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Doctor Tom Brent and His Flying Nurses
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796 posts in this topic

8 minutes ago, Glassman10 said:

It seems to me that if you're looking for historical perspective in the evolution of comic books ( not books) that the historical group is what you really need. This place is about money and little else. Candidly, I love what you do but it's really in the wind which is blowing over investment potential.  You are all wonderfully funny. We really need that. 

Kind of you to say Glass. I've spent quite a few quid on the Charlies which I could have invested in a 'key' I suppose. But where's the fun in that. I know most people are indifferent to Charlton but I've never been one of the in crowd so we're good bedfellows. And you, TV, Gnash, Duff and the crew are my wonderful band of nut case followers. On we march I say, on! :headbang:

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I would have loved being a fly on the wall when these titles were being hashed out and why (..... really?) they were thought to be materials that would find financial support.. ( I MEAN REALLY?)

 

At the time this was coming out, I was a kid with fifty cents heading for an idyllic day at the beach in the summer of 1959. I had an orange crush and usually I had a "flash" comic and some penny "Abba Zabbas" . I recall lying in that hot sand with that haul  with the waves calling from the pacific., and the sun coming down. Everything was folded back.   I would only go home when the afternoon fog came in.  Tomorrow was another day.

Even into the time 10 years later when I was going by the bus depot every third thursday with a  five dollar bill to get the marvel run of the month, it really didn't occur to me that this junk would ever bring money. My mom had already thrown out the 10 cent stuff along with the baseball cards but now, I lived a thousand miles away and she couldn't do it.  I kept them for years, not thinking so much that someday they would have value, but more because I really liked this stupid stuff,

When I sold, it was like lightinng. I never would have thought a radioactive spider biting a really badly drawn kid was going to be in demand.  Then, there were the 950 others I didn't chuck either. I bought a tractor for me and a house for my son.    I confess to keeping the "Thors"  Sort of stupid that way. 

So, keep after it. Life should be a passion for things that make it worth living. You're doing well.  

 

I admire your persistence. 

If you want investments, buy Mastercard. 

Edited by Glassman10
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My big brother used to Spring clean the house from top to bottom I lost thousands of British pounds in collectables he had NO mercy! My Bond toys, comics, trading cards,  U.N.C.L.E items and monster kits all suffered, even my HO-OO scale army bit the dust. I did beat him though because I started hiding them all under his bed a place he would never look.:bigsmile:

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8 hours ago, Glassman10 said:

It seems to me that if you're looking for historical perspective in the evolution of comic books ( not books) that the historical group is what you really need. This place is about money and little else. Candidly, I love what you do but it's really in the wind which is blowing over investment potential.  You are all wonderfully funny. We really need that. 

Well said... (thumbsu

Steve, I'm sure you must have mentioned this, but have you covered the dual pricing of the 70's Charlton's?

s-l1600.jpg

 

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24 minutes ago, Gnasher said:

Steve, I'm sure you must have mentioned this, but have you covered the dual pricing of the 70's Charlton's

Yep. Went down a storm on page one Bob:

On 3/17/2018 at 9:25 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

In an earlier post I mentioned the three broad ‘UK’ phases I intended to cover in this thread as being:

1.      Printed Cents priced comics with Thorpe & Porter distribution stamps (1959/1960)

2.      Printed Pence priced Charlton comics from L Miller (1960/1963) – the variants of this thread’s sub-title

3.      Intermittent dual Pence / Cents copies (1973/1975 and beyond)

 

Phase 1 - Thorpe & Porter Stamped Cents Copies

In respect of the first phase, I’ve found many examples of cents priced Charlton books dated prior to the L Miller pence printed phase which have Thorpe & Porter price stamps on them. The books date around 1959 to 1960 so it seems that Thorpe & Porter were importing cents copies to the UK for Marvel, DC and Charlton during the 1959/1960 period. I'll go into more detail on this and post some examples later

Phase 2 - Printed Pence Priced Variants

My earlier post details what Charlton pence books exists in this phase. In respect of the general history for the top three of Marvel, DC and Charlton, in 1960, Thorpe & Porter take hold of Marvel and solicit books with pence printed prices but stick with importing cents priced stamped copies for DC. I’m not sure why we have to wait until 1971 for DC to get actual pence printed copies, but there you go (see my DC pence thread for more details). L Miller take over Charlton books from 1960 for 3 years, and also a few Western Marvel titles for one year (see my L Miller thread).

It would be interesting to know how the US comic importing empire was carved up during this time by the UK based publishers, and how it came to pass that Thorpe & Porter got Marvel and DC, and L Miller got Charlton and a few Marvels. Either way, it all seemed to happen around the same time and it would be great to hear the story from someone who was around at the time (if they’re still alive / reading this!).

 Phase 3 - Dual Cents/Pence Pricing

As well as the genuine 1960-1963 pence priced variants documented in phase 2, Charlton also played around with dual cents/pence pricing from April 1973 onwards.

If we look at the summary I put together here…

21_01_18.thumb.PNG.5dfe84e0efec3039be08e47389921e2f.PNG

…we can see that from January 1964 through to March 1973 there were no Charlton pence priced issues – everything had a printed cents price only (I’ve found a few books from 1964 with an ‘R.V. 9d’ pence price stamp on them and are investigating these for a later post).

In March 1973, Charlton produced 20 titles, all with 20c prices. In the next month, April, three dual cents/pence priced issues appear (Beetle Bailey, The Phantom and Popeye). Quite why they only did these 3 is anyone’s guess but from May 1974 through to February 1974 we had a mixture of titles with cents only prices and titles with dual cents/pence prices.

To be clear, there are no variants here. Where the book is cents only priced, every copy is cents only priced. Where the book is dual priced, every book is dual priced. The dates which individual titles begin dual pricing differ, so there is no real pattern or logic to it and none of the titles are obvious pence / UK audience contenders (Beetle Bailey who?).

During March and April 1974, Charlton down tools and produce no titles at all. When they return in May 1974, with higher cents prices, every title is dual cents/pence priced but the pence price stays at 6p. This goes on up to August 1974.

From September 1974, we’re back to a mixture of cents only and dual cents/pence issues and then from February 1975 every title reverts to cents only pricing.

In March 1976 (not shown on the graph above) the dual prices actually crop up again, from May 1976 all copies are dual, etc etc etc all the way through to Charlton’s demise in December 1984

I don’t mean that last bit to sound flippant but Charlton really couldn’t seem to make their minds up which titles they wanted UK pricing on, for which months, and when. It’s all over the place.

The key point to understand here is this – don’t confuse any Charlton books with pence prices on them from April 1973 onwards as variants. They are not, as every copy is the same when dual pricing occurs. The only true Charlton pence priced variants are those I’ve documented earlier from the 1960 to December 1963 phase 2 period. Unless I’ve missed something during my research of course - I’m always happy to be proven wrong, as it means people are interested / paying attention!

As an aside, to me, the quality of the Charlton books flagged significantly during the 1973 onwards phase. They don’t look anywhere near as good as the 1960’s books and I suspect the reason Charlton is less loved than say Marvel or DC is largely down to the quality of their output from the seventies onwards. So it’s back to those sixties books in the next post.

 

 

 

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8 hours ago, Glassman10 said:

So, keep after it. Life should be a passion for things that make it worth living. You're doing well.  

 I admire your persistence. 

Cheers Pete. No one else is doing it - well, apart from one discerning, defiant, chap out there. And I genuinely love the books of this phase. The later Charltons were awful, but the titles, art and covers of this 60-63 pence phase have a lovely charm to them. I enjoy cataloguing them even though I know that the vast majority of boardies here are indifferent. I like to think that I've placed more information about them online than anyone alive. The pence books that is. Much better than being just another high grade Marvel key slab factory eh. I enjoy it, that's all that matters. 

Marwood hates the damn things though (thumbsu

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7 hours ago, Gnasher said:

Well said... (thumbsu

Steve, I'm sure you must have mentioned this, but have you covered the dual pricing of the 70's Charlton's?

s-l1600.jpg

 

Oh Coffin! You're such a twit...I can just imagine "Oh you must meet my friend Coffin he's just dying to meet you.":bigsmile: Also why has that guy got a souffle on his head? Or is he Johnny Bravo's dad.

 

 

images.jpg

images.png

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17 hours ago, Glassman10 said:

you're looking for historical perspective in the evolution of comic books

I came across this article Steve to add to the history that you are building:foryou: although it's not about UK editions however I have seen covers with this logo and UK prices through the years.

http://blog.gocollect.com/dc-silver-age-checkered-flag-comics-the-top-5/

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2 minutes ago, tv horror said:

I came across this article Steve to add to the history that you are building:foryou: although it's not about UK editions however I have seen covers with this logo and UK prices through the years.

http://blog.gocollect.com/dc-silver-age-checkered-flag-comics-the-top-5/

DC, Charlton tommy.gif.c1c056e8ac13fe8d0ba67ba97e2a299c.gif Charlton, DC

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On 3/26/2019 at 10:35 AM, tv horror said:

Oh Coffin! You're such a twit...I can just imagine "Oh you must meet my friend Coffin he's just dying to meet you.":bigsmile: Also why has that guy got a souffle on his head? Or is he Johnny Bravo's dad.

 

 

images.jpg

images.png

It's odd to me that the Johnny Bravo meme shows up. Cartoon network in this country had this brilliant period which was sadly short produced by David Fleiss. It included Bravo but had some real gems of "Courage, The cowardly dog", "Cow and Chicken",  as well as others. I feel fortunate to have a complete set of DVD's of Cow and Chicken which came over here from England. Playing with their cousin Boneless Chicken was so incredibly tasteless, i continue to watch it from time to time.  I've often thought of those rare visions Fleiss came up with.  Courage had some very strange stuff in it at times. I just loved it.   I do not know if Cartoon Network played out in the British Isles. It was a very short run but it was just hysterical. 

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5 minutes ago, Glassman10 said:

It's odd to me that the Johnny Bravo meme shows up. Cartoon network in this country had this brilliant period which was sadly short produced by David Fleiss. It included Bravo but had some real gems of "Courage, The cowardly dog", "Cow and Chicken",  as well as others. I feel fortunate to have a complete set of DVD's of Cow and Chicken which came over here from England. Playing with their cousin Boneless Chicken was so incredibly tasteless, i continue to watch it from time to time.  I've often thought of those rare visions Fleiss came up with.  Courage had some very strange stuff in it at times. I just loved it.   I do not know if Cartoon Network played out in the British Isles. It was a very short run but it was just hysterical. 

2132132588_giphy(2).gif.12f4668e9c2b6ee5a6c3eff1d613d646.gif

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2 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

2132132588_giphy(2).gif.12f4668e9c2b6ee5a6c3eff1d613d646.gif

I remember them using boneless as a frisbee and he got thrown on the roof.   Just perfect....

 

I would like to know anything of Fleiss's career, or lack thereof. Mom's everywhere would be so relieved. 

Edited by Glassman10
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