| The latter
change was a direct reference to Marvel's weekly
UK comics, which featured black and white reprint
material (and could often be picked up at the
very same news agent).  
Since
the early 1960s, US comic book titles from
various publishers were shipped to the UK with a
printed British currency cover price, and during
the 1970s pence price variants (predominantly
from Marvel, since DC stopped shipping
pence price variants from 1971 to early 1978) became a fairly common sight at
larger newsagent outlets.
Pence price variants were
printed in the US at the same location and at the
same time by the same company and on the same
paper as the regular US run of that specific
issue, and only differ from these with regard to
the cover price and, as of August 1974, the
masthead, while the interior pages are absolutely
identical (including editorial material and even
advertising). Bulk shipping from the US resulted
in these variants actually going on sale during
the month indicated on the cover, whereas this
was usually three months ahead in the States to
prolong shelf life.
|
|
Howard the Duck #16
(Price 12p, September 1977)
|
|
| |
 |
|
You
can read more about the
history and background of
pence price variants here. |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
| Marvel published a total of 63
regular page-count colour comic book titles with a
January through December 1977 cover date. |
| |
| For some of these, it was just
another year in their monthly or bi-monthly
publication history, but for some 1977 saw the
end of the road (e.g. Werewolf By Night,
cancelled after issue #43 in March) while things
only got started for others (e.g. Ms. Marvel,
with issue #1 in January). An oddity in that respect was
Logan's Run, a sci-fi movie tie-in title
that both saw its debut and its demise take place
in 1977 as it only managed to clock up a total of
7 issues between January and July.
| 1977 |
Total |
Non-Distributed |
Distributed
(Pence
Price) |
| |
|
|
|
Titles
|
63
|
30
|
33
|
| |
|
|
|
Issues
|
459
|
210
|
246
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
| 33 of those 63
titles saw issues shipped to the United
Kingdom with a pence price cover, which
is just over half of Marvel's 1977 title
output (and a sharp drop from the previous
year which saw 75% (47 out of 65
titles) distributed). |
|
|
Marvel Premiere #37
(Price 12p, August 1977)
|
|
| |
Tomb Of Dracula #55
(Price 12p, April 1977)
|
|
Conan the Barbarian #76
(Price 12p, July 1977)
|
|
Daredevil #148
(Price 12p, September 1977)
|
|
Fantastic Four #186
(Price 12p, September 1977)
|
|
| |
| However, the number of issues
that actually saw pence price variants in 1977 could vary
significantly, but no less than 19 titles saw a full run.
In most cases this meant 12 monthly issues, although in
some cases the number was lower due to changes in the
publication cycle (going from monthly to bi-monthly) or a
title being launched or cancelled during 1977: |
| |
Master of Kung Fu #56
(September 1977)
|
|
2001:
A Space Odyssey (cancelled after
#10)
|
10
issues
|
Avengers
|
12
issues
|
Captain
America
|
12
issues
|
Conan
the Barbarian
|
12
issues
|
Daredevil
(bi-monthly
as of August)
|
10
issues
|
Defenders
|
12
issues
|
Eternals
|
12
issues
|
Fantastic
Four
|
12
issues
|
Howard
the Duck
|
12
issues
|
| Human
Fly (launched
in September) |
4
issues
|
Invaders
|
12
issues
|
Iron
Man
|
12
issues
|
Logan's
Run (cancelled
after #7)
|
7
issues
|
Marvel
Team-Up
|
12
issues
|
Marvel
Two-In-One
|
12
issues
|
Master
of Kung Fu
|
12
issues
|
Ms.
Marvel
|
12
issues
|
Nova
|
12
issues
|
Power
Man (bi-monthly
as of August)
|
10
issues
|
Thor
|
12
issues
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| All things considered, this was a
sizeable offering to fans of the US Marvel comic books
based in Britain, although regional and local
distribution could at times be less than reliable. In
total, 246 issues were given the pence price variant
treatment, equaling 54% of the total of 459 regular page
count colour comic book issues published by Marvel in the
US 1977 (down from 64% in 1976). |
| |
| Titles that
weren't part of the pence price export production at all
(i.e. "non-distributed") often happened to be
so for a reason. |
| |
Marvel's Greatest Comics #68
(Price 10p, January 1977)
|
|
In
some cases the appeal to the UK comic
book market of the mid-1970s was
doubtful, which had mostly excluded
Romance and Western titles from
distribution in previous years; by 1977,
however, Marvel had dropped the first
anyway and the latter were on their way
out. It was, in fact, more
importantly the opposite concern that
prevented certain titles from being
distributed as pence price variants:
their appeal was considered to be too
much of a threat to the black and white
reprints published weekly by Marvel UK.
The last thing the House of Ideas wanted
was to be its own competition.
As a result, some very
popular characters were either banned
completely or to a very large extent. The
Hulk was not only blacklisted for his
ongoing title Incredible Hulk,
but also for his reprint title Marvel
Super-Heroes. The same applied to
Spider-Man, with both Amazing
Spider-Man and Marvel Tales
(along with Spidey Super Stories)
being non-distributed, although Marvel
Team-Up was available as a complete
run in 1977.
|
|
Super
Spider-Man and Captain Britain #244
(Marvel UK, October 1977)
|
|
|
| |
| But sometimes, things changed;
the Avengers had been non-distributed for most
of 1976 but became available as a complete run in 1977
(whilst their reprint title Marvel Triple Action
was non-distributed). In a few cases, the first issue of
a title would be distributed only to then have the
following issues be non-distributed (Spectacular Spider-Man in 1976, Black
Panther and Red Sonja in 1977). |
| |
Nova #13
(Price 12p, September 1977)
|
|
Star Wars #3
(Price 12p, September 1977)
|
|
Thor #263
(Price 12p, September 1977)
|
|
Marvel Premiere #39
(Price 12p, December 1977)
|
|
|
| |
| Marvel's "First
Family", the Fantastic Four, were obviously
considered less of a competitive threat for Marvel UK,
since their title was distributed fairly regularly in the
UK and saw a complete run in 1977 (although similar to
the Avengers, the FF's reprint title Marvel's
Greatest Comics only saw one single issue
distributed as pence price variant in 1977). |
| |
Invaders
#20
(Price 12p, September
1977)
|
|
Marvel
continued to face
increasing production
costs and experimented
with a 5¢
price
increase (from 30¢ to 35¢) between
June and October 1977 in
select local markets
(effectively creating
what today are known as
"35¢
variants") before
the cover price went up
nationwide with the
November 1977 cover date
run. In
the UK, however, given
the shipping-induced
delay of three months
(which meant comic books
were actually available
during the month
indicated on their
cover), the price change
from 10p to 12p happened
with the March 1977
issues - far ahead of the
"market
testing" in the US
in late summer, let alone
the general November
cover price raise. UK
readers who bought pence
price variants most
likely didn't realize it
at the time, but for six
months they were paying
20% more for their comic
books than their American
cousins.
They also missed out
on the first comic book
since Dell‘s 1960
run of Uncle Scrooge to
top a million copies
sold: Star Wars
#1, since only issues
#2-5 were distributed as
pence price variants
(although these are
believed to have topped a
million copies, and
possibly more, as well).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| The following table lists all
regular page count colour comic books published by Marvel
with a January through December 1976 cover date. |
| |
| |
