Forum:Release date of early DWM issues

So I notice that now that people's attnetion has been turned to the DWM pages by the Game of Rassilon, we're starting to get some actual leads to these articles. And the general skeletal lead goes something like:
 * was the issue of  released in

See, for instance, DWM 88 for an example of the form on a live page. But is this language accurate?

Just because DWM 88 has a cover month of May, was it actually released in May? If so, I'd find that a little extraordinary of something released by Marvel Comics. Comic books aren't like that, even to this day. Usually the cover date is a month or three of the actual release date.

And modern DWM gets around this with an entirely different language on the cover, which gives a four week range in which the publication is "current".

Does anyone know for sure when early DWM issues were released relative to the date on the cover? As an American, I have no idea, because back when I was getting these early issues, they were only available months and months after they hit British shelves. 19:06: Sat 08 Oct 2011


 * It's not just Marvel; most periodicals are and were physically printed and released in advance of their cover date. Since that could mean anytime from a week to a month before cover date we can't solidly say when any of these actually hit the shelves, especially in the pre-Internet era, and then there's the issue of subscriber mailing dates versus newsstand dates which are never the same.  Perhaps the solution is to avoid saying "released in " and instead just use the cover dates, such as " was the issue of Doctor Who " &mdash; Rob T Firefly - &#916;&#8711; - 00:15, October 11, 2011 (UTC)
 * Well, it actually is possible to say when comic books hit the newsstands. It's known, for instance, when Action Comics #1 (the original #1 — arrgh, don't get me started) actually hit the newsstands.  Sure, we could change the wording on the lead to be more accurate — the preloadable formats for new issues does just this — but that doesn't answer the question. And there has to be an actual answer to this question.  Magazine publishers have deadlines because they work to a schedule.  So someone out there hopefully knows what Marvel UK's schedule was.  There must be a simple, straightforward answer to the question:
 * What was the standard offset was between cover date and release date at various points in DWW/DWM's history?
 * Was, for instance, the May 84 issue actually available on British newsstands in March 84? Or was the May 84 issue actually available for purchase in May?  21:56: Wed 12 Oct 2011