Comics UK

Thanks for those. The Castaways will be a reprint of the 1972 Whizzer and Chips serial (a sequel to Wonder Car with the same characters).

Any other adventure strips? The Shiver and Shake Annual 1978 had 16 pages of the Robby Hood and His One Man Band serial from early Cor!! It's quite nice when you get these old serials end to end.

Looking through some old annuals in a shop t'other day I noticed that Alfie in Africa from Whizzer and Chips in 1971 seems to keep reappearing (once in a Knockout annual, horribly coloured in, with a Knockout-style single colour that spoiled the artwork) with new titles like 'The Boy Who Knew No Fear.'

Yes, I noticed Popeye on Google. Here's a video look at the book I mentioned:

www.flickr.com/photos/fantagraphics/4052323494/

No more Adventure strips in these Annuals.

I'm sure I have another one of the Castaways in a 1975 'Whizzer & Chips' or it could be another dated Annual.

steelclaw wrote:No more Adventure strips in these Annuals.

I'm sure I have another one of the Castaways in a 1975 'Whizzer & Chips' or it could be another dated Annual.

They're not in the 1973 Annual (which has Wonder Car) or the 1975 one (which has Archie's Angels), but maybe the 1974 one?

I really like those Ron Turner adventure strips - perhaps Danny Drew's Dialling Man most of all. I'd like to find an annual with an epic one of them.

Arrggg I have to do something with my Annuals, most of them are in in 3 piles reaching the ceiling in a corner with things in front of them, which makes it very difficult to get at them.

A bunch of Love And Rockets, bringing me up to date (I rarely buy new stuff anymore). Also got a copy of Gil Kane's Blackmark and a Friedman Brothers collection.

And a load of noir dvds.

last Sunday we had the Ephemera Fair and the Comic Mart both in Bloomsbury. As the former opened an hour earlier I went there first, glad I did because I spent all my cash there (had to run out to the cashpoint to get more funds). One bloke had a huge pile of vintage Christmas comics (a few new year ones too) all for £5 each. I bought the lot (89 issues) and got them for £380. Here are the titles and dates:

Wizard 1933,
Hotspur 1937, 1938, 1952,
Knockout 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1959,
Beano 1968, (two copies) 1972,
Swift 1956,
Rover 1947, 1948,
TV Comic 1953 (week before christmas),
Sparky 1968,
Wham 1966 x 2 (This had two Christmas issues in consecutive weeks), 1967 Scramble 1949,
The Miracle 1938 (women's story paper),
Mickey Mouse 1946, 1955 (now called Mickey's Weekly)
Sun 1947, 1953,
Dandy 1961, 1967, 1969,
Tip Top 1936, 1942,
Merry & Bright 1927 (New Year), 1933,
Chums 1904,
Sparkler 1934,
The Boys Friend 1927,
Bubbles 1933,
Lot-o-Fun 1910, 1918,
Puck 1920, 1938,
Tiger Tim's Weekly 1934,
Tiny Tots 1938, 1942 (new year), 1948, 1949, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1957,
C H Ross's Variety Paper 1887 (like Ally Sloper),
Chick's Own 1936, 1938, 1941, 1951, 1952,
Playbox 1930, 1938 (New Year),
Butterfly 1910,
Rattler 1933, 1935, 1937,
Chips 1933, 1934, 1937, 1938, (two Christmas issues in consecutive weeks)
Funny Wonder 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938,
Jester 1933, 1934,
Golden 1938,
Jingles 1936,
Sunbeam 1933, 1937.
Picture Fun 1914 (reprint),
Rainbow 1952, 1954,
Crackers 1933, 1934, 1938,
Joker 1933, 1934, 1938,
Comic Cuts 1935,
Comic Life 1913,
Dazzler 1933,

I picked up quite a few more comics from two other dealers by promising to send them cheques the next day. Spent £595 in all. A good weekend.

Blimey Steve that's a collection in it's self,Some great stuff,£595 in one day.

stevezodiac wrote:I bought the lot (89 issues) and got them for £380.

For me, Steve, the most interesting aspect of this deal is not the range of comics you acquired, impressive though it may be, but the fact that you didn't hesitate to buy them. For years, whenever I found myself in similar situations, I would be racked with doubt, 'do I really want these?', 'can I actually afford them?', 'I'd better go and sit in the car and think about it'. Inevitably, by the time I'd stopped dithering and decided, 'What the hell, I'll have to have them', they would already have been snapped up by a more decisive buyer. My road-to-Damascus moment came one Saturday morning in the late 1980s at a comic fair in the Piccadilly Plaza hotel in Manchester. I was still putting my post-war Thomson collection together at that time and I knew there were normally five, sometimes as many as seven major comic dealers there, so it was always worth driving over. I had decided that my spending limit for the day would be £50. I'd barely got through the door when I saw two piles of Thomsons' very rare short-run 1920s story paper The Vanguard on the Happy Hours Unlimited stall. They had the first 69 issues in beautiful condition. Issue 1 was £35, the rest were £3.50 each. The decision to buy them was immediate. Fortunately, I had known the proprietors, Darrell Swift and Keith Smith, for some years so I did get a generous discount, but I was also allowed to pay the residue with post-dated cheques. Even though I had spent the best part of five times as much as my limit, I felt really lucky to have got them, and even more so when Darrell told me that he had actually offered them a few days earlier to Ray Moore who, having a number of other irons in the fire at that time, had somewhat reluctantly turned them down. I don't think I've ever dithered since!

My bad dithering experience was in the 90s in Greenwich market. It was about 1pm and I saw a huge pile of Disc (music magazine) from the 1969-1971 era, the seller said they were a pound each. I walked away and had a look at how much cash I had, happy that i could complete the sale I turned round to see another Jasper buying them! What was gutting was that the market opens around 8am so they had sat there for hours before two interested parties happened along at the same time.

With regard to the Christmas comics - in early November a record dealer came and looked at my vinyl albums collection, he bought about a third of them for £330 in cash so I figured they paid for the comics (well almost) and i'd rather have those comics than the lps. After i had bought the Christmas comics I walked around the ephemera fair in a bit of a daze unable to concentrate. I had e-mailed Ken Graham earlier in the week and asked him to bring some Victorian magazines including Punch but he gladly accepted a cheque to be posted the next day, same with Phil Clarke who had quite a few 30s comics too.

Phoenix wrote:My road-to-Damascus moment came one Saturday morning in the late 1980s at a comic fair in the Piccadilly Plaza hotel in Manchester. I was still putting my post-war Thomson collection together at that time and I knew there were normally five, sometimes as many as seven major comic dealers there, so it was always worth driving over. I had decided that my spending limit for the day would be £50. I'd barely got through the door when I saw two piles of Thomsons' very rare short-run 1920s story paper The Vanguard on the Happy Hours Unlimited stall. They had the first 69 issues in beautiful condition. Issue 1 was £35, the rest were £3.50 each. The decision to buy them was immediate. Fortunately, I had known the proprietors, Darrell Swift and Keith Smith, for some years so I did get a generous discount, but I was also allowed to pay the residue with post-dated cheques. Even though I had spent the best part of five times as much as my limit, I felt really lucky to have got them, and even more so when Darrell told me that he had actually offered them a few days earlier to Ray Moore who, having a number of other irons in the fire at that time, had somewhat reluctantly turned them down. I don't think I've ever dithered since!

Kashgar's loss is your gain! You have to be in the right place at the right time.

Digifiend wrote:Kashgar's loss is your gain! You have to be in the right place at the right time.

Having chatted to Ray about this some years ago, Digi, I know that he does not regret the decision he made at the time. In any case the two situations were different. Ray will have had time to make his mind up without worrying about someone else buying them while he was doing so. I on the other hand, was 90% certain that if I didn't buy them there and then, somebody else would end up with them that morning, probably sooner rather than later, and knowing full well the ratio of my previous ditherings to my lost opportunities, I am delighted by my decision to buy them, and all the rest of the similar decisions that have followed it. At this point in time I only need seventeen issues for the full run of 136 and, knowing that I might not find them, I have made copious notes on all those missing issues in the congenial surroundings of a British Library reading room.

stevezodiac wrote:they had sat there for hours before two interested parties happened along at the same time.

An example of Londoners taking inspiration from their bus services?

Not for nothing is Swear and Cuss the rhyming slang for Bus. Tube is "The Oxo" for obvious reasons.

Was listening to my MP3 player Yesterday and (it being full of 60s psychedelia) the Creation came on with their classic song "Biff Bang Pow!". I saw them live in the mid 90s - the full line up and the guitarist used a violin bow before Jimmy page. Anyway its a good example of a pop song with comic book connections. They also had a hit with Painter Man which mentions comic strips. They were a mod group so not surprising that Pop Art references abounded. Of course The Who covered the Batman tv theme tune. The bloke who sold me the Christmas comics said he had a lot more non Christmas stuff of the same type and gave me his card so i'll get in touch soon to find out what he has.

Not today, but recently I bought a stack of 16 Dandy and Beano Annuals for $90 (AUD). I had a number of them already, but there were also a lot that I didn't have. The clincher for me though was a copy of the 1952 Dandy Monster Comic. Although it was the last to bear the 'monster comic' moniker it was just too tempting for me to resist! I never thought I'd own a Dandy Annual that was from the 'Monster Comic' era!

So that was nice and it does now mean I have 4 Dandy Books/Monster Comic from the 50s!

In the bundle i was also able to get the 1979 Desperate Dan book and the 1976 Dennis book which were nice bonuses. Does anyone know who the artist for the Dan book was? It looks like Watkins, but just not sure...

The complete list of what I got was, Dandys: 52, 57, 70, 71, 75, 78, 81, 83, 86, Beanos: 56, 68, 71, 73, 78, 81 and the aforementioned Dan & Dennis books.

Regards,
Ross

rossmac wrote:Not today, but recently I bought a stack of 16 Dandy and Beano Annuals for $90 (AUD). I had a number of them already, but there were also a lot that I didn't have. The clincher for me though was a copy of the 1952 Dandy Monster Comic. Although it was the last to bear the 'monster comic' moniker it was just too tempting for me to resist! I never thought I'd own a Dandy Annual that was from the 'Monster Comic' era!

So that was nice and it does now mean I have 4 Dandy Books/Monster Comic from the 50s!

In the bundle i was also able to get the 1979 Desperate Dan book and the 1976 Dennis book which were nice bonuses. Does anyone know who the artist for the Dan book was? It looks like Watkins, but just not sure...

The complete list of what I got was, Dandys: 52, 57, 70, 71, 75, 78, 81, 83, 86, Beanos: 56, 68, 71, 73, 78, 81 and the aforementioned Dan & Dennis books.

Regards,
Ross

The strips in the 1979 Desperate Dan Book are all colourised reprints of Dudley Watkins work, mostly from the Dandy comic in the 1950's. The other artwork in the book is by Chas Grigg.