Comics UK

Just got the Lion Annual 1957, Beezer Books 1991 & 1992 (with some excellent stuff by Bob Dewar in there) and Topper Book 1985. All in brilliant condition and each one only cost a pound. The Lion Annual looks quite a bit better made than the Beano book from the same year because they actually use full colour in some parts of the Lion Annual and the Beano didn't do this in their annuals until the late 80s.

1971 Daily Mirror book for boys & Sexton Blake case book (1987) - £3.99 each from my local Oxfam bookshop. Lovely.

The Sexton Blake Case Book is great, several reprints of issues of the library from the 20's, when the writers barely put a foot wrong! There's also a white one of the same age/format which contains the first 4 issues of the library from 1915, that's even better!

Anyway, today I got issue 3 of Comic Football, feels thinner than the previous two, and the paper seems different. The Young Guns story is warming up, and they have binned the contents page in favour of more strips! Mind you there is a profile page about Bobby Moore that's just a simple text article, in Lion or Wizard it would have been a strip!

Last week I got a whole bunch of original Union Jacks and Detective Weeklies from the 1920s and 30s for just £7 (including several stories with Zenith the Albino who provided the inspiration for Michael Moorcock's Elric). Most of the time it's clear that Sexton Blake is a kind of 'straight man' with the villains providing all the colour and interest - kind of like Judge Dredd. The artwork - particularly by Eric Parker - is absolutely stunning!

- Phil Rushton

The Manchester comic mart wasn't bad for bargains today, with quite a few UK things, including early 60s Knockout and Tiger annuals for only a couple of pounds or so each.

I couldn't resist a few late 70s chunky Tarzan Monthly issues (published by Byblos) for £1 each, some Cracker and 70s Buster at 50p each, and some Planet of the Apes weeklies at 50p each, as well as a few 70s US titles at 50p each.

I bought some of those Tarzans there as well. The nice thing is that they tended to feature stories by people like Evanier and Spiegle written specifically for the European market which never appeared in America. I think Russ Manning did some art for them as well.

- Phil R.

From the Nostalgia & Comics table. I'm not sure if they regularly come down from Birmingham. I noticed they had several issues of Crisis from issue one onwards at £1 each, too.

I'm also quite a fan of Tarzan Weekly - and there were several Son of Tarzan monthlies. Isn't the colouring odd inside Tarzan Monthly - just blue and red, looking a little like they'd been individually felt tipped in!

Just got a load of old Modern Wonders from a boot sale for just 50p each. Apart from the stories by authors such as John Wyndham, and full-colour Flash Gordon strips by Alex Raymond, the thing that really interests me is the way in which they give a picture of history as it was being made, week by week, rather than from the perspective of many years hindsight. For example, I love the way in which this L. Ashwell Wood cover of 'Britain's Wonder Tank' shows how hopelessly unprepared we were for Hitler's Panzer divisions in March 1939!



- Phil Rushton

That's not a tank, it's just a slightly sturdier car that happens to float and has a gun sellotaped to it! They could put it in a Commando comic but the story might be too short.

Alas that is the Vickers 6 ton tank. Thankfully we never bought them, but if we had, they would have been toasted by the early war Panzers.

colcool007 wrote:Alas that is the Vickers 6 ton tank.

It looks to me as if it has been put together from pieces of Meccano. I bet that on principle Ian Kennedy would have refused to draw it.

Surely that big hole in the turret would have made the gunner a sitting duck!

I thinks that's how West Ham fans will be coming to The Den on Saturday.

Phoenix wrote:

colcool007 wrote:Alas that is the Vickers 6 ton tank.

It looks to me as if it has been put together from pieces of Meccano. I bet that on principle Ian Kennedy would have refused to draw it.

If we had used it, IK would have drawn it as he is a stickler for detail. I agree with you that it looks like it has been made out of Meccano, but a lot of the Inter-war tanks looked that way, as it was assumed that speed would win out over firepower.

I didn't buy these, my sister in law got them for me in Norway. Fantomet Kronikene and the most recent Fantomet issue. These are Norwegian Phantom comics. I have a few Swedish issues so these are a great addition. Also, adding to the glossy paper discussion, the regular monthly is gloss cover with colour on newsprint inside and the Kroniken collection of 130 pages has gloss, thick covers and b&w on matt paper inside.

Both 2000AD and The Dandy came through the door today.

I was very disheartened to read the latest circulation figures for The Dandy. What a kick in the teeth for the staff who had put in the extra effort in revamping the comic last year and still continuing to do so.

I hope things improve.