplier.