Golden Age Comic Racks 6 6

[bellrules]

On 10/11/2020 at 5:09 AM, buddy2 said:

There are some great comic racks in this thread. Thanks for sharing.   While the ones I have are a little newer than Golden Age.  I thought people interested in Comic Racks might appreciate my Whitman Rack/Marvel Rack (with original Box).  

Where did you find that Whitman rack?

[buddy2]

@bellrules I bought it on Ebay several years ago

[sfcityduck]

This "wall hanger" version of the classic late 40s early 50s Dell rack just went for a steal on eBay.  I have one, but I should have bid anyway:

[ThothAmon]

3 hours ago, sfcityduck said:

just went for a steal

Now you tell us. 

[comicwiz]

On 6/29/2018 at 1:03 PM, sfcityduck said:

Discovered a new kind of Dell comic rack.  Probably dates to 1940s.  Would have had wood dividers on the shelves creating 3 slots for comics (you can still see grooves):

Also discovered a new dell paperback rack:

And here's what I think is a late Dell comic rack, probably 1960s:

I can only speak on what I've learned/researched, this is much earlier than late 60's. One of the clues is pocket width. I did find a rare DELL/GK transition rack about an hour from where I live which the owner would not sell me. I call it a transition rack because it has the signature DELL characters appearing on the header that rolled into Western Publishing, but it's very clearly a GK rack that I estimated to be produced very early 1962/63, and the only comics that would fit in it are 15-20 cent GK comics, you could not fit any DELL 10 cent comics in it, the pocket width would not allow it. And certainly, there is no way you would be able to put in any slabs as evidenced in the dated pic above. What I've learned from having had over a dozen comic racks pass through my hands is that publisher specific racks had a much greater control over specifications such as pocket width. The issue they struggle with is shipping, and so very early in the distribution of comics and the retailing strategies they used to sell comics relied heavily on having agreements in place not only with the proprietor to devote floor space for them, but also with local display fabricators. The generic racks had to accommodate a wider range of publisher material for that time period.  Edition Heritage (French Canada publisher) is a great example of a publisher specific that found themselves needing to accommodate a variety of publishers and formats (i.e. regular-sized comics, digests/selection, and collectors edition [square-bound/mag sized comic], as they had to produce using a floor merchandiser fabricated in Quebec, and some of their racks have pockets to accommodate those different formats. There's  MAD Magazine rack on Hakes at the moment that is another example of a publisher specific rack that holds multiple formats.

Below is a more updated photo, I originally picked-up this rack from Tracey Heft and estimate it's date to be somewhere around 8-10 years before the GK rack mentioned above (so roughly early to mid 50's period).

Edited June 14, 2021 by comicwiz

[comicwiz]

These are a great example of the early days of comic displays where it was often a logistical issue, and not always possible to have these large merchandisers shipped, sometimes soon after striking-up retailer agreements to dedicate floor space for that publishers comics. Sure, those merchandisers fabricators were correct in saying these helped sell comics in their ads, but what if a publisher decided they wanted to improve their sell rate at the racks? The publisher would send out these instead. We rarely see these signs as much now, and nowhere near as much as the full floor merchandiser racks with tin headers. These were made rather clearly under the guidance, creative direction and brand control of the publisher, and were made to be plugged into a merchandiser very likely fabricated by a local manufacturer to the store where it was intended to be used. My best guess is these signs are very rare now because of the incident that as publishers moved towards the direct market or stores could no longer devote floor space, that stores would simply remove these headers and still be able to purpose the floor merchandiser for other literature or books they carried. The Archie sign with the tubed stem would very likely plug into the tubing of the base/stand, likely utilized on a spinner (the example photo I used is for a contemporary rack, as a visual point of reference).

There's also this Marvel Comics one, which I believed uses an older wireframe design, but the sign dates this to late 60's. I do believe the Archie sign is earlier.

These are all double-sided, and if you look closely, all bear the same drill-hole pattern on the lower left and right. The ones below are on a wireframe design that evolved afterwards. I do believe these were purposed specifically for the stand-up style of comic rack.

I was pretty stoked to add the one below to my collection. This came from a Webb's general store located about 20 hour drive from me. The store closed in the 60's, and the property/lot was acquired in 2015 and was discovered while cleaning out the old stores contents. I picked it up from @comicginger1789 right here on these boards.

If you look closely, mine has thes interesting chrome numbs that protrude on both ends at the end point of the pointed wireframe stem, and I did not understand how that worked until I plugged it into one of my 60's stand up racks, and realized it was designed that way to be plugged into a floor merchandiser in this exact manner.

Edited June 14, 2021 by comicwiz

[sfcityduck]

For those wanting a rare Silver Age rack, this DC wood rack just popped up on eBay:

 

It's different from other wood DC racks I've seen, not having the painting on the side in the rack shown below and a slightly different graphic for the word "Best":

http://chipkidd.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/hakes-auction-chip-kidd-comic-book-rack-2.jpg

 

[mustang33guy]

On 6/29/2019 at 7:23 PM, mustang33guy said:

So I am up in New Hampshire visiting my in laws for the July 4th holiday and we stopped at an antique store on the way home from lunch. My mother in law said that they had comics and I should check it out. Unfortunately the comics were beat 70s and 80s issues, but behold the rack they were sitting on! Couldn’t pass up this unique opportunity to own such a cool piece. So I took it home with me!  Cool 1940s Dell Wooden Comic Rack

I can’t believe I posted this 2 years ago already! 

 

Anyways I realized I never got around to posting my Dell wooden rack in its glory filled up with none other than...Dell Comics! Super appreciative of a buddy of mine who just wanted to see it completed, donated a ton of low end books to fill er’ up! I’ve loved this setup ever since and couldn’t imagine the man cave without it. Enjoy! 

 

Edited June 15, 2021 by mustang33guy

[Robot Man]

3 hours ago, sfcityduck said:

For those wanting a rare Silver Age rack, this DC wood rack just popped up on eBay:

 

It's different from other wood DC racks I've seen, not having the painting on the side in the rack shown below and a slightly different graphic for the word "Best":

http://chipkidd.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/hakes-auction-chip-kidd-comic-book-rack-2.jpg

 

Love that rack. Have always wanted one. Doubt it will go affordable anymore. 

[sfcityduck]

2 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

Love that rack. Have always wanted one. Doubt it will go affordable anymore. 

Ask is $10K.  Ouch.

[Robot Man]

1 hour ago, mustang33guy said:

I can’t believe I posted this 2 years ago already! 

 

Anyways I realized I never got around to posting my Dell wooden rack in its glory filled up with none other than...Dell Comics! Super appreciative of a buddy of mine who just wanted to see it completed, donated a ton of low end books to fill er’ up! I’ve loved this setup ever since and couldn’t imagine the man cave without it. Enjoy! 

 

Nice! Welcome to the club. Since the picture was taken, I found a stray blue top piece at an antique show. Had to buy it. It just popped on when I got it home. 

Edited June 15, 2021 by Robot Man

[sfcityduck]

So now I've got to post the next best thing to a Dell wood rack (my Dell rack is wire):

 

 

Edited June 16, 2021 by sfcityduck

[archiecomicscollector]

On 6/14/2021 at 6:25 AM, comicwiz said:

These are a great example of the early days of comic displays where it was often a logistical issue, and not always possible to have these large merchandisers shipped, sometimes soon after striking-up retailer agreements to dedicate floor space for that publishers comics. Sure, those merchandisers fabricators were correct in saying these helped sell comics in their ads, but what if a publisher decided they wanted to improve their sell rate at the racks? The publisher would send out these instead. We rarely see these signs as much now, and nowhere near as much as the full floor merchandiser racks with tin headers. These were made rather clearly under the guidance, creative direction and brand control of the publisher, and were made to be plugged into a merchandiser very likely fabricated by a local manufacturer to the store where it was intended to be used. My best guess is these signs are very rare now because of the incident that as publishers moved towards the direct market or stores could no longer devote floor space, that stores would simply remove these headers and still be able to purpose the floor merchandiser for other literature or books they carried. The Archie sign with the tubed stem would very likely plug into the tubing of the base/stand, likely utilized on a spinner (the example photo I used is for a contemporary rack, as a visual point of reference).

There's also this Marvel Comics one, which I believed uses an older wireframe design, but the sign dates this to late 60's. I do believe the Archie sign is earlier.

These are all double-sided, and if you look closely, all bear the same drill-hole pattern on the lower left and right. The ones below are on a wireframe design that evolved afterwards. I do believe these were purposed specifically for the stand-up style of comic rack.

I was pretty stoked to add the one below to my collection. This came from a Webb's general store located about 20 hour drive from me. The store closed in the 60's, and the property/lot was acquired in 2015 and was discovered while cleaning out the old stores contents. I picked it up from @comicginger1789 right here on these boards.

If you look closely, mine has thes interesting chrome numbs that protrude on both ends at the end point of the pointed wireframe stem, and I did not understand how that worked until I plugged it into one of my 60's stand up racks, and realized it was designed that way to be plugged into a floor merchandiser in this exact manner.

Wow! Definitely have to keep an eye for these for my collection. 

[sfcityduck]

Not GA, but someone scored on eBay by getting this rack I've never seen before on a cheap BIN:

[Robot Man]

On 12/2/2021 at 8:20 AM, sfcityduck said:

Not GA, but someone scored on eBay by getting this rack I've never seen before on a cheap BIN:

Wow, cool. Never seen that one before. I like that it has 3 slots in a row rather than 2. 

[sfcityduck]

Congrats to the latest entrant to the CCA Comic Rack Club! Just sold on eBay for $1,200:

 

[sfcityduck]

Not GA, but I've never seen it before:

[gadzukes]

Here's a cool old Fox Comics Rack.  1940?

 

 

[Robot Man]

On 12/25/2022 at 12:57 PM, gadzukes said:

Here's a cool old Fox Comics Rack.  1940?

 

 

Man, that’s a cool rack! Most likely the only known example left. 

[GACollectibles]

On 12/25/2022 at 3:57 PM, gadzukes said:

Here's a cool old Fox Comics Rack.  1940?

 

 

It will be interesting to see what that goes for!

Edited December 26, 2022 by GACollectibles
interesting not intresting