Many years ago I posted an entry on my copy of Gigantic Annual #5. I now have another copy:
This copy contains the following rebound issues:
Century Comic #88, c.October 1963
Superman Supacomic #50, c.October 1963
Superman Supacomic #51, c.November 1963
These three issues were published just a few months later than the rebound issues in my first copy which are dated c.June-September 1963. AusReprints dates Gigantic Annual #5 to May 1964, which is a reasonable guesstimate.
I purchased the new copy as my previous copy is incomplete - it is missing the rear cover - and some of the pages were coloured in by the original owner.
However my two copies also differ in an unexpected way.
This is the advertisement on the inner front cover of my first copy:
This is what appears on the inner front cover of my new copy:
This is a surprise. It suggests to me that these two issues were published some months apart.
This is the ad on the rear cover of my new copy:
The ad on the inner rear cover is identical to the Seven Seas Stamp ad on the inner front cover of my first copy.
It occurred to me that one of these copies may have been published in New Zealand. I have New Zealand editions of Murray comics of this vintage which differ in this regard. However, given the Seven Seas Stamps ad has a Sydney address, I doubt this is the reason for the difference.
There is a numeric code on the bottom right hand corner of the Air/fix ad: 557P. This is unhelpful in dating this issue as it is clearly not published in May 1957.
I also note that the Man Without Fingerprints feature appeared as early as 1952 in an issue of Gang Busters. I suspect this was deployed as a filler in more than one Murray comic.
So, I have something of a mystery, with something of an answer, but not anything conclusive.
But I do have a reason to keep both copies.
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3 comments:
Those covers were most probably printed using the offset process on different presses to what the contents were originally printed on (Web press). As such the fronts of the sheets would be four-colour, with the rear of the sheets either one or two colour. With the example shown the back cover has black and magenta = two colour.
It would be prudent (i.e. cost effective) to print multiple/different issue covers on one run (i.e an issue of Gigantic Annual, and an issue/s of another title at the same time). As such, it could be a simple error when the planners did their imposition* (layout) of which inner front and inner back covers matched up to the four-colour process front covers and back covers.
Alternatively, the printer may have used some leftover (rear) sheets from another KGM run to fill the run. I can think of a few more scenarios for how these ‘variant’ back covers were printed but I can not prove any of my theories as the reality is now lost in time.
Coming from a print background I’m trying to not be too technical as there are multiple variables in ‘how’ a job is planned for printing - especially when ‘ganging**’ jobs together. My theory is technically sound, but that doesn’t mean the planner did something completely different when he/she planned the imposition for these covers.
* Imposition - the positioning of pages so after printing, folding, and cutting, all pages will appear in the correct sequence
** Ganging or Gang Run - printing more than one job on a sheet, or utilising spare space on an unused space on that sheet.
Thanks Mark - that is a plausible explanation.
I remember seeing that "Man without Fingerprints" story in Superman Supacomic #187 (published by Murray Comics in the 1970s), which in turn had been reprinted from DC's Batman #257. The gruesome idea of grafting one's fingers to one's chest made an impression on me.
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