karl the viking reproduction

[karl]

anyone buying the 'karl the viking' bound volumes which go on sale soon?
i will be getting a copy . should be a beautiful production.

[THE MOOSE]

I've not heard anything about this do you have any other info at all? ie price, contents, publisher etc (any links??) - Would be interested in that one if the price is right.

[grumpy old man]

I’ve just searched for this on Amazon and the good news is – four volumes of KtV are being released in October. The bad news is they’re £44.95, yes £44.95 EACH! So I guess their won’t be many takers.

[Kashgar]

£45 per volume does sound a bit steep (£180 for the 4 volume set) so I guess your right that they're won't be many takers. At 130 pages per volume and looking at the list of artists involved it seems that the set will include all of Karl's appearances, not only those in the weekly Lion but also those in the Lion annuals.
Too much of a good thing in one go and at too high a price methinks.
OK you might not be able to buy all the necessary Lion comics (Oct 1960-Sept 1964) for the same price but if you spent the money on some of the original papers instead just look at everything else you'd be getting for your dosh.

[Lew Stringer]

Just out of curiosity, how much would people here pay for a book on, say, certain 1950s comics?

There is currently such a book in production and no firm price has been set yet but it would be a very limited edition possibly costing £50 for a few hundred pages. What's the general opinion on that? Too much? About right for a limited edition? Your replies would be very welcome as you folks of Comics UK are the target audience.

Lew

[Ian]

Lew

I wouldnt be prepared to pay too much for a book on 50s comics as it was not my era however if there was one on the 60s ie Wham,Lion,Tiger...or the 70s Cor,Action,Whizzer and Chips I would gladly hand over 50 notes if was "lovingly" produced.

Mind you I wouldnt want the wife to find out.

[felneymike]

I beleive this Karl The Viking volume will be a rather limited print run, hence even appraoching £45 per book will probably be just about breaking even for the publishers (and probably scant reward for the compliers). Still i'd be expecting hardback with thick paper and exquisite print quality. The more publishers print the lower 'theoretical' unit cost buyers will have to pay for the books, but when considering a subject such as an 'also ran' British adventure comic story, no matter how good or well-drawn, you simply aren't going to sell tens of thousands, hence the lower print volume and higher price.

[colcool007]

Just out of curiosity, how much would people here pay for a book on, say, certain 1950s comics?

There is currently such a book in production and no firm price has been set yet but it would be a very limited edition possibly costing £50 for a few hundred pages. What's the general opinion on that? Too much? About right for a limited edition? Your replies would be very welcome as you folks of Comics UK are the target audience.

Lew

As both the Mrs and I are comic fans, we would probably go a bit over the punter's normal price for a book about comics that we really wanted, but I have to be honest and say that our max price would probably be about the £40 mark. And that is assuming that the book is looking at our era which is mid 70's to early 80's.

A perfect example is the Beano book that is coming out. At £25, it's not too over-priced for 300 plus pages. But as neither of us are major fans, we would probably let it go past. However, one of our daughters is a fanatic for old Beanos (She's 10 and passes the current Beano as OK, but loves the older ones! Go figure!), so it looks like a shoo-in for either her birthday or Christmas.

[THE MOOSE]

I doubt very much if I would pay £50 for any limited reprint book (of only about 100 pages) - although I admit I would be tempted to look at it if it was reprinting a variety of , for example Leo Baxendales best DCT stuff (BST, Plum, Gobblers, 3 bears etc in colour where applicable) or Ken Reids Odhams strips - but it would have to be a really nice large sized production - Personally, £30 is the most I would consider.

[Lew Stringer]

Thanks for your input so far folks. (My apologies for taking the topic off tangent a little.)

I suspect there are very few fans of 1950s comics around now who are still interested in collecting, or who would pay £50 for a book. I hope I'm wrong though. (The Rick Random book will hopefully do well. It's out now by the way.)

What I've noticed from this forum is a growth of interest in 1970s/1980s comics, due to the younger age of several of the members here. Some publishers have already capitalized on this with the Look-In, Roy of the Rovers, and Jackie books etc.

My own personal main area of interest is in comics of the 1960s. (Specifically Odhams, TV21, Thomson humour comics, and Fleetway.) But I'm afraid I'm not keen on Karl the Viking enough to shell out £45.

Lew

[kevf]

Why has there not been a big TV21 collection for the nostalgia market? Big glossy pages of Frank Bellamy, Mike Noble, John Burns et al, with Thunderbirds, Lady Penelope and the mock newspaper covers (including Daleks of course), in a large format hardback.

It's a rights thing, isn't it?

[NP]

In 2004 Carlton books published exactly that. It was edited by Graham Bleathman and Sam Denham. They launched it at the Bristol Con that year. Surprised you missed it.

[philcom55]

...and it subsequently turned up in most branches of The Works for about three quid! Definitely one of the biggest bargains of recent years.

- Phil R.

[grumpy old man]

With the prices of everything skyrocketing and people fearing for their livelihoods theirs going to be very little spare cash around for people to lash out £45 on a book.

But if you see a 1980 Action Summer Special on eBay it will have a full Erik the Viking (same strip different title) story in it at a cheaper price.

[Lew Stringer]

But if you see a 1980 Action Summer Special on eBay it will have a full Erik the Viking (same strip different title) story in it at a cheaper price.

Yes, Karl was retitled Erik the Viking for a series of reprints in Smash! in 1970/71.

Lew