Is this a comic book or a subscription folder ?

Tom Peaco tpeaco at exploremaine.com
Sat Feb 7 14:17:50 CET 2004


Ola Martinsson wrote:
> In the Gerber photo journal there is a picture of a WDC X-mas giveaway
> ca 1945. It has the same cover as WDC #59.
>
> I have a subscription folder from 1947 that looks like this one. It is
> simply a peice of paper folded once that gives it the same size as a
> comic showing the frontcover mentioned above. Then it is folded two
> times on the other level so it becomes one third as high as a comic.
>
> Is it this that is portrayed in Gerber ? Or is the picture in Gerber
> actually of a WDC X-mas giveaway that they didn't know exact publishing
> year of ?
>
> Does it say ca 1945 because Gerber didn't know exactly what year or was
> this WDC X-mas giveaway/subscription folder published for more than one
> year ?
>
> In that case, did it have the same cover all years ?

Per the "Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide" (I'm quoting from the 24th
edition (1994) but all previous editions I have back to the 8th edition say
the same thing)):

"Mid 1940's (45-48), 1952 (4pgs in color) (slick paper)
"Dell Publishing co. (Special Xmas offer)
"1940's version - subscription form for WDC&S - (Reprints two different
WDC&S covers with subscription forms printed on inside covers)"

As of the 25th edition (1995) of the "Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide" the
information is as follows:

"1942-1962 known (4 pgs, in color, slick paper, 7-1/3"x10-1/4")
"(folded horizontally once or twice as mailers)
"K.K. Publications (Xmas subscription form)
"NOTE: It is assumed a different mailer was printed each Xmas for at least
twenty years."

Oversteet also provides details for some of the mailers but nothing
specifically for 1945 nor 1947.  From the descriptions of the other mailers
I can tell that the mailers for 1942, 1949, 1950 & 1953 had different covers
from that shown in Gerber.

My guess is that what you've got is the actual mailer pictured in Gerber and
that they probably used the same art work, just changing the year, for a few
years in the mid-1940s (this may be why Gerber states "circa 1945").  If
what you have is only one page, more than likely the back page was cut off
at some point in time.

Tom




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