Statements of ownership questions

[StoneRyno]

I've noted in reading a handful of old comics that some of them have a block of a page randomly placed somewhere in the middle give or take of the comic book. And as far as I can gather from them it is nothing more than a half dozen paragraphs of legal speak of who owns, I assume, the contents of the comic book at the time it was published. And the statement is notarized. My questions I couldn't find answers to are: Why are they in them vs the simple published by written by and copyright we are familiar with? Why aren't they in every issue? Or are they and I just didn't notice? They seem a rather odd thing. I thought perhaps there was some place out there with everything I would ever want to know about them and then some. But after a handful of search attempts to find out anything about them I came up empty handed. I also assume this is something just in old comics because I don't remember ever seeing that in comics from the 80s and 90s.

[DCIndexer]

The statements were required annually by postal regulations in order to qualify for second-class postage. When publishers quit using this distribution method, they no longer were required to include them in their publications. The same requirements also applied to magazines and other periodicals which used second class postage.

[StoneRyno]

Interesting. I wonder why the postal service wanted such level of legal speak printed annually just to qualify for second-class postage. Seems like overkill.

[Rob Allen]

Second class postage was substantially less expensive for the shipper. The Post Office lost money on it - it was basically a government subsidy to the publishing industry. They didn't want to give it away to just anybody.