Talk here about just about anything associated with British comics or story papers and the industry that does not fit in any other forum.
There are separate fora open to registered members for discussing specific comics, artists, websites etc.
there was a battle But I won for 15 pounds...it was close..
cd rom issue 1 all the way up to 1998...
so loads of Don Martin...spy v's spy..sergio Aragones
///movie/tv spoofs...
only thing is I have to read it off a computer screen..But should be fine..
Official 7 CD-ROM collection of over 500 issues of MAD, from the very beginning to 1998.
This also includes the free roll of MAD toilet paper, still sealed
Includes interactive MAD fold-ins & animated MAD cartoons
The cardboard outers have seen better days, with some tears and scuff (not to mention the huge price sticker), but the discs, manuals (and toilet paper) are all in the same condition as when I bought them new.
I was inspired by a post by Lew on this CD Rom......so I went for it.......15 pounds for a lot of issues
Last edited by Peter Gray on 15 Sep 2008, 15:14, edited 1 time in total.
...However don't forget that a lot of Don Martin's best work appeared in his all-original Mad paperbacks which tended to feature longer stories than the magazine.
Some great work by the brilliant Jack Davis as well in those CD Roms (almost all the MAD artist in this period are excellent- one of th ebest if not the best humour mags ever IMHO)
Why DID seaside towns seem to be so well-stocked in US comics?
In addition to MAD, I picked up the original Empire Strikes Back comics, assorted variations on Spiderman and a few Conan the Barbarians on childhood holidays- most of which I never saw again untill my late teens....
It can't be that sea side towns got the comics on import... can it? Or maybe they were all washed ashore from a shipwrecked comicship....
I agree seaside towns were great places to find loads of comics.I guess it was a quick way of keeping the kids happy on a wet day.
As a kid my summer holidays were spent in the seaside town of Portrush in N.Ireland where there was always loads of summer specials for me to buy.I loved the oversized Beano and Dandy summer specials with the funny outcome on the back cover.
Normally I just got one comic a week as my parents had to work hard to make ends meet but on holidays it was different and I was able to use my holiday money for at least one comic everyday Dandy on Tuesday.Hotspur on Wednesday,Cor! on Fridays ect.
At the shop at the caravan site I discovered a new world of comics outside of IPC and DCT, Harvey comics sported such characters as Sad Sack,Hot stuff,Ritchie Rich.... and being all colour they had a nice classy feel to them.Whilst I still remained loyal to the British weeklies I made the most of this rare opportunity by buying as many Sad Sack comics(sacrificing money for the amusements ans sweets in the process).I still have a few left of the Harvey comics but the passing of time has meant many have went astray.
Seaside towns were also great places to see the latest DCT annuals I remember that they would be on display from late August in the newsagents.
Another bonus was that seaside towns in N.Ireland had half price comic and magazine boxes stuck at the rear end of the shop.If the comic fan was willing to persevere going through a pile of back issues of Peoples Friend and Womens Own they would find Sparkys,Beezers and Toppers for a few pence.
Have to agree re seaside towns and Caravan sites for US Comics - I remember one trip to Blackpool in the early/mid 70s it was full of US comics - all newsagents (and there are loads in that City) were stocked like specialist shops (well almost) - my brother and myself spend almost all our holiday money on DC, Marvel, Charlton, etc comics - also had loads of Alan CLass books and those Seaboard books (Psycho, Hell-Rider Nightmare etc) - it wasnt just the quantity it was the amount of titles (not all titles were exported in the 70s to the UK) things like Marvels Night Nurse, Homer the Happy Ghost, War is Hell, DCs girls comics and tItles like Binky etc etc. I also picked up my first Archies in Blackpool in many years (still love them) - Ditto on holidy in Scotland near Perth (Pitlochry) and Arbroath in a caravan site for the weekend full of comics UK and US . Seems strange - saying that in the 70s the Glasgow area for some reason was awash with US comics as well - it may have been as comics (I heard) were used as ballast for ships (this may have been inthe 50s though) and were dropped of a major ports like GLasgow, Belfast and in Engalnd and Wales (possibbly?)
Was a big fan of HARVEY comics as well Ian - stil have a few Hot Stuff, Caspers, Little Lottas, Little Dot, Sad Sack and Wendys - loved them for the same reasons you did but they never had the edgeof 60s UK humour comics.
Thanks for sharing your memories Moose and interesting to note that Scottish caravan sites like N.Ireland were awash with USA comics and many outside of the mainstream Marvel and DC.
Even as a kid in the 70sI was wondering how on earth they ever ended up in this little caravan site.I guess the advantage of the caravan sites carrying such titles is that unlike the british weeklies they didnt fall into the "old:" category as their was no date on the front cover and so just being numbered they could sit around on the shelf for months without seemingly being "old"
I agree that although they didnt have the gritty and cheeky edge of the british weeklies they were a real novelty and some of the George Baker Sad Sack covers were fantastic.It is over 30 years and I can still see them now...........
As I understand it, UK publishers increased comic distribution to seaside resorts, knowing they'd be full of kids with time on their hands, so it's likely distributors of American comics followed suit.
Like others here I also noticed how plentiful U.S. comics were at Blackpool in the Sixties / Seventies. A news vendor at Talbot Square (opposite North Pier); a stall along the prom near the New Yorker cafe; a shop on South Pier; a stall outside Central Station; a shop in Lytham Road selling Marvel Horror mags; a stall in Abingdon Street Market selling Warren comics and piles of Marvel/DC; the cafe in St Chads Road selling DC comics; and, one year only, (1974 I think) a dark little backstreet shop full of imported Marvel comics that never reached newsagents (such as early issues of Jungle Action, or copies of Marvel Triple Action).
These days I think there's only Thunderbooks in Lytham Road that sells American comics in Blackpool. Worth a visit though if you're up there.
I've several happy childhood memories of Blackpool and Marvel comics in the 1960s. (Which is one reason I often had my characters, such as Tom Thug, go to Blackpool in the Summer.)
Not forgetting that The Dandy and Beano Summer Specials were always an essential purchase to buy on holiday of course.
(The stories of American comics coming over as ballast were true by the way, decades ago anyway.)
For a comic fan in the 60s and 70s a visit to Blackpool must have been something else.I loved the Warren comics (which I didnt discover until the mid eighties) but as a kid I dont ever remember seeing them anywhere in N.Ireland.
I agree, the Dandy and Beano Summer specials were essential purposes.If you were lucky your mum would have bought you one.For some reason my Mum always would choose Dandy over Beano,maybe it was because of that nice cat Korky being on the front cover.
Lew that makes sense couldnt understand why so many comics would be in small towns/villages - You have some memory Lew and you've rung a few bells there - I remember the news vendors near the North Pier and the shop in the South Pier (thats where I got my Archies and some DCs I remember making regular trips to it - a long walk from our hotel at the other end of Blackpool) - I remember with fondness the the stall in Abingdon Street Market selling Warren comics and piles of Marvel/DC - there was also another stall in a market at the back of Abingdon market (St Johns market?) that sold loads of old US comics (think it was a guys collection) they were so cheap I had to say if he was sure he wnated to sell them (he was) got Silver Surfer no2 for 30p etc in nice condition - was a great time to be a kid and a comic fan/nut.
Ian - loved Harvey comics, they were a great treat - especially loved the "house" stlye that Warren Kramer seemed to inspire (also Ernie Colan's art on Richie Rich) I have some Sad Sacks etc if you want them (can email if interested - they're free)
Yes, seaside towns were definitely the place for exotic comics - I always looked forward to them when going on holiday in England.
I recall the Harvey comics fondly; they had such novelty value - Sad Sack, Casper and Richie Rich. The Richie Rich titles seemed so strange - there were ads for lots of other Richie Rich comics inside them with titles like Richie Rich CASH, Richie Rich MONEY WORLD, Richie Rich DIAMONDS, Richie Rich GOLD, and it seemed so unusual that such single characters seemed to have lots of simultaneous titles going; rather like finding a whole range of comics just starring Whizzer and Chips's Tiny Tycoon.
Or Puss 'n' Boots BASH! Puss 'n' Boots VIOLENCE! Puss 'n' Boots SCRAPS! What a line of titles that would have been.
I recall a newsstand by Blackpool's North Pier selling US Charlton comics, and picked up a few; titles like Thunderbolt and Mandrake the Magician, but they seemed dreadful to me; bad art, horrible speech balloons and type!
Best of all for me in mostly-only-found-in-seaside-resort titles, I think, were the Alan Class titles. It's easy to forget just how ULTRA-GLOSSY their covers were when they were brand new back then, and a newsagent's shelf packed with a wide range of Class titles was a delight. Creepy Worlds. Uncanny Tales. Astounding Stories. The covers never had dates. I'd always flick through before buying, hoping for lots of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko-drawn weird tales from 50s Marvel - though I don't think I knew the artists' names or the stories' origins back then.
The UK summer specials were the absolute must, though for me the skimpy Dandy and Beano ones would only be bought as an absolute last measure to cure 'new summer special withdrawal sickness' after every wonderful bumper 64 or 72 page (96 pages originally!) IPC special had been bought; Whizzer and Chips, Whoopee, Buster, Cor!!, Shiver & Shake - these were the essentials.
Did anyone ever find the US Gold Key cartoon titles - Sylvester, Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry, Roadrunner, Pink Panther, etc. I only ever came across a few of these - and liked them - but never in holiday places, as I recall.
Also, did anyone look for comics if they got a foreign holiday? Way back, France was publishing reprints of Marvel superhero material in quality full colour periodicals, with stiff card covers, rather like the ones we have now in the UK, except much thicker - this back when our own comics were usually printed on cheap paper, in black and white.
Hi Raven - I read that Richie Rich had more titles than any other character in comics - over 30 - but many of these were 1 of titles (or 2-3 issues) but I think he had at least 10 regualr monthly titles and as many bi-monthly - quarterly titles at one time (a character I never liked that much as a kid) - I loved the Harvey and Archie 100 pagers as a kid.
Alan Class comics used to be everywhere when I was a kid (certainly in Glasgow) and I took them for granted (although used to get them regularly for a while for the same reasons as you) when they went I really missed them, they reprinted some great titles and art- Wally Woods Thunder agents, Charltons Judo Master, the Radio/Mighty comics heros (FLY MAN , Steel Sterling, Crusaders etc) and Marvel/Atlas strips - I started to pick some of these up recenly at comic fairs. Charlton comics were never well printed and had some truely bland art but in among that there were some great titles (E man, their version of the Phantom with great Don Newtons art - the Vengance Squad and Doomsday plus 1 with John Byrne etc) .
Gold Key wow thats a blast from the past, another company thats comics seemed to be everywhere at one time - used to like ther painted covers on their adventure/mystery comics covers (Turok son of Stone, Star Trek, Magnus Robot Hunter, Solar, Ripley Believe it or not and titles like Boris Karloff etc ) but inside the art was mostly bland - loved their CARTOON based comics as a kid some I hadn't seen on tv like Little Monsters - I think Gold Key use dot be part of Dell comics at one point.
I also used to pick up foreign comics on holiday although I used to try to get originals as well as Marvel / DC versions - I recently picked up some in Geneva (Kid Paddle - amazing stuff - kids comic a great fun character) - like th eUK overseas seems filled with US DC and Marvel (with Disney being very popular as well)
THE MOOSE wrote:
Alan Class comics used to be everywhere when I was a kid (certainly in Glasgow)
Yes, they were well distributed here in the Midlands too.
As for Harvey Comics; I confess I never tried them. Growing up on Ken Reid's manic Odhams work I'm afraid American humour comics looked too tame for my tastes. (Apart from the highly enjoyable MAD, which I bought semi-regularly, - when I could afford the 2/6d cover price, - from 1967 to the late seventies.) I did enjoy a couple of Huckleberry Hound Annuals I had though. (Gold Key reprints I believe.)
Speaking of Gold Key, I used to like their Ripley's Believe It or Not comic. Another Blackpool connection: copies were sold at Blackpool's first Ripley's Odditorium on the Golden Mile in 1972/73. (Not the Odditorium currently at the Pleasure Beach. This one was around where Coral Island is now.)
From what I remember distributors like Thorpe & Porter, who operated on a 'sale or return' basis, regularly used seaside towns as a dumping ground for unsold American comics that were out of date (normal retailers being understandably anxious to only have fresh stock on sale rather than comics that had already failed to sell once before). Also there were particular titles (eg. Harvey comics, and, for a time, DC war comics) that seemed to be deliberately excluded from their usual deliveries for some reason. I'd guess that these were all offered to seaside shops at a reduced price but on non-returnable terms. One advantage for a collector was that you could frequently find 'brand new' books that were already several years old and had therefore become genuine 'collectors' items' in the meantime - for example original Ditko Spider-Man comics long after he'd quit the title.
Speaking of Gold Key, one seaside 'find' that particularly excited me was a whole spinner rack full of different issues of Russ Manning's excellent Magnus Robot Fighter - especially as I'd never even heard of the title beforehand (except for the reprints in TV Tornado)!
Lew Stringer wrote:As for Harvey Comics; I confess I never tried them. Growing up on Ken Reid's manic Odhams work I'm afraid American humour comics looked too tame for my tastes.
I was pretty much the same, though there were one or two odd exceptions which I stumbled across and felt quite guilty about enjoying as, at the time, I thought they were 'too young' for me. These memorably included a single epic Uncle Scrooge comic by Carl Barks, Sheldon Mayer's brilliant Sugar & Spike (who'd surely have had Baby Crockett for breakfast!) and Stanley and his Monster. Since then I've learned to respect these (and others like them) much more than a lot of the 'serious' books that were supposedly aimed at an older audience.
