1958

When an import ban was lifted in the autumn of 1959 Thorpe and Porter immediately began importing DC, Charlton, ACG etc comics from the States to distribute to UK newsagents in quantity in late 1959/early 1960. From surviving issues bearing those “much loved” 9d ink stamps it appears that the earliest DC comics distributed here had October and November 1959 cover dates. However there exist Archie and Charlton comics with Thorpe and Porter ink stamps in circulation in the UK showing publication dates from earlier in 1959 and even from 1958 but there’s no way of knowing if they were actually distributed here nearer their publication date as a trial run before the bulk of comics shipped or just happened to get mixed up with the main late 1959 consignment. The oldest comic I have ever come across that sports a Thorpe and Porter ink stamp is this Charlton Romantic Story No 40 as the indicea on the inside cover shows a September 1958 date.

PS: Oddly this was a 25c comic but with a 9d stamp. Thorpe and Porter would go on to price comics with more than 36 pages at 1/3d. This particular title most usually cost 10c in its country of origin. Oddly just the previous issue had contained 68 pages for 15c. It seems Charlton didn’t continue with this experiment. All issues in the series apart from No 39 and No 40 were standard 36 page comics.

PPS: Disclaimer: More detailed details can be found elsewhere on the Interweb but briefly….Charlton comics were distributed in the UK by Thorpe and Porter initially in 1959/1960 but circa 1961 that changed with L Miller taking over (and even getting UK prices printed on the covers for a couple of years). Once Len died his company began to be wound down from 1964 and briefly RV and then Thorpe and Porter once more took over the distribution of all the bonkers Charlton comics that came to the UK.