Collecting Long runs

Cap Haggis · Post by **Cap Haggis** » 03 Aug 2006, 11:27

Mark - have to agree that is some collection not many folk have that many BUSTERS (those 60s issues are great reads) - I am especially jealous of your SMASH, POW and WHAM complete runs - I still have over 30 issues of SMASH to track down, 15 POWs and too many WHAMS to even consider at the moment (only have about 50 of them) - Always wanted to get my hands on a few issues of "Giggle" as I remember it fondly from my childhood but never seen a sinlge issue anywhere can barely rememebr any strips that appeared in it either - oh all that lovely Ken Reid and Leo Baxendale artwork you have in those Odhams/IPC books ya lucky thing

Mark · Post by **Mark** » 03 Aug 2006, 21:28

Hello again!

Thought I'd better reply after all the fuss I kicked up!

What can I say? I love comics! I haven't had the chance to read them all but I'm working on it!

I like to use them, as most of the artists (budding or professional) do or did on here, as reference material to improve or influence their artwork. Let me quickly point out I'm not a professional, but am influenced by Baxendale, Paterson, Hunt Emerson, amongst others.

I have ideas for characters, I confess they are mostly Viz-like, and my doodles are okay, but when you look at artwork like Reid, Baxendale, etc and you realise the detail that it contains aside from the main characters you realise how much hard work goes into a full page - and these people were knocking out a few strips a week! There was, and still is, some fantastic imaginations out there and I've got a long way to go before I'm fit to lace some of their proverbial boots, but with a bit more effort I might get something printed, posted or something-or-other!

Perhaps one day...

Anyway, enough of my ramblings, thanks for all the positive replies to my post to one n'all!!

Cheers,
Mark

Peter Gray · Post by **Peter Gray** » 09 Nov 2006, 15:40

Heres a link to other amazing collectors of comics...

I thought I had to wait until I go to 'comic' heaven to have collections like that...

Korkythecat and Kashgar

I never realised that I don't have lots of comics and annuals .......my wife won't believe this.....

brisey · Post by **brisey** » 10 Nov 2006, 09:56

My personal experience is I start from a memory-I remember reading Jet and Thunder-so I got those and started going up the family tree-Thanks Al.

With DCT,I never had a particular starting point-there is a comforting similarity about them-and as such collected them like crazy.Victor to Crunch and all points in-between.

Girl comic wise I bought a big run of School friends from 1951 on and have tried to tie it up with my Tammy collection.

For me the curse is lack of space-as I read I have to sell.Had a nice lot of Thriller Picture Libraries go last few weeks-but I think I found the limit of my wife's patience.

brisey

AztecComics · Post by **AztecComics** » 10 Nov 2006, 12:18

Long runs are the best, no better feeling when you have completed a full set. I have the following long runs

The Dandy full run from 1979 to current
The Beano full run from 1970 to current
Victor full run from 1978 to 1992
Champ Full set
Spike full set
Cracker full set
Nutty Full Set
Beezer full run from 1975 to 1990
Beezer & Topper full set
Classics from the comics full run from 1996 to present
Doctor Who Comic/Magazine full set from 1979 to Present

And yes various other uncomplete years peppered around.. heres to hetting all The Beano's from 1960 to 69...? must go & see the Bank manager!!

Kashgar · Post by **Kashgar** » 10 Nov 2006, 12:47

Some of the long runs or complete runs(10 years or more) in my comic collection are as follows.
Dandy 1942-2006
Beano 1942-2006
Topper complete
Beezer complete
Sparky complete
Adventure 1943-1961
Rover 1943-1973
Wizard 1943-1963
Hotspur 1943-1959
New Hotspur complete
Victor complete
Hornet complete
Warlord complete
Also complete runs of all other Thomson comic/boys titles since 1943 excluding pocket library type eg Commando
Then there are the AP/Fleetway papers
Lion complete
Tiger complete
Buster complete
Valiant complete
My main collecting interest has always been the Thomson papers but as a child in the 1960's I was also a big fan of the Fleetway titles and so I've collected those as well particularly from that period. Apart from the four titles above this includes complete runs of many of the shorter titles inc TV Fun, Hurricane, Champion, Giggle, Jet, Thunder etc and also a complete set of the Odhams comics from the 1960's Wham Smash Pow Fantastic and Terrific.

David · Post by **David** » 10 Nov 2006, 16:25

I don't collect complete runs of anything, I just buy issues when I see them. I prefer Busters from the 8o's and 90's, but with The Beano and Dandy, if I saw any old issues, I would like to read them, I buy the classic strips annuals that DCT release (when they've gone down in price).
But with Oor Wullie and The Broons, I don't have any preferance of the years, I can read most of the stories from past or present and find it funny.
I liked the early Dennis The Menace annuals (well bi-yearly or whatever it is called), but I like the modern ones too.

philcom55 · Post by **philcom55** » 10 Nov 2006, 18:01

Mark wrote:you can guess that my bookshelves are creaking!!!

Mine did worse than that when one of them collapsed in the middle of the night, waking me up with an ear-splitting crash and the sound of cascading comics! Maybe we ought to set up a support group for 'Collectors Anonymous'???

As a matter of interest, Mark, which issues of Buster are you still missing? Perhaps somebody in this group can help you to complete the set.

- All the Best, Phil Rushton.

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 10 Nov 2006, 19:00

Slowly working my way towards full runs on several comics, but it will take a long time.

But still have three bookcases full of them. Best storage system that I have found are the 5-shelf bookcases available from Office World for about ?35.

Would hate to think about my comics crashing to the ground! That would be one of my worst nightmares.

Have completed one run and that is Revolver!

But only had one special to buy to complete that and I got it last year. Have increased my Warlord collection by 200 plus in the last month. But still got a long way to go.

Here are the collections for me to complete.

Victor (500 down, 1100 to go)
2000AD (900 of the first 1000)
Commando (only got a measly 400)
Starblazer (96 out of 240)
Football (First 100 almost complete)
Action (8 pre-ban, 46 post-ban)
Hornet (250 down)
Hotspur (60 down 1000 to go)
Crisis (most of the first 50 when it was good!)
Misty (97 down 5 to go)
Battle (30 down I think!)
Wizard (100 down 300 plus to go)
Tornado (4 down 18 to go)
Starlord (4 down 18 to go)
Warlord (235 down 400 to go)

That doesn't even include Summer Specials and Annuals to be added to complete the collections!

Richard S. · Post by **Richard S.** » 10 Nov 2006, 21:14

ColCool, have you got both Revolver specials (romance and horror)? Don't want to spoil your only 'complete' set just thought I'd better mention them in case you haven't come across them. Fingers crossed you have them.

Richard S.

Korkythecat · Post by **Korkythecat** » 10 Nov 2006, 23:57

Kashgar wrote:Some of the long runs or complete runs(10 years or more) in my comic collection are as follows.
Dandy 1942-2006
Beano 1942-2006
Topper complete
Beezer complete
Sparky complete
Adventure 1943-1961
Rover 1943-1973
Wizard 1943-1963
Hotspur 1943-1959
New Hotspur complete
Victor complete
Hornet complete
Warlord complete
Also complete runs of all other Thomson comic/boys titles since 1943 excluding pocket library type eg Commando
Then there are the AP/Fleetway papers
Lion complete
Tiger complete
Buster complete
Valiant complete
My main collecting interest has always been the Thomson papers but as a child in the 1960's I was also a big fan of the Fleetway titles and so I've collected those as well particularly from that period. Apart from the four titles above this includes complete runs of many of the shorter titles inc TV Fun, Hurricane, Champion, Giggle, Jet, Thunder etc and also a complete set of the Odhams comics from the 1960's Wham Smash Pow Fantastic and Terrific.

What, no Whizzer & Chips?! Shame on you, Ray!

Seriously though, what a fantastic collection, the best I'm aware of. Are they insured, and if so, for how much (sorry to be nosy......)?

Peter Gray · Post by **Peter Gray** » 11 Nov 2006, 00:23

Will you be trying to get earlier then 1942 on the Beano and Dandy...

Anyway....I'm speachless........

1960's Wham Smash Pow
Complete Buster

What great Banana bunch posters you've got......and Bash Street kids by Leo Baxendale......
Desperate Dan early years in order......loads of Dudley D Watkins
Ken Reids work for D.C Thomson...
David Law
David Sutherland
John Geering
Robert Nixon
The first appearances...
all the adventure stories in order.......
all those great artists....
How do you keep them.....are they bagged...kept in years....how much space soes all this take...

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 11 Nov 2006, 09:24

Richard S. wrote:ColCool, have you got both Revolver specials (romance and horror)? Don't want to spoil your only 'complete' set just thought I'd better mention them in case you haven't come across them. Fingers crossed you have them.

Richard S.

I had the Horror special, but forgot to pick up the Romance Special at the time. Took me ages to get hold of it on Ebay. I was also lucky enough to get issue 1 autographed up when the artists and writers did a publicity tour back in 1990.

kevf · Post by **kevf** » 11 Nov 2006, 10:59

In boxes in my studio I still have pretty well every comic that I got as a kid, after 1973. Every comic from before then was recycled to build a village hall in Kibworth (how they made money from old paper I don't know, but that's where all my Playhour & Robins, Fantastics, Terrifics, Whams, Pows, Smashes, TV21s, Joe 90 comic and some DC comics bought at Butlins went).

So apart from the first year's worth I got Mighty World Of Marvel and Spider-Man reprint (under its various names and guises) until 1979, and every issue of Dracula Lives, Planet Of The Apes, The Superheroes, Titans, Captain Britain... whatever they put out, I got them until Dez Skinn took over the reprint line in 1979 and I realised they were for kids.

Also from that time a pretty complete run of Cor!!, Buster, then Buster & Cor, Whoopee, Shiver & Shake, Whizzer & Chips. God I was a spoilt brat, I got everything. Lion, Valiant, then Valiant & Lion, Vulcan, Action.

Then in 1978 I started getting 2000AD, having missed the first 6 months worth, and got and kept every single issue right up to about 2002 when I realised I wasn't actually reading it any more, and had even stopped looking at most of the pictures.

My US Marvel collection is equally pot-holed. Every X-Men comic from the Dave Cockrum years thru the John Byrne years, then gave up. Daredevil thru the Frank Miller years, then gave up. Swamp Thing thru the Alan Moore years then gave up. Every issue of Howard The Duck until it sort of fizzled out (issue one signed by Frank Brunner at Comicon Birmingham 1979) and a few thousand more. Started collecting Cerebus fortnightly reprints in early 90s and might have kept that up, except they stopped doing them.

Ugliest comics in this vast pile are my Look-Ins, of which I have a complete run from 1974 to 1979. The pictures were so glossy and colourful I used to cut a panel out every day to stick in my "Picture Diary" (started life as a daily comic strip, soon became a scrapbook with record of my trivial non-existence, my days comprising going to school then coming home & drawing comics). There's not an issue that doesn't have a big hole through the Arnaldo Purzu cover, the Martin Asbury 6 Million Dollar Man strip, the John Burns Tomorrow People or Bionic Woman strip, the Mike Noble Space 1999 or Follyfoot strip, or the Harry North Dr At Large pages.

I think I'm not what you'd call a comic collector. I'm a comic reader who wanted not to throw anything out.

Kev F
(now collecting Beanos, but only when I'm in it, or Derek The Sheep)

PS: You can vote for us at Beanotown.com, when you're ready.

kevf · Post by **kevf** » 11 Nov 2006, 11:09

...and how could I forget the classics. I have full runs of the first editions of Watchmen, V for Vendetta and, of course, Warrior.

Plus Kitchen Sink's Spirit reprints from the 80s and 90s. Best comic strips in the world ever, as I may have mentioned occasionally. Also just picked up Best of The Spirit paperback.

Have we started a Reprint Paperbacks I'd Like To See? High on my list would be all Ken Reid's strips, now you ask.

Kev F

Comics UK