Comics placement in Movies: The Wrong Arm of the Law

[Republishing post from 2022.

Of all the posts of this blog, this received not a single comment back in 2022. C'mon chaps.....]

Spent part of this Saturday afternoon re-watching the 1963 British comedy The Wrong Arm of The Law. I’m sure many of our UK readers recall seeing this film many times on Christmas afternoons in the early 1970s, when I used to avidly watch any British comedy film of the late-1950s and early 1960s.

© Studio Canal. The Wrong Arm of the Law 1963

The film The Wrong Arm of the Law was one of the last films that Southsea-native Peter Sellers made in England before decamping to Hollywood, paired with Lionel Jeffries (incidentally Jeffries' brother owned a TV aerial and electronics shop in Southsea) for comic support.

Studio Canal have remastered this black & white film for blu-ray and the image really sparkles. Peter Sellers and Lionel Jeffries are on top form, and the extensive London suburb location work of various High Streets has real nostalgia value for a time of long gone streets and cars.

The film remains most famous for the high-speed car chase around Uxbridge Moor in a classic Aston Martin DB4, but this time around my eye was caught by comic books on display. 

There is a scene half-way through the film when police officers are idling the time in a control room on "No Crime" night, when the gangs of London have agreed a truce. To pass the time, they are all reading different magazines.

Take a look at this shot; what do you see? Look closely.

© Studio Canal. The Wrong Arm of the Law

Dominating the foreground is the Dell Comic Car 54 Where Are You?, issue #3, cover dated October 1962, published in the US June 14th 1962. The earliest this comic would have been on sale in the UK was at the very end of September 1962.

© Dell . Car 54, Where Are You? #3

© Dell. Car 54, Where Are You? #3 - Interior Art

Car 54, Where Are You? had aired on NBC on TV in the States from September 1961 to April 1963, but it was not until April 9th 1964 that ITV premiered the show in the UK, with the final UK transmission on 29th September 1966. The strong placement of the comic on screen would only have had relevance for US cinema-goers at the time of the films release in 1963.

The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted the 'Superman' logo on the magazine that the young lad is reading in the background. It is an unusual styling of the logo. After a bit of digging, I've concluded that the comic in question is an issue of UK comic weekly Buster, folded around to show the Superman masthead from an interior page.

According to George Shiers' "Whacky Comics" blog, Superman US newspaper strips were repurposed  in the UK in 1959 for the pages of Radio Fun, continuing right up until the title merged with Buster in 1961, at which point it continued in Buster for a further year. The panel below (credit the Whacky Comics blog) is a sample of a Superman page within Buster.

© Fleetway Comics. Scan credit to George Shiers

So we can conclude that the Buster comic (published prior to the end of 1962) and Car 54 #3 (in UK end Sept 1962) were reasonably contemporaneous, but there is a timing mystery concerning the headline of a newspaper seen on screen a few seconds later. (See below).

© Studio Canal. Headline "Ron Flowers Collapses".

The newspaper headline "Ron Flowers Collapses" refers to Wolves football (soccer) player, wing half Ron Flowers, who collapsed from 'flu during the England national team practice on 12th April 1962. It is interesting that a newspaper at least six months old was used in the filming.

I am coming to the conclusion that the scene with Car 54 and Superman were cut in at a later date for the US release of the film, and that UK Studio Canal have restored the film from a US print.

There is one final shot of an unknown comic page in this scene. I have rotated the image should any of you wish to peruse your Buster collections to identify the exact page.

© Mystery page - presumably from Buster in 1962.

A visit to New York

A couple of weeks back Mrs B and I spent a couple of days in New York on a Spring break. We always try to visit something a bit off the usual tourist beat. This time my better half suggested visiting the J P Morgan Library & Museum, which is a museum and research library. Completed in 1906 as the private library of the banker J. P. Morgan, the institution is housed at 225 Madison Avenue in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan.

The famed banker and philanthropist J Pierpoint Morgan was an avid collector of books, ancient illuminated manuscripts and Egyptian treasures, and amassed a world-renowned collection. The museum is a fantastic place. J P Morgan acquired three original Gutenberg bibles from the 1450s, and the collection is on display for all to see.

Gutenberg bible 1455

It’s a very eclectic collection, where pop art of the 1960s is to be found alongside the ancient totems of past cultures. Of interest to readers of this blog may be an original printing of Topps “foldees” from 1966 (remember them, when printed by A&BC in the UK?).

Also a Roy Lichtenstein painting inspired by (or perhaps plagiarized from) a comic panel drawn by Jack Abel, called “CRAK”.   Double-click the photos to read the text card next to the exhibits, which acknowledges Jack Abel and Bob Haney’s original work in the April/May 1962 issue of Star Spangled War Stories. 

I’ve also included a photo of one of the Gutenberg bibles from 1455 - white pages!  And it’s never been in a mylar bag :-) .

I heartily recommend a visit.

Earlier we visited The Mysterious Bookshop, situated in the Tribeca neighbourhood on Warren Street. It is the oldest mystery bookshop in North America, owned by the writer, editor and publisher Otto Penzler, past editor of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. An amazing place, with wooden bookshelves extending up the 15-feet walls.

When then walked a couple of miles to Katz’s Delicatessen. I had to sample their signature dish - a huge corned beef sandwich on rye. I failed to finish it.

The following day we headed over to Montclair in New Jersey for a visit to the Montclair Bookshop, pretty much unchanged since my first visit almost fifty years ago. A great place to find old SF books, or browse the vinyl LPs. 

And finally, a shot of the top of the Empire State Building, for my money still the most impressive skyscraper in New York. Of course, we all know the Doc Savage's HQ was on the 86th floor back in the 1930s.

Any recommendations for places to visit?

Kid Colt #119 - a rara avis

© Marvel

The comic you see before you is a rara avis indeed. 

Neither this particular comic, nor any other copies, ever appeared in the spinner racks of newsagents in the UK or drug stores in the US in the late months of 1964. 

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that the comic - Kid Colt #119 - is the UK-variant edition, printed as usual by World Color Press in Sparta as part of the US print-run, but never shipped to the UK.   I don’t believe that Duncan McAlpine’s Comic Price Guide for the UK has it tagged as ND (Non-distributed in the UK), but that it surely was.

Here’s the story, as related by friend of this blog @malacoda, corroborated by @Get Marwood & I. 

Up until Sept 1st 1964, all Marvel comics printed in the US for Thorpe & Porter distributors to be shipped to the UK were printed with a price of “9d” (nine old pence) and with the cover month removed.  After Sept 1st 1964, all Marvel comics heading to the UK were US cents copies, and the comics were hand-stamped with the prevailing UK price upon arrival in the UK.

Why did this occur? The most likely explanation is that in the run-up to the 1964 General Election, the topic of increasing import duties was mooted, and Thorpe & Porter decided they needed the flexibility to price their comics closer to home in the UK to cope with potential upcoming import duties. So they notified World Color Press to cease printing 9d on comics destined for the UK. But the run of Kid Colt #119 had already been printed with the old price - 9d - but had not yet been shipped.

For whatever reason, the batch of 9d Kid Colt #119s were never shipped to the UK, as World Color Press switched to shipping US cents comics, and the cents version of Kid Colt #120 appeared on UK shores.

Thorpe & Porter subsequently decided to increase the price of Marvels sold in the UK to 10d, and the run of Kid Colt #119  languished in a warehouse somewhere in the US.

At some point - probably years later - the batch of UK Price Variant Kid Colt #119s eventually surfaced, and found their way into the collector’s market.

Which is why pretty much every Kid Colt #119 with a UK price is in very good nick. It was never in a spinner rack.

Take a look on eBay for a 9d copy - they’re all for sale in the US. I picked up this beauty a few months back. Some great Kirby artwork in the backup story. Stan Lee wrote the main story, illustrated by Jack Keller. I’m not aware of any critiques of Stan Lee’s Western tales?

Windy City Pulp and Paper Con 2026 report

 

Another year has passed (why are they passing so quickly?) and it’s time again for a report on this year’s Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention, again held at the Westin Lombard, in the Chicago suburbs a couple of weekends ago. It was a busy weekend for pulp and comic fans, as Wondercon was also taking place on the West Coast. 

The Westin Lombard

Since my first visit to the Windy City Pulp & Paper Con in 2009, I’ve always hugely enjoyed my annual attendance, as much for the conversations as perusing the dealer’s room. This year was the 25th anniversary of the con, and shows no sign of diminished attendance.  I signed up for a 3-day pass, which at $35 was a far better deal than the upcoming hugely commercial C2E2 comic con at McCormack Place in downtown Chicago, which is charging $140 for a 3-day pass, with $81 for a single day.

So what does one get for $35 at the Windy City?  In addition to receiving the annual convention book issued by Moon Dog press, (this year focused on Argosy magazine), the attendees receive access to the dealer’s room, artwork exhibitions, movies and movie serials featuring pulp heroes, an estate auction, and panels hosted by pulp experts.

The dealers' room comprises two massive ballrooms with the intermediate panel removed. I arrived around midday on Friday to find the room filled with attendees. I headed over to author and pulp historian Will Murray’s table for a long chat, and to pick up up some Doc Savage hardback editions of his Bantam paperback stories from the 1990s he had brought for me.  

Will shared with me some information he’d researched on the proposed content for the Marvel Black & White Doc Savage magazine #9, prior to its cancellation in 1976. The full information will be appearing in the 100th issue of Bronze Gazette later this year, so no spoilers, I’m afraid.

Subsequently I moved to the Adventure House table and bought some 1970s Avenger and Shadow paperbacks to fill in a few gaps in my collection, replacing books I’d sold in 1989.  Prices were in the $5-$10 range for decent copies.

By the close of the dealers' room on Friday, I had only scratched the surface of what was on view, only managing to go around the tables on the room's perimeter.  Before the room closed for the day, I picked up four Deadly Hands of Kung Fu issues with Adams covers for $27 in total, and Savage Tales #16, from a dealer with the biggest collection of Marvel Black & Whites I’ve ever seen - bagged, boarded and excellent condition. 

I resolved to attend again the following day (Saturday) , having spied a table full of Bronze Age comics priced at $5 each. A quick glance showed the stock was in great condition.

$5 Bronze Age comics, with Golden Age on display at back

Following a brief trip to McDonalds, I returned for the evening agenda of a panel discussing the history of Argosy magazine, followed by the presentation of Pulp writers awards for 2025.

---------------------- 

Saturday dawned, and I made the 40-minute drive back to the Westin for day 2, and to complete my tour of the dealers’ room.

It took me 3 hours to go to every table! I ended up buying a whole load of 1970s DCs to fill in gaps, priced at $5 for Bronze and $10 for silver age - amazing value for decent issues! On another table I bought 6 Silver-age comics priced at $5 each, or 3 for $10!

3 for $10!

Of course, there were lots of Golden Age comics for sale as well.

Fellow SuperStuff scribe Nigel Brown asked me to comment on what I noticed about the slabbing of pulps and comics, and the general attitude to it.

Slabbed pulps.  Note Weird Tales #2 on sale - not slabbed!

Embiggen the photos to read the prices.

Certainly I saw more slabbed pulps here than ever before, although it probably only represented well less than 1% of what was for sale across all the dealers. 

Anyway, I also had a long conversation with a couple who had a table purely of slabbed pulps. I was looking at slabbed pulps valued from $1000 to $95,000 and beyond. They said that slabbing is a relatively new thing for pulps and controversial. But CGC have developed a grading system, and Heritage have started a program of pulp-focused auctions of major collections. They said that the focus for slabbing was high-end, rare or key issuess. The attraction of selling through Heritage is that they get it graded and slabbed by CGC, and then the seller only has to pay for the grading and slabbing once it sells at auction. 

I’ve included a couple of photos of some of what they had on the table, showing prices if you zoom in. The All-Story from 1912 was the first Edgar Rice Burroughs story, priced at $95,000.

Incredibly, the same table had a copy of  Weird Tales #2 (April 1923) for sale, unslabbed (See photo above). That is the rarest issue, rarer than Weird Tales #1. I’m told it is unthinkable for something like that to be for sale at a UK event. I understand that another copy of Weird Tales #2 (graded by CGC at 8.0) is shortly to go up for auction at Heritage.

There were so many Weird Tales for sale - in fact, pretty much any pulp, obscure or not. Nonetheless, the overwhelming number of pulps on sale were in the lowly mylar or polypropylene bag. I’ve included a few photos of pulps up to auction on Friday evening.

Reflecting the sustained interest in pulps, there is an Overstreet price guide equivalent for pulps called Bookery’s Guide To Pulps, with the latest 4th edition just published. (See photo). 

The one thing I did not see were copies of the Ballantine Cornell Woolrich paperbacks from 1982. I’m missing five of them.

——————

Observations:

• More comics on sale than at previous cons, and the subject matter had extended beyond comics featuring purely pulp heroes (eg Conan, Kull, Doc Savage, Shadow, Avenger) or SF-anthology type comics (eg Strange Adventures, etc).
• The quality of the comics on sale was excellent (say 7.x for Bronze Age), far better than I’ve seen at local recent marts held in village halls.
• The pricing on the comics was hugely competitive ; one dealer selling any Bronze Age for $5 and any Silver Age for $10.  Marvel Black & Whites in excellent nick for 50% discount.  I’m not sure what is happening here.  I think there is a bifurcation in the market at the top end of dealers where slabbed pre-1975 comics in 9.x condition are the major focus, and more realistic prices are offered for non-slabbed comics say in 8.x condition and below,

On the pulp side of things, there does seem to be a push towards slabbing of key issues, but the practice is controversial within the pulp community. On the other hand, with the brittleness of pulp paper , slabbing is probably the only way to preserve some of these artifacts.

On the vintage paperback front, prices are still very low for 1960s books, with some exceptions.  There also was a large selection of vintage TV tie-in mass market paperbacks.

Finally, so what did I buy? 

© Marvel.  Couldn't resist these.

© DC and Marvel. $5 each!

© Will Murray and Altus Press.

What’s next?

There is a vintage comic-focused Chicago Minicon on August 9th - will be high-end dealers - no cosplay! https://secondcitycon.com/Attendees.aspx

Pulpfest in Mars PA July 30th - August 2nd

https://pulpfest.com/2025/12/15/an-amazing-century/

Currently Reading - "A Haunt of Fears"

Have recently been reading a book called A Haunt of Fears by Martin Barker , published in 1984, which documents the role of a small number of individuals within the British Communist Party in creating the "campaign" to ban "American" (ie British reprinted Horror comics) back in the first half of the 1950s. I touched on this subject in a post back 2022, which discussed the impact of British-reprinted horror comics in the UK in the 1950s. 

A Haunt of Fears first relates the story of the campaign as reported in the popular press at the time, and then gets under the covers of the motives of the people behind the campaign.

The focus of the book is firmly on the cultural aspects of the ban, the prevailing attitudes of the public and the Establishment and the role of the BCP in creating/responding to a manufactured uproar. There is limited focus on the role of L. Miller, Arnold, Streamline and T&P, in producing and distributing these comics,  but it is certainly worth a read. It does contain a list of the comics targeted by the ban campaign.  

Although it is a pretty dry, academic read, the book is also a nice companion piece to "The 10-Cent Plague", which documents the campaign to ban horror comics in the US.

I find it interesting that the campaign in the UK was driven by the political left, whereas it was the right in the US.

List of books identified as unsuitable