THE ELUSIVE 4TH IPC COMIC

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 17:35

I was a big comic fan during the 70s/80s and loved IPC titles in particular - Whoopee, Whizzer & Chips and Buster, but regularly IPC would bring out a 4th title which would flop and then be replaced by a new one (eg. Monster Fun, Krazy, Cheeky, Jackpot, Wow! etc). My question is why did they persue an elusive 4th? By that I mean, why didn't they just concentrate on their 'hits' when it was obvious that the 4th titles kept on failing? Any ideas? Thanks.

Originally posted by Big Simon on the old forum on 22/2/2006

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 17:36

I think the idea was to create some excitement/interest. The new comic would initially have fairly good sales but then suffer diminishing returns. The new comic could then be incorporated into an existing, established title giving a needed boost. Sometimes, though rarely, the new title proved to be more popular than older comics as in the case of 2000 AD, and survived where they did not.

Originally posted by Ivor Lott on the old forum on 22/2/2006

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 17:37

I've never been aware of this "fourth" theory before, but I was usually unlucky enough to be the reader of the "last" before one got swallowed up by another.

I started reading Terrific (yes, I'm that old), which got swallowed up by Fantastic. At the same time I started reading Wham, which got swallowed up by Pow.

Then Pow got swallowed by Smash and shortly after became Smash And Pow Incorporating Fantastic. This was then swallowed by Valiant.

I continued being bottom of the food chain when I started reading Lion (which had already swallowed Eagle). For a while things looked good, Lion swallowed Thunder and, I think, Jet, and Valiant swallowed TV 21, all leaving me on the top table. Then Valiant went and swallowed Lion, leaving me reading one comic again, when I'd set out to buy over half a dozen!

I bought Vulcan, it got swallowed by Valiant. I bought Cor!, it got swallowed by Buster. I bought Whizzer and Chips thinking it was a comic that had done the swallowing-up thing before I started reading it.

Then I discovered Marvel reprints. Surely I'd be safe from all this hatching, matching and dispatching nonsense there? Shee-yeah right.

I was soon reading Mighty World Of Marvel Incorporating Planet Of The Apes, Dracula Lives and Fury.

And now, of course, I'm nostalgic for amalgamations. Yet terrified of the fearful spectre of The Beano And Dandy (Incorporating Beezer, Topper, Sparky et al), please don't let it happen.

Originally posted by Kev F on the old forum on 22/2/2006

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 17:37

I think IPC's thought behind producing 4th, 5th, 6th comics etc was to try and dominate the market. If a comic failed they'd try another to keep their profits steady, I presume.Therefore new comics invariably sprung up after one closed. Thus Film Fun was replaced a month later by Valiant, which in turn was replaced a few months later by 2000 AD.

Originally posted by Lew Stringer on the old forum on 22/2/2006

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 17:37

Sometimes a new comic would be brought out specifically to go under making a nice tax loss for the company, but, with the occassional added bonus of adding on new circulation to an older established comic. Of course they never actually told any of the staff that.

Originally posted by BH on the old forum on 23/2/2006

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 17:38

IPC really exploited this technique.Whereas a DCT comic would amalgamate and the combined name would last just a few weeks,IPC would keep the Jet in the title of Buster for years,until It was ready to swallow up Cor.
The disappearance of a name extension usually meant another amalgamation was on the way.

Originally posted by Brisey on the old forum on 23/2/2006

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 17:38

Did IPC (and indeed other publishers) have bulk deals with printers, paper suppliers etc which required them to print X amount of copies across the line per week? Was the 4th title there simply to 'make up the numbers' for the accountants and keep unit costs down?

I've no evidence for this but new launches would also give existing staff members something to do. When a title folded, staff would either have to be 'let go' or redeployed within the group. With powerful unions which, in the case of IPC at least, could cause industrial unrest way beyond the youth group itself it would seem sensible to find staff something new to do (like launch a new comic) rather than risk a dispute.

Originally posted by Jon on the old forum on 23/2/2006

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 17:38

"Did IPC (and indeed other publishers) have bulk deals with printers, paper suppliers etc which required them to print X amount of copies across the line per week?"

Comics are businesses. And, in the 1960s and 1970s, UK comics were BIG businesses. With a weekly title routinely selling over 250,000 copies a week (a figure the best selling titles in the world can't manage per month nowadays), the publishers would feel a title was under-performing when sales fell into the low 100,000s.

\ Since a relaunch is likely to sell on novelty value, advertised across all the company's other titles and targeting first time readers (in this business there literally is one born every day - we sell to kids), it made sense to launch a new title every 26 weeks (every 6 months), and amalgamate whichever two titles were performing least well.

So you'd get a new title selling, to begin with, 300,000, and two titles that had been selling 150,000 each also now selling 300,000 (unless, of course, the same readers had been buying both).

It's good business, and it amazes me no-one's done it since the 1980s.

Kev F

PS: Okay, the 1990s. To my memory, the last amalgamation was when 2000AD swallowed Crisis circa 1995. Am I right?

Originally posted by Kev F on the old forum on 23/2/2006

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 17:39

"PS: Okay, the 1990s. To my memory, the last amalgamation was when 2000AD swallowed Crisis circa 1995. Am I right?"

That was a very quiet amalgamation. I thought Crisis just stopped.

A recent merger was at Panini where "Ultimate X-Men" merged into "Ultimate Spider-Man" to become "Ultimate Spider-Man and X-Men".

Originally posted by Lew Stringer on the old forum on 23/2/2006

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 17:39

TV Cream attempt to write up various IPC comics was made tricky by the number of mergers. Even one or two of the DC Thomson titles had odd histories.

Originally posted by Richard Davies on the old forum on 25/2/2006