What comics did you buy today?

[Digifiend]

Baaaa-hump(bug!)

Today i received:
A Union Jack from 1922
A Boys' Friend Library from 1920 (with a story about Nelson Lee in it, he also had his own "library" by this time but it was different from the other pocket libraries and had shorter complete stories alongside serials etc)
And a Dandy Quarterly from 1991! This is a bit of a wierd one, it's Classics-sized, but with less pages and they are all glossy and in colour. It's one complete story like the Libraries. It's about Desperate Dan going to Japan to find the double of Aunt Aggie's sword that he broke.

Also recently i got issues 8-14 of Spaceship away (brilliant), the 1911 British Boy's Annual and a book from (seemingly) 1929, or 1931, called "The World's Best Boys' Annual". It contains an amusing science fiction story with an illustration of the open-topped spaceships that have rotor blades! I'll do a blog entry about it at some point...

Dandy Quarterly? So Dandy had a counterpart to Beano Superstars then, didn't realise that.

[Sabreman]

After hearing about the ending of Classics from the Comics a while back (& only buying it for the past 2 years) I've bought about one hundred back issues, which should keep me busy. Plus, I've bought half a dozen of the Beano/Dandy compilation books as well.

[alanultron5]

Some great purchases there! Well done folks!

[alanultron5]

I recently won (On E.Bay) Sparky Nos 78, 79 & 80 from July 1966. It was quite a gap in my collection as I had 643 issues before these!

All had a bit of the Puzzle Page cut out-but its not too bad! Another 79 has come on E.Bay if I can get it I can hopefully make a complete one!

[Digifiend]

Yesterday I picked up the latest Beano... and the final Classics from the Comics.

[felneymike]

Today i received two issues of The Boys' Friend Library from 1927 "A Leader of the League" and "The Prisoner of the Pygmies".

And an advert in the back of one of them as put me on the track of a further interesting-looking and obscure title to make periodic ebay searches for.

And tomorrow i have to try and track down a specific issue of The Schoolgirl's Own for the second part of the brilliant story i read the other day!

[Raven]

And an advert in the back of one of them as put me on the track of a further interesting-looking and obscure title to make periodic ebay searches for.

And what was that?

You know you can set up and save Ebay searches so you get an email notification whenever whatever you're after turns up ... ?

[felneymike]

Monster Library!

I didn't... but somehow that would take the fun out of it. And of course i might overly rely on the notifications and miss a prime item because somebody mistyped a letter!

[Raven]

I didn't... but somehow that would take the fun out of it. And of course i might overly rely on the notifications and miss a prime item because somebody mistyped a letter!

But you might also miss a prime item because it goes up as a Buy It Now and someone buys it before you check!

Presumably Monster Library's title refers to its size, and it isn't about monsters?

[felneymike]

Ahh but that's just the luck of the draw! I might see the notification after i got back from work only to find it's been bought, in that case it's better not to know at all.

Apparently Monster Library is "printed in large, clear type", as opposed to the very tiny type in the Boys' Friend Library, i'm presuming.
The title of one story is "The Barring-out at St Franks!", which i beleive was originally a whole series of Nelson Lee stories (not a serial but connected complete stories) running over several issues of the Nelson Lee Library, so i assume the page count is quite high too!
Also they cost 1' when at that time the Boys' Friend Library was still 4d!

[Phoenix]

The title of one story is "The Barring-out at St Franks!", which I believe was originally a whole series of Nelson Lee stories (not a serial but connected complete stories) running over several issues of the Nelson Lee Library, so I assume the page count is quite high too!

I have this Edwy Searles Brooks story, FM, as volume 1 of the Nelson Lee hardback reprints from Howard Baker (Greyfriars Press), which was published in 1972. It puts together the original eight issues of The Nelson Lee Library from 1919, (229-236 [Old Series]), as they were when presented in the Monster Library in 1926. It is, however, divided into 53 chapters and reads like a serial for its 127 A4 pages.

[blaing]

I picked up a couple of early Sparkys (although the the back page is missing a coupon. This'll do until I find some replacement issues)

Numbers 62 and 75

three down, 600+ to go.

[alanultron5]

Blaing! if you're bidding on No 79 on E.Bay I can leave it to you! I won one recently with a bit of damage and have bid on the current one-but if its you going for it too, I don't mind stepping aside! Oh! Try the 26 pigs site! They usually have Sparky's at set prices - no bidding needed! Al.

[blaing]

Yep, Alan, that's me bidding on issue 79. (you'll find me as "brutoons")

the 26Pigs website, is also one of my favourite haunts.

[felneymike]

Today i got issue 220 of The Union Jack, and also issue 220 of The Union Jack!

The first one is from the old series, and comes from 1898. It's a Sexton Blake story, which i didn't realise until i took it out! Sexton Blake "took over" in Union Jack in 1904, but before then only appeared in occasional issues.

The other one is from the new series. It's from 1907 and is called "Sexton Blake, Chemist". By the looks of it there's lots of poison gas and improvised bombs in the tale!

I also got the Easter Double Number from 1907 - this has double the page count and double the stories! Could you see a comic of today doing such a thing for easter? One story is called "Sexton Blake's Zulu" and features yer usual jungle adventures on the dark continent, the other is a school story called "The Shipley Scholarship".