Schiff's Shoes reprint issues

[Michael R. Wagner]

Schiff's Shoes gave away a variety of reprint issues back in the 1950s/60s.  I think they were all published by Blue Bird Comics.  I'm trying to understand how these are recorded in the master database, and also how to insert a particular issue.  I have a reprint of Black Fury (Charlton) #21.  However, it's #4 in the Schiff's Shoes (Blue Bird Comics) giveaway run.  I've attached a cover scan.

It seems like this should show up under the Black Fury (Charlton) title, yes?  However, even though it's issue #4, it's contents are a complete reprint of #21.  Also, it wasn't published by Charlton, but by Blue Bird.

To add to the puzzle, the master DB has a title called Blue Bird Comics and it has a single issue, a Big Shoe Store giveaway of a Li'l Genius comic.

r/

Mike

[Steven L. Dasinger]

This is a complicated one and will probably need HC input.
Using the GCD (Grand Comic Database) as a guide:
'Black Fury' had a title from 1955 - 1966 (issues #1 - 57) with Charlton as Publisher.
'Black Fury' had a second title from 1959 - 1962 (issues #1 -15) which reprints some of the first series (mixing covers and contents). It has Charlton in a truncated version of an indcia (could be due to the reprint) but has 'Blue Bird Comics' on the cover.
Each of the 15 issues was for a various shoe stores (Schiff's Shoes, R & S Shoe Store, Big Shoe Store, and Gallenkamp's).

At a guess, I think this would justify a separate Title. I would have just one Title with variations for each number as needed for the various Shoe store stamps.

I am basing this on the mix of covers and contents.  The one you included as an attachment is the Cover from #4 but contains reprint stories form #21 of the original 'Black Fury' title. This would not work well trying to make a 4/A variation (with mismatching content) or a 21/A variation (with a mismatched cover).

[Gregory Hecht]

Based on Steven's answer, this sounds a lot like March of Comics in that various retail stores would have their name and/or logo printed on the cover of the issues that they were giving away in their store.  The database doesn't treat these as different variants and AFAIK the collector's market as a whole doesn't distinguish between the different retailers when determining a value for a particular issue.  

With that in mind, IMO the database probably shouldn't track each of the different shoe stores as a different variant for this title.  (These shoe retailer issues should be tracked differently from the regular newsstand editions, certainly, just not an individual variant for each individual shoe store.)  

[Mark J. Castaneda]

Steven's idea makes most sense. Separate Title would be my suggestion vs an issue variation.

[Michael R. Wagner]

I agree that a single title for all of the various store giveaways makes sense, but I'm not clear on whether one of the titles already in the master DB is the one to use, or if a new entry needs to be created.  Then, how do we number the various issues?

[Mark J. Castaneda]

I don't anything about the series personally. Ideally, it would be best to know all the issues that what fall under it. Is there an online reference/website (ex: comics.org) that hopefully has tracked them already that we can use to index them into the software?

[Steven L. Dasinger]

These all appear to be the same title with the 'shoe' variants':

GCD
https://www.comics.org/series/20230/

Comicbook Realm
https://comicbookrealm.com/series/25828/0/charlton-comics-black-fury-blue-bird-shoe-comics

MyComicShop
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=529281

I don't know that any one of them is a complete set but merged to together, it should be a good start.

[Mark J. Castaneda]

Thanks. Will get this worked into the next content update.