Silver to Bronze: Sizing

[Bicorn Halfelven]

Hoping to fill a gap in my comic book history:

Exactly when and why did comics publishers start using a smaller size for their comic books? It's only a fragment of an inch, but did Marvel and DC collectively decide on this? Did one start making them smaller, and the other followed suit?

What about Charlton/Archie/others?

The thread about comic book handling got me thinking about the sizing of comic books. I'd also be interested to hear the rationale for Golden to Silver as well. Is it as simple as cutting costs on paper? More pages to a ream at the printers?

I trust the brilliant minds here will have something for me.

[InfoBroker]

The major factors determining comical books dimensions have not been determined not just by comical book publishers, by instead the printers and paper suppliers. In fact, I would bet the later two had more impact.

A 32 page comic book consists of two signatures, each 16 pages, 8 pages on
each side. The signature is printed as essentially a single big sheet of paper which is then folded, cut, and trimmed to form the 16 pages.

Over the years printer and paper technologies evolved to compensate for competition, prices, compromised wood pulp sources for newsprint, and yes even tighter trimming sizes to reduce transportation costs.

The three major demarcations points that the board and bag industry have settled upon are not the only times that comical book sizes have changed over the years. There are many more, and they do not always align exactly to a particular month or even year from comical book company to comical company.

In fact, on a world wide printing platform there are not even consistent within a comical book company. For example, I have a small handful of Marvel comical books printed and distributed in Spain. Same Spanish distributor, same month of publication, sourced from original artwork of a standard single dimension, but two different printed sizes, one slightly larger, slightly more expensive, and probably consider a more premium edition. It might also have to do with display space dimensions on Spanish new stands and bookstores, but don't quote me on that one.

Its also of interest to note, that with today's printing technologies and smaller print runs, there is a lot more choice and flexibility for what size a comic might be. Fellow posters have discussed in another thread of recent vintage, a preference for using standard magazine dimensions for comics, something I also would enjoy (especially the wider horizontal size, as I think it makes for more satisfying page compositions).

The major stumbling block preventing it from happening are the retailers who have display racks locked to current comic sizes, and interestingly enough comic collectors themselves, who for their own storage reasons have continually been prejudice against magazine and tabloid sized comical books. Which is a shame for all kinds of reasons.

-jb the "habits and conformity are the nature of the beast" ib

[Bicorn Halfelven]

Is it safe to assume that DC and Marvel were using the same printing company, or that the printing industry in general decided that this is how it was going to be done?

Did Marvel & DC change sizes at the same time?

Did some companies retain the Silver size for a while, using different printers?

[dan bailey]

Did some companies retain the Silver size for a while, using different printers?

I'd think Charlton would've been the leading candidate, since they & they alone owned their own press.

[InfoBroker]

Is it safe to assume that DC and Marvel were using the same printing company, or that the printing industry in general decided that this is how it was going to be done?

This is a "from the top of my head" and normally waaaay too early in the morning response from me, so proceed cautiously.

The main comical book printing firms that I am aware of were Eastern Printing and World Color Press. Both were pretty much around since the 1920s.

Eastern was printing lots of Sunday comics, their own comics, along with several other comic publishers including Marvel and EC. Marvel was using Eastern Printing until 1968 when Martin Goodman sold the company, and the new management shifted printing to World Color Press.

DC history of printers is a bit checkered (ouch!), since the two major parts of the 40s that would become one when Max Gaines sold all but two of his comic titles to National near the end of WWII. As such, along with other publishing business activities, associations and accumulations, National Periodical Publications had links to both printing houses. Fawcett comics had its own printing facilities, which somewhere along the way World Color assumed.

But the short side of the answer to your question here, throughout the silver age, DC was mainly if not entirely printed by World Color, Marvel was printed by Eastern until the above mentioned shift in 1968.

Did Marvel & DC change sizes at the same time?

I don't know about the significant changes in size from golden to what became silver since they were using different printers in that time frame. I don't have much if any material from that time frame.

I do have a couple of long boxes of Gold Key, and I have memories of them being slightly wider compared to Marvel and DC, at least throughout the mid to late 60s . They were printed and owned by Western Lithography.

For shifts from silver to modern sizes I haven't done any specific checking of DCs and Marvels on a month to month basis, and I have conflicting thoughts versus memories. Memories include the fact that the skinning down at least by Marvel wasn't in one single shift. It was gradual and yet not very subtle if you stack up say your Conan comical books from 1 to 120 or so. I also have memories of DC staying wider, longer, but that later memory may be an illusion. My thoughts would be logic based. Since they were using the same printers, there would be costs involved in shifting production from one print size to another. But if Marvel and DC were using different paper types and sources (probably were), it might account for some of that illusive memory moments mentioned above. Knowing Marvel, they might have instructed World Color to also use tighter trims on the final paper cuts. Again to save on distribution and mailing charges.

Did some companies retain the Silver size for a while, using different printers?

Someone with a more extensive line of Charlton and Gold Key comical books from the 70s and early 80s might be able to answer this one. Realize by the time of the direct market shift of the 80s, Gold Key and Charlton had shifted their comic distribution from newstand to toy and department stores. Bagged into multi-packs, longer(but rather dreary) shelf-life , mainly reprints and no longer periodic distribution.


Charlton, as Dan mentioned had its own printing facilities, which started life printing cereal boxes before shifting to comics and crossword puzzle books amongst other things. They were continually battling to find parts and keep those printers functioning until the end of the company in the 1980s.

Along with Charlton; Eastern, Fawcett, Quality, and Fiction House all had their main if not only presses based in Connecticut. Perhaps that explains the amazing encyclopedic literary breadths of the Gilmore Girls.

A year or so back, Red Oak Kid provided some wonderful web-links to the history of World Color press, its move of their main 4 color presses to Sparta Illinois, and their eventual demise.

-jb the "bleary eyed" ib -

[Bicorn Halfelven]

Thanks for all of the info!

I hope some of the other scholars here have more info to add.