Planet Comics' Tip Top Comic Monthly #114 was published c.October 1974:
It is, of course, the classic Neal Adams cover from Batman #251:
There are two longform features in this issue:
The Joker's Five-Way Revenge!, originally published in Batman #251, September 1973
The Shrike Strikes at Night! [Part 1]/Part 2/Part 3: Hawkman #11, December-January 1966
The Joker's Five-Way Revenge! was also published by Murray in Batman Album #47.
The Joker's Five-Way Revenge! was also published by Murray in Batman Album #47.
This issue also includes a single-page filler feature, the Science Says You're Wrong If You Believe That-- instalment previously published in Strange Adventures #100, January 1959.
There are also in-house advertisements for Bumper Western Comic, Supergirl, Super Adventure Comic and World's Finest Comic.
AusReprints dates this issue November 1974. This is in part based on the Mitchell Library stamp 6/12/74, and partly on the orderly monthly periodicity established for this and the other monthly KG Murray/Planet Comics series over a long period of time. These are good reasons.
However I think this issue was more likely to have been on the stands October 1974, for a few reasons.
Firstly, my copy has a pencilled date 1/75 on the cover. The rule of thumb for these newsagency dates is a three month lead.
Secondly, the preceding issue - Tip Top Comic Monthly #113 - appears to have been published September 1974, not October 1974. This issue is the first 25c cover-priced issue in the series. According to AusReprints, the 25c monthly issues likely first appeared in September 1974. This is the case for Wonder Comic Monthly #113 and World's Finest Comic Monthly #113 (Superman Supacomic is a different case altogether having increased to 25c a couple of years earlier, and other series such as All Star Adventure Comic, All Favourites Comic and Super Adventure Comic were not monthly periodicals). Also, Tip Top Comic Monthly #113 has a Mitchell Library stamp dated 23/9/74, which means it was on the stands before this date. If we assume the series was published monthly, then Tip Top Comic Monthly #114 would have been scheduled no later than October 1974.
Thirdly... Many years ago I purchased a short run of this series from a collector who dated many of his comics as he purchased them fresh off the stands. Two consecutive issues of this series from mid-1974 are dated to the last few days in consecutive months. Now, this is not conclusive evidence of release dates - he could have been late to the party both times - but if we assume the data is broadly accurate, it could place Tip Top Comic Monthly #114 to the last week or so of October 1974, which is pretty close to November 1974 and hence the early December 1974 Mitchell Library stamp.
These arguments may not be conclusive in isolation but I think the weight of evidence points towards an October 1974 release for this issue moreso than November 1974.
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4 comments:
The US Batman #251 marches its way onwards and upwards towards the $1000 range and interest in foreign editions, particularly this Australian one, is heating up too. One of my first Tip Top buys in my youth, I picked this up in the book exchanges in the 70s but lost it years later. I was lucky enough to pick one up a nice copy a few years ago from someone at my office who had a pile of old comics but was not a collector as such. My reputation around the office as the "guy into comics" meant he gave me first dibs!
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It's funny but I think I paid less for my copies of Batman #251 and Tip Top #114 than I did for the facsimile copy of Batman #251 published by DC last year. I was 10 when this Tip Top came out, and many of the pages and panels are seared into my consciousness. When Denny O'Neil died recently this was one of the first stories I thought about - and I mean the Australian edition.
Same here. At the time this came out on the stands in Australia there was a definite mature sensibility about Neal Adams dynamic and realistically rich art style which emphasized both the athletic heroic and dark criminal grittyness. Heralding in an era that was emerging from the more camp kids comic fare of the 60s making it ever more visually striking to the young reader. I consider my Tip Top the superior definitive edition!
Ha! Love the call on the definitive edition - not sure I'd go quite that far objectively, but certainly from a personal perspective I associate The Joker's Five-Way Revenge! with Tip Top #114. And I have no emotional connection at all with Batman Album #47 in this regard.
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