What comics did you buy today?

[ROY ROGERS]

Have you noticed you never see Gordon Brown and Galaxus together in the same room

[stevezodiac]

Picked this up in Deptford market for 50p. The cover is loose but its all present and correct and if i hadn't bought it the stallholder would probably have binned it (they throw a lot of stuff away at the end of the market day). I'll make a plastic dust jacket to hold it all together i'm handy like that. Also back page ad for the comic.

[Digifiend]

I wonder why it's called The Schoolgirl's Own Annual, when the comic was just The Schoolgirl? The annual should've just been called The Schoolgirl Annual.

Don't suppose too many of those exist, in any condition, considering it's pre-WW2. And only 50p - amazing! You could probably make a quick buck on eBay you know... not that that's your intention of course.

[Peter Gray]

Got the comic today Buster 1966...the Galaxus story compared to the one up...I can see less panels on a page...though it is all complete...also some of the pictures have been stretched..so it is different Steel Claw..

I'll put up tomorrow..

[Kashgar]

Hi Peter. Just to avoid any more disappointments re tabloid Buster's and none tabloid editions here below is the comics early printing history

True tabloid 16pgs (with full colour front, back and centre) 28/5/60-20/6/64
True tabloid 20pgs (full colour cover, red/black pgs 7/14, blue/black rear) 27/6/64-20/2/65
True tabloid 20pgs (Buster and Big One) (full colour cover, blue/yellow centre, red/blue/black rear) 27/2/65-29/5/65
Reduced tabloid (colours as above) 5/6/65-10/7/65
Reduced tabloid (full colour cover otherwise b/w) 17/7/65-23/10/65
Then from 30/10/65 size adopted that would be used for the rest of the 1960's.
Hope this helps.

[Peter Gray]

Thanks Kashgar..I could have kicked myself...

[colcool007]

Well, I got yet another Victor today so I am dead chuffed that the list of issues that I am needing is getting smaller. Issue 25 and it looks as good as if it was printed last week! Now just waiting on 3 Summer Specials to arrive, one Victor and 2 Warlords.

[steelclaw]

I wonder why it's called The Schoolgirl's Own Annual, when the comic was just The Schoolgirl? The annual should've just been called The Schoolgirl Annual.

Don't suppose too many of those exist, in any condition, considering it's pre-WW2. And only 50p - amazing! You could probably make a quick buck on eBay you know... not that that's your intention of course.

Schoolgirls Own was a separate comic.

[Digifiend]

Then Steve got his facts wrong.

back page ad for the comic

i.e. the same one, not a sister paper.

Just looked at the Family Tree section of Comics UK, and found that the reason The Schoolgirl was advertised is because Schoolgirls Own had already been amalgamated into it.

Schoolgirl: 3/8/1929 - 18/5/1940
Schoolgirl's Own: 5/2/1921 - 23/5/1936

[Phoenix]

Then Steve got his facts wrong.

Regardless of your discovery, Digifiend, about the amalgamation of the two girls' titles, I cannot see any facts that Steve got wrong. All he did was put up the front and rear covers of an annual he had bought, so we could all look at them, he told us where he'd bought it, how much he paid for it, what condition it was in and what he was going to do about it. If we wanted to be picky we could argue that The Schoolgirl was a story paper rather than a comic, but that really is all. But this still leaves unanswered your earlier question about why the annual was called The Schoolgirl's Own when that title had been swallowed up by The Schoolgirl eighteen months earlier. I suggest that there are two possible reasons for this. Firstly, better the devil you know than the devil you don't. The new title was too new. Other story papers to have annuals produced after, and indeed well after, the demise of the paper itself include The Skipper, which died in 1941 but had an annual produced in 1947 for 1948, and of course Bunty, whose annuals are still being produced despite her untimely passing in 2001. There must be a good number of others, which I'm sure you will know of. A second, and perhaps more persuasive reason is actually linked to the first one, this being that the annuals were initially intended to be bought by parents as Christmas presents, which is why they were always produced in the autumn, and the parents would be more likely to recognise The Schoolgirl's Own than The Schoolgirl, for example. Needless to say, the children would not have been with the parents when the annuals were bought.

[Digifiend]

Hmph! My point was it was an advert for a different comic, even if it did contain some of the same stories. Steve said "the comic" - I wouldn't call an advert for The Dandy in The Beano an advert for "the comic", as that phrase would refer to The Dandy.

[Earl]

Picked this up in Deptford market for 50p. The cover is loose but its all present and correct and if i hadn't bought it the stallholder would probably have binned it (they throw a lot of stuff away at the end of the market day). I'll make a plastic dust jacket to hold it all together i'm handy like that. Also back page ad for the comic.

I love the covers on those School annuals. Roughly how much of the content is comic strips vs text stories?

[Kashgar]

I would hazard a guess, as I don't have those particular annuals, that they will be 100% text stories given that it is the 1930's when they were produced. Very little produced for the more mature child of either sex in those days contained picture strips. You had to turn to comic annuals for those and even there strips had to fight their corner to gain the upper hand over pages of text.
Annuals for older boys and girls didn't really start to regularly include picture strips until the mid-1950's when the likes of School Friend, Girls Crystal, Champion and Rover grudgingly gave over a few of their text heavy pages to the picture strip.

[Phoenix]

I wouldn't call an advert for The Dandy in The Beano an advert for "the comic"

Nor would anybody else, Digifiend, but you are still missing the point, because Steve's comments relate to an advert in an annual, not in a comic. While not an exact equivalent because no amalgamation has taken place, a more meaningful comparison could be made with The Dandy Annual and Dandy Xtreme. I quote from a Wikipedia article on The Dandy - 'Despite the comic's relaunch as Dandy Xtreme, the annual is still just called The Dandy Annual.' So if Thomsons chose to advertise 'the comic' in The Dandy Annual, they would not be advertising The Dandy because it doesn't exist any more. Oh and by the way, you spelled my name incorrectly! Hmph was a jazz musician until his death in April last year!

[Peter Gray]

Just won a Buster and Giggle..for £3 Buster and Giggle dated 31st August 1968

lost one to a sniper in the last few seconds...got my own back by bidding £4 in the last few seconds...which he now has to pay £6..mind you it could have back fired on me..
I don't like people bidding in the last few seconds..a minute or two before is fine..