Free comics in The Guardian

[Digifiend]

Crikey still doesn't have widespread distribution. In fact, I've never seen it in a shop (no Borders or Forbidden Planet near me). It might sell more copies if you could buy it WHSmith, but that would be a gamble.

[Phoenix]

what chance of a fortnightly comics partwork succeeding?

Just reckon we'll have to enjoy these Guardian giveaways and get back to building our balsa wood boats and fondling our figurines.

I have enjoyed my share of fondling over the years, but one thing I don't think I've ever done is give some project up before I started on it.

[Lew Stringer]

Crikey still doesn't have widespread distribution. In fact, I've never seen it in a shop (no Borders or Forbidden Planet near me). It might sell more copies if you could buy it WHSmith, but that would be a gamble.

It's been available by subscription from issue 1 and has been plugged on this forum and other sites from the outset. Some copies are also available on eBay, so all in all there's not really much excuse for fans of UK comics being unaware of it / not supporting it, apart from the ones who don't have internet access.

Lew

[Digifiend]

There's probably still a large number of people who don't have the Internet yet, or simply don't know the right websites. My point was that people are far more likely to see it (and buy it on impulse) if it was sold in WHSmith - subscription is the only way apparently where I live. But equally, they won't want lots of unsold copies, which I assume is why it isn't sold there. Admittedly, if everyone who posts here regularly bought Crikey, it wouldn't make a great difference, as it's no more than a couple of dozen people. It's diverting the topic anyway, so I'll stop there.

Back on topic, someone at Beanotown.com suggested they should reprint some old issues - so I pointed them in the direction of the Guardian/Observer giveaway. A good example of having to know the right places to look, I'm guessing that person isn't a member of this forum.

[Lew Stringer]

Admittedly, if everyone who posts here regularly bought Crikey, it wouldn't make a great difference, as it's no more than a couple of dozen people.

There are 488 members of this forum Digi. If all of them bought Crikey! I think Glenn and Tony would be well chuffed!

Lew

[Phoenix]

There are 488 members of this forum Digi. If all of them bought Crikey! I think Glenn and Tony would be well chuffed!

I think they may well have been chuffed when Crikey! was only freely available via the Internet. However, having gone (notionally) national, the cutoff point for future viability would surely be set much higher than 500. I suspect they will need to attract a significant number of those customers who float into the many hundreds of outlets across the nation and who, without ever having heard of the magazine, leaf through a copy, are impressed and so take it with their other items to the checkout. The highish price will also be a factor. If, by the time they get to Crikey!, they have already loaded up with Autotrader, Computer Active, Camping and Caravanning, Homes and Antiques, Radio Times and a couple of lads mags, they might just put it back, making a mental note to pick up the next issue.

[Lew Stringer]

There are 488 members of this forum Digi. If all of them bought Crikey! I think Glenn and Tony would be well chuffed!

I think they may well have been chuffed when Crikey! was only freely available via the Internet. However, having gone (notionally) national, the cutoff point for future viability would surely be set much higher than 500.

Of course. What I meant was it'd be good that if all 488 members here bought Crikey in addition to those who buy it off the stand.

Lew

[Jonny Whizz]

I've never seen Crikey! on sale, and the nearest Borders to me is only a 30 minute whizzrun, er, I mean, drive away from me at most.

[stevezodiac]

Thanks Spencer, I hadn't realised the Telegraph repro was an edited version. It only had eight of the original 12 pages. Same with last weeks Daily Mirror Setember 4th 1939 facsimile, that was even more edited - 20 odd pages down to eight. I won't bother with the Telegraph partwork now as I am only interested in complete papers. I did pick up some nice local South London papers from the 1890s a couple of years back for about a quid each. One actually mentioned my street on the cover in the small ads.

[Raven]

Thanks Spencer, I hadn't realised the Telegraph repro was an edited version. It only had eight of the original 12 pages. Same with last weeks Daily Mirror Setember 4th 1939 facsimile, that was even more edited - 20 odd pages down to eight.

I've been wondering if the Guardian facsimilie comics may be edited highlights; at least getting rid of ads if not other pages, too. One paper gave a free facsimilie of a 1930s Christmas Boy's Own Paper a few years back and it was a very slimline edited version; it still often turns up on Ebay with sellers selling it as a genuine original, somehow still in amazing condition! (I expect that may happen with these comic freebies, too.) So there is a tradition of these facsimilies being edited down.

Hopefully the comics will be complete.

[Lew Stringer]

To be fair none of the promotions for the comics have said they'll be exact facsimiles so don't be surprised if they're edited or abridged, or even smaller than original published size.

We'll soon know anyway.

Lew

[Raven]

Expecting full 32 page ones for the IPC issues does seem a bit optimistic somehow, but we shall indeed see.

[Digifiend]

No reason for Beano and Dandy to be incomplete because they're only 20 pages and have no adverts (they didn't use outside advertising until 1988, when they also increased to 24 pages). But Whizzer and Chips probably would lose some pages, and wouldn't Jackie have originally been glossy? Because the fascimile certainly won't be. Will they be stapled? That would identify them as fascimiles, as the originals weren't, were they? Again, not until 1988 in Beano's and Dandy's case.

[Raven]

Well, there was plenty to identify that Boy's Own Paper as a facsimilie, from its binding to its thickness to its paper, but it doesn't stop Ebay sellers "mistaking" it for a copy of the real thing!

Whizzer and Chips was stapled.

[Digifiend]

That's surprising considering W&C's two comics in one mantra.