Show Us Your Atlas Books - Have A Cigar

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Anyone win any of yesterday's Mystery Tales on Heritage?

I was the under bidder on the #19. Was a little surprised that it didn't go a little bit higher.

I was after a few, and picked up a couple - the 24 and 28. All bar a couple of the lesser graded post-codes at the end of the run went for what I would've expected (one or two went for more than I thought they would) but none were earth-shattering. Obviously strong prices nevertheless.

The #28 seemed like a nice grab to me, considering what the last GP on a restored CGC 5.0 is.

I don't buy on Heritage due to their ridiculous fee, but am thinking that I should maybe check their books out from time to time.

I only look at the OA they have for sale in their big auctions, but never pulled the trigger on anything they had for sale yet. I've never even looked at their Sunday auctons.

There are a few books in the clink auction that I'm bidding on though.

I had to work last night.....and all the ones I was tracking exceeded what I would've paid except the 12..... kind of thought 19 might've done a bit better. One thing I've always wondered.... why did the deep pocket bidder on eBay choose this title to go all out for ? It DOES have some very nice covers in the run, plus the tie in to "Lost". Does anyone know? GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

I had to work last night.....and all the ones I was tracking exceeded what I would've paid except the 12..... kind of thought 19 might've done a bit better. One thing I've always wondered.... why did the deep pocket bidder on eBay choose this title to go all out for ? It DOES have some very nice covers in the run, plus the tie in to "Lost". Does anyone know? GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

Nobody is certain as to why, but then again nobody's asked him...

I was after a few, and picked up a couple - the 24 and 28. All bar a couple of the lesser graded post-codes at the end of the run went for what I would've expected (one or two went for more than I thought they would) but none were earth-shattering. Obviously strong prices nevertheless.

The Maneely fortune teller one was the only one I really wanted and I forgot to stick in a last minute bid. Of course it went cheap...

I bid on the rest, but wasn't real enthusiastic.

The movie theatre issue is the one that grabs me for some reason ( 17?) .... it's just got a classic 50's look. There really is nothing else quite like these Atlas PCH's..... I wonder how well they actually did on the newsstand. GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

The movie theatre issue is the one that grabs me for some reason ( 17?) .... it's just got a classic 50's look. There really is nothing else quite like these Atlas PCH's..... I wonder how well they actually did on the newsstand. GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

this blog gives an answer to your question. some distributors went out of business during that time also.

Another factor in comic books' declining sales was the continuing development of television throughout the 1950s and 1960s, which had the unfortunate effect of lowering readership in general and hence, declining newsstand sales. Sales were so bad for Atlas/Timely in the 1950s that they signed a distribution deal with DC/National Comics that only allowed them to publish eight titles per month--a tactic of apparent generosity that would come to bite them on the with the company's resurgence as Marvel Comics in the 1960s. (The deal ended in 1968, leaving Marvel free to publish as many books as they desired--and boy, did their line explode!) Alas, since newsstands already barely reaped any profits from comic books in the first place, newsstands cut back orders or even eliminated them altogether in favor of product that supported their bottom line. Circulation had fallen dramatically between the heyday of the 1940s-1950s and early 1970s, and distribution channels were drying up. How could the industry survive?

The movie theatre issue is the one that grabs me for some reason ( 17?) .... it's just got a classic 50's look. There really is nothing else quite like these Atlas PCH's..... I wonder how well they actually did on the newsstand. GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

this blog gives an answer to your question. some distributors went out of business during that time also.

 

Another factor in comic books' declining sales was the continuing development of television throughout the 1950s and 1960s, which had the unfortunate effect of lowering readership in general and hence, declining newsstand sales. Sales were so bad for Atlas/Timely in the 1950s that they signed a distribution deal with DC/National Comics that only allowed them to publish eight titles per month--a tactic of apparent generosity that would come to bite them on the with the company's resurgence as Marvel Comics in the 1960s. (The deal ended in 1968, leaving Marvel free to publish as many books as they desired--and boy, did their line explode!) Alas, since newsstands already barely reaped any profits from comic books in the first place, newsstands cut back orders or even eliminated them altogether in favor of product that supported their bottom line. Circulation had fallen dramatically between the heyday of the 1940s-1950s and early 1970s, and distribution channels were drying up. How could the industry survive?

Thank you, my friend. GOD BLESS....

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

the red text above is for post-code not pre-code, and even then it's more complex with distribution dealings etc

IIRC, there is a little more to this story. Timely decided to switch distributors at an untimely moment of, yes, declining health of the newsstands. Almost as soon as they jumped distributor, their new partner folded leaving Timely in a scramble to continue guaranteeing a position on the newsstands. Going back to their prior partner was obviously not a great possibility after they bailed for a sweeter deal (how well that turned out!) and National was the only choice left. Considering they had then to deal with the devil, there is no surprise that they got hamstrung in reducing output (which, I'll add might not have been too terrible a deal in the long run b/c 1) that forced them to drop output when the newsstands market was no longer supporting their million titles and 2) it forced them to be cut-throat about which titles to keep and innovative so as to find the next winner which lead to the relaunch of Super-Hero and the Marvel Age).

the red text above is for post-code not pre-code, and even then it's more complex with distribution dealings etc

Ya beat me to the punch

IIRC, there is a little more to this story. Timely decided to switch distributors at an untimely moment of, yes, declining health of the newsstands. Almost as soon as they jumped distributor, their new partner folded leaving Timely in a scramble to continue guaranteeing a position on the newsstands. Going back to their prior partner was obviously not a great possibility after they bailed for a sweeter deal (how well that turned out!) and National was the only choice left. Considering they had then to deal with the devil, there is no surprise that they got hamstrung in reducing output (which, I'll add might not have been too terrible a deal in the long run b/c 1) that forced them to drop output when the newsstands market was no longer supporting their million titles and 2) it forced them to be cut-throat about which titles to keep and innovative so as to find the next winner which lead to the relaunch of Super-Hero and the Marvel Age).

...I had always heard that Goodman's main bread and butter were the racy men's magazines that may have cast an unfavorable light (by association) on the comics that were presumed by many at the time to be for kids. The 50's were kind of puritanical from what I gather ( I was still but a gleam in my Father's Martini) and it's all speculative at best for me. I notice that there aren't a lot of examples of the Atlas group in Marty Mann's collection for example. When I look in the Newstand Pic's thread I also don't see a ton of Atlas books displayed. I'm just curious, I suppose..... about a typical day in the life of an average Atlas book on the stands. GOD BLESS....

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

"Atlas" was a distribution company owned by Goodman. He was convinced that it was losing money by one of his executives so he closed it down to switch to the biggest/oldest distributor in the country. That distributor then lost a big anti-trust lawsuit and was broken up/put out of business within a year or so. He then negotiated the deal with DC.

The '50's were indeed "Puritanical" by today's standards; it was the end of Victorianism by about 1957. But AFA comic books were concerned, there were reportedly 500 different titles of them in the early to mid fifties, coming out almost every month.

And if Atlas was doing so bad, why did they have such a large proportion of them? Horror comics alone, Adventures into Weird Worlds, Adventures into Terror, Astonishing, Journey into Unknown Worlds, Journey into Mystery, Menace, Marvel Tales, Mystery Tales, Mystic, Strange Tales, Spellbound, Uncanny Tales; yeah, pre-code era, they were really hurtin', weren't they?

Most of the staffers still referred to the 50s comics publisher as "Timely" and Timely was separate from Atlas the distributor. Just because the comics were popular/profitable doesn't necessarily mean the distribution arm was. It may have been profitable but the way the accounting was handled made it look unprofitable to Goodman who then eventually shut it down.

There is a good book that details the history of Martin Goodman and Marvel Comics called The Secret History of Marvel Comics, by Blake Bell and Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, published by Fantagraphics. It goes into a lot of detail about Goodman and his various shell companies, starting with the pulps he published.

Anyone win any of yesterday's Mystery Tales on Heritage?

Alright, I"ll fess up to getting the MT #8 and #17. I wanted either the 15 or 17 but bidding just got too crazy for both. The 8 is one of my favorite Atlas covers. I sold the Bethlehem copy a while back and have regretted doing so.

Two excellent choices. They're going to the right place..... GOD BLESS....

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

They're going to the right place.

:cry: