Marvel Explains Price Blocks in 1986
As a kid, I loved to read. I would read everything I could get my hands on, and this meant I would even read the “Bullpen Bulletins” section in Marvel’s comics. These editorials were the place for Marvel to promote new comics, but every now and then the company would take on something a little stranger.
For example, how many of you know why Marvel comics at the time featured two different price and date block designs?
Well, in the “Bullpen Bulletins” from January of 1986 we learn that the two different designs identify a comic as either a newsstand or a direct release. At the time, the direct distribution method — comics sold to dedicated comic stores — was still pretty new, and Marvel printed two different covers for the different markets.
Click the below image to read the editorial.
Does anyone know if there are still differences between newsstand and direct sale comics?
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