Sixties Marvel Comics: Cover Date vs. Actual Sale Date -- Can You Help?

[Extollager]

I've been writing some autobiographical papers, probably just for my own reference. Perhaps someone can help me with something.

My first Marvel comic was Thor #140, dated May 1967.

My memory is that the comics were placed out for sale two months before the cover date. This issue, then, presumably went on sale in March.

Can anyone offer good confirmation about when 1960s Marvels went on sale as compared with the cover date?

Also -- I've assumed that the magazines appeared on sale pretty much at the same time across the nation -- so I would have seen them on sale in Oregon at about the same time readers in New York would have. After all, we didn't get our TV Guide magazines weeks after folks in New York did, right? But if there were significant regional differences, that would be interesting.

If you can direct me to a high-credibility source about this cover date-sale date matter, I'd be grateful -- or if anyone just remembers the matter distinctly.

Many thanks for your help.

 

[Matteo]

Hmm...not sure I can help with your overall question but I have the Thor Omnibus Vol. 2 (and 1) in which that issue appears. I'm pretty sure that the contents pages lists all the issues with their publication date (at work now so can't check) and so I might be able to give you an answer for Thor #140. Presumably all Marvel comics had a similar system.

Alternatively, there is a Kirby database somewhere on the net that is very extensive (sorry, no longer have the link) and there I seem to recall that the publication dates were listed. Again, you could reasonably use the same logic.

Though for what it's worth, I think your "two months" theory is right.

 

[maeda]

From this

Marvel Silver Age comics publication date & newsstand dates in Masterworks Message Board Forum

..found this Mike's Amazing World of Comics

if that helps

 

[Extollager]

Maeda, thank you!! Very pertinent stuff!

If anyone else has anything on the topic indicated in my heading, please chime in -- but what you sent, Maeda, is probably "sufficient" for my purpose.

Thanks again.

 

[Extollager]

Hmm...not sure I can help with your overall question but I have the Thor Omnibus Vol. 2 (and 1) in which that issue appears. I'm pretty sure that the contents pages lists all the issues with their publication date (at work now so can't check) and so I might be able to give you an answer for Thor #140. Presumably all Marvel comics had a similar system.

Alternatively, there is a Kirby database somewhere on the net that is very extensive (sorry, no longer have the link) and there I seem to recall that the publication dates were listed. Again, you could reasonably use the same logic.

Though for what it's worth, I think your "two months" theory is right.

Thanks, Matteo. I saw Maeda's response first, but I appreciate your comments too.

 

[Extollager]

That Mike's Amazing World is a fascinating site -- I especially like his "monthly newsstand" feature showing the magazines offered in a given month, which enabled me to reconstruct my gradual commitment to all of Marvel's superhero comics. I was buying all or nearly all of them by July 1967 (I'm not sure about X-Men). But that month I bought one of the best comics I've ever acquired, and it wasn't a Marvel production. It was Gold Key's The Best of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge #2, featuring several magnificent works by the great Carl Barks.


Here's a link to the "newsstand" feature:

Mike's Amazing World of Comics

 

[maeda]

fantagraphics is doing a splendid job of reprinting those old classics

Series :: The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library

 

[Extollager]

Times were different fifty years or so ago...

 

[maeda]

wow those are in really nice condition
it would be interesting to read the comic part of that autobiographical paper of yours

 

[Extollager]

That image was something I found online, I should say. I thought the juxtaposition of a comic about aliens and a comic about Adlai (!!) was pretty great.

So far I have just written autobiographical scraps for myself about my discovery of Marvel -- I'm trying to jot things down for ease of reference and perhaps as a resource when my memory will presumably become impaired. Thanks for your interest -- I might put something longer together here eventually, but here are a few notes, some of which might be puzzling to people who weren't Marvel comics readers fifty years ago!

March 1967--started in with Marvel by buying Thor #140 and Fantastic Four #63. In the months following, I gradually added their other superhero magazines. The first two years were the happiest Marvelizing months. I joined the Merry Marvel Marching Society and received, among other things in the kit, a floppy "record." Roaming around town to make sure I got all the new issues for a given week was good exercise.

It seems that in 1969, the quality began to deteriorate, with, for example, pointless large panels in Jack Kirby's books. For example:

That must have taken Kirby about ten minutes to draw. Note the extreme sketchiness of the buildings in the background. Marvel wouldn't have "cheated" readers that way just a year or two before. Bully Says: Comics Oughta Be Fun! However, I did join Marvelmania around 1970.

I won a few no-prizes. These came in two forms. The first two I received came in business-size envelopes, within which was a smaller envelope containing the no-prize; i.e. nothing. Later no-prizes were just empty envelopes. Marvel published letters from me in Chamber of Darkness #3 and Sub-Mariner #24 and #27. They published full addresses, like the old sf pulp magazines did, I gather -- and so fandom discovered me -- it would be more accurate to say that, than that I discovered fandom. A fan got in touch to sell his fanzine to me, and one thing led to another and I was soon involved in that world, pretty different then (pre-Internet!) from the way it must be now. Soon a Marvel fan friend and I were putting together the first issue of a fanzine of our own. It wasn't devoted just to comics, though. Earlier, as kids aged around 12, we'd had stimulating discussions about which comic artists were "hacks" -- "hack" being a word I picked up from my friend.

The last thing to mention about those late Sixties-very early Seventies days is the buying through the mail of back issue comics. There were few or no comics stores then, but I suppose few people who received catalogs from Howard M. Rogofsky have forgotten the experience of paging through them and wishing they could buy more. I kept a few of those catalogs, including my first, dated Nov. 1968. Rogofsky was (as I eventually learned) known for being a bit expensive; but just imagine being able to buy Amazing Fantasy #15 (the first appearance of Spider-man) for $12, or Fantastic Four #1 for $22, or X-Men #1 for $6. I ordered from Rogofsky three or four times, I usppose. The wait for the order to arrive in the mailbox was intense.

 

[Matteo]

Maeda, thank you!! Very pertinent stuff!

If anyone else has anything on the topic indicated in my heading, please chime in -- but what you sent, Maeda, is probably "sufficient" for my purpose.

Thanks again.

No problem, but I'm afraid my Thor Omnibus was no help; just said "May 1967" for that issue.

And, I later remembered that I downloaded a stack of stuff from that Kirby website I mentioned and put it into an Excel sheet(s) - as part of my continuing goal to get everything Kirby (though most of this is in "graphic novel" format). Unfortunately, this also gives "May 1967" as the date for that issue - so no help there either.

Anyway, it seems Maeda has produced the goods.

 

[maeda]

@Extollager
Nice, i wish my memory servers me that good, i started with comics in the beginning of the 80s.
Here across the pond you could find comic magazines with a lot of various stuff, but mostly older classics, Alex Raymond etc, and a lot of really great European comic strips.
I had a break period that lasted more than 10 years, when i decided to investigate more ehm, serious literature.
Today i'm very picky about comics, simply because they have to fight with all other literature, in a relatively small time window of a 24h day. I remember in those days comics and sff were much more connected, today they are completely different things, sales & marketing stuff probably.
Anyway, realizing a lot of my old memory is blurry i find your idea of autobiographical jots interesting, it's no fun losing memory, especially good one.

 

[Extollager]

Maeda, I always recommend that people keep lists of their reading. The lists don't have to be detailed. Beginning when I was 18, I kept track of the books I read -- who wrote the book, the title, and whether it was fiction or nonfiction. It takes hours to read a book, but a few seconds to record the author, title, and beginning and end dates for when one read it. I also recorded the fact if it was a book I read to my wife or one or other of our children.

But this came after my time of being passionately interested in Marvel comics!

 

[Extollager]

I have posted a memoir of my youthful efforts to find back issue comics in junk stores, here:

H&H: A Memoir of Seeking Back Issue Marvel Comics in Second-Hand Stores About 50 Years Ago

 

[maeda]

I started keeping lists awhile ago, and my eBook app records that too, thank you for interesting piece of history, again.
btw. have you ever been tempted to start reading them again? assuming you stopped..

 

[Extollager]

Hi, Maeda -- Yes, I stopped buying Marvel comics entirely by around 1974, not just because I was put off by inferior artwork (Sal Buscema!), hideous covers, and repetitive, exploitative stories, but because this was a time (ca. 1972 and following) when almost every month brought new books and authors to enjoy: Mervyn Peake! Jack Vance! Charles Williams (Many Dimensions, etc.)! -- not to mention various standard and mainstream authors who turned out to be exciting to read. I also explored the realm of comic art well beyond the boundaries of Marvel, whether Hal Foster's Prince Valiant, Will Eisner's Spirit, or Carl Barks's duck work, etc. At rare intervals I've sampled more recent Marvel product and wasn't drawn to it very much, leaving intact my appreciation for what the company's work had meant to me back when.

I think Pierre Comtois is right in seeing the beginnings of a decline from the most magical period by around mid-1969, in his book on Marvel comics in the 1960s.

 

[maeda]

Extollager, i agree with what you are saying about Marvel.
Nevertheless, from time to time there is a genuine gem that pops out of graphic novel medium, outside of marvel-dc realm.
The downside is time spent sifting through material to catch a few, but i still have that passion going, and i'm positive it's the artwork doing its magic to lure me in.