Tuesday, February 6, 2018

They (Almost) Never Were a Nickel! ~~ A "Comical Wednesday" AND "David'Z RantZ" Post


I HATE IT WHEN (Comic Book Edition)...
  • Non-comic-book-readers write a newspaper or magazine article about comics, and the theme is either "There's Money in your Attic," or "Comics Aren't Just for Kids Any More."
  • Non-comic-book-readers automatically think FLASH! BAM! POW! or the like whenever they think of comics, thanks primarily to the silly 1960s Batman television show.
  • Non-comic-book-readers respond to any mention of comics with "Holy smoke, Batman," or something similar, thanks, once again, to that damned TV show. (Y'see, Robin, Batman's sidekick, often said "Holy [something]" in response to... well, just about anything. And his holy whatevers were usually pretty weird, if they made any sense at all. For example, in one episode, Batman realizes that three specific letters are missing from a bowl of alphabet soup -- I told you it was a silly show -- and Robin's response is "Holy Uncanny Photographic Mental Processes!" Well, non-comic-book-readers often think to use a "Holy..." line, but never come up with anything interesting or creative like Robin did in any of those episodes. Nine times out of ten, it's just a simple "Holy smoke, Batman," or "Holy shit, Batman!")
  • Some non-comic-book-reader in his fifties or older says he (or a friend) still has comics from the 1960s or earlier that are "all in their original plastic bags." Well, folks, with the exception of some multi-packs put out very briefly by DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and King Features in the mid-1960s, comic books weren't sold in plastic bags until the mid-1980s or so, when some publishers started including free trading cards or other junk stuff along with certain comics.
  • Older non-comic-book-readers say "I remember them when they were a nickel!"
Well, fellow babies, today's post is about these "nickel" comics.

Comic books in their current form (more or less) were a product of the early 1930s. The very first comic books from that era were promotional giveaways. The first comic book in the modern format that had an actual price tag on it was marked 10¢. Before long, almost all comics being published consisted of sixty-four pages (a count which sometimes but not always included the front and back covers, inside and out, thus the covers added four pages to the count). And they were all 10¢. They were never a nickel!

Well, actually, I should say that they were never a nickel... except for the ones that were.

*sigh*

In 1938, Dell published a one-shot, 512" x 712", 68-page comic book called Nickel Comics (shown at the top of this post). It had a color cover and a black & white interior, and sold for... 5¢.

In 1940, Fawcett (which also published the comics featuring the original Captain Marvel, as well as a lot of other titles) came out with eight issues of a bi-weekly, again called Nickel Comics (shown below). It starred a character called Bulletman. It had 36 pages (32 "real" pages, plus covers) for... 5¢.


So obviously, whenever someone says "I remember them when they were a nickel!" I cannot, in all fairness, reply "No, you don't! They were never a nickel!"

And what makes it worse, from the 1930s until relatively recently, comic books were sold mostly by newsstands on what was called a "returnable basis." Newsstands were supposed to return whatever comics were unsold when the new copy of each title was shipped. But to save work (and lifting) for all concerned, magazine distributors allowed the newsstand dealers to cut the title of each magazine or comic off the book, and send that back to the distributor, which would then give the newsstands credit for all the unsold copies.

The newsstand dealers were supposed to throw the remainder of the magazine or comic away, but a lot of them didn't. Ever see (or own) a comic that looked like the following two illustrations?

Laugh Comics #30, 1946

Batman #34, 1946

Those two -- and millions like them, over the years -- should have been thrown away, but some of the more unscrupulous newsstands put them out for sale at a price naturally lower than 10¢. Sometimes that reduced price was as high as 8¢. Sometimes it was as low as 3¢.

And other times... *sigh*... it was a [razzer-frazzer] NICKEL!

Thanks for your time.

18 comments:

  1. haha if you had a nickel for every time holy was given a go, you'd be rich. That holy stuff sure is annoying, blah. Figures they would sell coverless ones on the cheap.

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    1. Retailers often do what they can to maximize their profits. I guess we can't really blame them for selling those clipped comics, even though what they were doing was improper, if not downright illegal.

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    2. Always find a way. Just like how some have big sales before year end so they don't have to account for them in inventory, and some magically don't count the ones that they "sold" in the weeks to come.

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    3. Sounds like you've worked in retail somewhere in your past, Pat.

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  2. My mother has a lot of comic books in plastic bags, of course she put them there. haha...I don't remember seeing any that were a nickel.

    I guess there was a market for those clipped comics. Hey, everyone wants a deal.

    ..and you are most welcome to my time ;)

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    Replies
    1. I've been using that "Thanks for your time" line since I started writing professionally (not counting my fictional stories). I figure there are plenty of things people could be doing with their time, so if they bother spending time reading a little (or a lot) of my stuff, I could at least thank them!

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    2. Well, it is a nice touch as time is a valuable commodity. Then again it begs the question what is time?

      I hope you are enjoying your week.

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    3. Mostly, yes. I hope you are, too.

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  3. Damn those non-comic-book-readers! :)

    Susan A Eames at
    Travel, Fiction and Photos

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    Replies
    1. Sports fans are probably frustrated by people like me, who don't follow sports much at all. Everyone has their own interests!

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  4. I enjoyed getting some historical insight about the history of comics from your post. Reading about how they used to cut the titles off of unsold comics makes me think about what newsstand dealers do or have done with unsold magazines.

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    1. Sometimes I get carried away trying to fill in too many historical details. I've been told a few times that I should write some sort of history book about comics, but it's been done by others, and there's just so much to write about...

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  5. You're a treasure trove of fun and interesting info. I would love to have some original Archie comic books.

    You got a laugh out of me with the sample of Robin's use of "holy". You know, my parents spelled my name with a "Y" so that I wouldn't be teased about being Batman's buddy. It worked. I've never been. Smiles.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So, your name's really spelled "R-O-B-Y-N?" I thought maybe it was something you'd chosen yourself.

      By the way, you're one of two readers whose comments don't get sent to my email. I wonder why that is.

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  6. I'm always up for a good rant, and some of my favorite peeves are the ones where the non-experts boast about how much they know . . . which drives the experts crazy, of course.

    I'll never boast about my comic book knowledge, and I bow to your superior (and vast) wisdom when it comes to All Things Comic.

    I've seen paperback books with covers torn off, and I knew they were not to be sold that way, but had never heard about the same practice with comics. Interesting!

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    Replies
    1. It makes it a lot easier for the distributors in several ways. As I'm sure you're aware, books and magazines get pretty heavy in quantity.

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  7. I love Archie, we hhad a lot of these!

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    Replies
    1. Archie comics were well known for selling more to girls than boys. That's not a sexist comment, either. The Archie titles appealed more to girls because they featured relationships (not just romances) between people, as opposed to superhero comics which had muscular guys beating the crap out of each other.

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