The Secret Origin of Mighty Comic #122: The variant

 KG Murray's Mighty Comic #122 was published c.March-April 1978:

The cover is an in-house production, sourced from the splash page to the cover-featured story, The World of Doomed Olsens!:

This issue is fully-indexed on AusReprints.

Recently, James Zanotto alerted me to a variant of this issue:

By variant I mean a copy subject to an obvious production error, something relatively rare yet not unknown in Murray's output. A prominent example known to collectors is Superman Supacomic #87, and possibly less known is the variant Bumper Western Comic #1.

But what is the cause of this error? An initial theory was a lack of magenta in the printing. I put it to the Junkyard's resident printing expert, Mark Muller, and this is his take on what happened:

"Magenta is there -look at the halo around Jimmy, and the leotard on Elasti-Lad.

What seems to have occurred is the printer used a warm red instead of 100M and 100Y. This could be so the registration of the plates printed better, especially on shite equipment, or rush jobs.

Scenario 1: Printer had this 'orange' on the deck from another job, and used it for run-ups to get ink balance and registration, or

Scenario 2: (I'm going with this one!) The printer fucked up and had the wrong colour in the deck. they ran quite a few (the registration looks reasonable on your copy) then, instead of scraping the run, changed the 'orange' to Warm Red and continued with the run."

So there you have it - The Secret Origin of the Variant Mighty #122.

For comparison purposes here's pics of the issues side by side:

Kid Colt Outlaw #7: Recycling Kid Colt Outlaw #6 - almost...

Page Publications' Kid Colt Outlaw #7 is a reprint of Kid Colt Outlaw #6. Almost...

The covers are identical apart from the shading of the colours:

However, they differ due to the page count - Kid Colt Outlaw #6 is 68 pages, and Kid Colt Outlaw #7 is 60 pages. 

Kid Colt Outlaw #7 omits the two full page covers of the US Kid Colt Outlaw #'s 165-166, and also omits the 5 pages of the untitled story from Kid Colt Outlaw #166. That's 7 pages missing from the edition which has 8 pages fewer than its predecessor. How can that be? 

Well, as I noted previously, there was scope for Kid Colt Outlaw #6 to include the missing first page of the untitled story from Kid Colt Outlaw #166 given the rear cover was left blank - and sure enough, the rear cover of Kid Colt Outlaw #7 has been put into service:

This is a confusing series. As I mentioned before, #5 is unnumbered; there are two #6 issues in this series; and, there is a query over the status of Kid Colt Outlaw #8 - does it exist? TBA. 

Tales of Horror Picture Library #1: Evil Experiment

Page Publications' Tales of Horror Picture Library #1 features a cover illustrated by Keith Chatto:

The story Evil Experiment previously appeared in the UK's Sabre Thriller Picture Library #31:

And subsequently under the same - albeit recoloured cover - as Secret Service Club Library #9:

Tales of Horror Picture Library #1 is the only printing of Evil Experiment by Page Publications I have come across to date. I expect an earlier iteration with Chatto's interpretation of the Sabre Library cover to turn up eventually, and indeed to find further recyclings of this story.

Update 24 December 2024: I have just come across this issue on an eBay listing:

Clearly this is the source of the Chatto swipe. The listing says Sabre Library #73 is c.April 1975.

Tracking Fear is a Soldier's Friend

 Fear is a Soldier's Friend was originally published in MV Features' Battlecry Picture Library #8 January 1968:

Keith Chatto's rendition of this cover appeared on Page Publications' War Battle Series #40:

This story was subsequently recycled by Page Publications in the next issue of the series, War Battle Series #41:

The cover was drawn from the splash page:

Chances are there are more Page Publications editions of this issue to be unearthed.

Young Love #35

KG Murray's Young Love #35 was published c.May 1979:

The cover is from Charlton's Teen Confessions #61, April 1970:

The cover image is sourced from the splash page of the story The Wild Side.

The contents are all from late-1960's-mid-1970's Charlton comics:

The Wild Side, originally published in Teen Confessions #61, April 1970

The Man I Loved, originally published in Romantic Story #94, July 1968

Older Than I Look..., originally published in My Only Love #2, September 1975

This is Goodbye, originally published in Love and Romance #12, May 1973

The Better Man!, originally published in Just Married #102, October 1974

The Princess Vanishes, originally published in Sweethearts #100, October 1968

Mama's Boy, originally published in Romantic Story #130, November 1973

Love, Honor and Cherish..., originally published in Love and Romance #18, September 1974

Temporary Help... Temporary Love!, originally published in Teen Confessions #72, February 1972

I think the above attributions are correct but some guesswork was involved as most of the job codes and writer/artist signatures and credits have been erased in the Murray reprints.

In 1979 the Murray Publishers logo superseded the Planet Comics branding and shortly thereafter the Murray romance titles sported the Murray Romance Library logo. This issue does not bear any Murray logo or imprint on the cover - indeed this series dropped the Colour Comics Pty. Ltd. logo after a few issues. The 1979 Murray Publishers logo is in place for #37 before the Murray Romance Library logo takes over. I have not seen a copy of Young Love #36 which may also be blank or carry the 1979 Murray Publishers logo. TBC

Tracking Wartime Library #3, War in the Army #2 and World War Library 15...

Page Publications' Wartime Library #3 has a cover illustrated by Keith Chatto and was published c.June 1972:

The cover-featured story titled Ambush Patrol is the fourth story in this issue, and was originally published in Battlefield #3. The opening story in Wartime Library #3 is Amphibious Assault, which originally appeared in Marines in Action #6. It is possible that an earlier edition of this Page Publications issue was published featuring Amphibious Assault on the cover.

This issue was subsequently published as War in the Army #2 under another Chatto cover:

And some time later the issue was recycled as World War Library #15:

The cover is drawn from the splash page to the story Man Overboard:

 

Man Overboard is originally from Atlas' Navy Combat #16. 

I am certain there are more iterations of this issue to be unearthered.

Tracking Ocean of Doom in Page Publications digests

 Ocean of Doom was originally published in MV Features' Action War Picture Library #11:

This was reprinted in Page Publications' War in the Navy #1 with Keith Chatto's rendition of the MV Features cover:

This story was subsequently recycled by Page Publications under new Chatto covers in War in the Navy #3:

And in War at Sea #2:

I expect there are more iterations of this issue to be unearthed.

Tracking Ordeal by Fire in Page Publications digests

 Ordeal by Fire was originally published in MV Features' Action War Picture Library #27:

This story was published by Page Publications in War Battle Series #35 c.1971 under a Keith Chatto cover:

It was subsequently recycled under another Chatto cover in War in the Air #2 c.1973:

And recycled yet again under another Chatto cover as War Adventure Series #8:

I expect there are more iterations of this issue to be unearthed, including an issue published before War Battle Series #35 with a Chatto interpretation of the cover to Action War Picture Library #27.

Six-Gun Western Library #7

 

The front cover image on Page Publications' Six-Gun Western Library #7 is from the splash page of His Father's Son!:

His Father's Son! originally appeared in Marvel's Two-Gun Kid #6, September 1956, with art by Matt Baker. This story was reprinted in Australia in Horwitz's Giant Western Gunfighters #1, November 1961.

Six-Gun Western Library #7 is an oft-recycled Yaffa issue. It was originally published as Six-Gun Western Library #1, c.November 1971, and subsequently recycled as Six-Gun Western Library #4, Blazing Western Stories #4 and Western Illustrated Stories #6. 

There may be more editions of this issue but I think this is the final one published.

Chamber of Chills: The complete Yaffa cover gallery

Here's a cover gallery of my complete run of Page Publications' Chamber of Chills:

Chamber of Chills #1, c.September 1977 

Chamber of Chills #2, c.April 1978

Chamber of Chills #3, c.June 1978

Chamber of Chills #4, 1979

Chamber of Chills #5, 1980

Chamber of Chills #6, 1980

Chamber of Chills #7, c.November 1980

Chamber of Chills #8, c.April 1981

Chamber of Chills #9, 1981

Chamber of Chills #NN, 1983

The dates are based on the best data to hand and are open to correction.

COC #'s 1-4 are regular/magazine sized. The rest are digest-sized - #9 is a 'tall' digest-sized issue.

Many of these issues were recycled by Yaffa. For example, COC #5 was recycled as Shock Stories:

COC #7 was recycled as Horror Thrillers c.1982-83:

And of course, as you can see in the gallery, COC #1 was reprinted as COC #6, and COC #3 was reprinted as COC #NN. This suggests there are reprints of COC #'s 3, 4 and 6 out there to be unearthed.