ROVER COMIC HELP NEEDED

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booksandcomics
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ROVER COMIC HELP NEEDED

Post by booksandcomics »

Hello all,

I am in need of some help from a fan of the Rover comic, in particular any Rover fan who has issues between 1948 and 1949.

My grandfather recalls being featured in the readers section for a poem under the name of either:

Edward Teitge or his mother Nora Dobson.

He claims that he won a prize for this poem:

My two brothers and I, to the shop we did fly
On Thursday the day of the Rover
When we did arrive, we all made a dive,
But I was the one in clover.

I do not have any issues of Rover from this period and do not want to buy blind from online. If there is anyone out there who has issues from these years, would you be able to have a quick flick through?

Unfortunately, my grandfather cannot recall which month, only that it would have possibly been in 1948 or 1949.

With thanks,

Adam

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Re: ROVER COMIC HELP NEEDED

Post by Phoenix »

booksandcomics wrote:I am in need of some help from a fan of the Rover comic, in particular any Rover fan who has issues between 1948 and 1949.
My grandfather recalls being featured in the readers section for a poem under the name of either:
Edward Teitge or his mother Nora Dobson.
He claims that he won a prize for this poem
Your grandfather couldn't have won the prize in Readers' Corner either in 1948 or 1949 because the feature didn't appear until issue 1303 (June 17 1950). What prize did he win by the way?

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Re: ROVER COMIC HELP NEEDED

Post by booksandcomics »

Ah, thank you for this! I will test his memory again and get back to you reference the prize.

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Re: ROVER COMIC HELP NEEDED

Post by Phoenix »

Thank you. Hopefully I might still be able to help him.

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Re: ROVER COMIC HELP NEEDED

Post by booksandcomics »

Hi again, I've talked to him and he doesn't recall a prize, he can just remember it being printed. I've managed to look through Comic Book Plus website and they have scans up until issue 1331 December 30th 1950.

Do you have 1951?

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Re: ROVER COMIC HELP NEEDED

Post by Phoenix »

I have now looked at the names of all the correspondents to Readers' Corner in The Rover from the first appearance of the feature in issue 1303 to its final appearance in 1395 (Mar. 22 1952). Neither of the names given by booksandcomics are mentioned as contributors, and I can't find the poem that his grandfather says won him a prize. The fact that he cannot remember such a desirable item as a picture gun, that was sent to every youngster whose contribution was published in Readers' Corner, and that I can't find his letter, or his name in any of the supplementary lists of winners printed elsewhere in The Rover, makes me wonder whether he might not be recalling things clearly. I'm not being critical here, in fact I have problems myself from time to time when trying to remember things, but for the time being, booksandcomics, I'll need to throw the issue back to your grandfather for a rethink. The fact that the prize winners of the footballs and the football boots in the competition over the next few weeks that the editor of The Rover said were going to be printed in The Weekly News is almost certainly irrelevant as far as the Readers' Corner prize winners were concerned.
Last edited by Phoenix on 17 Jan 2017, 03:31, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: ROVER COMIC HELP NEEDED

Post by Phoenix »

One thing I did find on one letters page was a short poem by one William Blain of 5, Avenel Road, Knightswood, Glasgow, W3. Perhaps Kashgar could look into the possibility that this might just have been a space filler by the great man.

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Re: ROVER COMIC HELP NEEDED

Post by booksandcomics »

Hello Phoenix,

Thank you so much for your effort in searching through your comics. I understand your commentary, I actually called my grandfather again stating that the prizes listed was a "3D gun" but it didn't seem to ring a bell with him.

Perhaps it was a letter sent into Rover but not actually published? It is something of a family mystery, and from the off set of me looking for this poem, I knew it would be like finding a needle in a hay stack.

Without any further details from my grandfather, I can only draw a blank line and accept that it was never published.

Thank you again for helping my family in this manner.

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Re: ROVER COMIC HELP NEEDED

Post by Kashgar »

Phoenix wrote:One thing I did find on one letters page was a short poem by one William Blain of 5, Avenel Road, Knightswood, Glasgow, W3. Perhaps Kashgar could look into the possibility that this might just have been a space filler by the great man
Hi Derek, In all likelihood this was probably just a coincidence. It is true that Bill Blain was born in Gourock on the Clyde and resided in the Glasgow area in his early years but, as far as I know, no direct ties existed between him and the city by 1950.
It's a pity that no link can be found between the Rover and this poem as its always nice to have a memory confirmed. Of course it could be that the poem was sent to another title entirely and that the Rover has just somehow become part of the legend over the years. I myself have had to edit several memories over the years in the light of the discovery of contradictory evidence.

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