What comics did you buy today?

[Kashgar]

I've just ordered this book hoping it'd educate me about an area of comics I know little about but basic errors like that don't bode well. Hopefully the author knows her subject and the main body of the book is accurate.

I don't think you have too much to worry about, Lew. I have now read the book and I can safely say it has a lot to commend it, especially the scope of its topic areas. Briefly, the author surveys nursery titles, pen pictures of juvenile titles that she divides up into what she calls Golden Age and Silver Age comics, categories I think she has taken from the American comics grading system, and in any case her dividing line is a bit nebulous, key characters, the links with pop culture, part-works, toys, free gifts, problem pages, tie-ins with games, puzzles and annuals, and a personal assessment of what might come next. There is rather more emphasis on Thomson titles than Fleetway but no more than about 60/40 I would guess. There is a good deal here that I know very little about, given that I nailed my colours to the Thomson mast at a very young age. I would not, therefore, feel comfortable commenting on the 40%, so any analysis of the book along the lines of the ones I attempted early in the year for Adam Riches's two is obviously impossible for me. I should also point out that Susan does imply early that she is an enthusiast and is sharing that enthusiasm with her readers, therefore in a sense she is no different from all the rest of us. Her book, she says, is intended as a nostalgia-inducing frolic through our childhood; a social history looking at a more leisurely way of life, a time when children had little money and made the most of what they spent it on. Her enthusiastic energy will inevitably contain both the potential successes of the book and the potential failures. How we judge it must depend on how we read it, which, in turn, depends on what our expectations are. Seen from the point of view of Lew's requirement, this book will be judged a success. If I adapt my expectations in the light of Susan's stated intentions, I will also see it as a success. I have always felt that if you achieve what you set out to achieve in any piece of work, that piece of work is a success. However, I cannot help being troubled by judgements about any particular title when they are based on a tiny fraction of the total run, particularly when two issues are a couple of decades apart. Such snapshot-based conclusions are obviously only really valid for the issues consulted, and cannot be offered as binding on the whole run, and also tend to lead to carelessness. For example, at one point Susan quotes Bill McLaughlin on the demise of Tracy, as saying, Tracy was just stopped and didn't combine with anything else. Just another victim of the 1980s. Bill was mistaken but Susan did not check or she would have discovered that Tracy was annexed by Judy in January 1985, and the combined title Judy and Tracy ran for more than two years, unlike Suzy, for example, whose extended life as Bunty and Suzy only lasted eight weeks.

I haven't seen this book so maybe I shouldn't pre-judge it on the few comments here but it does sound like another one of those volumes that we comicsuk smartypants will find great, if also somewhat wearisome, delight in pointing out the errors of its ways rather than praising it for its elucidation.

Kashgar is quite correct in the sense that his first comment certainly was hasty. As for the rest of it, I haven't the foggiest notion who he could be referring to. Perhaps the fog is on the Tyne.

My first comment was indeed hasty it seems. So I'll scratch myself from the comicsuk smartypants roster immediately and place an order for the book. After all it would be taking the 'p' to calumny anyone on the strength of including one where there shouldn't be.

[steelclaw]

at the mo any spare money i get is going on buying back issues of beano or dandy but is the history of the beano book any good/worth getting as it seems a bit pricey.does it show all covers or has complete story listings dates etc.cos i have seen no synopsis for this book just the cover on amazon and is there a similar book for the dandy

Bri do you live in London if you can find one of those cheap like book shops, I've seen it in there for £9.99 last time I looked it was still there a few days ago.

[Kashgar]

It's a very good and very heavy volume (more than 350 pages). Reprints entire issues from 1938, 1950, 1954 and 1958, and assorted strips from throughout the comic's history. There are features about most of the original artists and all the biggest names from later decades such as Ken Reid, Leo Baxendale, and David Sutherland. The strips range from the final episodes of Billy the Cat, Pansy Potter, and the original Lord Snooty; several instalments of Wild Boy of the Woods, featuring the giant Hitler statue story which is now mentioned on his page on Beano.com's retro section; Pansy Potter drawn by several different artists during the war; through to an up to date example of Fred's Bed (the first two pages of the 70th anniversary story). For some reason they even included a colour Desperate Dan strip from the joint Dandy-Beano Summer Special (along with General Jumbo from the same special). At the time it was the first most people will have heard about Super School - there's reference to a strip called The Ultras, which had it's name changed after History went to press. The best part IMHO is saved for last - The Beano Index is reprinted from Ray Moore (Kashgar)'s book The Beano Diaries, and updated to 2008.

And for some reason, no The History of The Dandy doesn't exist. It was planned but cancelled if I understand correctly.

Thanks for the praise Digi, however ill-deserved.

[felneymike]

Roy of the Rovers World Cup Special

Ahem. By that i did of course mean "The All About Magazine Roy of the Rovers Souveneir Special". I didn't know there was a big softback book actually called "Roy of the Rovers World Cup Special" until today, when i got it.

I also got:
The Bumper Book of Roy of the Rovers 2

Union Jack issue 1205 from November 1926 (without the free gift of a photo of the victory parade at Mons - the editor wonders if any of his readers were in the parade!)

Schoolgirls' Short Stories 2nd Collection. Published by Gerald G Swan in (it says here) 1946. I thought it would be an annual-like book but actually it's only about the size of a pre-war Nelson Lee Library, about A5-ish with 40-something pages. There's no illustrations and the stories are just printed one after the other, even if the previous one ended most of the way down a page. Paper rationing at it's worst!

The newest 4 Commandos. Can't wait for the year-long anniversary celebrations to begin!

2000AD Progs 1713 and 1714

Schoolgirl's Own Library issue 71. From the mid-late 50's by the look of it.

[big bad bri]

at the mo any spare money i get is going on buying back issues of beano or dandy but is the history of the beano book any good/worth getting as it seems a bit pricey.does it show all covers or has complete story listings dates etc.cos i have seen no synopsis for this book just the cover on amazon and is there a similar book for the dandy

Bri do you live in London if you can find one of those cheap like book shops, I've seen it in there for £9.99 last time I looked it was still there a few days ago.

yes i live in london which shop & where had it for £9.99 if u dont mind me asking i would like to get it for that price on wed along with another visit to 30th century comics b4 i go to ireland for chrimbo

[stevezodiac]

Just had a look at the Dick Dare story in Surprise and there are no author credits. Didn't they all use pen names like Compton Barnfather?

I got my copy of the History of the Beano from the discount bookshop at Waterloo on the corner opposite the Old Vic. Its not open at the weekends any more though. It was a few months back so no idea if they still have copies.

[felneymike]

Today i got the first 6 issues of Collins Magazine for Boys and Girls from Jan-June 1948. It's priced 1/6 an issue but has thick, glossy paper and beautiful coloured covers with lots going on in them. Primarily factual articles as opposed to stories though, there's one pirate-themed serial running through these first 6 months, and a few short stories.

[Kashgar]

Re Surprise I've got a 100pg A4 book somewhere written about the title by Ron Hibbert. I'm fairly certain I've also got a similar volume by Ron ( who was a stalwart of the pages of the Story Paper Collectors Digest for many years) devoted to the title with which Surprise was amalgamated after 89 issues in Nov 1933 the Bullseye, the most spooky boys' story paper title there ever was and the home of the once legendary (can something cease to be legendary I wonder simply because it is no longer talked about?) 'The Phantom of Cursitor Fields'.

[Phoenix]

Can I get in a smidgen early, Ray, to congratulate you on reaching your 2000th post. I'm sure everyone will agree with me that in terms of the depth and breadth of the knowledge, the presentation of detail and the perception that invariably inform your posts, you have brought over the years a unique value to this forum. May this long continue.

[big bad bri]

29x hoot
34x beano
xmas dandy

[Peter Gray]

2000!!
Well done Kashgar.my blog is so much better with your help and other people on this forum..thanks mate..

[Kashgar]

Aw shucks guys! Thanks for your glowing testimonials (no mean feat in this weather).
I will try to live up to your expectations in future posts and keep gobshitese to an absolute minimum.

[Digifiend]

Yeah, well done on hitting that milestone Ray.

[Asger]

Yesterday I bought an issue of Tiny Tots 1952 on ebay, and I just won another auktion with TT today. I'm looking forward to see, if there's any pages of Vera Bowyers Teddy and Greta in them; it's the model for the great Danish fairy-tale strip Bamse og Dukke Lise. They're not very expensive: 0.99£, but the postage to Denmark is 5£, so I don't think I'll be buying more.

[felneymike]

Today i took delivery of the 1923-4 volume of Chums. Though the weekly Chums paper was still going then, this volume doesn't have all (or even most) of the covers of the weekly issues reproduced (1890's - 1900's volumes not only reproduced the covers, but the pages that were totally covered in adverts!). The covers that are reproduced don't have the date, issue number or price on them.

The closest volume i have is the 1919-20 one, and that reproduces all the covers, so the change must have come between those two. It wasn't until the start of the 1932 volume that the weekly issues were cancelled