Print

[BountyHunter]

I was wondering about the size of some GA comics.  When I got my Skyman #2 in the mail, I was surprised to find that it was closer to the length and width of a magazine than a comic book.

Is this the standard size of the older GA books, or was the Skyman book considered special? Are issues of Big Shot comics the same size or are they regular comic size?  What about some of the comics featuring Black Terror or Daredevil (my other two favorites)?

Just wondering, as it's easier for me to store (safely) comics that are regular size.

[phabox]

It took quite a few years for comic books to settle down into the standard format that we know today and some companies took longer then others.

Looking at my small collection of Better/Nedor books for example I see that those from the early 40's were much wider then the books they put out by the end of that decade which were much more like what we are now used to.

Ace is another company that seems to have reduced the size of their  books later.

Quality on the other hand seems to have stuck with the larger format almost until the bitter end.

I Suspect there were no hard and fast rules for the changes and would be interested in knowing the reasons behind them myself.

Paper cutbacks and printing requirements may well have been factors but I'm only guessing and expect older and wiser heads may have the answers.

-Nigel

[narfstar]

All about competition and profit. Size went down to save paper and money. I guess companies tried to court their audience with bigger is better. Others went with characters and quality. Just like any marketing. Notice the covers touting their page numbers. If you buy comic bags you have the choice of GA, SA and modern, that should be a clue Gold Key comics had a larger size SA than the other companies for awhile. Great with some of their painted covers.