Comics UK

Hawkeye wrote:Recently bought a complete run of Wizard comics from 1922 - 1924, from #1 through to #106. Don't think my family will be seeing much of me over the next few weeks.

Also Triumph comic #2 from 1924, Rocket comic #4 from 1923 (already got the free gift 'Famous Knock-out' photo which came with it), plus quite a few free gift booklets from Adventure, Rover and Wizard from the 30s.

I bought 28 Popular Flying magazines a few weeks ago from the 30s, only paid £2.40 for them, and I was pleased to find that 8 of them contained Biggles stories. I'm reading them first before starting on the Wizards.

Oh those were nice finds Hawkeye. I hope they did not cost you too much.

The Wizard comics weren't exactly cheap, but it worked out at around £4.50 each, which makes it sound a bit better.

The other stuff was cheap enough.

Hawkeye wrote:The Wizard comics weren't exactly cheap, but it worked out at around £4.50 each, which makes it sound a bit better.

The other stuff was cheap enough.

What a great acquisition! 106 Wizaards wll keep you occupied for months!

Yes I'm really pleased to get them.
I've got Derek and Rays wonderful book 'This was the Wizard', and it appears that there are quite a few complete stories up to #106, great news !

Hawkeye wrote:Yes I'm really pleased to get them. I've got Derek and Rays wonderful book 'This was the Wizard', and it appears that there are quite a few complete stories up to #106, great news!

Yes, and in addition there are a handful of serials featuring some of the characters who appear in those completes. That's a very nice purchase, Hawkeye. Even I haven't got some of those in that run although I have read them all in the British Library's bound volumes.

Just received three copies of 1975 Jinty from ebay - it's lovely when they arrive at work and cheer me up! And sometimes it even gets a conversation going, too

"The Charles Rand arrived today and you're right about the artwork! Mike Shayne is a little better......but not much." Adam Eterno

Adam, going back to the Top Sellers Mike Shayne #1, I dug out my issue but it's not #1, it's #2, despite the guide saying there is only a #1. Thought you might like to know. The Dell comics were based on a big series of Dell paperbacks featuring Shayne.
Also, we have to assume now that Top Sellers took over the WDL licence to reprint Dell material in the UK. Unless anyone can shed further light on this.

Managed to find 3 Modern Boy comics of interest, #13 from 1928 includes an article written by Malcolm Campbell 'How I Broke the Record'.

Then #98 from 1929 which has a front cover painted by WE Johns, which was his first contribution to the Modern Boy comic.

Finally #488 from 1937 with Freddy Dixons Dart on the cover, and the caption 'Can it beat Blue Bird?' (apparently he was a 'rambunctious, flamboyant, not-quite-all-there self-taught engineer of prodigious talent and highly skilled as a racing driver').

Still on the Modern Boy theme, I managed to get the free gift from issue one to go with my #1 comic, and also the free gift from issue two to go with #2 when I find it.

paw broon wrote:"The Charles Rand arrived today and you're right about the artwork! Mike Shayne is a little better......but not much." Adam Eterno

Adam, going back to the Top Sellers Mike Shayne #1, I dug out my issue but it's not #1, it's #2, despite the guide saying there is only a #1. Thought you might like to know. The Dell comics were based on a big series of Dell paperbacks featuring Shayne.
Also, we have to assume now that Top Sellers took over the WDL licence to reprint Dell material in the UK. Unless anyone can shed further light on this.

Lew did a good piece on Top Sellers on his Blimey blog. Here's the link: http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/ ... llers.html

I didn't realise there was a Mike Shayne #2!

That's a very good article, thanks for the link. I've been doing a bit of research on this WDL/Top Sellers/T&P connection and I'm now thinking that WDL - who were Pemberton's of Manchester - were a company in their own right, having 4 imprints, all with World Distributors in the title/colophon. Whereas, it would appear that Top Sellers were a brand/imprint of Thorpe and Porter. There is also a suggestion that Strato was a T&P company. So I still have to suggest that either there were separate reprint rights bought by WDL and then T&P/Top Sellers, or, the rights somehow were passed or bought out by T&P. Lew's already done a lot of work on this and might not want to get involved again but I hope this will be of interest to others on here
Digging out some Top Sellers and WDL comics and looking at the indicia did little to advance my knowledge, as the Top Sellers comics and some of the WDL titles, e.g. Movie Classics (Dell reprints) have no indicia. I need to excavate further into a couple of boxes.
And, going back to Mike Shayne, this link will show the 3 Dell covers. From those, you'll see that your #1 was actually Dell #3. My Top Sellers #2 as actually Dell #2, and Dell #1 doesn't seem to have been reprinted here - unless anyone can add to that
http://www.comics.org/series/1507/covers/

paw broon wrote:That's a very good article, thanks for the link. I've been doing a bit of research on this WDL/Top Sellers/T&P connection and I'm now thinking that WDL - who were Pemberton's of Manchester - were a company in their own right, having 4 imprints, all with World Distributors in the title/colophon. Whereas, it would appear that Top Sellers were a brand/imprint of Thorpe and Porter. There is also a suggestion that Strato was a T&P company. So I still have to suggest that either there were separate reprint rights bought by WDL and then T&P/Top Sellers, or, the rights somehow were passed or bought out by T&P. Lew's already done a lot of work on this and might not want to get involved again but I hope this will be of interest to others on here
Digging out some Top Sellers and WDL comics and looking at the indicia did little to advance my knowledge, as the Top Sellers comics and some of the WDL titles, e.g. Movie Classics (Dell reprints) have no indicia. I need to excavate further into a couple of boxes.
And, going back to Mike Shayne, this link will show the 3 Dell covers. From those, you'll see that your #1 was actually Dell #3. My Top Sellers #2 as actually Dell #2, and Dell #1 doesn't seem to have been reprinted here - unless anyone can add to that
http://www.comics.org/series/1507/covers/

I think it was pretty normal for the reprints to not necessarily follow the numbering of the originals. I have at least a couple of dozen #1 T&Ps/Top Sellers/WDL comics and I'm off work for a couple of weeks over Christmas so I'll have a look and see what I can find.

I finally got round to going in to Liverpool to collect the Misty volume that I had put on one side at Forbidden Planet in Bold Street. It was reduced from £14.99 to £11.99. I then bought a bockwurst in a bun for my lunch from a stall at the top pf Church Street. It put me on nicely till teatime.

paw broon wrote:Lew's already done a lot of work on this and might not want to get involved again but I hope this will be of interest to others on here

Thanks. I couldn't really add anything else I think, but I'm glad you liked it.

colcool007 wrote:Just won the Ebay lot of 163 Wizards between 1945 and 1954. That should keep me quiet for a wee while!

They arrived today and I am shocked that the Wizard stayed so thin for so long. However, they are looking interesting as I have already seen at least two Wilson stories and one V for Vengeance story.

I've been collecting Wizards for years now, mainly for the Wilson stories, also Rover for Alf Tupper, great reading.