Do you read the text stories in your GA books? 0

[Raze]

Do you read the text stories in your GA books?

[Raze]

I didn't read them when I first started buying GA but now I do. 

I feel like it adds to the book, and I also feel like I didn't read the whole book. Some stories are bad but when there is a good one they are awesome.

[Cat-Man_America]

One can acquire great knowledge just from reading a label.  Even Mickey Spillane wrote text stories.

Edited November 16, 2020 by Cat-Man_America

[fifties]

As I understand, the only reason they are there in the first place, is to satisfy the post office requirements for the mailing permit.

I will occasionally read part or all of the story, if it catches my attention somehow.

[Raze]

17 hours ago, fifties said:

As I understand, the only reason they are there in the first place, is to satisfy the post office requirements for the mailing permit.

I will occasionally read part or all of the story, if it catches my attention somehow.

I didnt know that about the post office. What were they saying about it?

[rjpb]

I've read hundreds of Golden Age books, but not a single text story.

[fifties]

1 hour ago, Raze said:

I didnt know that about the post office. What were they saying about it?

It was posted in an EC letters page by the editor.  It may have been in response to a question on why they had to have a text story in each issue.

[Scrooge]

1 hour ago, Raze said:

I didnt know that about the post office. What were they saying about it?

For cheaper delivery, the publishers count on the comics to satisfy the requirements for Second-Class mailing privilege. That included a frequency of more than 4 times a year, the two-page story content and even then, at times, the PO denied the privilege on some series.

Here's from Froehlich's testimony on how My Friend Irma lost that privilege. Given the slim margin on the books, having access to second-class matters as up to 35% of comics were distributed by mail.

One of the angles used to try and fight against the comics was to use the PO to see if the comics would be deemed not mailable but however that was not the case as the comics satisfied the requirements (Keep this in my mind when reading the questioning, it's not directly stated but implied, hence the set of questions about the PO)

[Note: Full transcripts available here - http://www.thecomicbooks.com/1954senatetranscripts.html]

"Mr. BEASER. You still say that all these publications of yours are mailable in the post office?

          Mr. FROEHLICH. Yes, sir. If the magazine is ─ if we know they are going to publish, rather, if we anticipate publishing four issues or more of a title we always apply for a second-class entry privilege. We can't get it on a so-called one shot. The magazine must be published at least four times a year.

            Mr. BEASER. Is Focus mailable?

            Mr. FROEHLICH. Yes, sir.

            Mr. BEASER. Is I Confess also mailable?

            Mr. FROEHLICH. To the best of my knowledge, they are. We have had very little difficulty with the post office. From time to time we have had some dispute in the N. and P. section because of the change in frequencies. There may be errors in the office pulling out the proper kinds of forms which might be nonmailable. It is very seldom.

            Mr. BEASER. You think some of these may have been held nonmailable?

            Mr. FROEHLICH. Occasionally, it can happen. But invariably, we could go down there and straighten it out. That applies to one issue. It does not affect the magazines over the continuity of time.

            Senator HENNINGS. In those instances where the material has been held to be nonmailable, have they been in terms of the advertisements or reading content, or both?

            Mr. FROEHLICH. It is generally considered as a package, Senator. That happens occasionally, and as soon as we find out the cause for that we immediately eliminate it. Again when that does happen you are working in an area of opinion. It certainly happens. A picture which may be accepted in a newspaper may become so prosaic, and you put the thing in a book and somebody will write in and say, "Gentlemen, that shouldn't happen," and the Post Office might take a stand one way or the other.

            Senator HENNINGS. Is there some variation, too, in the postal districts?

            Mr. FROEHLICH. Not that I know of. I think the procedure is quite standardized. I think the Post Office has always been extremely fair and reasonable in their attitudes. On the few occasions we have had difficulty concerning the entire scope of the production per year we have always adjusted it satisfactorily.

            The CHAIRMAN. What was the nature of those difficulties?

            Mr. FROEHLICH. We have run into an occasional problem such as this. We publish a comic book, My Friend Irma. Some time ago the Post Office ruled that such ─ I want to be very careful, I am not an attorney ─ but generally, if I remember properly, it was ruled to the effect that the comic book, My Friend Irma, so-called royalty-type book, was in practice an advertising device featuring a central character. You see, My Friend Irma is a title on it by Cy Howard who, I believe, at that time was under contract with. CBS and there was a series of My Friend Irma motion pictures as well as radio and television shows. In any event, the Post Office considered that our comic book, for which we paid a royalty to CBS on a per copy sold basis, was an advertising device featuring building up and enhancing the value of My Friend Irma, and they cracked down on it and said we were not entitled to second-class privileges. There was quite a hassle about it. Unfortunately we lost.

            That set a pattern for the industry generally. It did not affect titles to which second-class entry had been granted prior to that decision, but since that time it is not possible to obtain second-class mailing privileges on so-called royalty-type books. I wish we had a lot more of them.

            I have a few more comments. We were talking about the fact that we certainly know that we cannot change people's taste. Unfortunately this was very upsetting, to try to put out something that has a great deal of moral, esthetic value, and have it backfire like that. That does not mean that we should cater to every literary demand that will sell, but the lines in a few fields are not clearly defined.

            If the gentlemen on your committee would tell us what we should produce in a comic technique such books probably would not sell. We have discussed this problem with many decent, intelligent persons, educators, psychiatrists, clear-thinking members of PTA groups, minsters, and so on. Inevitably such persons, if they do have criticisms, recommend a type of comic book which would appeal only to the small intellectual minority in the United States, and which would be basically uneconomic and inconsistent with the pattern followed by the other vast media.  "

[Tri-Color Brian]

I do not read the text stories because I do not know how to read.  I just look at pictures. 

[KCOComics]

It depends. 

I can't say I read them all,  but I do enjoy GA as much for the stories / art as for the advertisements and history.  When I have time,  I like to really go through comics and read (or skim) nearly everything. 

 

[catman76]

My favorites are ones in Fox funny animal titles. They always just threw in a violent crime text story in the middle of a funny animal comic

[gino2paulus2]

Some of the time the text stories were actually about what was taking place on the cover of the book. 

[Larryw7]

Some of the EC texts were okay.. And a few were filled with innuendo.

[Raze]

On 11/17/2020 at 2:33 PM, gino2paulus2 said:

Some of the time the text stories were actually about what was taking place on the cover of the book. 

I think Crime Suspenstories 20 did this.

[Raze]

On 11/16/2020 at 9:19 PM, catman76 said:

My favorites are ones in Fox funny animal titles. They always just threw in a violent crime text story in the middle of a funny animal comic

Sounds funny. What issues? Id like to hunt one down for the fun of it!