Thorpe and Porter Annuals

Many kids collecting comics in the second half of the1960s and into the early 1970s would have come across the Thorpe and Porter Double Double comics. They comprised of 4 complete but coverless (usually) DC comics (although sometimes they contained an odd Marvel or even a couple of ACGs) within a new cover. Although these books had titles like “Action” or “Detective” they usually contained different titles too.  You could purchase two copies of “Double Double Action” No 2 and find different random coverless comics in each issue. 

I don’t know if this is true or not but 30th Century Comics claimed:

In the late Sixties and early Seventies, it was a common practise (sic) of distributors Thorpe & Porter to strip the covers of unsold copies for credit, then re-purpose the ‘destroyed’ coverless copies, four to an issue.

I’m sure that’s complete nonsense. Thorpe and Porter were clearing remaindered stock. I can’t see there being any SOR agreement considering they would be getting the comics cheap in the first place.

Less well known, and probably less well distributed, were the similar but different Thorpe and Porter Annuals available probably for Xmas 1967. These books followed a similar format to the Double Double comics. They comprised of sturdy glossy cardboard covers containing (count em) six remaindered DC comics. This time the comics came complete with their glossy covers. 

There were quite a few Annuals. Atom, Aquaman, Blackhawk, Brave and the Bold, Doom Patrol, Flash, Hawkman, Metal Men, Mystery in Space, Showcase, Wonder Woman. This particular Doom Patrol Annual only contains one Doom Patrol comic at the front. The other five comics within are random issues of Strange Adventures, House of Secrets, Batman, Superboy and World’s Finest . Other copies of the same Annual probably had different comics within the covers.

Can you spot what’s wrong with the cover of the Green Lantern Annual? Yes, Alan Scott had a magic ring in Golden Age comics twenty years earlier but that has nothing to do with the sole Hal Jordan Green Lantern comic found within. The other comics are the usual randomness. There’s even a Jerry Lewis comic.

Every annual seems to have this same wallpaper inside front and back covers.