[positronic1]

Not sure what the deal is with this scan, but I've been going through all the uploaded issues of Tip Top, looking for pages of Fritzi Ritz, and the Fritzi pages scanned as part of Tip Top No. 8 do not belong to this issue. As uploaded here, Pages 41-43 of Tip Top #8 are actually the Fritzi Ritz pages from Tip Top No. 12 (compare Pages 41-43 here with Pages 39-41 of the CB+ uploaded scan of Tip Top No. 12, and you'll see that they're the exact same pages.

Although Tip Top was indeed often guilty of reprinting the exact same Fritzi strips over and over again, that isn't the case in this instance -- if you look at the bottom of Page 43 of TT#8, there is a line of text that says "Continued in Tip Top Comics No. 13", so I know the scans of those pages actually came from Tip Top No. 12, not No. 8.

Link to the book: *** Link No Longer Exists: Tip Top Comics 008 ***

[movielover]

This has been removed. Sadly, the contents are indexed at GCD as #8 now.

[positronic1]

Since the only thing I was looking at was the Fritzi Ritz pages, I didn't check the rest of Tip Top Comics No. 8 for any other anomalies which would have been revealed by the telltale "Continued in Tip Top Comics No. --- " tagline which normally appears at the bottom of the last page of every included strip.

I take it that the problem was beyond just those three Fritzi pages I mentioned, which could have been resolved by removing just those pages, replacing them with temporary (blank) placeholders, and re-uploading the issue, until such time as a newer, better scan of the issue could be uploaded by someone? There certainly seem to be lots of other partial issues on the site, missing pages for reasons other than features which are still under copyright.

[movielover]

It was the exact same scan as the #12 on site, so all of the continues said continued in 13. What happens is someone bought a coverless, and the seller said it was 8, or someone stuck a cover from #8 on a coverless #12, and said it was #8, or someone took the scan and slapped a #8 cover on it, or some other weird combination of events, and then shared it, and the mistake keeps making the rounds.

[positronic1]

Ah, I see now. Thanks for clearing that up. Buyers of coverless issues should always check the indicia at the bottom of Page 1 (assuming that page is, in fact, there... or that the indicia wasn't on the inside front cover, as sometimes happens in a minority of cases) to confirm that what they think they're buying is actually what they're getting.

It was probably just carelessness to scan and upload it without examining the comic more carefully, though. Those taglines at the bottom of the page are a dead giveaway for books like Tip Top Comics. I found that the number of pages of each reprinted strip DO vary from issue to issue, but if there isn't a "continued" text line at the bottom of whatever is the last page of one particular feature, anyone should probably question whether or not it's missing a page.

I haven't encountered this yet in my browsing, but I suppose it's possible the text line might not be included at the bottom of the last page if that particular feature was ending (to be replaced by something different in the next issue). Maybe I'll look into that with some feature that I know ended at one point, like Tarzan. Fritzi Ritz ended in either Tip Top 157 or 158, because it wasn't in any issues from 159 on (but unfortunately, no one has uploaded a scan of No. 158). The last page of Fritzi in No. 157 says "Continued in Tip Top Comics No. 158", but whether Fritzi actually appeared in that issue, I don't know. That coincided more-or-less with UFS launching Tip TOPPER Comics No. 1, of which Fritzi Ritz was both the lead feature (8 pages) and cover-featured on every issue, so being dropped from Tip Top's lineup was actually a promotion for Fritzi.

[movielover]

A lot of books did have the indicia on the ifc, not the first story page.

And as for Fritzi and 158, can't say for sure, but I would lean toward no, simply because the cover shows at least one new feature that starts (Broncho Bill) and they are 36 pages at this point

[positronic1]

Well, Bronco Bill wasn't exactly what you could call new to Tip Top Comics... perhaps just returning from an extended hiatus or something. He was in Tip Top from issue No. 6! I haven't exactly tracked his appearances in TTC, but I do recall seeing quite a few "Broncho Bill"s while skimming through the pages of 100 or so issues in search of Fritzi. That took a lot of work, as not only does the number of pages vary from 3 to 7 (most issues had 4 or 5 pages), but Fritzi's position in the book is never quite the same, skipping around from the front, to the back, to the middle. It seems to me that BB was in at least a third or so of those issues.