What comics did you buy today?

[stevezodiac]

My mate Steve used to buy bulk lots just for a few issues within that lot and he kindly gave me his doubles. Now he has set up a selling account of his own and I no longer benefit. But I'm very grateful for all the stuff he gave me. And he wil never forgive me for selling my copies of Cherie on ebay rather than to him. I keep telling him to become a forum member but still no luck.

[starscape]

Went to The Old Childrens Bookshelf in Edinburgh. Some good stuff but pretty expensive (£7 for a rather tatty Wham Annual 1973 for instance), so just bought a New Year edition of the Hornet for £2.50 (but got charged £3.50, although I didn't mind).

Also got a Crispy Ambulance 10" and Sisters of Mercy 12" from Unknown Pleasures record shop.

[Phoenix]

My mate Steve used to buy bulk lots just for a few issues within that lot

I think it's partly a question of how much you want those few issues, Steve, and partly how difficult they are to come by. Even taking my train fare into account, the 71 issues of Nikki only cost me 63p each. Admittedly, strictly speaking, the 27 I wanted did cost £1.67 each, but even that would be a competitive price if they had been available anywhere else, which they weren't, as far as I'm aware. Can you imagine just how much the Vintage Magazine Shop in Brewer Street will be charging for issues of Nikki, assuming they have any. I bet they are a minimum of a tenner each, regardless of condition. As Brewer Street is only spitting distance from Shaftesbury Avenue, and you'll be in the area next Friday for your Scarlett Johansson film, you could always pop down there and check for me!! Only kidding, Steve, Vinmag's prices genuinely don't interest me anymore. In fact, even in these financially-challenging times, I would not be remotely surprised to learn that they were considering charging customers just to go into the shop and browse!!

[paw broon]

Starscape, The Childrens Bookshelf can be worth a visit. I have found piles of Schoolgirls' Own Library, Schoolgirls' Picture Library, Cowboy Picture Library and some old Girls' Crystal over the last couple of years. Incl. Grey Ghosts stories and 2 Silent 3 Comics. Right now, though, they don't seem to have a lot of that type of book. And, you're correct, their prices are a bit high and sometimes all over the place with little attention paid to condition.

Phoenix, your mention of Vinmags really takes me back. Many, many years ago a few of us discovered it when we were in London for a con. (Was it always in the same location, or am I conflating 2 stores? Dark They Were moved from Berwick St. so I could be confused here). The basement was stuffed with comics and we set about them with gusto. Prices then didn't appear too high and it was fun. However, over the years, the prices seem to have increased out of all proportion to the value, and condition, of the comics. For a decade now, none of us go near the shop. In fact, it only came back to mind when I passed it, last time in London, when I was looking for that manga store in Soho, which turned out to be right across the street.
As for bundles of comics, on my last visit to Wee John, he gave me a pile of Look and Learn, some '60's Hotspur, Valiant and other odds and sods. Been most enjoyable sorting through them.

[philcom55]

...Vinmag's prices genuinely don't interest me anymore. In fact, even in these financially-challenging times, I would not be remotely surprised to learn that they were considering charging customers just to go into the shop and browse!!

Going by all the photos of celebrity customers on display I think you must have to be a film star at least to shop there these days!

- Phil R.

[philcom55]

Yesterday in Birmingham I picked up job lots of Countdown and Valiant - not all in great condition, and one or two I already had, but cheap enough for it not to matter.

Best purchase, though, was a page of Jesus Blasco 'Steel Claw' art (also surprisingly cheap). I've already got a piece by Carlos Cruz which shows the more normal version of the Claw but this one features Louis Crandell's very short incarnation as a costumed super hero:



Personally I always loved that 'chain mail' effect - so much like Steve Ditko's original Captain Atom. What's more, the page also has one of the mysterious masked and hooded villains that Blasco drew so well!

I'm always happy when the mart season finally kicks back into gear after the dead period around Christmas!!!

- Phil Rushton

[Phoenix]

Phoenix, your mention of Vinmags really takes me back. Many, many years ago a few of us discovered it when we were in London for a con. (Was it always in the same location, or am I conflating 2 stores?

No, it used to be in Earlham Street, just off Shaftesbury Avenue, where it crosses Charing Cross Road.

[Phoenix]

Going by all the photos of celebrity customers on display I think you must have to be a film star at least to shop there these days!

To be honest, I think their prices have always been high. Sometime in the late eighties or possibly the nineties, I enquired there about issues of The Skipper, which admittedly were very difficult to find at that time. They didn't have any but they took my address in case they ever got any in. Several months later they wrote to me. I still have the letter somewhere. They had bought in somebody's collection, and as I had shown interest, they were offering me first refusal on them. I was very briefly excited, until I saw that they wished to charge me £15 for each issue. I also remember that my son Andrew went to London for a day sometime in the nineties, and when he came home he had a present for me, issue 42 of The Hotspur from 1934, which he had bought at Vinmag for £5. It was in lovely condition, and I've still got it, but I just couldn't believe how high the price was, given that at that time you could get issues from that year at Norman Shaw's for about £2.

[standby4action]

I was in Harrogate for a short break and visited the PBFA Book fair. Spent nothing

But in the second-hand bookshop in Harrogate (23a Commercial Street) found Thunderbirds Annual copyright 1966 (therefore Thunderbirds 1967 Annual!) with the Frank Bellamy cover - cost? £3 in near mint!!! I haven't owned this since ...well, 1966 actually!

[colcool007]

Well, I have had a bit of a splurge. Bought the Tower King, Beyond 2000AD and The Story of Valiant from David over in Ireland. But even more wicked is that I have just bought 15 John Cooper originals. Here is a low-res version of them

Now got to wait for all of them to arrive.

[philcom55]

Interesting. Do you know where and when they were published Col?

I think I've got one of John's half-page 'Johnny Red' splashes somewhere that I picked up for about a tenner a few years ago; a shame the Joe Colquhoun pages weren't so easy to come by!

- Phil Rushton

[colcool007]

No and John doesn't either, so I will be posting some hi-res photos to see if anyone can identify where and when these have come from when they arrive.

[Lew Stringer]

No and John doesn't either, so I will be posting some hi-res photos to see if anyone can identify where and when these have come from when they arrive.

They look like the sort of things he's done for television to illustrate a news item or something. Possibly not though, or they'd most likely be in colour.

[philcom55]

As a matter of interest here's my own piece of original Cooper art:



- Phil Rushton

[felneymike]

In fact, it only came back to mind when I passed it, last time in London, when I was looking for that manga store in Soho, which turned out to be right across the street.

It's not got a very obvious name, has it?

I once went to Vinmag to find a random example of a British comic to show Japanese people at a manga pub night I was going to. I got an early 80's Victor for circa £5, far more than it would normally be worth, but any port in a storm! I don't usually bother going in, now. I've bought more comics and illustrated books from Prowler XD