Marvel 'L Miller & Co' UK Distribution Variants (May 1960 ~ September 1961) 5 5

[Kromak]

On 3/28/2022 at 9:22 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Anyway, I now have a full set of all 26 L Miller UK indicia distribution variants - and, possibly, the only one in the world?

Lovely! 

Congrats on the full set.

Congrats on the full set.

Can anyone give me an explanation of the 10c copies without stamp on it? I mean, the guy on the newsstand had a price's table to know the price to be charged? And the reasons behind not having the price stamped or printed by Marvel still in the US?

[rakehell]

On 3/28/2022 at 10:22 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Anyway, I now have a full set of all 26 L Miller UK indicia distribution variants - and, possibly, the only one in the world?

[Get Marwood & I]

On 3/29/2022 at 2:15 AM, Kromak said:

Congrats on the full set.

Thanks 

On 3/29/2022 at 2:15 AM, Kromak said:

Can anyone give me an explanation of the 10c copies without stamp on it? I mean, the guy on the newsstand had a price's table to know the price to be charged? And the reasons behind not having the price stamped or printed by Marvel still in the US?

There is no written record or evidence to explain these two aspects that I am aware of Kromak, but I speculate what might have happened in the thread and my journal page. 

The first two UK Price Variants are Gunsmoke Western #58 and Journey into Mystery #58, both priced 9d and cover dated May 1960:

  

One was solicited and distributed by L Miller, and one by Thorpe & Porter (T&P) - they were two of the leading comic distributors in the UK at the time. They came to a post-embargo arrangement with Marvel, the details of which are unknown, and initially shared the distribution of UK Price Variants as further titles were added. 

A Miller copy had this unique indicia...

...and a Thorpe & Porter this:

From September 1960 cover date, the Miller distribution titles reverted to 10c cover prices but retained their unique UK indicia (and therefore retained variant status). The Thorpe & Porter titles continued as 9d printed covers and ultimately, from October 1961, they took over all Marvel titles. Miller lost the contract somehow and T&P became the 'sole distributor' in the UK for Marvel at that point.

The table below shows the Miller titles only, but you can see where T&P took over Gunsmoke Western from issue #66:

In respect of your two questions, I think the Miller copies reverted to a 10c printed price (se table above) as Miller may have wanted to undercut T&P by charging 6d to their 9d. 6d was the usual price for a Miller distributed comic at that time as this ad from one of their reprint titles proudly proclaims:

Possibly, Marvel did not want to print a 6d printed cover price, or maybe Miller wanted an edge somehow - the option to price as they wanted, using their bespoke Miller price stamps, without alerting T&P. Presumably, T&P and Miller both paid the same flat rate to Marvel for the privilege. The Miller 10c copies went on for a year, so it's unlikely to have been a mistake or omission. Someone must surely have asked for the reinstatement of the 10c price. That's my theory on that, for what it is worth.

To your second point, Miller had their own branded stamps. The books tell us that they were a little remiss in using them as I own, and have seen, many copies with and just as many without. So this may just be simple human oversight. Some got stamped, some didn't. Nothing new there, really, for the time.

At some point, I plan a new journal entry on L Miler which will chart all the US produced books that they distributed - largely unnoticed - in the UK. They were responsible for the distribution of these Marvels that we are discussing here, but also Harvey, Archie, IW and, of course, Charlton. They were quite prolific, in their time, and it's a shame that they do not have a wider appreciation in the hobby - a hobby that still refers to Thorpe & Porter as the 'sole distributors' of Marvel comics in the UK, on many reference sites. The only place you will hear anything about Miller's role is here, in my research (although Jon McClure references it in his Overstreet work now that I have made him aware they exist).

 

[themagicrobot]

It would be interesting to know what areas of the UK Miller actually covered. Being based in London I suspect there was a limit to how far north their distribution reached. Thorpe and Porter were in Leicester and appear to have been "sole distributors" of American periodicals to the thousands of newsagents they supplied soft/hard porn (and comics) to.

As I have mentioned before, as a child living in the Midlands I never saw any Harvey, Archie, IW or Charlton comics on the stands (unless on holiday). Charltons appeared in my neck of the woods only once Thorpe and Porter were involved.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 3/29/2022 at 6:48 PM, themagicrobot said:

It would be interesting to know what areas of the UK Miller actually covered

It would, yes. There's not much information about it to be found though, it seems. Let's face it, the fact that Miller distributed these books and other stamped US original comics in the first instance seems to have passed everyone by - most reference sites speak only of their reprint activities. Finding some written records, or even collector recollections on the geography of it is going to be hard.

I might bag them up with the customised stickers I've made later today. I'll post a picture if I do, of them all laid out.

[Albert Tatlock]

Just spotted this one, although far from pristine I had to snap it up, once I had double checked the indicia was Miller.

The front cover invades the back just as much as I've ever seen, I think.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 7/11/2022 at 10:22 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

Just spotted this one, although far from pristine I had to snap it up, once I had double checked the indicia was Miller.

The front cover invades the back just as much as I've ever seen, I think.

 

That's a nice copy Albert. I like the nice clean stamp. 

[Get Marwood & I]

I picked up a second Miller copy of Gunsmoke Western #61 at the fair yesterday:

As well as being an upgrade condition-wise, it also had a nice Miller cover price stamp, which my other copy doesn't have:

 

Although I have a full set now of the Miller Marvels, I do like to find a copy with the Miller cover stamp as it 'completes' the picture, so to speak, and sets the issue aside visually from the US regular copies. I have a non-Miller copy too, so it's easy to see that at least one of my copies is a Miller!

    

I also picked up a second Miller copy of Rawhide Kid #22 - here are my two copies, side by side:

  

Not a bad comic to have a duplicate of, is it, regardless of internal Miller variations.

I've yet to find a copy of this book with a UK cover price stamp - as well as my two copies, I have multiple Miller examples saved in the files and they all appear to have evaded the stamp. I've speculated on this before, but it does make you wonder how and why they got through unstamped, and how the retailers priced them (if indeed they ever received them). 

Anyway, two lovely books and always a pleasure to add nice additional copies to the collection 

[Get Marwood & I]

There's a nice copy of RK #17 on eBay currently, listed by the chap who started the ball rolling all those years ago:

I love the 6d cover stamp which isn't present on either of my own two 9d copies:

Miller was a bit hit and miss when it came to stamping. 

A bit rich for me this copy, but a cracking book for someone to grab at some point.