King Retail Display Box

The King Comics Retail Box was produced by King Features syndicate in USA in 1967. Designed to promote a 3 pack of comics produced by King Comics, the Retail Box is a form of shop countertop display, produced to motivate sales of targeted comic books.

King Comics was a venture by King Features Syndicate which represented a brief attempt by the syndicate to independently publish a series of comic books featuring its own unique characters, rather than relying on other publishers.

To target newsagents, King Features Syndicate introduced the King Comics countertop store display in 1967 as a promotional effort to boost overall sales. These countertop store displays were manufactured in the United States and were designed to accommodate a total of 6 different sets of 3 packaged King Comics comic books. Each set of 3 comics was sealed within a see-through polybag with the retail price for each package being 29 cents.

The King Comics Retail Boxes were sent to sellers of King Comics in a brown cardboard box which contains 4 countertop display boxes, plus a red, white and black shop promotional poster.

The 4 countertop display boxes are split into 2 separate designs depending on the comics found within, measuring 10.5″ x 7.75″ x 7.5″:

2 countertop boxes contain the Phantom, Flash Gordon and Mandrake the Magician comics
2 countertop boxes contain Blondie, Popeye and Beetle Bailey comics

Below we see the countertop display box before it went on display.

Below we see the countertop display box once it was ready to display.

Instructions were provided to the retailer on how to open and construct the countertop display boxes on the top of the countertop display boxes themselves, printed on the cardboard panels located on the top.

24 packs, containing 3 comics per pack were housed in each countertop display boxes at a retail cost of 29 cents per pack.

As can be seen above, each pack contained 1 comic each of the Phantom, Flash Gordon and Mandrake the Magician. 2 variations of the packs containing the 3 comics were issued. The 2 Phantom comics found within the packs were numbers 22 and 23.