will there be any more dandy/beano reprints from aurum press

[Raven]

---the first 'POPEYE' 4-DISC SET contains the first 60 cartoons, and by all accounts is crystal-clear, but has sold relatively poorly, due to what some people regard as a high price [currently around 25 quid], so future releases are split into 2-disc sets [VOL2 is out already] at half the price..........I personally think this price ain't bad, as these discs will be played many times, standing up to much repeated viewing.

TEX AVERY'S excellent work has failed to surface in full [at least in proper 'restored' form]......even in his native US, in this, his centenery year....however, a 2-disc 'DROOPY' import set is available, containing many gems, at around 10 quid.

I intend getting the DISNEY war years DVD set [which will contain much anti-NAZI propaganda] which is still available at a decent price.

The Popeye one has been closer to £40 where I've been looking so far - PlayUSA, etc. (Then you might get import duties added, too.)

I have the Droopy set - and I think Avery's cartoons on the Woody volume one set are terrific.

Interesting that Disney's Front Line set has dropped in price lately as when those Treasures go out of print they normally shoot up in price. I'd snap it up quick!

Eight of those war cartoons (Donald Gets Drafted, Der Fuehrer's Face, Commando Duck, etc.) also turn up on The Chronological Donald Volume Two, still available for £16.99 including postage from PlayUSA.

[colcool007]

And if you iPod your tracks, you can create your own DVD's for TV viewing with the purchase of some decent DVD copying software. I use it all the time for my local Am-Dram club and it helps to get my kids their TV programmes when they are delayed due to F1 or Premier League football. With the iPod option, at least no-one can say that you are attempting to evade copyright and it allows you an alternative medium to watch your choice of viewing on. E.g. a 17" monitor is no match for a 36" TV.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I appreciate all your help and info, guys.......and now, to steer ths topic back on course [it was ME who steered it ,I'm afraid, so:]

[davey_r]

I hope they will do some more reprints.. As for the racist content, I'd've thought thought it was pretty clear the books are intended to be adult collectibles. No kid today is going to go into a bookshop and pick up a black and white "1940 Annual".. (in fact no kid today is going to go into a bookshop.. ), and they're not going to receive it as a gift either because no parent would fork out £15 for a book their kid isn't going to read, especially when the 2009 annual is there for a fifth of the price.

You have got to wonder why the bookshops are chucking these reprints in with the kids' books.. forcing the adult collector to have to root through the kids' section.. similiar to how Classics From The Comics is always in with kids' mags, surely no-one other than adult collectors buys that? My local waterstones filed the reprints under humour, which is probably the best place for them..

I wonder how feasible it would be for them to go online order only. If the books' main audience is the informed collector who'll already be aware of the books' existance and actively searching for them anyway, do they even need to be in the shops? Would it harm sales a lot, to the extent of making it not worth publishing the books?

However they do it, I really hope they keep printing these books, I'll even let them go on putting the wrong years on the slipcases.
It would be nice to have the two Magic books, and the remaining two pre-hiatus Sunday Post books, but I suppose Dandy or Beano reprints would be the more popular sellers..

[THE MOOSE]

I see a lot of kids buying "Classics" in WH Smiths, my 2 nieces used to love it when they were younger - it is basically still a childs comic - the slight difference is that as you say some comic collectors will also buy it as well - I'd imagine the titles sales would collapse if it was stuck with adult titles. I see your point re collectors annuals like the Dandy you mention I doubt any child would buy that also inthe past theres been loads of these aimed squarely at adults ("For Dads" etc) as you say in the kids sections - mayb ethats where folk instinctively go for comics.

[Lew Stringer]

You have got to wonder why the bookshops are chucking these reprints in with the kids' books.. forcing the adult collector to have to root through the kids' section.. similiar to how Classics From The Comics is always in with kids' mags, surely no-one other than adult collectors buys that?

I don't see any problem with it being shelved with children's comics. The strips in it were produced for children. Any adults who buy it still know where to find it. If they're embarrassed to be looking in the children's section they may as well give up the hobby.

I really don't think there are that many adults who collect traditional old British children's comics. We'd see more people here if there were. Plus they'd have more of a presence at comic conventions. At the last few Cons I've attended hardly anyone turned up for the panels on traditional British comics.

Lew

[davey_r]

Of course, all these comics were written, drawn and published with the sole intention of being bought by/for and read by children. But although it's the exact same comics being published again, they're being published for a different intended audience than they were last time round. The original comics were published for children to buy, but the reprints of those same comics (non-sensical as it all is) are published for adults to buy.*
Shops selling, for example, vintage mint condition '60s dalek memorabelia, at a high price, would be more likely to list it as collectables/memorabelia etc than as kids' toys, listed in with a load of current kids' toys.
I just think any product that goes on sale should be filed in the most relevant category in terms of its intended audience, rather than automatically being filed under the same category as a previous issuing of the item (especially if that previous issuing was 6 or 7 decades ago).
I think it's inaccurate to put these items in the kids' section, but at the end of the day it wouldn't really matter.. except if problems (over the racist content) start arising because these products have been filed in this section which, as I said, I don't think they should have even been in in the first place anyway.


*At least that's what I've always assumed, but it's not as if I've collated any sale data on who's buying the things, and from what you say, Lew, it sounds as if ours isn't as widespread an adult interest as I'd assumed. But even if there are significant numbers of kids buying these reprint collections, the number of adult buyers must still be far, far higher than that of the original publications (which presumably were pretty much 100% read by kids as opposed to whatever the kid:adult ratio is now), and thus it's less easy to categorise these products as purely "for kids" as it was when they were first published.

Anyway I'm easily the least expert person on this forum, but just giving my two cents. Obviously it is a bit daft when adults decide to take over a childrens' interest and then complain when people say it's for children, but I think there's probably just about zero children in Britain today who are interested in 40s comics, so if the only ones now interested are adults, does that make it a bona fide adult interest?

[Lew Stringer]

Anyway I'm easily the least expert person on this forum, but just giving my two cents. Obviously it is a bit daft when adults decide to take over a childrens' interest and then complain when people say it's for children, but I think there's probably just about zero children in Britain today who are interested in 40s comics, so if the only ones now interested are adults, does that make it a bona fide adult interest?

I was specifically answering your comment about Classics from the Comics, which is aimed mainly at children, - and bought mainly by children I'd imagine. It's the characters and situations that would appeal to the kids, not the nostalgia factor.

As for the Dandy Monster Comic reprint, - that and The Broons facsimilie were stocked in the humour section the Waterstones I looked in, not in the children's section. Same goes for all the nostalgia books, - Best of Eagle annual, Look-In, etc. Some may have found their way alongside the latest Dandy and Beano annuals but you can't blame the storeholder for trying to maximize the potential readership.

I'd like to think there were tens of thousands of comic aficionados out there who were interested in the entire history of British comics, but that just isn't so.

As you rightly say, it's unlikely there are many children today with an interest in 1940s comics, but I don't know many adults with an interest in them either. Most collectors are mainly interested in the comics of their childhood, and I doubt there are many collectors around who are in their 70s and still interested / inclined to keep up the hobby.

Lew

[davey_r]

Yeah sorry I was somewhat lumping Classics From The Comics and the annual reprints together when they're actually quite seperate cases.. rambling a bit probably.

Hmm, if there's so little interest in the really old comics, I wonder if Aurum will keep doing these reprint annuals, or if last year's Oor Wullie will be the last.
Mind you, the Rupert facsimilie annual series has been going for about 18 years, and the market for them must be fairly nische, so if Express Newspapers have found that series financially viable, maybe Aurum will do okay with the DCT facsimilies..
I suppose any forthcoming product would start showing up on listings before long (if it's expected to come out in September), so we'll see..

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I hope they continue; they're not cheap, but their historical value and quality is without doubt.

[Kashgar]

Sadly, if you check out the Aurum Press website, you'll find no mention of more facsimile titles in their forthcoming publications listings.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

that's it...I'm DEFINATELY snapping up still-available editions now!