Why are so many comics missing covers?

[Poztron]

I recall Mom & Pop corner stores from the fifties and sixties in the Cleveland, OH area that sold Charlton comics (the lowest of the low) with the cover logos cut off. There were clearly many layers to the corrupt magazine distribution game. Hell, I once spotted Mad magazines with missing cover logos for sale at a newsstand at an Istanbul ferry terminal (probably in the '90s). That's some impressive movement of "unsold" magazines around the world!

[erwin-k]

I once saw Jim Warren, publisher of Famous Monsters, Creepy, etc., quoted as saying something like:


"First God created the amoeba, for practice. Then he created the magazine wholesaler."

[Shea6408]

In theory after "stripping" the front cover or the title strip from the comic the retailer was supposed to throw away the rest of the comic.  In practice, however many retailers sold the remainders to used magazine stores or used book stores to make a little extra money.

For a while, DC used to have a large statement above the indicia stating that the comic may not be sold "with any part of its cover or markings removed."

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/950/41319382855_f516631633_b.jpg

[bminor]

They still do stripping.
While getting gas at the local station last week, the shop keeper was stripping all the previous days newspapers.
A few minutes later the newspaper person came in and dropped off the new newspapers and took the stripped pages with him along with some other paperwork.

On another note, all the gas stations in northern Minnesota have just about dropped all magazines of all types about six months ago! They took out the space dedicated to magazines and put in other product. I suppose that magazines were/are no longer selling that well.
A reflection of the digital age that we live in

B.