"...And Ten Benson" - Grant Morrison comics in UK Newsagents

Most comic book fans with any interest at all in How The Sausage Is Made are, by now, aware in some capacity of the difference between ‘Direct Sales’ and ‘Newsstand’ copies of their favourite funny books.  Briefly, between the late 1970’s and the early 2010’s, DC, Marvel and a handful of their smaller competitors produced two slightly different versions of their comic books for sale in the US – one for comic shops, sold-in on a firm sale basis; and one for the mass market newsstands where unsold copies could be returned by the retailer for a credit.  Unsold copies of the newsstand versions were either destroyed, shipped out to foreign markets like South Africa or Singapore, or illegally sold by the truckload to Chuck Rozanski of Mile High Comics.  Consequently, they’ve often become significantly harder to find than their ‘Direct Sales’ equivalent, especially in half-decent condition.

The differences between the Direct Sale and newsstand copies are, in the vast majority of cases, limited to the contents of the corner box on the cover.  For DC, between the late 70’s and 1993, newsstand copies have a barcode printed on the cover; Direct Sales copies do not – instead the corner box might say “DC - Where Legends Live”, have a Bat symbol, or list that issue’s creative team.  From 1993, both copies have a barcode, but they’re different – the Direct Sales barcode contains publisher and title codes, the issue number, the cover number (whether the issue has any variants or not) and the printing.  So a Direct Sales barcode that ends 00111 indicates (in reverse order) that this particular book is the first print of the main cover of issue #1.

Newsstand barcodes only show a code for publisher, another for which title the book belongs to, and the cover month.

Here in Fascist Britain, newsstand copies were (generally speaking, there are some exceptions that fall outside of the scope of this article), not distributed.  We also enjoyed widespread, mass market distribution of comic books through the 90’s via retailers like WH Smith, Menzies, Forbouys, etc., but all of these books, as imported by distributor Moore Harness, were US Direct Sales editions.

One big advantage the UK had over the US in this period was that, here in the UK, we got (almost) everything, everywhere.  Growing up in Nothingsville, England, I could buy Direct Sales only books, Vertigo books, prestige format books, everything, from any number of local newsagents.  Consequently, I think the unique damage that comic books inflicted on my particular generation is subtly different between Folks of a Certain Age on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

I could, as you might imagine, talk about this shit all day, but you’re here to read about Grant Morrison comics right??  So, here’s a survey of Grant Morrison comic books from 1988-1999, published in the USA but sold in the UK to any little bleeder who wanted them – Suggested for Mature Readers be damned – by their friendly neighbourhood corner shop.

ANIMAL MAN #1-26

A Direct Sale-only book in the US, all issues of Animal Man had a UK printed price on the cover and were widely distributed to newsagents up and down the land.  Animal Man didn’t actually get a ‘Suggested for Mature Readers’ label until Jamie Delano came on board as writer with issue #51 in 1992, but, in my experience, it wouldn’t have made a lick of difference even if it had been on there since issue #1 – these things would still have been (and were) racked with the Batman and Spider-Man books on the kids’ comics shelves of WH Smith.

DOOM PATROL #19-63, DOOM FORCE SPECIAL #1

Direct Sales-only in the US.  UK printed price on all issues (including oversized #50 and Doom Force #1), widely distributed.  ‘Suggested for Mature Readers’ from issue #37, not that anyone cared.

SECRET ORIGINS #39, 46, 50

#39 and 46 have a UK printed price and were widely distributed.  The 100-page final issue #50 doesn’t have a UK printed price.  I’ve never seen a copy but looking at other books at the same $3.95 price point from the same year, and from the preponderance of copies of this on UK eBay with damaged covers, I’m almost certain this was distributed to UK newsagents, likely with a ‘£2.00’ or ‘£2.00P’ price gun sticker on the front cover.

HELLBLAZER #25, 26

Direct Sales-only in the US.  UK printed price, widely distributed.  ‘Suggested for Mature Readers’

LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #6-10

Direct Sales-only in the US (copies with a barcode sticker were sold in Waldenbooks).  No UK printed price.  These were distributed to UK newsagents with a ‘£1.00’ or ‘£1.00P’ price gun sticker on the front cover.

KID ETERNITY #1-3

Direct Sales-only in the US, $4.95 prestige format.  No UK printed price.  These were distributed to UK newsagents with a ‘£2.80’ or ‘£2.80P’ price gun sticker on the front cover. It took me years to find one of these with a distributor price sticker on it.  One of the problems with trying to ascertain whether a given Prestige Format book was distributed to UK newsagents or not 30+ years after the fact is that the price stickers were much easier to remove from the nicer cover stock without damaging it, so most people did.

WHO’S WHO IN THE DC UNIVERSE 1993 UPDATE #2

Direct Sales-only in the US.  As far as I remember these oversized, polybagged, loose leaf oddities were not available outside of specialist comic shops in the UK.  At $5.95 a throw in 1993 dollars (equivalent to $13 in 2024!), I’d guess  these were looked at as too expensive to have any legs in the mass market.

SEBASTIAN O #1-3

Direct Sales-only in the US.  UK printed price, widely distributed.  ‘Suggested for Mature Readers’

SWAMP THING #140-143

Direct Sales-only in the US.  UK printed price, widely distributed.  ‘Suggested for Mature Readers’

VERTIGO RAVE #1

Direct Sales-only in the US.  UK printed price suggests this was widely distributed.  ‘Suggested for Mature Readers’

THE INVISIBLES VOL. 1 #1-25

Direct Sales-only in the US.  UK printed price #1-14, widely distributed.  ‘Suggested for Mature Readers’. 

Thanks to (alleged) pressure from a certain large UK Direct Market comics retailer, concerned that sales via  newsagents were cutting into their business, DC stopped printing the UK cover price on their books in late 1995.  The last batch of books with a printed UK cover price were cover dated November 1995.

The Invisibles Vol. 1 issues #15 to 21 were distributed to newsagents with a ‘£1.50’ distributor’s price gun sticker adorning the cover.  Issues #22-25 had a small, printed price sticker - ‘£1.50’ in red text.

VERTIGO VOICES: KILL YOUR BOYFRIEND

Direct Sales-only in the US.  UK printed price suggests this was widely distributed.  ‘Suggested for Mature Readers’. 

SKRULL KILL KREW #1-5

Currently unknown, but I’d guess this is an unlikely candidate for UK distribution.  Direct Sales-only in the US.  No printed UK price.

Moore Harness, DC’s UK newsagent distributor, also distributed Marvel Comics until late 1990, when Comag took over.  Comag’s UK distribution strategy for Marvel is all over the map throughout the 90’s – some books came over as newsstand copies with printed UK prices, some as Direct Editions with a price gun sticker; some copies had massive barcode stickers haphazardly stuck on the cover, often when the comic itself had the same price printed on it; titles pop in and out of distribution seemingly at random – honestly, it’s a hot mess.  Though Comag continued to distribute Marvel comics to newsagents as late as 1998, the books they were handling were nowhere near Marvel’s full slate.  

Bearing all that in mind, I’d be very surprised if Skrull Kill Krew, a book Marvel basically cancelled before it was published, made it to widespread distribution in the UK.

FLEX MENTALLO, MAN OF MUSCLE MYSTERY #1-4

Direct Sales-only in the US.  No printed UK price.  ‘£1.50’ price gun sticker on issue #1, small, printed ‘£1.50’ price sticker on issues #2-4.  Widely distributed.  ‘Suggested for Mature Readers’. 

AZTEK THE ULTIMATE MAN #1-10

Direct Sales-only in the US.  No printed UK price.  Small, printed ‘£1.25’ price sticker on issues #1-10.  Widely distributed.  Some issues of Aztek left in Moore Harness’s warehouse when distribution ended were remaindered to newsagents, discount bookstores, and possibly other channels as well.  These often have either a large yellow 99p barcode sticker, or a large white ‘2 DC Comics for Only 99p’ sticker. 

I’ve never seen any remaindered Morrison books that predate Aztek, but odd copies of other DC book going back to the early 90’s are out there.

JLA #1-33

Issues #2-4 were (probably) Direct Sales-only in the US, all other issues were available on the newsstands.  No printed UK price.  Theoretically, issues #1-10 would have small, printed ‘£1.25’ price stickers if they were distributed in the UK.  I’ve only ever seen one copy of #10 and none of the others, so if these do exist it seems they’re in much shorter supply than earlier books.

Issues #11-33 were distributed with large hard to remove barcode stickers affixed to the front cover.  JLA #33, cover dated September 1999, appears to be amongst the last batch of DC comics distributed in the mass market in the UK.  Neither #33 or #32 were written by Grant Morrison, making the July 1999 cover-dated issue #31 the last Morrison-penned issue of JLA – and their last DC comic full stop - to receive UK newsagent distribution.

Also sometimes found with remainder stickers (large yellow 99p barcodes, or a large white ‘2 DC Comics for Only 99p’

stickers).

I don’t think JLA/WildCATS, JLA Secret Files & Origins or the New Year’s Evil Prometheus one-shot were distributed to UK newsagents.  At $6 and $5 apiece I suspect the JLA/WildCATS and SF&O books were too expensive to be included amongst the distributed titles this late in the game.  I’ve never seen a copy of any SF&O or New Years Evil books with UK price labels, but if you have, please let me know!

THE INVISIBLES VOL. 2 #1-4

Direct Sales-only in the US.  Small, printed ‘£1.50’ price sticker on issues #1-4.  Widely distributed.  ‘Suggested for Mature Readers’. 

As far as I’ve been able to tell, Moore Harness stopped distributing The Invisibles Vol. 2 to UK newsagents with issue #4. 

Remaindered copies of volume 2 Issue #1 were still popping up in The Works (a UK cut-out book chain) years after the book was released.

WEIRD WAR TALES #3

Direct Sales-only in the US.  No printed UK price.  Small, printed ‘£1.50’ price sticker.  Widely distributed.  ‘Suggested for Mature Readers’. 

THE FLASH #130-138

Widely distributed with large barcode stickers affixed to the front cover.  Also sometimes found with remainder stickers (large yellow 99p barcodes, or a large white ‘2 DC Comics for Only 99p’ stickers).

DC ONE MILLION #1-4

Likely distributed with a large yellow or orange barcode sticker. I’ve only ever seen copies of these with remainder stickers, but presumably these were available for sale in newsagents when new.