The Distribution of US Published Comics in the UK (1959~1982) 15 15

[Get Marwood & I]

7 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

And the UK versions have different types of stamps / overprinted price versions

On that point, I've found that for the Charlton UKPV comics, some of the UK prices appear stamped by hand, as they vary in position from one copy to the next, and others appear printed as they all occupy the exact same position on different copies of the same book. The placing of the UK prices on these three copies indicates by hand:

If so, you couldn't call these magazines price variants as such of course - just another variation of stamped distributed US originals. But for the Charlton comics, the original US prices were clearly omitted during printing so they are variants by definition, even if the subsequent UK price was hand or mechanically applied after the original printing event on some copies:

 

I like to think a 'no price' version will surface one day, if I'm right....

 

 

[Get Marwood & I]

@Mr Thorpe @Albert Tatlock @Kevin.J

Guys, a theory for you.

To recap, we have five titles currently eligible to be sitting in the 6 box of the first cycle:

Our current theory, supported by the absence of 7's, is that they are actually late second cycle books, which would make the 8 stamp the first DC delivery.

What gets me, still, is that the cover dates all kind of match what would have been a first cycle 6 stamp set of books. How likely is it that those five issues were all late, all arriving as second cycle 6s?

Now, to my theory. What if those books are the 'market testers' / 'make-weight' books that Duncan refers to over at the CBPGUK? The concept of the testers must have come from somewhere? He wouldn't have made it up would he?

So what if those books - and any others waiting to be found - were the testers, and the lack of first cycle 7s is indicative of the market research delay?

Whaddaya think guys? Is that plausible?

[Albert Tatlock]

Surely a one month gap would not have been sufficient to gather a meaningful amount of data on sales figures.

Also, the titles with a 6 stamp are less well selling titles.

Superman and Batman titles would would have been a better test of marketability.

[OtherEric]

8 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

@Mr Thorpe @Albert Tatlock @Kevin.J

Guys, a theory for you.

To recap, we have five titles currently eligible to be sitting in the 6 box of the first cycle:

Our current theory, supported by the absence of 7's, is that they are actually late second cycle books, which would make the 8 stamp the first DC delivery.

What gets me, still, is that the cover dates all kind of match what would have been a first cycle 6 stamp set of books. How likely is it that those five issues were all late, all arriving as second cycle 6s?

Now, to my theory. What if those books are the 'market testers' / 'make-weight' books that Duncan refers to over at the CBPGUK? The concept of the testers must have come from somewhere? He wouldn't have made it up would he?

So what if those books - and any others waiting to be found - were the testers, and the lack of first cycle 7s is indicative of the market research delay?

Whaddaya think guys? Is that plausible?

It's plausible enough; like you say the grouping is such that them all being cycle two books seems slightly implausible. 

One thing to remember is that we will probably never have a definitive answer; we may be better off just saying that we have a couple theories explaining the distribution than ever picking one over the other.

[Get Marwood & I]

Just now, Albert Tatlock said:

Surely a one month gap would not have been sufficient to gather a meaningful amount of data on sales figures.

Good point, but doesn't that also apply to the market tester / make-weight theory full stop?

Just now, Albert Tatlock said:

Also, the titles with a 6 stamp are less well selling titles.

Superman and Batman titles would would have been a better test of marketability.

Are you saying Pat Boone wasn't popular back in the day Albert? 

[Get Marwood & I]

4 minutes ago, OtherEric said:

It's plausible enough; like you say the grouping is such that them all being cycle two books seems slightly implausible. 

One thing to remember is that we will probably never have a definitive answer; we may be better off just saying that we have a couple theories explaining the distribution than ever picking one over the other.

That's kind of where I'm going with it Eric - identifying what we can and cannot say for 'certain'.  And that's before we've even factored Charlton, Archie and ACG into the mix 

[Get Marwood & I]

I think Albert's gone to the foot of our stairs 

[Mr Thorpe]

Those 6's look like first cycles to me. I suspect there was a rush to get stuff over, anything, so this was what was in the warehouse in the States at the time and easily available. I don't think they were market testers. As Albert says, it's the wrong titles to use as a market test. Having said that, just to complicate matters, remember you still had the Australian Batman and Superman comics on the stands at the time.

I think we need to add in the ACG's to get more data! I like ACG's!

[Albert Tatlock]

If these No 6 stamped items were late arrivals, what would have been accompanying them?

What do we have as definitely late arrivals stamped 6 in 1960?

[Albert Tatlock]

18 minutes ago, Mr Thorpe said:

Those 6's look like first cycles to me. I suspect there was a rush to get stuff over, anything, so this was what was in the warehouse in the States at the time and easily available. I don't think they were market testers. As Albert says, it's the wrong titles to use as a market test. Having said that, just to complicate matters, remember you still had the Australian Batman and Superman comics on the stands at the time.

I think we need to add in the ACG's to get more data! I like ACG's!

The objection to this would be why was this rush job not followed up immediately with another rush job, a shipload stamped on arrival with a 7.

[Kevin.J]

47 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Surely a one month gap would not have been sufficient to gather a meaningful amount of data on sales figures.

Also, the titles with a 6 stamp are less well selling titles.

Superman and Batman titles would would have been a better test of marketability.

I gotta agree with this

[Kevin.J]

2 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

The objection to this would be why was this rush job not followed up immediately with another rush job, a shipload stamped on arrival with a 7.

and this

[Get Marwood & I]

18 minutes ago, Mr Thorpe said:

Those 6's look like first cycles to me. I suspect there was a rush to get stuff over, anything, so this was what was in the warehouse in the States at the time and easily available. I don't think they were market testers. As Albert says, it's the wrong titles to use as a market test. Having said that, just to complicate matters, remember you still had the Australian Batman and Superman comics on the stands at the time.

I think we need to add in the ACG's to get more data! I like ACG's!

Is that market test theory of Duncan's a phantom do you think?

10 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

If these No 6 stamped items were late arrivals, what would have been accompanying them?

What do we have as definitely late arrivals stamped 6 in 1960?

I've been undertaking a huge overhaul of the images I had saved, and it's taking a while, but I should soon have the updated table ready to post. In the meantime, all the second cycle 2 stamps are May or June 1960 cover dates:

 

 

Adding the first cycle 6's would completely mess up the pattern. 

[Albert Tatlock]

45 minutes ago, OtherEric said:

the grouping is such that them all being cycle two books seems slightly implausible

It would be implausible if they were the only ones arriving late, but if they were accompanied at about the same time by lots of other stuff....................?

[Get Marwood & I]

Just now, Albert Tatlock said:

It would be implausible if they were the only ones arriving late, but if they were accompanied at about the same time by lots of other stuff....................?

See above - the second cycle 6's are a pure little date set, currently.

[Get Marwood & I]

3 minutes ago, Kevin.J said:

50 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Surely a one month gap would not have been sufficient to gather a meaningful amount of data on sales figures.

Also, the titles with a 6 stamp are less well selling titles.

Superman and Batman titles would would have been a better test of marketability.

I gotta agree with this

Hence my assertion that the market test theory is likely a duff one and should be discounted as a) it doesn't make sense and b) we have no examples of the alleged title issue numbers

[Albert Tatlock]

Yes, there are problems in either case. We will never be able, I think, to sift the late arrivals from the ontime stuff, but we can make informed guesses.

[Get Marwood & I]

Loom how many 1's and 3's there are compared to 6's in the second cycle by the way:

 

It looks like the May cover date books were split over two stamp deliveries doesn't it, 5 and 6.

[Albert Tatlock]

6 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Is that market test theory of Duncan's a phantom do you think?

I think so.

Any pre official distribution DCs that Duncan saw around would most likely have been from other sources, possibly PXs on USAF bases.

[Get Marwood & I]

18 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Yes, there are problems in either case. We will never be able, I think, to sift the late arrivals from the ontime stuff, but we can make informed guesses.

That's my current position Albert - we can make a damn good guess, but the smoking gun is absent in places. 

When I 've finished populating the table with all the DC's (including the other titles that started within the first 4 cycles / after October 59) let's all look again. And then I'll add in Charlton, Archie and ACG. 

The stamps don't lie - they are physically present and, in the main, the majority of the extant examples for the same issues have the same stamps. The stamp to cover dates sequencing broadly correlate well. So the picture is more than substantially complete, if only for DC. It's just those early 6 stamp DC copies that create a problem - and a big one, if we are all interested in establishing which books arrived first.

All good fun.