The Avengers #6: The Yaffa edition

Page Publications' The Avengers #6 was published c.April 1981:

The cover recoloured and cropped from the original on Marvel Comics' The Avengers #17:

The contents:

The Old Order Changeth!, originally published in The Avengers #16, May 1965 

[Four Against The Minotaur!], originally published in The Avengers #17, June 1965 

When The Commissar Commands!, originally published in The Avengers #18, July 1965 

This printing of Four Against The Minotaur! is missing the splash page. Similarly to previous issues in this series, it appears the story which sacrifices the splash page for the page count is compensated with a reprint of the cover to the story, which mirrors the splash page to some extent. 

The rest of the stories appear to be reprinted intact except for the omission of references to previous Marcel comics issues, which sometimes entails minor art extension, and the omission of the Next Issue text box at the end of When The Commissar Commands!

This issue is the first digest-sized edition in the series.

The Avengers #5: The Yaffa edition

Page Publications' The Avengers #5 was published c.August 1980:

This cover originally appeared on Marvel Comics' Marvel Triple Action #8:

Marvel Triple Action #8 reprinted Even Avengers Can Die!, originally published in The Avengers #14 with a new cover image credited to Sal Buscema.

The contents:

[The Castle of Count Nefaria!], originally published in The Avengers #13, February 1965

Even Avengers Can Die!, originally published in The Avengers #14, March 1965

Now, By My Hand, Shall Die a Villain!, originally published in The Avengers #15, April 1965 

The print of The Castle of Count Nefaria! is missing the splash page but is otherwise reprinted intact. Previous Yaffa issues of The Avengers opened with stories missing the splash page but compensated by reprinting the cover associated with the story, however the cover to this issue is related to the next story in this issue.

Even Avengers Can Die! and Now, By My Hand, Shall Die a Villain! are reprinted intact, the latter story ending on the inner rear and rear cover.

This issue is the last regular-sized issue in the series, apart from the recycled The Avengers #10. The rest of the issues are digest-sized. Indeed by the time this issue was published many of the other Yaffa series had already converted to the new format.

The Avengers #4: The Yaffa edition

Page Publications' The Avengers #4 was published c.October 1979:

The cover is a recoloured and cropped from Marvel Comics' The Avengers #10:

The contents:

[The Avengers Break Up!], originally published in The Avengers #10, November 1964

The Mighty Avengers Meet Spider-Man!, originally published in The Avengers #11, December 1964

This Hostage Earth!, originally published in The Avengers #12 ,January 1965 

The printing of The Avengers Break Up! is missing the the splash page, but is otherwise intact. The other two stories are intact, barring some deletions to in-story references to other Marvel Comics issues. The inner rear cover and rear cover were required to complete the reprinting of This Hostage Earth!

Tracking Build My Gallows High

 MV Features' Western Star Picture Library #5 was published c.1965:

I'm betting the story Build My Gallows High is the one reprinted by Page Publications in Gunfighter Library #2:

And in Badman Western Library #5:

And in Six-Shooter Western #5:

The top two covers are by Keith Chatto, and the third is from interior art:

The MV Features reprints by Page Publications often include an abbreviated series title and issue number native to the original prints but these reprints do not, so it's an educated guess regarding the source material. And since I'm in guessing mode, I'll also assume there is an earlier edition of this story with a Chatto cover based on the cover of Western Star Picture Library #5; that there is at least one more edition of this story published by Page Publications; and that Six-Shooter Western #5 is the last edition published. TBC.

For identification purposes, here's a scan of the splash page to Build My Gallows High as it appears in my copy of Badman Western Library #5:

It's not my cleanest copy of this story, but the Gabba Book Exchange stamp makes it better.

Update 23/9/2022: This story also appears in Blazing Western Stories #3 under a Chatto cover:

Update 17 July 2023: This issue was also recycled as Six-Shooter Western #4 under a Chatto cover:

The Avengers #1: The Yaffa edition

 Page Publications' The Avengers #1 was published c.September 1977:

The cover is recoloured and slightly modified from Marvel Comics' The Avengers #2:

The colouring decisions are notable - Iron Man is intentionally albeit crudely altered to his red and yellow suit, Giant-Man is rather bizarrely clad in blue, pink and white, and most interestingly, the colouring of the central figure exchanges the focus on the Space Phantom on the original cover for the Hulk.

The contents:

[The Coming of the Avengers!] The Avengers Earth's Mightiest Super-Heroes! , originally published in The Avengers #1, September 1963 

The Avengers! Battle... the Space Phantom, originally published in The Avengers #2, November 1963 

The Avengers Meet... Sub-Mariner!, originally published in The Avengers #3, January 1964 

The Coming of the Avengers! is the title of the origin story in The Avengers #1. Here's a pic of the front cover and the splash page as reprinted in Essential Avengers Vol. 1, Third edition Second printing, 2011:

The Yaffa printing omits the splash page and consequently the story title, and begins with a modified version of the front cover, effectively instituting a new title for the origin story:

Page 13 of this story is also omitted from the Yaffa print. There are other minor modifications, such as amending the reference to a previous Marvel issue.

The Space Phantom story is reprinted mostly complete and intact - apart from the omissions of the job number on the splash page and the Next Issue blurb on the final panel. I note the Next Issue promo ad featuring Sub-Mariner is also not included. 

The Submariner reprint includes the job number and references to other Marvel issues, however the page count has been reduced - it is missing pages 6, 10, 19 and 22 - and the Next Issue blurb has been omitted. The absence of these pages is somewhat compensated by the reprinting of the cover to The Avengers #3 on the inner front cover sans trade dress:

Yaffa recycled this issue as The Avengers #10 in 1982:

This edition is cover-priced $1.10 and is identical to The Avengers #1, apart from the indicia and the inner rear and rear covers, which are blank in lieu of the advertising in The Avengers #1.

The Avengers #2: The Yaffa edition

 Page Publications' The Avengers #2 was published c.March 1978:

The cover is modified and recoloured from Marvel Comics' The Avengers #4:

The contents:

Captain America Joins... The Avengers!, originally published in The Avengers #4, March 1964

The Invasion of the Lava Men!, originally published in The Avengers #5, May 1964

[The Mighty Avengers] Meet "The Masters of Evil!", originally published in The Avengers #6, July 1964

Captain America Joins... The Avengers! is reprinted complete and intact with minor alterations such as the omission of the job number on the splash page and the intrusion of Yaffa's page numbers.

The Invasion of the Lava Men! has been modified to reduce the page count by one page. This has been done by cropping the splash page and rearranging elements, and removing the first tier of the second page:

Compare to the first two pages of the story as reprinted in Essential Avengers Vol. 1, Third edition Second Printing 2011:

The Avengers Meet The Masters of Evil! has been similarly amended. Here's the cropped splash page with the 'new' title and elements omitted, and the third tier of the second page cropped:

Compare to the first two pages in the Essential Avengers Vol. 1:

This story also has another distinct modification - two pages are edited and merged into one page. Here's a pic of pp 13-14 as per Essential Avengers Vol. 1:

The Yaffa edition excises panels from both pages, crops the large panel of the second page and rearranges the text box so it looks like this:

This is the sort of surgery one would come to expect from Newton Comics but not so much from Yaffa. The Newton Comics reprints of Captain America Joins... The Avengers! and The Invasion of the Lava Men! are mostly intact, however "Masters of Evil!" has it's own Newtonese edits.

The Avengers #3: The Yaffa edition

Page Publications' The Avengers #3 was published c.May 1978:

The cover is a recoloured and slightly modified version of the cover of Marvel Comics' The Avengers #7:

The contents:

Their Darkest Hour!, originally published in The Avengers #7, August 1964 

Kang, the Conqueror!, originally published in The Avengers #8, September 1964 

The Coming of the... Wonder Man!, originally published in The Avengers #9, October 1964  

Each story appears to be reprinted intact without undue editorial surgery, apart from the intrusion of the page numbers. The references to previous Marvel issues are also intact.

This issue also includes a black and white print of the cover to The Avengers #9 sans trade dress:

There are two variants of this issue:

The one on the left has an orange hue, and the one on the right a distinct pink tinge. I'm sure this was unintentional, and one of the two is likely earlier in the print run and therefore the 'true' print. (Mark Muller, please chime in with an explanation...). I have seen enough copies of each to deem them different enough to justify having a sample of each in my complete run of this series. I, Anorak.

Update: Mark Muller has accepted the challenge and come through with flying colours (ahem). See his response below titled Anoraks Anonymous Avengers Attenuation:

And follow this link for a full size version of the complete document.

Superman Supacomic #6

 Colour Comics' Superman Supacomic #6 was published c.October 1961:

The cover is modified from the cover of DC Comics' Action Comics #254.

The contents:

The Battle With Bizarro!, originally published in Action Comics #254, July 1959 

The Bride of Bizarro!, originally published in Action Comics #255, August 1959 

The Satellite of Gotham City, originally published in Detective Comics #266, April 1959 

Batman's Armoured Rival, originally published in Detective Comics #271, September 1959 

The Flying Girl of Smallville!, originally published in Superboy #72, April 1959 

Superbaby in Scotland Yard, originally published in Superboy #73, June 1959

Superboy's Glass House, originally published in Superboy #73, June 1959 

The Man Who Discovered Superman's Identity, originally published in Superman #114, July 1957 

The Mystery of the Batman Bus, originally published in Batman #117, August 1958 

The Super-Weakling from Space, originally published in Superboy #65, June 1958 

My copy of this issue is rather poor. There are pieces missing from the cover, the rust from the staples has stained the pages and front cover, and insects have gorged on it ravenously. It is also missing the back cover, so I'm grateful to Mark Muller's scan of his copy:

The reason I'm grateful is because Mark's copy is date stamped 25 JAN 1960. Presumably this is a newsagent's stamp, and presumably this means the book was on the stands a bit earlier c.October 1959. 

This makes sense to me. I have previously argued that the first five issues of this series, titled Superman's Supacomic, is a distinct series with it's own profile, title and a roughly quarterly publication schedule, and that this issue is the first monthly issue of Superman Supacomic. Superman's Supacomic #5 was published c.September 1959, which would mean the first monthly issue was published one month after the initial series. It's a bit of guesswork but the pieces fit.

Another interesting point about my copy is the HUBS stamp on the front cover. This copy was purchased from a NZ seller and I have seen many comics from the late 1950's/early 1960's with this stamp. For years I assumed this to be the mark of a NZ distributor or chain of outlets, but Geoff Harrison informs that it was the name of an antique/secondhand bookshop in the North Island.

Censoring The Man Who Could Live Forever!

As we know, Australian printings of US comics were altered for the domestic audience, typically crudely edited to accommodate page counts. Sometimes they were altered to reflect English spelling, currency and idioms, sometimes to insert local place names or landmarks, and sometimes they were just plain censored. 

And sometimes, the one story was altered more than once, as is the case with the Batman story The Man Who Lived Forever!, originally published in Detective Comics #204.

Here's scans of the first two pages:

Now compare to scans of the first two pages from Colour Comics' Batman #55, c.1955:

On the splash page, the masthead has been altered from Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder to Batman with Robin, and the dollar signs on the notes have been altered to pounds. On the second page Jewelry and Jeweler have been altered to Jewellery and Jeweller. These alterations appear conventional and benign, converting American spelling and currency to Australian.

This story was recycled by K.G. Murray a short time later. Here's scans of the first two pages from Colossal Comic Annual #3, c.August 1957:

These pages are sourced from Batman #55 - the masthead, spelling and currency alterations are intact - however there are other significant changes: The Bang Bang Bang gunshot effects are omitted from the splash page; the gun is excised from the first three panels on the second page, necessitating the gunholder's hand to be redrawn; the Bang Bang effects are removed from the third panel on the second page; and the speech is altered - from And you won't get hurt! to Do as I say!, and But I'll teach you not to horn in on my jobs! to But you'd better not stop me!, and M-My bullets didn't even scratch him! to That blow didn't even shake him!

Self-censorship in the Australian comics industry did not begin in the 1950's but clearly something happened between 1955 and 1957 to warrant the toning down of the violence in this story. According to Kevin Patrick K.G. Murray adopted an internally modified version of the US Comics Code, and the distributor, Gordon & Gotch "could demand changes be made to artwork prior to publication, or refuse to distribute titles that contained offensive material." I wonder whether the second iteration of this story was subject to intervention by Gordon & Gotch or some other body? 

According to the GCD this story was not reprinted in the 1960's, but it was recycled by K.G. Murray some ten years later. Here's scans of the first two pages from Wonder Comic Monthly #16, c.August 1966:

This version is sourced directly from Batman #55. 

Thanks to Mark Muller for alerting me to the variation in Colossal Comic Annual #3 - and look for his thorough indexing of this issue on GCD soon!

Gigantic Annual #2

Colour Comics' Gigantic Annual #2 was published in 1959 and features a cover illustrated by Hart Amos:

As we know, Gigantic Annuals were comprised of coverless returns from newsagencies, and my copy contains the following issues:

Mighty The 100 Page Comic! #9, c.January 1959 

The Hundred Comic Monthly #28, c.January 1959 

Century The 100 Page Comic Monthly #34, c.March 1959 

James' copy also contains issues from the first quarter of 1959. 

I'm interested in collating the contents of other copies of this and other issues of Gigantic Annual and Mammoth Annual in the interests of ascertaining whether they were published mid-year or at the end of the year. The early Mammoth Annual covers were Christmas-themed, and some issues do have advertiser's date codes on the covers, all of which help in dating some issues in this series. 

I'm also curious if there are editions with variances in the advertisements on the rear cover and inner covers as per my copies of Gigantic Annual #5. My copy has a Stamps of Approval (Seven Seas Stamps) ad on the inner front cover; 

A Weirdo's ad on the inner rear cover;

and a Tommy Steele Guitar Club ad on the rear cover:

Gigantic Annual ran for 16 issues until 1975, and this issue is the only one in the series not to include Annual in the title.

Update 5/1.2020: Mark Muller's copy contains Century The 100 Page Comic Monthly #34 c.March 1959; The Hundred Comic Monthly #28 c.January 1959; and Five-Score Comic Monthly #10 c.February 1959.

The Hundred Comic #90

 Colour Comics' The Hundred Comic #90 was published c.April 1964:

The cover is slightly modified from the original cover of DC Comics' The Flash #139:

The main contents:

Menace of the Reverse-Flash!, originally published in The Flash #139, September 1963 

The Secret Face of Funny-Arrow!, originally published in World's Finest Comics #138, December 1963 

Pow-Wow Smith, Medicine Man!, originally published in Detective Comics #181, March 1952 

Dummy with a Mind of its Own!, originally published in Detective Comics #202 December 1953 

Terror on Wheels!, originally published in Danger is Their Business #11, 1952 

The Cosmic Creature, originally published in Detective Comics #321, November 1963 

The Carnival at Elephant Butte!, originally published in All-American Western #110, October-November 1949 

The Magic Wand, originally published in Detective Comics #195, May 1953 

The Parole for Convict 46732, originally published in Gang Busters #56, February-March 1957 

The Terror Trees of Forbidden Island, originally published in Wonder Woman #143, January 1964 

There are also two full-page filler strips: an Amazing Ratios strip originally appearing in Strange Adventures #54, March 1955, which also previously appeared in K.G. Murray's Strange Adventures #18, 1956, but note this reprint is most likely related to the DC Comics reprint in House of Mystery #99, June 1960; and a Peter Puptent Explorer strip originally published in My Greatest Adventure #75, January 1963.

Menace of the Reverse-Flash was also published by K.G. Murray in Giant Flash Album #9, based on the DC Comics reprint in The Flash #205.

The advertisements do not contain a date code - the publication date above is based on the AusReprints date. 

A great issue with a classic cover and a variety of genres, some not reprinted since this issue, according to the GCD, including a little seen Magazine Enterprises feature.

Over 10 years ago I waxed lyrical regarding the front cover and, in looking around for any further commentary on the Australian edition, I found nothing other than scans of my copy circulating on the GCD site and AusReprints, so I figured it was high time I provided a high res scan and index the contents.