Classics to end next month

[tony ingram]

Since it wasn't primarily aimed at kids, Classics from the Comics should've been stocked in the same section as 2000AD, the Marvel/DC Collectors Editions ...

It is in my nearest big WHSmith.

In the Ipswich one, too.

[AndyB]

Belfast kept it with the kids' comics.

I still think that it's a consequence of changing printers. My guess is that continuing to print it in its current A4 newsprint format would be prohibitive as nothing else is in that format any more (and the external printers might not want to do it), and that using glossy paper to include it in the general magazine and comic printing order would increase costs and losses beyond what could be tolerated.

I also suspect that the Beano's transition to glossy paper from the white paper used since the 50th anniversary may have been for the same reason - although in that case, it was the only publication using the white paper in any format, whereas newsprint is still being used for Commando, Funsize and the newspapers.

[tony ingram]

Belfast kept it with the kids' comics.

I still think that it's a consequence of changing printers. My guess is that continuing to print it in its current A4 newsprint format would be prohibitive as nothing else is in that format any more (and the external printers might not want to do it), and that using glossy paper to include it in the general magazine and comic printing order would increase costs and losses beyond what could be tolerated.

Sounds about right to me.

[steelclaw]

Well peed off, practically the last link to comics as we knew them.

Can someone please explain why 'Classics' got a bad distribution when CLiNT has got distribution what seems like everywhere?

That's start a petition.

[Lew Stringer]

Well peed off, practically the last link to comics as we knew them.

Can someone please explain why 'Classics' got a bad distribution when CLiNT has got distribution what seems like everywhere?

Investment.

That's start a petition.

Too late. If more people had bought/subscribed to Classics I'm sure it'd have survived, but they didn't. Seems there's just not a big enough market for old UK comics.

[chrissmillie]

Or they could source out their material. That's what IPC did with their 2000AD graphic novels. Small profits were no use to a big company like theirs but to the fledgling Titan, they were ideal.

Is there a market for a collected Grant Morrison's Starblazer? Definitely! A Billy the Cat TPB? I would have thought so. A new Warlord collection? Probably.

Titan might now be too big for some of these but I'm sure there are other companies interested (me for example).

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

CLASSICS was OK [I bought every single issue, so I supported it as well as I could, even writing to Thomson twice for copies that sold out quickly] but really they just strengthened my resolve to seeking out the original items, which can be picked up for reasonable prices if you are selective/lucky/both.

I know that CLASSICS had a whopping 60-odd pages, and it was fine value [I'll be holding onto my copies permanently] but really I saw CFTC as a 'stepping stone' that generated interest in the real Mc Coy,---the originals----- which is where it has influenced my comics appreciation the most.


I'm not really a fan of modern comics [for reasons I've stated tenfold on here] but CFTC has kept the flag flying for conniseurs of vintage output, t'be sure, t'be sure.


Quite sad to see it was the last title of it's type.....

[big bad bri]

damm just as i started buying it again.they should have started doing an annual as well as there are years worth of annuals stories they could have reprinted

[Lew Stringer]

damm just as i started buying it again.they should have started doing an annual as well as there are years worth of annuals stories they could have reprinted

It's difficult to sell an annual to a 20 or 30 something store manager who has never heard of the characters and to whom "Classics from the Comics" means nothing. If the monthly wasn't selling, what chance would an annual have?

However, there are the yearly Dandy/Beano reprint books (now up to volume 23), plus a Black Bob one this year. Have you seen those?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Classic-Beano-D ... 016&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Bob-Dand ... 057&sr=1-1

plus a Best of Victor coming soon...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Victor-Pap ... =1-1-spell

[Digifiend]

I actually consider those Beano/Dandy books to be the Classics annual, even though the annuals have been running longer. They should include the other comics more often IMHO, especially since Classics will be gone. I think Dennis the Menace has only been absent from those books twice - Great Stories from the First 50 Years, because that one only had adventure and text stories, and Favourites from the Forties, because Dennis didn't debut until 1951 (although he was still on the cover). Likewise, I think Desperate Dan has only missed Great Stories, although he was mentioned. Yet other iconic characters like Beryl the Peril and Ginger rarely show up because most of the books don't use Beezer and Topper. They may as well call it Beano and friends, because Dandy is probably as popular as Beezer and Topper in the 90s now. If Dandy's about to relaunch again, it's the last ditch one like the Beezer/Topper merger was. Those books probably sell mainly based on the Beano name, and it's no surprise that Beano's logo is so much bigger than Dandy's this year.

Heck, maybe that's what Classics should've done, use the Beano brand prominently.

[Peter Gray]

Space Kids is left on a cliff hanger..doh!

also loved seeing the 50's Fighting Frazer and The Jolly Rogers

Also Moe, Joe and Daddy-o by Eric

a three bears by Leo..
must read some more..

I really hope it will come back some how...

[Digifiend]

If only the editor had been given more warning, I think Space Kids would've been finished. They only ran one episode in last month's issue (not got 175 yet), had they known about the impending end at the time they'd have probably used two or three (and maybe not bothered starting King Cobra, but at least that one's episodic, so ending after two issues won't affect that one).

[Raven]

Well, the last issue has lots of obscure vintage stuff - The Mob Next Door, The Fighting Frasers, The Kings Revisit Castaway Island, The Jolly Rogers, The Wandering Wilsons, Moe and Joe and Daddy-O, and a 1959 Minnie I don't recall seeing reprinted before ... what a pity that this increasingly unmissable, one of a kind magazine is stopping.

[Sabreman]

Picked up the last issue today. Sad to see this go.

[steelclaw]

I thought the new one was out yesterday but couldn't find it