Golden Age Comic Racks 6 6

[sfcityduck]

Moving on to Dell.  Dell has the most common of all the wooden racks:

I believe that these racks were originally made without any signage at the bottom.  However, some folks, including Robot Man, have added an extra sign to the bottom of the rack which, I must admit, while not original makes it look even neater.

 

[sfcityduck]

Here's a pic of a rack with the extra sign added at the bottom (not Robot Man's which I think looks much better):

You might notice that the bottom, not originally attached, sign has a different color scheme (blue/pink) from the top two signs (blue/yellow).   I don't believe that sign was repainted because Dell used pink signs on its metal spinner racks:

And a very very rare wooden Dell comic rack in a different format exists (the only one I've seen) with the blue/pink paint scheme (owned by dthompson_w-migration):

So if you see a Dell wooden rack with a blue/pink color scheme, the paint is original.

[sfcityduck]

As a quick digression, that rare format Dell wooden rack is very similar to a Dell paperback rack that also had dividers on the shelves:

I think the wooden racks with dividers were the earliest used.  I've seen a different, but equally cool, Dell paperback rack here in an SF bookstore without dividers:

[sfcityduck]

It is harder to date Dell racks than DC racks because Dell never was part of the CCA.   Dell's heyday ended in 1962 when Western took most of the licensed properties to Gold Key, but it continued limping along until 1974. 

I'm fairly certain that wood racks date back to the GA.  Most metal racks probably post-date the GA but are 1950s (the ones with characters).  And a few may even post-date the events of 1962 (the ones with just a Dell logo and no characters).  Here's some examples:

 

[Robot Man]

Hey sfcityduck, nice rack thread. Here are two shots of my Dell rack. One set up with period Dell comics and another with the addition of the other panel I found all by it's self at an antique show. It often looks like the bottom photo. I like that it doesn't have any hard slots so all manner of paper collectibles can be displayed in it. I often fill it up with holiday comics.

[Robot Man]

Here is annother unusual rack. Not for comic books but for Little Golden Books. 1950's era hanging wall rack. Thought it was real unusual when I spotted it at the Alameda Antique Flea Market one Sunday morning.

[sfcityduck]

Love your Dell rack!  A wooden Dell rack is at the top of my wantlist.  Right now I'm making due with a Gold Key wooden rack I use to store some of my oversized comic strip collections while I figure out a comic book room setup - so I'm right there with you in liking the lack of comic sized slots:

That Little Golden Book rack is supercool also! 

[sfcityduck]

Back to Dell, there is also a sheet metal rack, basically a sheet metal version of the standard wood rack, with a single Dell sign panel.  I've seen, one but misplaced the picture.  I don't think it is GA though, probably 1960s.  I also have seen a spinner rack with a red four sided sign that says "Dell" in white letters.  That one may be 1970s. 

And that's about all the info I have on Dell GA racks.

[sfcityduck]

Moving on, I previously posted this flyer picturing a King/Ace/Feature Comics rack:

Here's an example of a similar rack for King/Magic/Ace:

Personally, I love these countertop racks.

[sfcityduck]

I'll be going more in depth on Classics Illustrated, but they had a really nice looking countertop rack:

Seems like the perfect way to display your favorite slabs.

[sfcityduck]

22 minutes ago, sfcityduck said:

Back to Dell, there is also a sheet metal rack, basically a sheet metal version of the standard wood rack, with a single Dell sign panel.  I've seen, one but misplaced the picture.  I don't think it is GA though, probably 1960s.  I also have seen a spinner rack with a red four sided sign that says "Dell" in white letters.  That one may be 1970s. 

And that's about all the info I have on Dell GA racks.

Oops, I left out the 1961 Dell "postage stamp" rack, one of the very coolest of all racks.  I've seen one in the Northwest, and this one was posted on this site by Comicdey:

These spinners, because they have eight sides, hold a ton of comics.

[path4play]

On 6/22/2017 at 4:08 PM, sfcityduck said:

I'm just curious what comic book racks were extant in the Golden Age.  My own research reveals the existence of racks (wire spinner, wooden shelf, and flat wire) by DC, Dell, and Ziff-Davis  [Correction: and King Comics and Classics Illustrated].  I've never seen a rack by any other publisher.  I'd love to increase my knowledge of this subject. 

In the interest of sharing, here's some info on D.C.

I believe the first D.C. comics rack came out in 1939 and featured seven slots for Action, Detective, Adventure, Superman, Flash, All-American, and More Fun:

Another example:

This was followed in short order by a seven slot rack for Action, Detective, Adventure, Superman, Flash, All-American, and All-Flash/World's Finest (sorry More Fun):

The last of this sort of GA rack was a ten slot rack for Action, Detective, Superman, Batman, Flash, Adventure, All-American, More Fun, All-Star, and World's Finest/All-Flash. 

Some of these early DC racks also included an extra plate stating:

After that, DC had so many titles that they switched to racks which did not identify specific comics for the slots.

I'll post more later if anyone's interested or has their own info to share on GA racks.

 

 

Whoops.  I thought this thread was headlights.  Apologies.

 

 

 

 

[Frisco Larson]

9 hours ago, sfcityduck said:

Moving on, I previously posted this flyer picturing a King/Ace/Feature Comics rack:

Here's an example of a similar rack for King/Magic/Ace:

Personally, I love these countertop racks.

I'd LOVE to have this 3 pocket rack!!! Is it yours?

[ender]

I think this is all really interesting.  Has anyone heard of someone manufacturing reproductions?  I would not think the materials would be that expensive and I would like one but there are certainly not enough of these around anymore to meet demand.

Thanks

[Comicdey]

12 hours ago, sfcityduck said:

Oops, I left out the 1961 Dell "postage stamp" rack, one of the very coolest of all racks.  I've seen one in the Northwest, and this one was posted on this site by Comicdey:

These spinners, because they have eight sides, hold a ton of comics.

Thanks for the shout out. Love my rack which has two distinct panels?

Edited July 1, 2017 by Comicdey

[jpepx78]

These pics from a brochure for Atlas Wire racks were posted before.
Imagine being a kid in 1938 or 1939 and trying to decide which comics to buy.
Rack 575 has 1938 books and the others have 1939 books. Note the Tec 33 and look at all those Centaur books!

 

[sfcityduck]

Love that Atlas ad!  Love to see more!

 

 

[sfcityduck]

A quick digression back to Dell, this is that metal version of the wooden Dell 50s comic rack I mentioned up thread.  This low quality picture is the only one I can now find of this rack.  It's sheet metal with one sign:

 

[sfcityduck]

On 6/30/2017 at 6:27 PM, Frisco Larson said:

I'd LOVE to have this 3 pocket rack!!! Is it yours?

Just saw this, not mine.  Sold by Hakes.

[sfcityduck]

Moving on to Classics Illustrated.  I'm not a Classics collector (have some), but I have to admit there are a lot of neat Classics related items for such collectors to collect.  However, an old 1989 fanzine which I'll post from later, claims that Classics comic racks are extremely extremely rare.  I'm really curious as to whether folks have seen many.  I have seen them pop up from time to time, so I'm a little skeptical of the rarity claim (but I may be seeing multiple pictures of the same racks). 

In any event, this rack really impresses me.  Only one like this I've ever seen: