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Coming Soon: Fox Giants

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OtherEric:
I already mentioned this several months ago back on GAC, but I've got several Fox Giants to scan and post, and they're next on my pile once I get through the 100 Page Wyatt Earp from Charlton.  I just wanted to preview and discuss the first of the giants, it will hopefully start getting posted next week, if not even late this week.  (The individual books will be going up as individual books, as well as the giant as a whole.)

I'm starting with the 1948 issue of Almanac of Crime.  I actually took apart my copy to scan it easier and to check something.  This issue is not assembled from remaindered books; in fact none of the component issues have been stapled in the normal fashion.  There are only the big staples through the whole book.  I suspect the contents are identical in all copies; not just because it's not remainders but because I've seen several sources mention the Phantom Lady issue, and at least a couple specify it as #19.  (Unlike the other three issues, I will not be posting the PL 19 as a separate issue; we've got a better copy on the way.  I WILL be scanning it new since I know there's an effort to put together a "best unedited" copy from the various off-register scans we have.)

In addition to the PL 19, this issue starts with a 16 page signature that's not taken from any other single issue.  It reprints Cattle Kate from Women Outlaws #1, this story was used in Seduction of the Innocent.  It then has Kiss of Death Kate, reprinted from Western True Crime #15 (#1), and a one-page story from Women Outlaws #1 again.

The four books in this one are Jo-Jo 20, Western Thrillers 2, Phantom Lady 19, and Famous Crimes 3.  The Famous Crimes #3 also is mentioned in SOTI.  Since two SOTI issues/ stories show up I wonder if this was the book Wertham actually saw, rather than the two separate issues.  Other than the PL none of them have been scanned that I know of.

Anyway, that's coming very soon now.  I think I've actually turned up some new information about this particular book above, although it may have been previously discovered.  It's always neat to figure out new things about old comics, though!

Yoc:
Very interesting info there Eric.
Now if these annuals aren't remainder books one has to wonder what the reasoning behind them is.

-Yoc

OtherEric:
Most of the Fox Giants are remaindered books, Yoc.  It's just the 1948 Almanac of Crime that isn't that I know of.  I think it's one of the first- if not THE first- Fox Giant.  So I suspect in this case it was put out as a test of the format, to see if it was worth the effort to deal with the remaindered or leftover books instead of just trashing them.  That's a pure guess, though.

The other two Giants I have are remaindered books, or at the very least a) there's alternate documented contents, and b) the component books have been stapled normally in addition to the staples through the whole thing.

OtherEric:
Just realized something else about the book:  While the contents were apparently always intended for the book rather than remainders, as explained above, it's fairly clear that the sub-books were still printed separately, apparently with the normal runs of the book. Two ways to tell that:  1) Ad pages repeat.  I can't imagine Fox NOT selling those separately if he was printing them as a separate run.  2)  The paper is slightly different from issue to issue.  The browning at the bottom varies from issue to issue, and each seems to have its own level of brittleness.  The new material section at the front was moderate, the Jo-Jo was pretty bad, and the Western Thrillers is pretty supple, all things considered.  (There are other slight differences I can't quite define but that are clear to me when I'm holding & looking at the book in person.)

Poztron:
Just a reality check on terminology. Is "remaindered" the right term to describe these component comics? In book publishing, remaindered books are books that have been sold off cheaply by a publisher (or perhaps distributor) to clear inventory. I suspect that these giant comics were either composed of "returns" (i.e., copies returned unsold by distributors) or perhaps copies that never made it to distributors or newsstands in the first place.

There was definitely a sleazy grey-market of comics (Charltons in particular) that had been claimed by distributors as unsold (and had had their cover logos/mastheads torn off and sent back as "proof" of unsold copies) that were then sent out to Ma & Pa groceries (or wherever) for sale again at some discount. If Fox was able to get "whole copy returns" (without the masthead torn off) from distributors, they could have been the components for these Giants. If that was the case, it would have been Fox trying to gain some value from them instead of letting crooked distributors resell them. (I did wonder whether some of the IW "reprints" of Fox comics were actually a reselling of old Fox printed contents with new covers attached. Perhaps Fox's use of inside front covers as the first page of stories was an attempt to foil the grey market by assuring that if a masthead was torn off it would also tear off part of the splash panel on the IFC.)

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