Fox: Which came first?

[darkmark (RIP)]

I've been tracking reprints for Fox comics vis-a-vis the big 132-or-more books and I'm wondering if, given a date for the big book and a date within the year for a regular book in which the same story appears, the big book is the reprint and the regular book is the original story appearance or vice versa.  Anybody know?

[narfstar]

no idea but the big books are usually are the reprints

[mr_goldenage (RIP)]

I would agree. The big books tended to be the reprints and a place for inventory stories after titles folded.

RB

[Yoc]

It's commonly thought the big books were reprints though I think I recall OtherEric scanning a book where he thought perhaps there was a new story but my memory is fuzzy on that.

[JonTheScanner]

I thought the big books were not actually reprints but remaindered copies rebound -- four 32 page comics inside new covers for 132 pages total.  I thought I recalled the the stories that sometimes started on the inside cover were missing their first page in the giants.

[Yoc]

Sorry, yes.  Jon is correct.  Returned books repackaged.  Most publishers did something like that.

[OtherEric]

As far as I know, most of the Fox Giants are unsold books.  The 1948 Almanac of Crime- which seems to be the earliest of the main run of Fox Giants, although there are a few odd earlier ones- had an additional 16 page signature at the start, which was common to all copies but was still reprints.  That issue also seems to have been made from copies of the issues printed at the same time, rather than stripped and rebound issues, since the separate issues were not stapled themselves, just the book as a whole.  (I've seen another copy at a con, the contents are NOT all the same 4 issues like I thought was possible).

In general, though, the Fox giants are NOT reprints- they're coverless books aggregated under a new cover.

[Yoc]

Thanks for the info Eric and nice to see you posting again.