Comic Book Dates?

[Nardpuncher]

When I read somewhere that a said issue of a comic was printed in , say, June 1979, what actual date could people buy it at the shops?
I seem to remember when I collected the Star Trek DC comics back in the late 80s it would have a date 4 months ahead on the cover, so the issue that I would buy in April would have August on the cover.

 

[Mike Farley]

The dates on comic covers are "sell by" dates., and these days are mostly a holdover from when comics primarily sold through newsstands, convenience stores, etc. the dates told the vendors when it was time to pull unsold copies off the shelves, strip them of their covers, and return them as unsold (I think they were just supposed to return the covers and trash the actual books). So if you received a book in January you had through April to sell it.

Of course in today's market the vast majority of books are sold through the direct market and are not returnable.

My memory matches yours that books used to have a four month "sell" date. A glance at this weeks books shows that today Marvel and DC have their January books dated for March. So they've dropped, at some point, to three months. Dark Horse is dated for the current month. Also, while DC still prints the month on their covers, for both Marvel and Dark Horse I had to look in the indicia.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

I guess it's kind of like the "Best Before..." date on my milk carton?

I remember that too, and being thoroughly confused by it as a kid. Also, when I was sorting my comics and looking for something I knew came out in summer of 1970, and I couldn't find it because it may have had an October date...