Marvel All-Colour Comics 1 1

[j_scott_o]

Does anyone have any information on Marvel All-Colour Comics? The info I find on the web is kind of sketchy. And, searching the forum archive, I can't find anything. If anyone has a link to a previous thread, that would be much appreciated. I was hoping my research would go a little better and maybe provide a list of all the Marvel All-Colour Comics titles. I did search the St. Louis Variant Mafia site, and couldn't really find anything either.

 

Anyway, the reason I ask is I found a Nova #8 (12p) at Half Price Books today. And, since it was 20% off today, thought I'd just go ahead and buy it and do some research later.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Comicopolis]

"During the 1960s, various Marvel comic strips were reprinted in the UK in a variety of weekly comics. Titles such as Pow, Smash and Fantastic. Even that venerable organ, Eagle, home of Dan Dare, eventually got in on the act, reprinting some Tales of Asgard in its final days. In 1972, Marvel took the decision to stop licensing its characters to other publishers in the UK and took on the job itself. That year they began publishing The Mighty World of Marvel, a weekly comic that featured reprints of the Hulk, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. After a few months, the project was successful enough to spawn a spin-off, and Spider-Man was given his own weekly, called, imaginatively enough, Spider-Man Comics Weekly. His back-ups were Thor and Iron Man. And so began the long and fruitful career of Marvel Comics UK, though, in those early days, the comics were produced and packaged in the US, with the UK address merely being an office for traffic control and mail.

 

Now, once they started the British operation, Marvel restricted the importation of the American comics. This was intended to give the British comics a good start in newsagents as they wouldn’t be competing against their American cousins. Suddenly it became difficult to find Marvel comics in this country; for example, I never saw an American Spider-Man or Hulk comic until the early 1980s, I had to make do with the British reprints. However, after a few years, Marvel relaxed their rules a little and a small range of comics were allowed into the country. That was the time when I saw Captain America #182.

 

The British reprints were publshed weekly and featured a glossy colour cover, with black and white interior art (initially the interiors were two-tone: green for Hulk and red for Spider-Man). They were also larger in size than their American counterparts, being roughly 11″x8″. They ran 36 pages, and in order to pack in all the strips, the original comics were serialised, so a single issue of the US Spider-Man comic would be run over, say, three issues of Spider-Man Comics Weekly. Clearly that caused a shortage of cover images, and so a variety of artists passing through the bullpen at Marvel US were pressed into service providing new cover images for the British weeklies. Stan Lee’s brother, Larry Lieber, did the lion’s share, but there are covers by the likes of John Romita, John Buscema, Carmine Infantino and, yes, even Jack Kirby. New splash pages also had to be provided for each weekly installment.

 

Once Marvel allowed the American comics to be distributed again, they needed to differentiate them in some way from the British comics. I’d imagine they still didn’t want the American material to compete with the British reprints, and so they tried to ensure that potential buyers were getting something different for their money. Yes, you could read the adventures of Captain America in Titans Weekly, but if you forked over your 8p for this you get ALL-COLOUR stories, as opposed to the black and white weeklies. Why, they’re as alike as chalk and cheese — why not buy both?

 

The American comics market has long turned its nose up at these British-ized versions. The belief persists that these comics are reprints, or second editions, and are considered of little value. There is no truth in this. These comics were printed at exactly the same time as the American copies. All that happened was that, at a certain point in the cover printing process, a switch was flicked and the black plate changed to reflect the British price and banner. It’s even been claimed that the British versions were actually printed first, while the presses were run up to speed. Really, there is no difference whatsoever other than the cover price and banner; the interiors are exactly the same

 

Marvel All-Colour Comics. After the austerity of the black and white, chopped up strips, these were a revelation to my young eyes."

 

Marvel All-Colour Comics

 

[Jeffro.]

How readily available are the All-Colour Comics? Any ideas on print runs?

 

Sounds like a fun collecting niche. Plus, I could still read them. Unlike other foreign comics.

[nmtg9]

Difficult to say what the print runs were. They were printed in America still. I do remember that back in the late seventies/early nineties comics were everywhere on every Newsagent. They were so easy to get hold of.

 

I am looking to make a catalogue of pictures of every pence issue released . PM if you would like to get involved.

 

Neil

[Kevin.J]

I havent even started scanning yet Neil, something has always come up to stop me, like being drunk for most of the last week, I will hopefully get a chance to make a start sometime next week.

 

[j_scott_o]

Comicopolis,

Thanks for the link! That was way more information than any like I found. And, by far more informative.

 

nmtg9,

Can't wait to see the catalog of pence images. If you need Nova 8, I got it for ya!

 

Scott

[gaz973]

"During the 1960s, various Marvel comic strips were reprinted in the UK in a variety of weekly comics. Titles such as Pow, Smash and Fantastic. Even that venerable organ, Eagle, home of Dan Dare, eventually got in on the act, reprinting some Tales of Asgard in its final days. In 1972, Marvel took the decision to stop licensing its characters to other publishers in the UK and took on the job itself. That year they began publishing The Mighty World of Marvel, a weekly comic that featured reprints of the Hulk, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. After a few months, the project was successful enough to spawn a spin-off, and Spider-Man was given his own weekly, called, imaginatively enough, Spider-Man Comics Weekly. His back-ups were Thor and Iron Man. And so began the long and fruitful career of Marvel Comics UK, though, in those early days, the comics were produced and packaged in the US, with the UK address merely being an office for traffic control and mail.

 

Now, once they started the British operation, Marvel restricted the importation of the American comics. This was intended to give the British comics a good start in newsagents as they wouldn’t be competing against their American cousins. Suddenly it became difficult to find Marvel comics in this country; for example, I never saw an American Spider-Man or Hulk comic until the early 1980s, I had to make do with the British reprints. However, after a few years, Marvel relaxed their rules a little and a small range of comics were allowed into the country. That was the time when I saw Captain America #182.

 

The British reprints were publshed weekly and featured a glossy colour cover, with black and white interior art (initially the interiors were two-tone: green for Hulk and red for Spider-Man). They were also larger in size than their American counterparts, being roughly 11″x8″. They ran 36 pages, and in order to pack in all the strips, the original comics were serialised, so a single issue of the US Spider-Man comic would be run over, say, three issues of Spider-Man Comics Weekly. Clearly that caused a shortage of cover images, and so a variety of artists passing through the bullpen at Marvel US were pressed into service providing new cover images for the British weeklies. Stan Lee’s brother, Larry Lieber, did the lion’s share, but there are covers by the likes of John Romita, John Buscema, Carmine Infantino and, yes, even Jack Kirby. New splash pages also had to be provided for each weekly installment.

 

Once Marvel allowed the American comics to be distributed again, they needed to differentiate them in some way from the British comics. I’d imagine they still didn’t want the American material to compete with the British reprints, and so they tried to ensure that potential buyers were getting something different for their money. Yes, you could read the adventures of Captain America in Titans Weekly, but if you forked over your 8p for this you get ALL-COLOUR stories, as opposed to the black and white weeklies. Why, they’re as alike as chalk and cheese — why not buy both?

 

The American comics market has long turned its nose up at these British-ized versions. The belief persists that these comics are reprints, or second editions, and are considered of little value. There is no truth in this. These comics were printed at exactly the same time as the American copies. All that happened was that, at a certain point in the cover printing process, a switch was flicked and the black plate changed to reflect the British price and banner. It’s even been claimed that the British versions were actually printed first, while the presses were run up to speed. Really, there is no difference whatsoever other than the cover price and banner; the interiors are exactly the same

 

Marvel All-Colour Comics. After the austerity of the black and white, chopped up strips, these were a revelation to my young eyes."

 

Marvel All-Colour Comics

 

I learnt something new, didn't know about Eagle reprinting Tales Of Asgard.

[gaz973]

How readily available are the All-Colour Comics? Any ideas on print runs?

 

Sounds like a fun collecting niche. Plus, I could still read them. Unlike other foreign comics.

I don't know what the print runs were but they were certainly a small fraction of the cents runs. Also of significance is that generally there was a much smaller percentage that were carefully looked after once purchased due to less of a collecting mentality in the UK compared to the US leading to an even smaller percentage of high grade copies.

[nmtg9]

I'm too busy doing the same Kevin, will start in the new year (thumbs u

[*Bronze age fan*]

[/img]

 

Any one have a #24 of this run? With the plane inside...in higher grade for sale? Everytime I find a nice one it always seems to be missing the plane.

[nmtg9]

Yeah that one seems hard to find with the free gift

 

#1 is more available, probably a bigger print run. Will keep an eye out for one.

 

Neil

[shadroch]

Is there a cents version of MACC #1 ?

 

I asked this before but didn't see an answer, so here it is again.

 

Were the Marvel Comics that were sold in Bermuda, Hong Kong, Falklands, ect, ect American copies with pence handstamps or pence copies? Does anyone know?

[androolx]

Does the indicia in UK versions show the price in British currency or is it identical to US versions?  Thx

[OtherEric]

1 hour ago, androolx said:

Does the indicia in UK versions show the price in British currency or is it identical to US versions?  Thx

Looking at the Captain America 187 I found in a dollar bin 3 days ago... identical to the US, or at least it shows the price in US currency, not pence.

[Get Marwood & I]

1 hour ago, androolx said:

Does the indicia in UK versions show the price in British currency or is it identical to US versions?  Thx

The indicias in UK Price Variants are always in cents androolx. Some early Marvels have some additional regional UK distributor details added, but there are no pence prices in any book indicia for any of the seven known publishers. There is a page in my journal showing all the various Thorpe & Porter indicia types in the early Marvels if you're interested. 

[tv horror]

On 12/27/2012 at 2:20 PM, Comicopolis said:

Even that venerable organ,

 I can't believe you just wrote that!!!!

 

[androolx]

1 hour ago, OtherEric said:

Looking at the Captain America 187 I found in a dollar bin 3 days ago... identical to the US, or at least it shows the price in US currency, not pence.

 Thanks for checking on that!👍

[androolx]

43 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

The indicias in UK Price Variants are always in cents androolx. Some early Marvels have some additional regional UK distributor details added, but there are no pence prices in any book indicia for any of the seven known publishers. There is a page in my journal showing all the various Thorpe & Porter indicia types in the early Marvels if you're interested. 

 Wow, more than I asked for, but all of it is very interesting  info!   Thanks!   As always, you have provided well articulated,  thorough information.

[Get Marwood & I]

1 minute ago, androolx said:

 Wow, more than I asked for, but all of it is very interesting  info!   Thanks!   As always, you have provided well articulated,  thorough information.

We try 

[shadroch]

On 12/28/2012 at 11:27 PM, shadroch said:

Is there a cents version of MACC #1 ?

 

I asked this before but didn't see an answer, so here it is again.

 

Were the Marvel Comics that were sold in Bermuda, Hong Kong, Falklands, ect, ect American copies with pence handstamps or pence copies? Does anyone know?

In 1975, I didn't find any American Comics in my very limited search of Hamilton and St George.  In 1979, I found a few American books with handstamps.  They were several months old and I already had them so I skipped buying  them. One newsstand had a few b&w digest sized books with really crappy printing. They were mostly war books and I passed on them as well.

In both cases, I was on a cruise and only had very limited time to hunt. In 79, I made the mistake of asking a record shop if they had any reggae. I had no idea that both reggae and dreadlocks were banned in Bermuda. The shop owner educated me  on Bob Marley being a Satan spawned commie who would sooner slit my throat than sing.