SECONDHAND COMIC MEMORIES

[tonyodonnell]

Cap Haggis...your recall of a shop in Glasgow, brought back memories of my twice a year visits to my Grans in Kirkland St, Maryhill...there was a tiny shop on a nearby street on the way to Sauchiehall St , I think, this would be 1964 - 1968, it had all sorts of American Comics on display in the window like The Atom and Justice League.
Flea-pit Cinemas and Saturday mornings at the Cinema...this nostalgia stuff..can make you feel old!?
I remember the chaos and noise from all the stamping feet just before the film started...I remember seeing old American Serials and Tarzan films..on a sad note..I was sorry to read that the former Tarzan actor Gordon Scott had died recently. I think a young Sean Connery was in one of those Gordon Scott , Tarzan films.

[philcom55]

...Popular Book Centre...

Did they mark everything they sold with a horrible great purple rubber stamp? I never visited the shop but I've still got lots of otherwise-mint American comics to remember them by!!

- Phil Rushton

[brisey]

Yes,thats them. Big Diamond shaped stamp.If you got there when a comics arrived they would sell them unstamped but you couldn't bring them back.I don't know how many branches they had but there is an awful lot of book stamped comics out there.

Plus Books had a small square stamp.

The small shops had were better,sometimes just a discreet number next to the printed price.

brian

[stevezodiac]

I thought popular book centres were all over London. I remember being in one in New Cross and a batch of early Sparkys came in. They were among the first 50 issues number wise and almost mint. The shopkeeper was just about to set about them with his rubber stamp when i asked if I could buy them as they were. He didn't want to at first and he mentioned the half back deal when you have read them. I assured him I would not be bringing them back and he sold them to me unmarked. I still have them. Yes i remember Popular books always had hundreds of picture libraries.

[David]

Second post on same topic-but thought best to seperate them.

As a child I used to tour London on a Red Bus Rover from about 7.With our Bus Maps obtained from the Tube Station my brother and I would travel round town.Visit the Science Museum and like in South Ken.The Railway Museum when it was in Clapham-curse you York for taking it away etc.

But I was very wary about my own children-it was not the fear of dodgy geezers but traffic in London was my concern.Remember when you were not supposed to cross the road near parked cars.Find a bit of road that has no parked cars nowadays.The tube is not the relatively pleasant ride it was,seemingly crowded all day round.

Secondly things aren't cheap any more.To go out for a day is expensive relative to what it was.Like it has been said we went to the picture show on Saturday morning and it cost a tanner(the price of about 2 comics).Two films and a serial.One of the films was from the Children's Film Foundation(interesting link http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Revie ... Y/CFF.html ).All this in one of the most impressive cinemas in the Country-Tooting Granada-now a bingo hall.Now it is ?5 for a child ?2.50 for a drink and ?2.50 at least for a snack-no wonder they want there parents to pay.

brian

Slight ramble there

When I've been to the cinema, I've often snuck drinks and snacks in rather than buying them at the cinema.