Dracula #10: The Newton edition

Newton Comics' Dracula #10 was published 13 December 1975:

The front cover is from Marvel Comics' Tomb of Dracula #14:

The stories:

Dracula is Dead!, originally published in Tomb of Dracula #14, November 1973 

Somewhere Waits The Vampire, originally published in Journey Into Unknown Worlds #27, May 1954. 

Dracula is Dead is reprinted complete and intact.

Somewhere Waits The Vampire is complete however pages 3 and 4 are reversed, as per the reprint in Vampire Tales #4, which is the source of this reprint. The same reprint appears in Yaffa's Vampire Tales #4.

This is the poster in this issue:

This was originally published as the cover to The Amazing Spider-Man #135:

Note as per the GCD entry, the Return of the Punisher cover blurb was altered in subsequent reprints to Origin of the Punisher or Power of the Punisher. Origin of the Punisher appears to be from an original stat before it was altered, and it is this version which appears on the Newton poster. I note it is this version which appears in Essential Spider-Man Vol. 6, First Printing 2004.

This issue contains the following inhouse advertisements:

Bulletin

The Amazing Spider-Man #15

The X-Men with The Avengers #3 

Captain America #1 

Conan the Barbarian #9 

This issue also includes two Marvel Mailbag pages; and airplane kit contest with an expiry date 26 January 1976;  and a Black Panther t-shirt offer.

This issue was advertised Now out Fortnightly in The Incredible Hulk #13 and The Silver Surfer #4:

It was also advertised in the Sunday Observer 30 November 1975:

And again in the Sunday Observer 28 December 1975:

Thanks to Mark Cannon for providing reference scans for a couple of relevant issues.

Dracula #3: The Newton edition

Newton Comics' Dracula #3 was published 6 September 1975:

The cover is from Marvel Comics' Tomb of Dracula #3:

The main features:

Who Stalks The Vampire?, originally published in Tomb of Dracula #3, July 1972

A Vampire's Home Is His Castle, originally published in Vampire Tales #4, April 1974

The Vampire's Coffin, originally published in Mystery Tales #15, September 1953, however this print is likely related to the reprint in Vampire Tales #4, April 1974

The last page of The Vampire's Coffin is printed on the inner rear cover.

These stories were reprinted a few years later by Yaffa: Who Stalks the Vampire? was reprinted in Tomb of Dracula #1; and A Vampire's Home Is His Castle and The Vampire's Coffin were reprinted in Vampire Tales #4.

This issue has a Spider-Man and Dr. Doom poster:

This image is the centerpiece of the splash page to the story Marked for Destruction by Dr. Doom!, originally published in The Amazing Spider-Man #5. Here's a scan of the splash page as it appears in Newton's The Amazing Spider-Man #4:

The poster is virtually the same as the poster which previously appeared in Planet of the Apes #2, however it has the following minor differences: the title and Dr. Doom's cape are distinctly more purple than blue; there is a trademark notice on the bottom of the image; and the colouring on Spider-Man's legs is marred by splotchiness.

This issue contains the following in-house advertisements:

Conan the Barbarian #2

Planet of the Apes #7 

This issue contains the Planet of the Apes Tee Shirt and Iron-On Decals mail order offer on the inner front cover and the Win More Monster Contest on the rear cover with an expiry date 20 October 1975. 

This issue also carries the bulletin for The Swap Cards Cometh and a Marvel Mailbag page on the outer pages of the poster.

Dracula #6: The Newton Comics edition

 Newton Comics' Dracula #6 was published October 1975:

The cover is from Marvel Comics' Tomb of Dracula #7:

The main feature in this issue is Night of the Death Stalkers!, originally published in Tomb of Dracula #7. This appears to be reprinted in full without undue tampering.

The backup feature is the first 6 pages of Bounty for a Vampire, originally published in Dracula Lives! #13, July 1975. This story is continued in Dracula #7.

The poster in this issue features the cover image from Marvel Comics Ghost Rider #1:

There was no Ghost Rider series published by Newton however it appeared as a backup feature in Doctor Strange. 

The swap card in my copy is The Avengers Series A (1 of 15) No. 2, being the cover to Newton Comics' The Avengers #2.

This issue was advertised in-house in Silver Surfer #2, 25 October 1975:

Note the cover is misnumbered #5.

This cover was used as a poster. This pic is from Silver Surfer #3:

This issue contains the following in-house advertisements:

Conan the Barbarian #5

The Incredible Hulk #8

These two advertisements also reference the Hulk King Size Annual #1.

This issue is not cover-dated, and there is no publication date in the indicia. The contest expiry date is 1 December 1975. This suggests a publication date of 18 October 1975. This date is supported by the ad for The Incredible Hulk #8, which I date to 11 October, so it would be the current issue on the stands. I date the Hulk King Size Annual to 20 September, which presumably had an extended shelf life. I have yet to firmly date Conan the Barbarian #5. I also note it is possible Dracula #6 was subject to a delay in publication, given the erroneous numbering on the advertisement above in Silver Surfer #2.

This issue also includes an advertisement for Origins of Marvel Comics on the inner front cover; two Marvel Mailbag pages; a Lone Ranger Kit contest, as mentioned above, on the inner rear cover; and a Black Panther t-shirt offer on the rear cover.

And for those keeping track of such things, Night of the Death Stalkers! and the cover to Marvel Comics' Tomb of Dracula #7 were also published in Australia by Yaffa a few years later in The Tomb of Dracula #3:

A few years later Yaffa recycled this issue in the digest-sized unnumbered one-shot Night of the Vampire:

The Fantastic Four Giant Size 84 Page Annual: The Newton edition

This is the cover to Newton Comics' The Fantastic Four Giant Size 84 Page Annual:

It originally appeared on the cover of Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four #23:

The story contents are as follows:

The Master Plan of Doctor Doom!, originally published in Fantastic Four #23, February 1964

The Human Torch [Part 1], originally published in Strange Tales #101, October 1962

The Human Torch Part 2: The Flaming Fury Strikes Back!!, originally published in Strange Tales #101, October 1962

The Threat of the Torrid Twosome, originally published in Strange Tales #106, March 1963

[The Evil Menace of Electro!], originally published in Daredevil #2, June 1964 

This issue is rather thoughtfully compiled. After the full-length Fantastic Four feature, a couple of Human Torch stories from Strange Tales keep it in the family, and the final story features the Fantastic Four from a Daredevil comic. There was no Newton Daredevil series at the time so it must have seemed like an appropriate allotment. Of course, it meant the Daredevil series 'skipped' the second issue when it launched in January 1976, but this Annual was a suitable home for 'loose' Fantastic Four stories, and certainly less susceptible to the charge of padding in the Planet of the Apes Annual.

[The Evil Menace of Electro!] begins with a reprint of the cover to Daredevil #2 but omits the splash page and therefore the title page:

This issue includes the following in-house advertisements:

X-Men #2

Planet of the Apes #11

Conan the Barbarian #7

Dr. Strange #6

The Incredible Hulk #10

The Avengers #8

All of the above issues are cover-dated November 1975 except for The Avengers #8, which is cover-dated October 1975. All of the above series had either 2 or 3 November cover-dated issues published in 1975 and in each case, the earliest of these is represented in the advertisements. This suggests at the outset the Fantastic Four Annual was published early/mid November 1975. 

This issue was advertised in The Avengers #11, which I date to 29 November 1975:

It was also advertised as out now in The Avengers Annual #1, cover-dated December 1975 and in Silver Surfer #3 which is cover-dated October 1975 but is likely published in November 1975.

This issue was also advertised on the Avengers poster included in The Avengers #10, which I date to 15 November 1975:

This poster was also included in The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1 from December 1975. 

The letter column in Hulk #12 advises the Fantastic Four Annual is out 15 November, so on balance it would appear this is the publication date.

I note that it is mentioned as on sale now in Newtons Comics Corner 30 November 1975 and is also advertised in the Sunday Observer 23rd November 1975 as one of the Other Great New Releases:

This issue also includes three full-page Marvel Mailbag letter columns. The inner front cover has a subscription page, the inner rear cover has the Cat's Eye Transistor Radio contest as well as the Super Hero Swap Card Album offer, and the rear cover has The Thing t-shirt offer.

The indicia title is Fantastic Four, which is unhelpful for cataloguing purposes, so I refer to this issue by the full cover title The Fantastic Four Giant Size 84 Page Annual #1 - but I'm also OK with The Fantastic Four Annual #1.

Newton Comics and the Super Comic Grab Bag

According to Ash Long's notes, he was hired to oversee and process the redistribution of excess returned stock into the marketplace during February and March 1976. This relates to the Heritage Series issues, and the insertion of posters into new issues at the time.

However, before the Heritage Series program was officially under way, Newton attempted to move the old stock via an advertisement in the Sunday Observer 25 January 1976:

This advertisement is very curious regarding both the timing and the contents.

We know the December 1975/January 1976 period was a traumatic period for the company as publication ceased, only to be resurrected at the urging of Marty Daugherty. I suggested in my previous post that the Heritage Series program might have been one of Daugherty's strategies to convince Newton to keep the program rolling. This advertisement suggests that the Heritage Series program was formally initiated after this tactic which presumably did not yield the results expected. This advertisement ran for three consecutive weeks until 8 February 1976. Long's notes state "work started February 1976, and continued on a day or so a week, for six weeks." The Heritage Series labels were printed in the last week of February 1976.

The issues in the photo are also interesting. Most are from mid-1975 (The Incredible Hulk #2, Planet of the Apes #4, the Fantastic Four #4, Dracula #2), and a few are from the last quarter of 1975 (The Avengers #5, Doctor Strange #5, Conan the Barbarian #9, The Amazing Spider-Man #14).

The one that stands out to me is Daredevil #1. This had been announced in a December 1975 letter column as due to be published 10 January 1976, and John Corneille was promoting this issue as the "newest sensation" on the same day this advertisement was published. So was Daredevil #1 included in this offer? Or should we not take the issues in the photo too literally?

Consider also that of the issues in the pic, the four mid-1975 issues are all missing from Long's detailed notes regarding the particular issues processed by him and his staff.

Also of interest is the posters offered. Again, it may be a mistake to take it too literally, but I note the three posters pictured were part of the Nabisco range promoted in the comics c.March/April 1976. And maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me but a couple of them do appear to have a vertical crease...

The Fantastic Four #3: The Newton edition

Newton Comics' The Fantastic Four #3 was published 2 August 1975:

The cover is recoloured from the original on Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four #4:

The story contents:

The Coming of... Sub-Mariner! Chapter 1 On the Trail of the Torch!, originally published in Fantastic Four #4, May 1962

[The Coming of... Sub-Mariner!] Chapter 2 Enter the Sub-Mariner!, originally published in Fantastic Four #4, May 1962

[The Coming of... Sub-Mariner!] Chapter 3 Let the World Beware!, originally published in Fantastic Four #4, May 1962

[The Coming of... Sub-Mariner!] Chapter 4 Sub-Mariner's Revenge!, originally published in Fantastic Four #4, May 1962

[The Coming of... Sub-Mariner!] Chapter 5 Return to the Deep!, originally published in Fantastic Four #4, May 1962

Prisoner of the 5th Dimension!, originally published in Strange Tales #103, December 1962

[Prisoner of the 5th Dimension!] Part 2 Trapped in Another World!, originally published in Strange Tales #103, December 1962

[Prisoner of the 5th Dimension!] Part 3 The End of Zemu!, originally published in Strange Tales #103, December 1962

The stories appear to be reprinted complete and intact apart from the omission of the original page numbers and the odd job number.

This issue contains a Hulk poster:

This image originally appeared on the cover of Marvel Comics' The Incredible Hulk #105, and was  on the cover of Newton's The Incredible Hulk #2. It was also one of the Nabisco Newton posters.

This issue includes inhouse ads for The Incredible Hulk #3, Conan the Barbarian #1, and Planet of the Apes Annual #1. It also includes a subscription page and a contest with the expiry date 15 September 1975.

The Fantastic Four #3 was advertised in the Sunday Observer 3 August 1975:

Newtonalia: Newton Comics advertised in Woman's Day

Here's a cool piece of Newtonalia:

This advertisement appeared in Woman's Day 11 August 1975, and refers to the launch of the five Newton titles in June 1975. The statement "Newton comics arrived on the scene last month" suggests this ad originally ran in July 1975 issues. Clearly Newton's print advertising extended well beyond the advertising in the  Sunday Observer in this period which, incidentally, included advertising on television.

The main image in this advertisement appeared a few months later on the cover of the Newton Comics Super Hero Swap Card Album. 

It's a shame Planet of the Apes is not represented in the main image, whilst Dracula and Conan make pre-emptive cameos - of course, by 11 August 1975 Dracula #1 had been released, and Conan the Barbarian #1 was about to join the fray.

Kudos to Robert Thomas for unearthing this gem. (I'll update the post with a high res copy once it is in hand.)

The Silver Surfer #1: The Newton edition

Newton Comics' The Silver Surfer #1 was published 27 September 1975:

The cover is from Marvel Comics' The Silver Surfer #1:

The story contents are as follows:

The Origin of the Silver Surfer!, originally published in The Silver Surfer #1, August 1968 

Call Her... Medusa!, originally published in Journey into Mystery #96, September 1963 

These stories appear to be reprinted complete and intact.

This issue included a Swap Card:

The card is Hulk Series A (1 of 15) No. 1 featuring the cover of The Incredible Hulk #1.

This issue contains in-house advertisements for the following Newton comics:

Doctor Strange #4 

Conan the Barbarian #4 

Hulk King Size Annual #1

The Silver Surfer #1 was advertised as Out Next Week in Hulk King Size Annual #1:

It was also announced as "from this month onwards" in letter columns appearing in other September 1975 issues.

This issue also includes a two-page Marvel Mailbag spread, an advertisement for Origins of Marvel Comics, a t-shirt offer and a competition with the expiry date 10 November 1975.