Golden Age Fawcetts: Missing Pages or Publisher's Choice? 0

[the_sierran]

I searched for an answer to this one and didn't find anything that suited the situation so here it is: During the golden age did any publishers use short page counts to save paper? By that I mean interior pages totaling less than a multiple of four (i.e. 62 pages instead of 64). This would result in a leaf with a half-inch or so "strip" along the binding somewhere in the back of the book opposite a corresponding full page in the front half.

I have been a collector of mostly 70's books since, well, the 70's, and only have about 35 golden age books. I have never encountered this before today when I came across a few wartime Fawcett books that had this going on. No story pages are missing and the dealer says it was unusual but not unheard of, but I'm thinking some kid just clipped two-sided advertising pages out from the middle of the story. If anyone has a thought on this I'd be curious to know.

[SOTIcollector]

8 hours ago, the_sierran said:

I searched for an answer to this one and didn't find anything that suited the situation so here it is: During the golden age did any publishers use short page counts to save paper? By that I mean interior pages totaling less than a multiple of four (i.e. 62 pages instead of 64). This would result in a leaf with a half-inch or so "strip" along the binding somewhere in the back of the book opposite a corresponding full page in the front half.

I have been a collector of mostly 70's books since, well, the 70's, and only have about 35 golden age books. I have never encountered this before today when I came across a few wartime Fawcett books that had this going on. No story pages are missing and the dealer says it was unusual but not unheard of, but I'm thinking some kid just clipped two-sided advertising pages out from the middle of the story. If anyone has a thought on this I'd be curious to know.

I don't know how many publishers did it, but I have seen just what you describe in some Classics. It could have been Classics Illustrated, but more likely Classics Comics.  In that case, it was definitely something done in production, not a case where somebody removed pages.  

 

[Readcomix]

Yep, it was a thing during WWII to save paper. Some books had that single-leaf page that looks like the opposite side of a leaf was a page sliced out. I can't be comprehensive on which books/how many, nor do I know of a database that lists them all, but its a known and recognized thing.

[William-James88]

I answered this question a few times on the boards already, Fawcett comics did indeed not make all their books in multiples of four. There are many instances of there just being one leave stapled instead of 2.