Magic Comic Page Counts

[babington]

Does anyone know what the page count should be for Magic Comic No. 67 (October 26, 1940)?

[Phoenix]

According to Ray Moore's index to The Magic, there were 18 pages in issue 67. By that date all five Thomsons' text story papers were 20 pages long, a loss of 8 from the pre-war total. The Magic only had 24 to start with, all unnumbered unlike The Dandy and The Beano, which had 28 each like The Big Five. The page reduction, which had taken place the previous week, was therefore, not unexpectedly, pro rata.

[Digifiend]

While that's not surprising the rate of recovery was. Beano and Dandy didn't fully restore their pre-war page counts until 1998. The story papers did it a lot sooner, right (early '50s)?

[Phoenix]

Earlier yes, but not really where The Big Five were concerned, Digi. The occasional issue in the late fifties had 28 pages, but the norm, even that late, was 20 or 24. The fundamental change occurred in January 1961 when Adventure and The Rover amalgamated. Rover and Adventure started life with 36 pages, a saving to Thomsons of 12 pages over the previous week. It was down to 32 though by the end of September.

[babington]

Thanks for the swift response - and I can breathe a sigh of relief that my copy is complete. Now I'll have to look out for that Magic index...