Comics UK

Some more recent arrivals.

Legend of Lord Snooty
The Best of the Victor
Monkey Nuts: The Diamond Egg of Wonders
Billy & Buddy Vol.2: Bored Silly with Billy

felneymike wrote: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?

No. They don't even double the page count at Christmas - the Christmas Beano (and probably Dandy from now on) usually costs twice as much as a regular issue, but only has 48 pages (double the normal page count would be 64).

Oh right, i actually didn't think they increased the size at all these days!

Except 2000AD who do a 100 page issue for Christmas, but it does stay on sale for four weeks, i'm pretty sure the "double numbers" of the olden days were still a weekly issue!

Hmm, perhaps one day i'll do a Christmas double number of my own comic, with snow on the logo! Mind you it's currently slogging along at an average of less than 1 24-page issue per year and is only available in one place on one day in March, so best not!

I went to the postcard/ephemera fair in Bloomsbury today and picked up 10 copies of Illustrated Chips from 1908, 18 copies of Punch from the 1890s a couple of dozen Shoots and Goals from 1969-1972 and about seven TV Comics from 1960 in superb condition. Also got this first issue of the Magnet Library from 1908 - it was only £2 so I presume it is a reprint. Was it reprinted as a single issue rather than in the Howard Baker volumes? Even as a reprint it is well worth £2 as it looks so authentic.

A while ago there was a big series of bound volumes of Magnet and Gem on Ebay, where most of the issues in them were facsimilies on modern, thick paper! I don't know where those came from (Howard Baker or maybe the Old Boys Book Club, there's no clues on them, they are just 'exact' copies). By pure coincidence i got the first Gem volume and the last Magnet one. It's a shame the collection was being broken up really, it appeared to be complete runs of both papers (if mostly not originals, it is after all the stories that are important!) in uniform, high-quality bindings.

The fading and thin paper on that one, though, suggests to me that it might be genuine. There's always the chance you struck (very) lucky!

Anyway, i was recently contacted, through the medium of an old post on my blog, by a woman who is helping to organise an exhibition about youth culture through the ages which will include the Magnet. If you would be interested in helping out with your lucky find the discussion is here:
http://blog.crystal-knights.co.uk/2008/ ... /#comments

stevezodiac wrote:Was it reprinted as a single issue rather than in the Howard Baker volumes? Even as a reprint it is well worth £2 as it looks so authentic.

I suspect that what you have there, Steve, is the innards from this Fleetway facsimile from 1965. I bought this at the time from a bookstall on the now non-existent Liverpool Exchange railway station. I haven't done an exhaustive study of it but there doesn't seem to be any indication on the paper itself that it is a facsimile. An unscrupulous dealer might just get away with claiming it as authentic and make quite a nice profit thank you very much. The second picture, for comparison purposes, has the issue date as February 15th 1908.

That's stapled, and it would be 102 years old, I find it hard to believe they'd have used staples for kids papers back then.

Digifiend wrote:That's stapled, and it would be 102 years old, I find it hard to believe they'd have used staples for kids papers back then.

I don't have an original Magnet number 1 so I don't know whether the publisher used staples or not but, in principle, there is no reason why he couldn't have done so as they've been around since the eighteenth century, and in general use since the nineteenth.

I bought online two Spanish language editions of Gold Key comics: 'Steve Zodiac' and 'Supercar' no.2. A Japanese Captain Scarlet comic arrived on Friday.



And last week, I didn't buy any comics but I did purchase a dozen pages of original comic art.

Shaqui wrote:last week, I didn't buy any comics but I did purchase a dozen pages of original comic art.

Ooooh!! Which pages were they??

- Phil R. (who just bought a lovely Paddy Payne page by the great Joe Colquhoun! )

Last Saturday, in Henry Bohn, an excellent secondhand bookshop in London Road, just round the corner by the Liverpool Empire Theatre, I picked up for £4.50 Masters Of Comic Book Art, a 128-page book by P. R. Garriock (Aurum Press 1978), for £2 a novel The Boys Of St. Elmo's by Alfred Thomas Story, which is set in a boarding school for boys, obviously, (I wonder what the reaction of The Four Marys would be if they knew that ), and for £4 a mint condition copy of Bingo Boys And Poodle Fakers - A Curious Compendium Of Historical Slang, which appears to be an original compilation by The Folio Society (2007), in which we are reliably informed that a gob-shite (its meaning and essence analysed at length a couple of years ago on this forum) means both a lump of used chewing tobacco (US), and an American sailor. So there you have it.

Oooh yes indeed. What artwork did you buy?

Fab site by the way Shaqui. Haven't been on there for a while so it was great to trawl through all the info and artwork the other day, whilst sipping a nice cup of tea..

philcom55 wrote:Ooooh!! Which pages were they??

- Phil R. (who just bought a lovely Paddy Payne page by the great Joe Colquhoun! )

Stingray wrote:Oooh yes indeed. What artwork did you buy?

Fab site by the way Shaqui. Haven't been on there for a while so it was great to trawl through all the info and artwork the other day, whilst sipping a nice cup of tea..

I may refer the honourable posters to the 'Comic Art Fans' link in my signature, for a big clue...



Thanks for the compliments, Stingray. I am trying to get the site updated... one day.

Wonderful!

I know it's not one of the new ones but I adore that Follyfoot spread. Funnily enough I seem to remember that some of the printed versions in Look In looked rather blurred, so it's nice to know that the fault wasn't in Mike's originals!

- Phil R.

I received Beano & Dandy around the world in 60 years.Beano & Dandy history of fun,
Dandy & Beano 50 years of annuals ,Dandy & Beano the comics at chrimbo, Dandy & Beano an alphabet of fun. All for a penny each Not inc p&p from amazon about 19 squid in total with 2 more to come .Thats the 1st time i have bought annuals (I think of those beano & dandy ones more as reference books than annuals though)off the net only usually buy dvd box sets i will have to start getting some comics when funds allow.
brian