Comics UK

I notice that Al has included three separate series of Pluck in the Comics UK gallery section (even though my computer can't access any of the images) - but does anybody remember buying this fourth version during the 1960s?



- Phil Rushton

Are we sure that's not an April Fool's gag like Fighter (which is also in the gallery) and Apollo?

According to Gifford there was a Mick Anglo Pluck story paper issued by Miller in 1956 which ran for two issues but sixpence seems a bit pricey for that era as I think the Marvelman Comics were fourpence then? But this is a story paper so who knows. Anyone have the Milller Pluck?

The fact it's monthly is odd too. A lot of kids' titles are fortnightly or monthly now, but weren't they mostly weekly back then?

Digifiend wrote:The fact it's monthly is odd too. A lot of kids' titles are fortnightly or monthly now, but weren't they mostly weekly back then?

Yes. The only monthly UK comics I remember in the sixties were reprint comics from Alan Class (Creepy Worlds, Sinister Tales, etc) and Top Sellers (Tarzan, Fox and Crow, etc), all of which featured American material and would be racked with the US imports.

The mainstream British publishers tended to avoid monthlies because, as a senior editor told me, a month is too long a wait to retain the loyalty of a young reader. They felt that a weekly would hold their interest more. (And truth be told, a month DOES seem a very long time when you're a kid.) Plus, comic sales were so good back then that it made more sense to do 52 issues a year of course.

Perhaps this monthly Pluck was a short lived title from a small publisher, like the very brief UK superhero comic The Purple Hood(which only lasted two issues).

Perhaps Phil can be persuaded to post more information from inside the comic, even a few cartoons and story pages. That should help to solve the mystery, unless the front cover and a blank back is all he's got. After all, it's his enigma, so it's up to him to supply the variations. Come on, Phil, Pluck a few strings!

Speaking of the Alan Class reprints I never realised those balck and white reprints were published in the 50s as well but I found three issues at my mum's last week and have just put them on ebay including this one from around 1952. Nice cover.

If I remember correctly, this is the companion paper to Courage which was another Miller story paper. No comic strips in Courage and my copy is not immediately to hand but I think it packed up immediately after launch!

This is the first time I've seen the cover to Pluck and there must be only a handful left. Great find!

Pluck is a real curiosity and no mistake (and if I didn't have a real-life copy in front of me I'd be inclined to agree with Lew that that cover looks more like some kind of spoof!). Unusually it contains no date information, nor are there any adverts to date it from: my only reasons for assuming it was published in the 1960s were the price (which to me would have seemed exorbitant any time earlier) and a vague similarity to the appearance of Fleetway's Valiant.

In fact it looks as though Steve is right in saying that it actually appeared in the 1950s (though I'd be interested in knowing where Denis Gifford mentioned it as it isn't included in either of his comic catalogues). A small note at the bottom of page 3 reveals that Pluck was indeed published by Len Miller & Son (of 'Marvelman' fame), even though this information is inexplicably missing from their trademark triangle on the cover.



What's more, the contents are very different from their normal fare - consisting wholly of boys' text stories, clearly intended to compete directly with DC Thomson's long-running story papers such as Rover, Hotspur and Wizard. Considering the price difference one can't help wondering why anybody thought this title had a chance of selling more than a handful of copies - to my mind it's surprising that it ever made it off the launchpad in the first place!







Alongside these text features (all printed in black and white) the only thing resembling a picture strip was this back page 'True Tale of Pluck and Courage':



Interestingly, the note that it was "drawn and told by an artist who was there" gives a strong indication that the person responsible for this page (and possibly the whole unusual package) was none other than Marvelman creator Mick Anglo - himself known to have had a distinguished war record.

...All in all a very odd title! I'd love to know more about how, when...and above all why it came to be published.

- Phil Rushton

stevezodiac wrote:Speaking of the Alan Class reprints I never realised those balck and white reprints were published in the 50s as well but I found three issues at my mum's last week and have just put them on ebay including this one from around 1952. Nice cover.

Hi Steve, There were tons of black and white reprints of US comics published in the UK in the fifties. American imports didn't have full distribution until 1959 so there were b&w reprints of anything from Superman to Tales of the Crypt, Popeye, Human Torch, Wyatt Earp, and loads of others. Some had 68 pages, some were quite slim at about half that.

The Alan Class comics were actually the last survivors of that format.

Edit: it occurs to me on second reading that you were only talking about Alan Class comics in the fifties, sorry.

Although there were two separate series of Out of this World published by Alan Class it was actually quite an unusual book for him in that, instead of packaging them under his own British name like Creepy Worlds he reproduced the title and logo from a pre-existing American comic published by Charlton. What's more, Thorpe & Porter had already published their own UK version during the 1950s (Steve's example coming from this initial run). As a result there are no less than three different British editions of Out of the World no.1!

- Phil Rushton

philcom55 wrote:Considering the price difference one can't help wondering why anybody thought this title had a chance of selling more than a handful of copies - to my mind it's surprising that it ever made it off the launchpad in the first place!

I'm not sure this argument quite stands up, Phil. It was only 6d every month after all. Thomsons put the price of their boys' weeklies up from 2d to 3d near the end of September 1951, but there was no further price rise until the sixties. So, if you wanted to buy Adventure and The Wizard on a Tuesday, or The Rover and The Hotspur on a Thursday, it would cost you 6d every week. In 1953 Charles Buchan Publications produced School Cap, at 6d every fortnight. This folded after ten issues, so it seems to me that the main issue here isn't the cost. It is either the interest factor or the gap between issues.

philcom55 wrote:I'd be interested in knowing where Denis Gifford mentioned it as it isn't included in either of his comic catalogues

The information about Pluck is in Denis's British Comics and Story Paper Price Guide 1982.

You were right first time, Lew. I meant all black and white reprints. I considered them a sixties only phenomena until the other night. I bought these from Frank Dobson in the 70s as a couple had Al Williamson artwork which was hard to get hold of for a reasonable price back then.

Just looking at the aforesaid catalogue and Denis says the first 60s Out of This World was not numbered and the second issue is numbered as issue 1.

Here's the original American cover from Charlton

Ditko produced some great work for that series - whoever published it!

You're right about the first Alan Class edition being unnumbered Steve. In fact, if you count that as another number one there are at least four British versions of Out of this World no.1. Here's Alan's second attempt:



No wonder the person who compiled the current entry for the Grand Comics Database got it confused!

- Phil R.

stevezodiac wrote:You were right first time, Lew. I meant all black and white reprints. I considered them a sixties only phenomena until the other night.

Funnily enough I was talking about them with Phil Clarke and Mike Higgs a few weeks ago. Being a bit older than me they grew up on those fifties reprints. Apparently, as there were no American comics (officially) imported (though some would turn up on rare occasions) British publishers such as L.Miller had the rights to to British editions of most DC, Marvel, EC comics etc. Although in black and white, as you're now aware.

Most seem very rare although there are some on eBay at times. Here's a UK edition of US crime comic Justice Traps the Guilty for example:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Justice-Traps ... 51b4032f54

There were also lots of new UK 1950s comics in the American format (albeit again in black and white, or limited colour).

The books British 1950s Sci-Fi and Horror Comic Books and Great British Fantasy Comic Book Heroes provide more info on the comics we're talking about. Well worth it if you can afford them:

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/ ... -book.html

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/ ... omics.html