They (Almost) Never Were a Nickel! ~~ A "Comical Wednesday" AND "David'Z RantZ" Post

I HATE IT WHEN (Comic Book Edition)...

• Non-comic-book-readers write a newspaper or magazine article about comics, and the theme is either "There's Money in your Attic," or "Comics Aren't Just for Kids Any More."
• Non-comic-book-readers automatically think FLASH! BAM! POW! or the like whenever they think of comics, thanks primarily to the silly 1960s Batman television show.
• Non-comic-book-readers respond to any mention of comics with "Holy smoke, Batman," or something similar, thanks, once again, to that damned TV show. (Y'see, Robin, Batman's sidekick, often said "Holy [something]" in response to... well, just about anything. And his holy whatevers were usually pretty weird, if they made any sense at all. For example, in one episode, Batman realizes that three specific letters are missing from a bowl of alphabet soup -- I told you it was a silly show -- and Robin's response is "Holy Uncanny Photographic Mental Processes!" Well, non-comic-book-readers often think to use a "Holy..." line, but never come up with anything interesting or creative like Robin did in any of those episodes. Nine times out of ten, it's just a simple "Holy smoke, Batman," or "Holy shit, Batman!")
• Some non-comic-book-reader in his fifties or older says he (or a friend) still has comics from the 1960s or earlier that are "all in their original plastic bags." Well, folks, with the exception of some multi-packs put out very briefly by DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and King Features in the mid-1960s, comic books weren't sold in plastic bags until the mid-1980s or so, when some publishers started including free trading cards or other junk stuff along with certain comics.
• Older non-comic-book-readers say "I remember them when they were a nickel!"

Well, fellow babies, today's post is about these "nickel" comics.

Comic books in their current form (more or less) were a product of the early 1930s. The very first comic books from that era were promotional giveaways. The first comic book in the modern format that had an actual price tag on it was marked 10¢. Before long, almost all comics being published consisted of sixty-four pages (a count which sometimes but not always included the front and back covers, inside and out, thus the covers added four pages to the count). And they were all 10¢. They were never a nickel!

Well, actually, I should say that they were never a nickel... except for the ones that were.

*sigh*

In 1938, Dell published a one-shot, 5¹⁄₂" x 7¹⁄2", 68-page comic book called Nickel Comics (shown at the top of this post). It had a color cover and a black & white interior, and sold for... 5¢.

In 1940, Fawcett (which also published the comics featuring the original Captain Marvel, as well as a lot of other titles) came out with eight issues of a bi-weekly, again called Nickel Comics (shown below). It starred a character called Bulletman. It had 36 pages (32 "real" pages, plus covers) for... 5¢.

So obviously, whenever someone says "I remember them when they were a nickel!" I cannot, in all fairness, reply "No, you don't! They were never a nickel!"

And what makes it worse, from the 1930s until relatively recently, comic books were sold mostly by newsstands on what was called a "returnable basis." Newsstands were supposed to return whatever comics were unsold when the new copy of each title was shipped. But to save work (and lifting) for all concerned, magazine distributors allowed the newsstand dealers to cut the title of each magazine or comic off the book, and send that back to the distributor, which would then give the newsstands credit for all the unsold copies.

The newsstand dealers were supposed to throw the remainder of the magazine or comic away, but a lot of them didn't. Ever see (or own) a comic that looked like the following two illustrations?

Laugh Comics #30, 1946

Batman #34, 1946

Those two -- and millions like them, over the years -- should have been thrown away, but some of the more unscrupulous newsstands put them out for sale at a price naturally lower than 10¢. Sometimes that reduced price was as high as 8¢. Sometimes it was as low as 3¢.

And other times... *sigh*... it was a [razzer-frazzer] NICKEL!

Thanks for your time.