Comic Book Dimensions over the last 75 years...

[bminor]

I was just working on a old comic book project and had a thought.
What exactly are the dimensions of the different comics in the past.
I know that Dell were very wide early.
I don't have any around me now to measure.
Different companies I am sure had different specifications, Charlton, Fawcett, Quality, etc.

B.

[bminor]

Found this on the net:

Silver, Bronze and Modern comics are usually between 10 and 10 1/4 inches tall and about 6 3/4 inches wide. Prior to this there wasn't really a standard and sizes fluctuated between titles and publishers, but they were often larger than these dimensions. I pulled out two quick examples to measure for you: Tales from the Crypt #33 (1953) is 7 1/4 inches wide and 10 1/4 inches tall. My copy of National Comics #18 (1941) is over 7 1/2 inches wide and 10 1/4 inches tall.

[Yoc]

GCD will list dimensions for each issue when known.
It's a good place to start.  The early issues of Jumbo were Jumbo!

[darkmark (RIP)]

So were Master's, for that matter.

[narfstar]

GCD usually used standard GA, standard SA, standard modern, etc without actual measurements

[Yoc]

Hmm, I could swear I've seen actual dimensions listed on some books.

[John C]

I'm curious, does anybody know how different comics ended up at different sizes?  It seems to me that the only practical way to make a cheap comic is to fold/cut newspaper broadsheets, which is also suggested by their all being multiples of eight pages.  Since the rolls have to be pretty much standard (otherwise, the business would be too finicky to survive), comics should then be the same size, no?

[Roygbiv666]

I don't know the answer, but it's interesting. Must be variation in the broadsheet sizes?

Did stumble across this related topic, original art sizes and thought it was cool:

http://www.artofthecomicbook.com/history/art-reduction.htm

I'm now tempted to dig up my mostly unread copy of "75 Years of DC Comics. The Art of Modern Mythmaking" by Paul Levitz (http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/popculture/all/06749/facts.75_years_of_dc_comics_the_art_of_modern_mythmaking.htm), but it's in its box and look at the size of that thing!

I vaguely recall it (sizing) goes broadsheet folded in half makes magazine size folded in half makes comics size.

I'm curious, does anybody know how different comics ended up at different sizes?  It seems to me that the only practical way to make a cheap comic is to fold/cut newspaper broadsheets, which is also suggested by their all being multiples of eight pages.  Since the rolls have to be pretty much standard (otherwise, the business would be too finicky to survive), comics should then be the same size, no?

[narfstar]

GCD does have some books with actual dimensions listed but most just the STANDARD

[John C]

I don't know the answer, but it's interesting. Must be variation in the broadsheet sizes?

I guess it must be, though that seems like a terrible way to run a publishing business, to me, and possibly a paper business.  I mean, think about the cold-calling.

"Hey, we heard your newsprint supplier tanked or raised its prices.  Join up with us, and we'll beat their price, and you'll only have to reformat your entire paper, modify your presses, and spend months convincing your employees to do things the new way."  It'd be even worse than sending European contractors documents formatted for letter-sized paper.

I vaguely recall it (sizing) goes broadsheet folded in half makes magazine size folded in half makes comics size.

That should be it.  Although it's been a few years since I've seen a newspaper up close, so...

[Roygbiv666]

Aren't newspapers, magazines, and comics trimmed after printing? That would account for variation.

I don't know the answer, but it's interesting. Must be variation in the broadsheet sizes?

I guess it must be, though that seems like a terrible way to run a publishing business, to me, and possibly a paper business.  I mean, think about the cold-calling.

"Hey, we heard your newsprint supplier tanked or raised its prices.  Join up with us, and we'll beat their price, and you'll only have to reformat your entire paper, modify your presses, and spend months convincing your employees to do things the new way."  It'd be even worse than sending European contractors documents formatted for letter-sized paper.

I vaguely recall it (sizing) goes broadsheet folded in half makes magazine size folded in half makes comics size.

That should be it.  Although it's been a few years since I've seen a newspaper up close, so...

[Geo (RIP)]

I'm now tempted to dig up my mostly unread copy of "75 Years of DC Comics. The Art of Modern Mythmaking" by Paul Levitz (http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/popculture/all/06749/facts.75_years_of_dc_comics_the_art_of_modern_mythmaking.htm), but it's in its box and look at the size of that thing!

That is some kind of coffee table book there Roy.

Geo

[narfstar]

Using the broadsheet makes one wonder why the size ever got smaller. Metropolitan distributed in a 5 pack but printed 6 with a second issue of Tallulah. The comics were printed two together and cut apart.  I still wish someone knew how rare my Tallulah 2 is. None of the books show up often on ebay

[John C]

Using the broadsheet makes one wonder why the size ever got smaller.

Weird.  I always just assumed that newspapers got incrementally smaller.  On a larger page, a shift of 1% wouldn't be as noticeable, presumably, and you can take it out of the gutter without anybody batting an eyelash.  Rationing would be a good excuse, if it weren't for the fact that it didn't happen during the war...

Regardless, I don't have any evidence either way, but that's what made intuitive sense when I thought about it.

Roy's also probably right that squaring the books probably has an impact.  If comics got less careful remnants over time, the pages would be more ragged and the books would necessarily get smaller in the standardization.  Alternatively, the standard comic book size might have just been based on the smallest broadsheet in hopes of diversifying suppliers.

[jfglade]

I was just working on a old comic book project and had a thought.
What exactly are the dimensions of the different comics in the past.
I know that Dell were very wide early.
I don't have any around me now to measure.
Different companies I am sure had different specifications, Charlton, Fawcett, Quality, etc.

B.

 Off the real topic, but when I saw this header I thought perhaps you were trying to start a comprehensive listing of alternative and pocket universes which had been used by various companies.