collected

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paw broon
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Re: collected

Post by paw broon »

I started collecting WDL Movie/TV? Classics a couple of years ago and I'll have to have another look at the covers as I didn't know some/many had been redone.
As for western comics, I got interested in them quite a while ago, particularly Dell and Fawcett titles, and I have nice collection now which includes some British b&w reprints. That all ties in nicely with my Cowboy Picture Library collection and the few other western picture libraries I've been lucky enough topick up. I find many cowboy comics most enjoyable, particularly Buck Jones in CPL and Dell issues and most of the Charlton western things drawn by PAM. Gunmaster is good fun - a masked mystery cowboy with an arsenal invented by his alter ego. Can't go wrong.

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philcom55
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Re: collected

Post by philcom55 »

Cowboy Picture Library was a great series that really doesn't get enough attention nowadays. I've just been sorting through a fascinating set of publisher's proofs from a variety of issues I recently picked up as a job lot at £1 apiece and some of the artwork is amazing. Surprisingly these also included a couple of stories from Western Picture Library which must have been inherited by Fleetway when they bought out C. Arthur Pearson.

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abacus
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Re: collected

Post by abacus »

Illustrated Classics comics get the updated treatment from time to time and it seems they have always been around.
The original Illustrated classics that began in the '40s introduced me to a number of books I had would never have heard of
otherwise and they also became collectable items.
Some of that particular series was reintroduced in more recent times with the new colouring technique which I don't think was that successful from a sales point of view.
Many companies have tried their hand at producing comic book classics including Marvel and others you may know of
some of which have been impressive.
Pictured here are probably a lesser known series of childrens comic books produced in the 1990s by Hawk books.
I have only six out of the series as shown and was generally slightly dismissive of them at first , but now think in the distant future they could have potential buyer appeal.
Image
More recently Disney have produced their series of takes on the classic books.
There is plenty of books that could be adapted for children's comics e.g
Harry Potter
Charley and the chocolate factory
The railway children
Lost Horizon
chitty chitty bang bang etc.

davidandrewsimpson
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Joined: 03 Jun 2008, 16:57

Re: collected

Post by davidandrewsimpson »

Hi Abacus

Gold Key adapted Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as a comic book back in 1969(see http://www.comics.org/issue/22516/). I assume that this was based on the film more than the novel.

An internet search for Harry Potter comic books will give you all sorts of unauthorised adaptations (including one done in Lego), but Rowling is on record as saying she won't allow any Harry Potter comic books.

I think a Lost Horizon comic book could look pretty good.

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abacus
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Re: collected

Post by abacus »

davidandrewsimpson wrote:Hi Abacus

Gold Key adapted Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as a comic book back in 1969(see http://www.comics.org/issue/22516/). I assume that this was based on the film more than the novel.

An internet search for Harry Potter comic books will give you all sorts of unauthorised adaptations (including one done in Lego), but Rowling is on record as saying she won't allow any Harry Potter comic books.

I think a Lost Horizon comic book could look pretty good.
Yes I am not surprised some comic book adaptions already exist.

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paw broon
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Re: collected

Post by paw broon »

Hi abacus. Those look like hardbacks and I haven't seen them before this. I suppose they are modern successors to the old D.C. Thomson/Laing hardback classic adaptations by Watkins - Kidnapped; Robinson Crusoe; Oliver Twist and Treasure Island. All lovely pieces of work.
Classic stories have also been adapted in other languages, particularly Spanish in both translations of the original American series and new adaptations. I've just been looking at an online adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Beneath The Sea in Spanish which is not the original CI issue. And I found a Spanish version of Heidi on Amazon today.

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abacus
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Re: collected

Post by abacus »

paw broon wrote:Hi abacus. Those look like hardbacks and I haven't seen them before this. I suppose they are modern successors to the old D.C. Thomson/Laing hardback classic adaptations by Watkins - Kidnapped; Robinson Crusoe; Oliver Twist and Treasure Island. All lovely pieces of work.
Classic stories have also been adapted in other languages, particularly Spanish in both translations of the original American series and new adaptations. I've just been looking at an online adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Beneath The Sea in Spanish which is not the original CI issue. And I found a Spanish version of Heidi on Amazon today.
These are not attributed to any artists and are adequate but not of the standard of say Marvel.
They are adaptions by dr Marion Kimberley.
These were printed in Spain for the ÙK and I wouldn't be suprised if european artists were used.
Around twenty years ago I came back from a spanish holiday with some comics one of which was called something luna by Jules Verne (in english it could have been called From Earth to the Moon)and that had similar style of artwork.
The last ten years or so I have been content just holidaying in this country not far from the carboots and the junk shops.

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paw broon
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Re: collected

Post by paw broon »

Up till illness stopped us this year, we've been going to Italy or France for a week or two and occasionally Palma de Mallorca. Apart from my interest in languages, we both love the food, wine and culture, and needless to say I always go with a list of comic shops in my case. I've stumbled on some great stuff in European comic shops, both foreign reprints of British strips and locally created material going way back. Italian neri and giallos; French pocket libraries, Dutch, Spanish and Italian piccolinos/striscie. Lots of different formats, genres and quality.
Dr. Kimberly, apart from those Gallery Books classics, did have adaptations printed by King Features Syndicate and Bruguers in spain, so I wonder if the ones you have are reprints/translations of The American and Spanish editions. Interesting, eh?
http://comics.lib.msu.edu/rri/krri/kim.htm
starting about 2/3rds way down the page.

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abacus
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Re: collected

Post by abacus »

Noticed you've recentlly reached the thousandth post milestone, nice going Paw, congrats!I have someway to go to reach it ,that's if I don't get kicked off the forum before then. :D
Last edited by abacus on 21 Aug 2016, 11:24, edited 3 times in total.

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abacus
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Re: collected

Post by abacus »

Looking at today's teenage comic market the industry is more reliant on US comics than home grown produce.As this is a UK site the emphasis is more on comics produced in the past due to the contracting of UK comic material.
This doesn't mean that US comics are not without faults.
Whenever I check a US comic to see whether it contains a complete story or one thats continued .Starting from the back of the comic I inevitably have to thumb through some page fillers before coming to the last page of the comic strip and then I am suprised how few actual comic pages there are compared to say 30 years ago.
In this new age you have to deal with what is, including on screen digital comics where there is also room for improvement.
Deciding to read is a spur of the moment thing and having to upload and scroll through pages to find the place you last left off can be tedious.
One of the purposes of technology is finding easier ways of doing things and I am sure more agreeable choices will be available in the future.
Will superheroes go the same way as the westerns?
The original western was the clean cut good guy against the bad guy, then came more psychological westerns followed by the spaghetti westerns to an era of meaner westerns then oblivion..
Superheroes are changing in a similar fashion with a more darker approach , could this soon spell the end?

Lew Stringer
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Re: collected

Post by Lew Stringer »

abacus wrote: Whenever I check a US comic to see whether it contains a complete story or one thats continued .Starting from the back of the comic I inevitably have to thumb through some page fillers before coming to the last page of the comic strip and then I am suprised how few actual comic pages there are compared to say 30 years ago.
The story page count is the same as it was back then; 20 pages or more. It might just be the way the ads are paginated that led you to think otherwise.

In fact there are more pages of story than there was during a few years in the mid 1970s, when Marvel and DC reduced story content to 18 and even 17 pages an issue.
The blog of British comics: http://lewstringer.blogspot.com
My website: http://www.lewstringer.com
Blog about my own work: http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com/

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philcom55
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Re: collected

Post by philcom55 »

Yes. People tend to forget that there was a period during the 1970s when all American comics seemed to be right on the verge of cancellation with decreasing story pages, increasing prices and terrible printing and paper. In the event DC and Marvel only survived by the skin of their teeth!

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abacus
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Re: collected

Post by abacus »

Lew Stringer wrote:
abacus wrote: Whenever I check a US comic to see whether it contains a complete story or one thats continued .Starting from the back of the comic I inevitably have to thumb through some page fillers before coming to the last page of the comic strip and then I am suprised how few actual comic pages there are compared to say 30 years ago.
The story page count is the same as it was back then; 20 pages or more. It might just be the way the ads are paginated that led you to think otherwise.

In fact there are more pages of story than there was during a few years in the mid 1970s, when Marvel and DC reduced story content to 18 and even 17 pages an issue.
Yes it could be because all the page fillers I saw were at the back of the comic instead of being spread throughout like the comics of the '80s.I bought two DC'80s comics yesterday one with 36 pages , the other a special with 52 pages the amusing thing being the printed uk prices on the comics of 40p and 50p and yet it doesn't seem that long ago.

Lew Stringer
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Re: collected

Post by Lew Stringer »

abacus wrote:
Lew Stringer wrote:
abacus wrote: Whenever I check a US comic to see whether it contains a complete story or one thats continued .Starting from the back of the comic I inevitably have to thumb through some page fillers before coming to the last page of the comic strip and then I am suprised how few actual comic pages there are compared to say 30 years ago.
The story page count is the same as it was back then; 20 pages or more. It might just be the way the ads are paginated that led you to think otherwise.

In fact there are more pages of story than there was during a few years in the mid 1970s, when Marvel and DC reduced story content to 18 and even 17 pages an issue.
Yes it could be because all the page fillers I saw were at the back of the comic instead of being spread throughout like the comics of the '80s.I bought two DC'80s comics yesterday one with 36 pages , the other a special with 52 pages the amusing thing being the printed uk prices on the comics of 40p and 50p and yet it doesn't seem that long ago.
If it had 36 pages of story that's the exception rather than the rule. If you mean 36 pages including ads and covers, that's been the standard format since the 1950s.
The blog of British comics: http://lewstringer.blogspot.com
My website: http://www.lewstringer.com
Blog about my own work: http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com/

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abacus
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Re: collected

Post by abacus »

All inclusive of course , the point I was making was that time passes quickly and it doesn't seem that long ago when comics seemed very cheap but that is a simplistic nostalgic view not taking into account yearly inflation etc.
I had moved on from a page count discussion and conceded you could be right regarding the amount of actual comic strip pages in today's comics, it was just the impression I got flicking through comics that the portion of comic strip was less , obviously when looking through the comics in the shop I am not also counting the pages or I would be there all day. :D

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