Keyhole Kate

[DaveWhit.]

...and here's the back cover featuring Korky.

Cheers
Dave

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

wow! That's great, Dave-----a real piece of UK comics history there. I wonder why this one-off Kate story came about? Maybe they simply never had the usual Korky cover artwork properly prepared in time.

[dishes]

Never liked Keyhole Kate (unbelievably limited premise for such a long-running strip) and yet I have to admit that cover strip looks great. Morley's artwork looks so much better in full colour.

[steelclaw]

Brilliant well done superstar DaveWhit.
I usually upload my scans to a Image hosting site, that way you can post them on here at whatever dpi you like.

[Lew Stringer]

Keyhole Kate was in Sparky..

She returned to the Dandy, drawn by Sid Burgon, in the late 80s/early 90s. I don't have anything like exact years.

Yes, but as I said I'm specifically thinking of the 1930s-50s. My Grandma died in 1951 so she wouldn't have seen Sparky etc. Was the character in any other publications between 1937-51?

Sounds like she wasn't so it's likely my Grandparents did buy The Dandy, presumably for my Mum (tho' my Mum would have been 12 when the comic was launched and doesn't recall reading it herself) and that's where they knew the character from.

[DaveWhit.]

STEEL CLAW, thanks for your advice on using an image hosting site. I'll check that out over the next few days.

ISPYSHHHGUY, that Dandy cover of Keyhole Kate guest-appearing with Korky was really interesting. I've never even heard of this issue before. Do you have the issue number & date?

As for why Keyhole Kate took over the front cover for one week - I read somewhere that the editor was on leave and the assistant editor(?) decided to try something experimental, placing Korky on the back cover and giving Kate star billing - allegedly. When the editor returned to work he was furious and made sure that the situation never happened again! Not sure if there is any truth in the story..and it sounds a bit unlikely logistically.

[Digifiend]

Never happened again in Albert Barnes' time anyway. Desperate Dan was occasionally bumped off the cover was he not? 50th anniversary comes to mind in 1987, where Dan and Korky are shown ripping a paper wall, and Dan's story therefore is a one-pager on the back cover. And in 2001, Cuddles and Dimples briefly took over as the official cover story, until fan demand saw Dan restored (although he ended up only being on the cover with a single page strip).

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Dave: I've strained my eyesight, and the Korky/Kate cover is from January 1953. Can't quite make out the day of the month, it's either the 12th or the 18th. The number looks like 829, but again, it's not too clear. Can anyone else assist with this?

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Dave: I was so taken with your highly unusual Dandy scans, I have added them into the Dandy Wiki page on grounds of historical importance:

http://britishcomics.wikia.com/wiki/Dandy

[DaveWhit.]

ISPYSHHHGUY,
I'm pleased the cover is of some interest - nice idea, thanks Rab. I bought this Dandy in the early 80s while at the late Norman Shaw's home in Upper Norwood, South London.
Norman was a dealer in old British comics and his big old house seemed to be full to bursting with piles of old comics, annuals and story papers from the 1880s to the 1970s.....and he sold them so cheaply too!! That Dandy cost me £3...and that was expensive for him. I visited fairly often and over the years bought some real gems at bargain prices - even for the 80s. I wish I'd taken a photo of him and his comic stock...he was a great bloke - one of a kind.
Any one else remember Norman?

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Norman sounds like my kind of dealer! That was 3 quid well-spent, Dave.

[Peter Gray]

I went there as well!!

He was a kind man..his cat often walked over what you were reading..He also had a sick mother hidden upstairs...
He reminded me of Father Christmas..
His house was like a warehouse..comics downstairs..annual upstairs..it really got me into old comic collecting..he didn't let many kids come in as one day a kid got angry with him saying I'm paying 2p for this because the old comic had that coinage on it and the father stood by his brat of a boy..
He often let me have bargains as well...he could see I was really a big fan and not a collector who did it for money..

Glad you also met Norman

[Phoenix]

I wish I'd taken a photo of him and his comic stock...he was a great bloke - one of a kind. Any one else remember Norman?

This glossy photo is from the early eighties period, Dave, when you acquired that issue of The Dandy. My first visit to his amazingly-stocked house in Upper Norwood was in the mid-seventies, and I was to return countless times over the next fifteen years or so, Norman providing me with coffee and a piece of cake every couple of hours. My story paper collection essentially began in that house, although I was also buying from other dealers who advertised at the time in Exchange and Mart, such as Sarah Baddiel for example. As I was in my thirties at the time, I remember feeling a bit self-conscious kneeling down in his hallway, looking through copy after copy of Adventure, The Hotspur, The Wizard and The Rover, trying to decide what I could realistically afford. Norman actually made the whole business easier for me in two ways. Firstly, he suggested that I could take away all the papers that I wanted on that first visit, and indeed all subsequent visits, and pay for two thirds of them with post-dated cheques. Secondly, he persuaded me not to buy just serials that I was very keen to reread, but to do what he claimed everybody else was doing - buying the papers in full years. The whole concept of collecting started for me, therefore, in that Aladdin's cave in Belvedere Road. I am still very grateful to him.

[Phoenix]

After a bit of diligent searching, I've come up with this cutting from the Daily Express from June 11th 1975, which has a photo of Norman and a brief report of the previous day's comic auction at Sotheby's. Somewhere I have a Christmas card from him, which has his photo on the front. I'll post it when I remember where I put it!!

[davidandrewsimpson]

I remember seeing Kate in the Sunday Post Fun Section in the sixties, so she might have been there long before that

David