Phoenix's Future Plans

Discuss all the girls comics that have appeared over the years. Excellent titles like Bunty, Misty, Spellbound, Tammy and June, amongst many others, can all be remembered here.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

Well, well, well. Against all expectations, Russ didn't go to work today. He turned up in the camper van at about half one. We unloaded thirty-three banana boxes, many of which are jammed to the gills with story papers for girls. I have just emptied the first box, which contained all the BUNTY Summer Specials from 1987 to 1999, and 2004, apart from 1997, which I never had in the first place, my issues of SUZY between 1 and 86, minus a dozen that I never had, and many more of those to come, hopefully in one of today's other boxes, and full years of MANDY for 1974 to 1976, minus 26 issues over the three years that I never had. And that is just the first box!! As far as the other boxes are concerned, I will let members know about the girls' papers eventually, but with any luck there will be lots of boys' papers here too. However, regarding Briony's query yesterday, as I don't yet know whether my issues of TRACY are in any of these boxes, I will again have to ask for patience. Before we started the unloading, I did ask Russ whether he had brought all the boxes from the lock-up, he looked at me as if I'd gone off my rocker, and said ''Good God, No!!'' It's not that surprising that I had forgotten just how many boxes I had to get for the collection when I was packing to come down to Cornwall, a move that I will never regret, but which happened over four months ago. Just looking round now I can see a big pile of issues of DIANA, which seem to be saying, "What about us?" So I must be getting back to the job.

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stevezodiac
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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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My mate Steve is moving from Basingstoke to Leyland today along with 50,000 comics plus a huge collection of dvds and records. I wish him well.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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stevezodiac wrote:My mate Steve is moving from Basingstoke to Leyland today along with 50,000 comics plus a huge collection of dvds and records. I wish him well.
So do I, Steve. He's a really pleasant guy. You are going to miss him. I only met him a couple of times, once at an Ephemera Fair, and once at 30th Century Comics. He was with you on both occasions if I am remembering correctly. I don't know Leyland particularly well. It is in a kind of valley between Chorley, where my mother and father met, and Preston, where my father used to work when we were all living in Lancaster. My mother was born in Leyland, my father in the Daubhill district of Bolton. He used to pronounce it 'Dobble'.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Yes, my niece lives in Hawarden which I learned last week, courtesy of Tim Wonacott on Antiques Road Trip, is pronounced Howden.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Serious progress is being made on the unpacking of the boxes that Russ has brought from the lock-up so far. The pile of issues of DIANA is one and a half feet high, a smidgen more if I include the book 'The Avengers - Steed And Mrs Peel - The Comic Strips - Eight Vintage Stories From The DIANA Comic', which was published in 2016 by Big Finish at £12.99, and which I bought from 30th Century Comics for £16.50 because I asked Will to send it First Class, Recorded Delivery. Over the years I have discovered that those issues of DIANA are virtually unobtainable so the book is indispensable.

My ex-wife, Lynne, was over again yesterday helping me to sort through the contents of this most recent batch of boxes from the lock-up, and she'll be over again on Thursday because she thinks that my interpretation of the word 'tidiness' needs reassessment. Included in these boxes were my collections of the Picture Story Library For Girls of BUNTY, JUDY and MANDY. The DEBBIE ones must still be in the lock-up. I haven't got them all by any means, and I don't intend to buy any more, but most of them are early issues so I should be able to refer to them somewhere, if only in the Introduction.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Phoenix wrote:The pile of issues of DIANA is one and a half feet high
Having now opened the last box so far, I can add a further nine inches to the measurement of that pile, and there are more to come. One problem that I will have though will occur when I am writing synopses of serials that are running at the same time as the Avengers strip (DIANA 199 - 224). I might have to miss a couple of contenders out unless I can summon up enough enthusiasm to take the train from Penzance to London, which takes five hours, unlike the two it used to take me from Liverpool, and stay at my son Andrew's place in Southfields for the couple of days that I will require in the British Library. I am a member, of course, and have been since the library was at the back of the British Museum. It is a fantastic national resource.

P.S. I've just checked my membership card, and noticed that I'll have to renew it when I get there as it expired last February. Anyway, must go as I want to do some preliminary checking on the DIANAs before I go and pick Lois up from St Ives school. I'm on ballet duty tonight with her as well, and it is absolutely chucking it down here at the moment. I'm also picking her up on Friday. I invariably get there about half an hour early, and read a book while I'm waiting. I'm currently reading Ballet For Drina by Jean Estoril, the first of a series of five according to the blurb on the rear cover. I think I'm right in saying that Jean Estoril, who has written at least five Drina novels, is a pen name for the far more prolific Mabel Esther Allan, who, if memory serves, was born in Wallasey, Cheshire, where I was first appointed to teach Spanish and French at the Technical Grammar School there.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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stevezodiac wrote:My mate Steve is moving from Basingstoke to Leyland today
It has just occurred to me, Steve, that last April you talked here about you and your sister combining your savings to buy a house in Kent. Did you go through with that plan? If you have not done so yet, do you still intend to?

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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For those members who have never previously heard of THE BLUE BIRD, D C Thomsons' first story paper for girls, which was in text form just like ADVENTURE, THE ROVER and THE WIZARD, here is a scan of the front cover of issue 15 (February 3 1923). The editor at the time claimed that the free gift swastika charm would bring good luck to the girls who wore it, and added a number of instances when it clearly appeared to have done so. However, a nationalist ideologist called Guido von List had suggested as early as 1910 that the swastika should be adopted as the symbol for all anti-Semitic organisations. There is a reference by the way in Canadian novelist Mazo de la Roche's novel 'The Building Of Jalna' to the bluebird bringing happiness. From one extreme to the other then! Take your pick!!
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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Phoenix wrote:I'm also picking her up on Friday.
Not now I'm not. There has been a change of plan because Faye's mother is collecting both of them from school, and taking them back to hers, as a sleepover has been planned. I will go to Russ and Rachel's for 4 o'clock to look after Alex. Rach will probably have left food for both of us. If not, presumably I will be 'encouraged' by Alex to take him to McDonalds. As a quid pro quo I would normally be expecting Russ to put his hand in his pocket a couple of times in the Copperhouse later this evening. However, he came down to mine earlier in the week to fit a handle to a storage room, and fitted several replacement lights in the lounge ceiling, so I texted him earlier to tell him that the drinks for the three of us are on me tonight. Rach is unfortunately working.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Interesting to see these two items in the current Compal auction. I don't think I've ever come across Mascot before!
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stevezodiac
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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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My sister is still surfing the net at weekends looking for a house in Kent. Personally I'd prefer to live in Sussex. If I had another hundred grand I'd buy a house of my own. Steve has been busy for two days unpacking. He's in a similar situation to you, Derek. He said he'd be down for the December comic fair.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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philcom55 wrote:Interesting to see these two items in the current Compal auction. I don't think I've ever come across Mascot before!
I saw those and although I’ll have a serious bid, I think they could go for quite a bit. There’s quite a lot in this auction that I’m interested in!

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Phoenix wrote:As a quid pro quo I would normally be expecting Russ to put his hand in his pocket a couple of times in the Copperhouse later this evening. However, he came down to mine earlier in the week to fit a handle to a storage room, and fitted several replacement lights in the lounge ceiling, so I texted him earlier to tell him that the drinks for the three of us are on me tonight.
Just back from the Copperhouse where I was as good as my word, buying both rounds. I just about beat Alex at snooker, but neither of us is much good really, whereas my elder son, Andrew, made quite a lot of money in pubs when he was living in Warrington but working in Manchester. Russ rang Lois at Faye's where they are both having a good time.

I have again asked Russ to get all my boxes out of the lock-up as soon as possible. He just might do so on Sunday because his elder son, Jordan, has told him he could do with a lock-up, and a seamless transfer from me to him will raise no issues so long as he commits to paying the £120 per month that I've been shelling out. That will mean that I will finally have my entire boys' comics collection here, the rest of my girls' comics collection, and my heraldic shield from Birmingham University. Plus, of course, whatever else is in there, which I am pretty sure includes the first issue of THE BLUE BIRD.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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stevezodiac wrote:My sister is still surfing the net at weekends looking for a house in Kent. Personally I'd prefer to live in Sussex.
Steve, you’ll be very welcome here in Sussex if you can make it.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Adam Eterno wrote:
philcom55 wrote:Interesting to see these two items in the current Compal auction. I don't think I've ever come across Mascot before!
Adam Eterno wrote:I saw those and although I’ll have a serious bid, I think they could go for quite a bit. There’s quite a lot in this auction that I’m interested in!
I was tempted to bid for issue 1 of THE BLUE BIRD, but I decided against it because I have a photocopy of it, and as I only need to be able to read it in order to write a three-line synopsis, an actual is de trop. Furthermore I will need to save money in order to have enough to pay for my final two books to be printed and bound.

Yes, a three-line synopsis. I have agonised over this for a couple of days, and as you can see, I have backtracked on my earlier assertion that the synopses will be of variable lengths, because of balance, and being able to have a clearer idea before I even start writing of how long both books will eventually be. I have already listed the contenders for BUNTY AND HER SISTERS, and I am currently working my way through both BUDDY and ADVENTURE in order to start putting the list together for ADVENTURE AND HIS BROTHERS. Hopefully all your personal favourites will be featured.

I've got the best part of two hours to continue my listings before I have to scoot off to pick the children up. Rach is still very much under the weather so I had to take both of them in again this morning. I'd dropped Alex off at St Erth primary, and was on my way to St Ives secondary, when just after I had asked Lois what three lessons she had today (two in the morning, one in the afternoon), she said "Maths, Science and Drama", at which point she looked horrorstruck, and said "I've come out without my Drama leggings, I'm in real trouble." I said " Look, I'll drop you off at school, and then go back to yours and get them. When I get back with them, I'll drop them off with your receptionist." She visibly relaxed, and I duly went back with them. It's ballet in Lelant tonight too. I'll be waiting with Alex in the Badger. I think she now owes me one pint at least out of her pocket money!! I doubt whether I'll get it though because when I lent her £6 to buy slime in St Ives a week or so back, she said she had enough money saved up at home, and would repay me as soon as we got home. I'm still waiting!!

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