Hail, fellow Crivvies! I if truth be told must admit that heaps of my posts were rather ‘anaemic’ of gradual, mainly due to this of me being distracted by some clinical problems, so thank goodness for contributors esteem Doctor Andrew Could well (no, he’s no longer my physician), who as soon as extra has stepped into the breach to assemble you all with one thing price reading and making an try at. You’re getting wrong with this guest publish and I’m taking a possibility publishing it because it is doubtless you’ll per chance potentially by no approach indulge in with one thing I write ever again. (By no approach solutions, I will be able to at all times descend abet on my ‘Babe Of The Day’ posts.)
Anyway, produce certain that to expose Andrew how worthy you revel in his efforts to entertain you, and please prove that every quilt image featured right here is supplied by Andrew from his own private sequence. (Undergo in solutions to click on any image to provide better, then click again for optimum size.)
******
The two comics pictured above fraction the identical quilt date, January 1974, and I bought each of them when they in the beginning came out, however the one on the left is priced in pence and the one on the right in cents. This reflects two varied ways in which British readers might well maybe even get US Marvel comics within the Seventies. As Baby has mentioned beforehand on this weblog, the correct distinction between the two variations lies within the quilt; they were printed at the identical time on the identical equipment within the US, however copies destined for the British market were priced accordingly. These were then shipped over en masse as surface freight and dispensed to UK newsagents.
The topic for avid collectors (as I used to be at the time) was that it is doubtless you’ll per chance per chance no longer count to your explicit native newsagent stocking every subject of your favourite comedian month after month. To relieve far from the emotional stress of losing out, you had the extra reliable different of shopping “cents” copies from UK dealers who imported them on a particular person foundation. Since these came over by airmail, they’d the additional income of arriving about 2 months sooner than the newsstand variations. On the assorted hand, they’d the major drawback that they were moderately loads extra costly. In the case illustrated above, to illustrate, the pence comedian is finest 6p yet the cents copies were supplied on a “1c = 1p” foundation, i.e. 20p on this case. Because of the this fact the jam: you had to weigh up the professionals and cons to resolve which titles to pre-boom and which to entrust to the vagaries of newsagent distribution!
Not like Baby, I rarely ever keep in mind when and where I sold a explicit comedian. In the case of Unprecedented Four #142 pictured above, however, I will be able to divulge with certain bet that I sold it in London all the contrivance by contrivance of a college day out to the Science Museum. I vividly keep in mind, as I used to be reading it within the coach on the kind dwelling, our physics teacher making a profoundly ignorant comment to the keep that I used to be “too oldschool for such issues” (this was rapidly after my 16th birthday).
As for imported “cents” copies, my critical source of those all the contrivance by contrivance of 1974 and 1975 was the Andromeda guide shop in Birmingham – about 12 miles from where I lived in those days, and which I visited a minimal of as soon as a month. Its critical speciality was science fiction – a subject I used to be correct as fanatical about as comics – however alongside with gargantuan numbers of US paperbacks and magazines they furthermore imported Marvel and DC comics. This was where I sold the entire cents comics pictured below – however no longer the above replica of Marvel Two-in-One #1, which predates my discovery of Andromeda. That happened about a weeks before Christmas 1973, and – on chronicle of cents copies in most cases arrived about a months before their quilt dates, I might well maybe even bet I bought the January 1974 issues in November 1973.
These would were obtained by mail boom from one in every of the listings in Anecdote Advertiser (which was the closest thing we had to eBay in those days). Having a perceive by contrivance of my closing, worthy depleted, hoard of comics correct now, the correct varied cents copies from those pre-Andromeda days that I quiet hold are about a issues of Spider-Man – in conjunction with #129, which featured the first appearance of The Punisher, and is now belief of as “crucial” ample to were reprinted in facsimile develop fair no longer too long ago.
Despite the undeniable fact that I used to be glad to await a pence replica of The Unprecedented Four subject pictured above and furthermore the one after it, my newsagent failed me with #144 (March 1974), which created a hole in my sequence. I promptly vowed by no contrivance to omit one more subject, so from #145 onwards I pre-ordered it on a month-to-month foundation from Andromeda – alongside with Spider-Man, The Hulk and The Avengers, even though I did no longer hold onto my collections of the latter two titles.
It looks esteem I’ve been writing for ages without a photographs, so it is excessive time for some extra. Under are two comics from August 1974: Spider-Man #135 (cents) and Thor #226 (pence). You might well maybe stare a mark hike in each circumstances, to 25c and 7p respectively – and that the banner within the latter case now reads “Marvel All-Color Comics” as an different of “Marvel Comics Community”. I bet that was to provide them stand out from the line of weekly unlit-and-white comics that Marvel was promoting within the UK at the time.
I acknowledged a 2nd ago that I did no longer hold on to the entire Hulk comics I bought in those days. Fortunately, I’m no longer a total fool (no longer the entire time, at the least) and I did hold the foresight to avoid wasting the three issues (#180-182) that comprises the first appearance of Wolverine. Under is #181 (which has furthermore been given the facsimile medication fair no longer too long ago) alongside one more comedian from the identical month (November 1974) that, speaking personally, I loved loads extra – Spider-Man #138, that comprises The Mindworm. Gerry Conway was my favourite Marvel author all the contrivance by contrivance of that duration – and, as a science fiction fan, this explicit epic if truth be told reminded me of the similarly titled immediate story by Cyril Kornbluth.
I might well maybe even bet that, all the contrivance by contrivance of the two years 1974-75, a minimal of three quarters of the comics I sold were pence-marked newsagent copies, for blatantly evident economic reasons. Nonetheless making an try at my closing sequence now, bigger than half of the comics I’ve chosen to hold on to are cents variations – presumably on chronicle of those were the ones I wished badly ample to spend extra money on. Around a dozen of them are “Big-Size” layout, which I in particular cherished. The first of those who I obtained is pictured on the left below – Big-Size Tidy-Stars #1 (Could well 1974), which consisted of 52 pages for 35c. I win this was in the beginning conceived as a rotating anthology series, however then they changed their minds and the next subject (in August 1974) was merely Big-Size Unprecedented Four #2 – with a rather tweaked layout of 68 pages for 50c and a large quilt by Rich Buckler. For diversity, even though, I’m furthermore showing you Big-Size Avengers #1 (furthermore from August 1974), mainly on chronicle of I in particular esteem the quilt by John Romita.
In the end, below are two extra covers I esteem, on this case by Frank Brunner: Doctor Unfamiliar #4 (pence) and #5 (cents). I would hold sold the latter comedian first, on chronicle of (as defined earlier) cents copies in most cases arrived on this nation about a months before pence copies. Nonetheless then I noticed #4 in a newsagent (potentially right by contrivance of the time of its quilt date, October 1974), and sold that as properly. All my subsequent Doctor Unfamiliar issues are pence copies, too, so it appears to be like esteem I made up my solutions it wasn’t within the “unmissable” class.
