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[JVJ]

Not counting Marvel, here's the list of companies I included (note: some like Stanmor include ALL the various permutations in that line) and the numbers I used:

Accepted - 9
Ace - 701
ACG - ~853
Argo - 30
Avon - 407
Blackerby - 4
Cambridge House - 8
Catechetical Guild - ~150
Centaur - 229
Civil Service - 10
Columbia - 150
Comic Media... - 97
Cross - 42
Croydon - 10
David McKay - 536
Dearfield - 44
Don Fortune/Vic Verity - 13
Dougherty - 6
DS - 72
EC - 399
Eisner - 2
Famous Funnies - 503
Farrell... - 375
Fawcett - 2156
Fiction House - 831
Fox - 684
Gilberton ~200
Green ~50
Chesler - 80
Harvey - 1246
Hawley - 6
Hillman - 413
Holyoke - 177
Kirby - 16
Lafayette - 10
Lasalle - 3
Leffingwell - 6
Lev Gleason - 708
Mainline - 17
ME - ~425
Misc... (I'll have to break this out later) ~525
MLJ - 263 (not counting Archie)
MS - 5
Nationwide - ~30
Nugent - 5
Novelty - 331
Orbit - 161
Parents - 313
Pflaum - ~150
PL - 20
Prize - ~600
Quality - 1698
Rural Home - 30
Spark - 10
Spotlight - 8
Standard - 1108
Stanmor... - 158
Star - 280
Sterling - 18
St. John - 900
Story - 139
Street & Smith - 357
Superior - 188
Timor - 13
Toby - 296
Trojan - 120
United - 596
Victory - 6
W.H. Wise - 33
Youthful - 82
Ziff-Davis - 208

= ~20,295

add
Charlton - ~596
Archie - ~464
Comic Magazines/Ultem - 63

subtract
ACG - -100

= ~21,318

add DC - 3,585 (thanks to Mike Voiles)
add Dell - 3,799 (thanks to Dell4c on GACUK)
add Timely/Atlas - 3,456

for a GRAND TOTAL of: ~32,158

All the hard work was done by Dan Stevenson about 25 years ago and I've just transcribed some old notes of his. He probably has a MUCH more accurate count by now. Hope that helps to clarify things.


Peace, Jim (|:{>

[Brainster]

Mike Voiles of DC Indexes has a spreadsheet that includes the cover date of every DC comic issued; he says DC issued 3,585 comics before the end of 1955.

[rez]

Mike Voiles of DC Indexes has a spreadsheet that includes the cover date of every DC comic issued; he says DC issued 3,585 comics before the end of 1955.

So it might be safe to give a rough estimate of 25,000 books pre '56 and add in the Atlas/Marvel titles?

[JVJ]

My reply on another thread to Ken Quattro about how much I DON'T know got me to thinking. Suppose that there are 28,000 comics prior to mid-1956. That's probably a conservative number. And then let's suppose that the average number of covers + stories in each comic is seven and a half - again, probably conservative.

Now let's assume that we know the identity of 99% of the artists on those stories. That's probably optimistic as I think that it's unlikely that there will be only one unknown out of 100 art efforts during this period - just look at the Iger Shop jobs. But, for this discussion, let's say it's about that.

Using those numbers there are about 2100 art jobs that we have NO idea who drew. Given that the more stories someone drew, the more likely we are to know their identity, it would not surprise me that there are well over 1000 comic books styles that we CAN'T put a name to. Isn't that scary? I would actually bet that it's more than double that, but even 1000 is a big number this late in the game.

Just pondering... 

[rez]

Well, it would take those experienced hands that have been around comic histories for a long time, coupled with a determined mindset, to be able to come up with an accurate guesstimate as to the number of published issues within all the book titles.

I'm thrilled to see the 28,000 figure for the pre '56 totals so after reading thru the previous posts regarding the question it might be safe to say the total number in probability of all pre '56 books without the addition of the Marvel related titles and the Charlton and Dell would total under 30,000, the 2,000extra books being an extremely lenient fudge number, no?

[JVJ]

I've updated the January 29th post where I broke down the individual companies, and added the info from Mike Voiles on the DC total. That brings us to approx. 24,900 with the numbers for Dell and Timely/Atlas still missing. I was making a very conservative guess when I used 28,000 for my calculations on the unknown creators. SOMEBODY must have the info for Dell and Timely! HELP!

So I don't know, Rez. ARE there less than 5000 Dell and Timelys prior to mid-1956? I would guess that to be true, but I'd like to see the real numbers first. 30,000 might be about the right number.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[Yoc]

I'm betting if someone were to check the Atlas Tales website would provide a Timely number.
http://www.atlastales.com/

-Yoc

[rez]

Mail was sent. Response time stated to be within 24 hours.
Thanks Yoc.

I'm betting if someone were to check the Atlas Tales website would provide a Timely number.
http://www.atlastales.com/

-Yoc

[rez]

yep, real numbers. Nothing like it.

I did send a query on the Timely/Atlas numbers to the site Yoc linked to. Hope they are able to help out.
Seems Dell might be a hard one to crack.

Cheers

I've updated the January 29th post where I broke down the individual companies, and added the info from Mike Voiles on the DC total. That brings us to approx. 24,900 with the numbers for Dell and Timely/Atlas still missing. I was making a very conservative guess when I used 28,000 for my calculations on the unknown creators. SOMEBODY must have the info for Dell and Timely! HELP!

So I don't know, Rez. ARE there less than 5000 Dell and Timelys prior to mid-1956? I would guess that to be true, but I'd like to see the real numbers first. 30,000 might be about the right number.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[JVJ]

I sent an email to Dan Stevenson to see if he could provide us with either Dell or Timely or both. I'll let you know if he responds.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[rez]

Well, I received no response from emails sent so a given estimate of total pre '56 titles rides somewhere around 30,000 and probably 20,000 as public domain, no?

Dell4c, might you have any input regarding pre'56 Dell totals?

Thanks.

[Dell4c]

give me a couple of days, do you want the total to dec '55 or dec '56 inclusive?

[rez]

give me a couple of days, do you want the total to dec '55 or dec '56 inclusive?

That'd be great Dell.
I take it you read the previous posts in this thread to get the idea of the project. JVJ mentions a mid '56 date so I would think the dec1956 date would be appropiate and permit the muddy waters of the 1955/56 to be tweaked at a later time.
Presently working towards a rough estimate only eases the detailing somewhat, but Mike Voiles of DC Indexes and JVJ had some pretty specific numbers also so whatever you could do would be appreciated.

Cheers

[Dell4c]

By my count there are 3799 Dell issues pre jan 1957. Hope that helps

Bob

[JVJ]

By my count there are 3799 Dell issues pre jan 1957. Hope that helps

Bob

I modified the totals on the detailed list on Posting 25 of this topic. For the record, the current tally is ~28,702

Thanks for the info, Bob. Now all we really need are the Timely/Atlas numbers... Anybody?

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[rez]

By my count there are 3799 Dell issues pre jan 1957. Hope that helps

Bob

Dell, that is just great. Much appreciated.
(We need an icon for a 'Thumbs Up'.)

[Dell4c]

The 'What's scanned in the Timely/Atlas universe" speadsheet has a table on the first tab that totals the puplishers by year. Adding all the years through 1956 gives a total of 3,456 if I added right.

Bob

[JVJ]

The 'What's scanned in the Timely/Atlas universe" speadsheet has a table on the first tab that totals the puplishers by year. Adding all the years through 1956 gives a total of 3,456 if I added right.

Bob

Well, the total is NOW: ~32,158 comic books published from 1934 through ~1956 (the ending date is rather fuzzy). Thanks for everyone's help.