A question for you all

[Digifiend]

The only reason that my collection of seventies Victors survived my mums periodic culling was that I hid them, by removing the bottom drawer from a dressing table and stashing them in the four inch gap underneath and then replacing the draw.

I used that kind of hiding place, too, when I was a teenager. But the publications I was hiding weren't comics

Ha, boys and their secret porno stashes!

[Little Squelchy Thing]

I've got box upon box upon box of comics that I managed to keep hold of from when I was younger, up to the present day.

Sadly, when I was a kid my mum did insist on making me throw stuff out. My Oink! and It's Wicked collections both met with such ignoble ends, a fact that still pains me to this very day! *Weeps*

[Asger]

I never had to throw any comics away. I've been collecting since I was 9 (1965), I gave some away when I was about 12 or 14, but since 1972 I've been an avid collector. Yes it's tough to move 2-3 tons of comics, but I've done it several times, and my girlfriend is really accepting that the house is filled with about 40.000 magazines. So I live in a library too.

[colcool007]

We also live in a library cum house. Thankfully, we are managing to pass on our love of reading to our kids. One child has already claimed the Mistys and another has claimed the DCT funnies annuals. Still need to find one that shares my love of Action comics, although the son-in-law is building up a nice library of 2000AD Graphic novels.

Our house always looks like one of those mad people's houses that is devoted to books. But while we do have room to move, we haven't got to the stage where you only have one way to get up and down the stairs as any other way is blocked by books!

[Jay]

I had a crazy amount of comics when I was kid. It started in 1985 (I would've been about 7) with Transformers (thanks Lew for Combat Colin! ) , Beano and Dandy. My mum soon pre-ordered these at the local newsagents along with Topper and Beezer (they all had my mums name written on the front over). And then on top of those five comics per week I'd spend my entire pocket money on other titles such as The Real Ghostbusters, 2000AD and Buster etc etc.

Like Niblet, I hit 13 and thought these 1000s of comics were for kids and uncool so I gave them all away. The only ones I've kept to this day are my beloved Transformers.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

All my comics were thrown into the fire by my Ma: every single last one of them. I still have nightmare visions of many Beanos/Dandys etc being consumed by flames [other than that, a proper fire is a happy childhood memory]. I have a lot of younger brothers and sisters, with much room-sharing early on, so it would have been pretty difficult to store a comic collection and keep it whole and complete.


Today, I have amassed a fair amount of the comics that so impressed me as a kid: but by no means all of them. Second time around, they are kept in sealed bags, reinforced with cardboard and stacked up in a high pile in the bedroom. I have a few hundred comics, but it's unlikely ever to run into the thousands: I am not an obsessive collector, and have never spent a fortune on this habit and do not want to.........I'm too fond of other things in life, like a bevvy etc, which I indulge in more frequently.[HIC!] I also project films at home [properly with a front-projector , onto a screen] and this habit/almost-obsession is obviously fairly expensive to indulge in,: I've probably shelled out thousands on this lark, much more than what I pay for comics, so I'm afraid that complete collection of Whizzer and Chips will have to be put on hold for the time being.

My appreciation of comics is but one facet of my various leisure pursuits.

I only buy the comics I really want: I would love to have a complete collection of TV21 for example, but I never got this comic every week first time around, so my memory of it is not as strong as the Thomson/IPC/Odhams stuff, so it takes lesser precedence.........



...now, where's than tin of X-tra strong lager?

[Health and safety disclaimer: don't try this at home, kids!]

[stevezodiac]

I have just about every comic i bought in the sixties, luckily my bedroom had one of those cupboards built into the wall and they are still there in four or five piles about 6 feet high. The trouble is getting them out and putting them all back again. The only things I got rid of were my Sparkys and Look-Ins. But i cut out all the Puss N Boots strips first and still have them. My mum was always on at me to get rid of my TV21s but now I have told her they go for about £15 apiece she has changed her tune. I often have people in work - when hearing of their value, say - why don't you sell them? Er because I am a comic collector and, to me, comics are far more attractive than banknotes. But I am selling off some of the later stuff on ebay now, eighties comics in particular as I am running out of space. Just about to put some early School Funs on. Looked at them during the week and decided it wasn't a very good comic. I have about 150 2000ADs from the early 80s but they don't seem to sell.

[Digifiend]

2000ADs are ten a penny. It's even well known in the USA, even the Beano can't say that. You can't expect to get much for those, unfortunately.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Which reminds me....I am active member of a US site dedicated to old b/w Horror films like Frankenstein/Wolfman, etc, and I am about to introduce these ill-educated yanks to the delights of FRANKIE STEIN which is more than likely unknown on t'other side of the Atlantic: if reaction is favorable [he spelt Americanized] a link will be provided for your amusement.

[stevezodiac]

ISPYSHHHGUY have you seen The Ghost Breakers? An hilarious Bob Hope Zombie film. It hasn't been on tv for about 35 years but I got the dvd last year from HMV.

Just looked on youtube and laughed out loud at the "Funniest Movie Line Ever" from the film.

[Raven]

Which reminds me....I am active member of a US site dedicated to old b/w Horror films like Frankenstein/Wolfman, etc, and I am about to introduce these ill-educated yanks to the delights of FRANKIE STEIN which is more than likely unknown on t'other side of the Atlantic: if reaction is favorable [he spelt Americanized] a link will be provided for your amusement.

Ken Reid or Robert Nixon version - or both?

I'd appreciate a link whether or not reaction is favourable!

[tony ingram]

We also live in a library cum house. Thankfully, we are managing to pass on our love of reading to our kids. One child has already claimed the Mistys and another has claimed the DCT funnies annuals. Still need to find one that shares my love of Action comics, although the son-in-law is building up a nice library of 2000AD Graphic novels.

Our house always looks like one of those mad people's houses that is devoted to books. But while we do have room to move, we haven't got to the stage where you only have one way to get up and down the stairs as any other way is blocked by books!

We're nearing that stage: my collection has taken over the spare bedroom (where there's no longer any room for a bed) and the front hall and is making inroads into our bedroom too, as well as the loft. I became a collector before I was ten-I've never deliberately let any of my stuff go, though I did lose a lot of my early Marvel comics collection in a fire at a self storage place when I was moving around a lot in the early nineties.

[paw broon]

Like some of you, I'm running out of space in my wee back room and now when there are piles of comics on the floor, I know it's getting out of hand. Would I have been so obsessed about comics if my mother hadn't thrown out all of them when I was 14 - saying that it was time to grow up and study , no time for all that rubbish? Because now as an over 60, I have re-acquired many of the comics I had or read as a child. When I was young I loved most comics and my gran bought me the Beezer and, later, The Victor, every week. I always enjoyed all those different shapes and sizes, from the standard American to landscape Australian by way of tabloid and broadsheet British ones. And at the barbers, there was always a box of comics for kids to read (and some adults were occasionally caught reading them also. So, yes, all my comics went away, as it were, but after I was married, I started collecting again. Mostly American, but nowadays, lots of old British and European titles . Can't throw them away now but where do I put all the new stuff I pick up?

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Steve Zodiac: I have a childhood memory of Bob Hope and another comedian appearing as skeletons near the end of a 40s-styled US comedy: is this the Ghost Breakers\?


Raven: I put up 4 pages of the Ken Reid Frankie Stein 'Wham!' pages onto the site, and there is 50 views without a single reply---somewhat surprizing, given that this US site is frequented by absolute fanatics of vintage horror iconography, including much early horror-related artwork.


I will persevere, though, and I will be adding more REID delights onto the thread very soon.


I will add a link on here over the next couple of days, whatever happens. I'm dumbfounded there has been zero response regarding REID'S work, though, as the Americans clearly appreciate comics history.

Maybe they are miffed 'coz I touted Ken as the greatest comics artist ever, anywhere on the planet!


Watch this space, though. I want to see if they react to 'World Wide Wierdies' first!

[Muffy]

What an interesting post Ruth et al
I still have most of the comics, I had as a child, though having scanned most of them, I did sell some at dad's boot sales for between 50p to £2 (though these were ones that were given to me). I did swop some issues as well with friends, or was given some, but not too many. Now I have just over 1,000 left.

My brother had about 5,000, though he burnt about 1,000 UK marvels and sold another 1,500 on ebay, another 1,500 at boot sales, he kept about 500, gave my 500 (though I have given him back 100 and gave the other 400 to a 13 year-old about 5 years ago).

My sister must have re-cycled her collection of about 1,000, though think she did sell about 100 Beanos in boot sales. I've also kept 5 comics for her, that I'll give her one day as a present.
My friends swopped and gave me some of theirs, most had binned them as teenagers. One of them still has about 100 left, but had to bin/re-cycle about 1,000.