Show Us Your Atlas Books - Have A Cigar

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I don't know where the number came from by I had heard print runs were 125-250k for any given issue, with much fewer actually sold.

Absolutely. You have to account that the "weird" books probably had a smaller print run than your average Teen and / or Western book so you would have to shade down the 350,000 for our beloved PCH Atlas runs and circa 200,000 with sell-through of 60% means 120,000 in circulation.

Assume 3% survived, that's 3,600 copies out there. Now, the impossible task is the survival rate. Is 3% so unrealistic?

Here's some Sunday morning musings I've sent the Timely / Atlas list. I figured I'd share here hoping for feedback:

 

"Thanks for that link.

 

Re: Will testimony from the business manager before the UnitedStates Sentate suffice? Froehlich Senate Testimony

 

The tax consideration has to be important in the picture. As similar situation changed the way the Studio System evolved in Hollywood. When the Revenue Act of 1941 came into effect, the top bracket came down to $200,000 and the marginal tax rate was 90%. For the highest paid stars, that was a significant bite out of their earnings. As a result, top talents started to “pursue profit-sharing and one-picture deals whereby their salaries could be invested into a picture and taxed at capital gains at a rate of only 25 percent” (as per Thomas Schatz in The Genius of the System, p. 299).

 

Consequently, it’s easy to assume that having one company own all other companies in the Goodman system allowed profits from each of the outfit to be passed relatively unscathed by a tax bite into the main entity.

 

If one wants to estimate how much money is involved, Froehlich provides some good information.

 

We know that in the ‘50’s the profits from a comic book were split as follows: Publishers charges the Distributors 5.5¢ who charges the wholesale 6.5¢ who charges the retailer 7.5¢.

 

The unknown number here is the publisher cost. Looking at the Bible Tales exposition of Froehlich, we can infer that the printing cost might be 3.5¢ per comic.

 

With that in mind, a sole publisher’s profit margin is 2¢ / 3.5¢ or about 57% and a publisher-distributor like the Marvel Comics Group is 3¢ / 3.5¢ or about 86% (hence the importance of having your own distribution arm).

 

Now take Froehlich’s print run and sell through numbers: 350,000 print run and average sell through of 62%. Assume no advertising revenue for simplicity and a cost of production of the book itself at $1,080, i.e. 36 pages of content at a total cost of $30 a piece (to pay all talent: editor, penciler, inker, writer, … I might be off on that). For the average comic book selling 62%, revenue is $14,105 (350,000 * 0.62 * 0.065) and costs are $1,080 for content and $12,250 for printing cost, leaving you with a net of $775 per average title.

 

Atlas distributed about 60 titles, so on any given month, that’s about 50 books (counting quarterlies and bi-monthlies) or $38,750 and on an annual basis $465,000. The tax structure now plays an important part in trying to shelter as much of that profit as possible.

 

If a title is popular and, let’s say, warrants a 500,000 print run and still sells through 62%, the profit off that one book is $1,570 per month or $795 more than the average title. Publishers could easily afford to pay that talent more than other talent!

 

for you Michael. I wrote the above 5 years ago now!!

 

Also, here's a closer look at Froehlich's testimony that relates more to your question about print runs -

 

"Mr. FROEHLICH. I think if a crime book is one which will depict a conventional crime story, the story of John Dillinger, then a the mass media are guilty of the same thing we are guilty of.

We published a comic magazine called Bible Tales. The sixth issue is out now. We were very anxious to move into this field if we could. There are no competitive books of this type on the market. We feel that it is a fine worthwhile type of publication and there may be a real market in the United States and Canada. Our editor went up to Yale Divinity School for guidance as to the sort of subject material that should go into this book. Each issue is a combination of better stories, better incidents, from the Old Testament and the New Testament.

We normally print 350,000 copies of a conventional magazine in the western field or in the teen-age field. We started with only 265,000 copies for the first issue. If there is a real market for this sort of thing we felt that because the print order, was one-third less than we would normally print, that the sales percentage would be abnormally high. We went right ahead with the second and the third issues. The artwork is far superior. It is the finest artwork we could buy. The editorial is most carefully handled. The book cost us better than 40 percent more than the conventional comic, not including the income from advertising, which of course was lost in this thing. Unfortunately our final print order on the last issue is down, to 230,000 copies. The book came in with a 34 percent sale, meaning we had sold only about 80,000 copies, and on that issue we lost over $6,000. To date we have lost over $29,000."

 

Which, btw, trying to find nice copies of Bible Tales is a pain and now we can see that indeed it wasn't a fast seller.

Probably could've told the guys "Bible Tales" would've been a weak sell at best, but they found out on their own.

Some new recently acquired goodies.

Yes, they are all as nice as they look. Back covers with no problems.

They weren't cheap, but just too nice to pass up on.

WOS # 2

 

 

20 years ago I tried to collect all the Atlas in mid-grade condition and managed to get about one third of the way through before I gave up. I couldn't figure out why they were so hard to find, let alone in nice shape.

 

I think that it simply has to do with the nature of the books; Atlas's were meant to be read by the masses, and that they were. OTOH, EC's from the same period are much easier to find in higher grades.

I too prolly have maybe a third of their PCH output, but mine are in lesser condition, as I bought them for reading.

 

I take it you mean that Atlas's weren't coveted by the masses as ECs were back in the day.

Well, I dunno if 10 cent comic books were "coveted" by many back then, and certainly not by me, but it's entirely possible that a segment of the EC readership simply took better care of their books, whereas with Atlas and others, they were read and passed around, with a lesser degree of preservation for collectibility in mind.

This discussion of print runs is certainly interesting; how about Lev-Gleason?

CDNP boasted a readership of five million, and although that would have included the passing around of their books for multiple reads from a single purchase, I had read somewhere, maybe in Gerber, that the title outsold EC's entire lineup each month.

So how many copies of CDNP were printed, given that most post WW2 issues are available to this day in damn near any condition one would want?

This discussion of print runs is certainly interesting; how about Lev-Gleason?

 

CDNP boasted a readership of five million, and although that would have included the passing around of their books for multiple reads from a single purchase, I had read somewhere, maybe in Gerber, that the title outsold EC's entire lineup each month.

 

So how many copies of CDNP were printed, given that most post WW2 issues are available to this day in damn near any condition one would want?

Ayer's puts Lev Gleason line-wide circulation at 2,471,232 in 1951, and 1,445,601 in 1955. I believe that's 7 titles in the group both years.

The elephant in the room that I don't think we've touched on too much during these circulation discussions is that it's very likely some of these pubs or other agents in the distro process were retrieving intact returns and remaindering them either above-board or otherwise.

That's going to account for some warehouse finds over the years, probably, and perhaps explain why some titles or individual issues seem more plentiful than might be expected.

Some new recently acquired goodies.

Yes, they are all as nice as they look. Back covers with no problems.

They weren't cheap, but just too nice to pass up on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WOF # 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...nice books, JT...... top census on the Mystic 19 is 8.0.....it's real tough to find one like yours. GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

Before:

After:

Wow!

Wow!

WOW, WOW, WOW is right, never see these especially in these grades! Amazing, congrats!

This thread has been on fire lately, and it's put me in a buying mood. I couldn't resist this one when I saw it pop up for sale. Cool underrated Everett GGA cover, and the linework is just lovely.

That's a killer looking 6.0! (thumbs u

Everett always drew such beautiful damsels in distress and this ones on exception! Carmine Infantino art inside is a huge plus too!

Nice!

I love that book! Congrats Jon.

This thread has been on fire lately, and it's put me in a buying mood. I couldn't resist this one when I saw it pop up for sale. Cool underrated Everett GGA cover, and the linework is just lovely.

 

 

Thanks guys.

That's a killer looking 6.0! (thumbs u

Everett always drew such beautiful damsels in distress and this ones on exception! Carmine Infantino art inside is a huge plus too!

...I've also never seen a bad Kane or Perlin story for Atlas..... GOD BLESS.....

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

what number is that World Of Suspense with the scare crow/green cover? I have to have one of those.

# 2.......... a very cool one.... GOD BLESS....

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

A different kind of "Menace"

Those are cool....... GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

Ted from Superworld had some real nice Atlas books at Wondercon this weekend.