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.
felneymike wrote:Today I got the Judge Dredd story The Day the Law Died... on TAPE!
Never knew there'd been audio drama versions. That's something else to look out for, alongside Round The Horne
Yep, mike which was originally broadcasted on Radio 1. There was another one too: The Apocalypse War. Both very much matched the style of the comic strip stories and I loved them. I got them on tape but wished I bought them as CDs (saw one once in the now defunct Woolworths).
Regarding comics, I got the latest CLiNT and issue 2 of IDW's Judge Dredd Year One. The other thing I just did is order this year's issues of Spaceship Away.
Reading comics since 1970. My Current Regulars are: 2000 AD (1977-), Judge Dredd Megazine (1990-), Spaceship Away (2003-), Commando (2013-), Deadpool and Wolverine (2023-), Quantum (2023-), Fantastic Four (2025-).
I've bought several copies of Boy's World to complete a sequence of "Wrath Of The Gods". Some of these are stamped ADVANCE (ROUGH COPY ONLY). Would these be trade samples, or printer's proofs?
I'd be interested to know that as well. I've come across a number of those 'rough copies' in the past, but could never detect any differences from regular editions. At a guess I'd say they're just advance editions delivered to the publisher for approval before the main print run could be initiated (though the idea of a trade sample is certainly possible).
Surely a trade sample would only be a few early issues, sent to shops / chains to encourage them to place a standing order.
Another possibility is that they are internal copies for use in the office, for instance a last-minute read to check for spelling errors, off-colour printing and so on.
None - because it was free comic book day. Although I missed Ron Smith at Forbidden Planet, I still managed to get a special issue of 2000AD and plenty of American titles, all for free. The number of people in comic shops was pretty huge. Maybe British comics could benefit from the same treatment once a year?
Yesterday I took a trip to a comic mart in London, and met a guy from Hong Kong who is here working for a short time. He was very confused XD. Anyway, the comic mart was apparently for British comic collectors, but when we got there it was wall-to-wall Spiderman and Batman. I did see a few issues of Action, a guy pulling out issue 1 of Tornado from the bottom of a pile I was looking at and one stall had a load of pristine Sexton Blake Library and Wild West Picture Library. It was also the most crowded! I ended up not buying anything.
But I do go off to Gosh! and got issues 68 and 70 of The Phoenix, and issue 29 of Spaceship Away.
Also went to the Japan Centre and saw a Japanese anthology I'd been wanting to buy, but they wanted £11.60 for it(!), so I thought I'd just wait til I next went on holiday, and get it as a back issue. Then went to Mitsukoshi (A Japanese department store, which has a branch in London) and bought a silly book from their book section (600 pages, 400 of which are punch-ups).
We then found a second-hand Japanese bookshop, which looks exactly like the ones in Japan, and it had reasonable prices too! I was a bit weighed down, so didn't get anything. Also found a "vintage magazine shop" a little further on, but that's one for the "Comics I didn't buy" thread!
I saw those TV21s - issue 28 was sadly missing (already bought?) and at £50 each for the Dalek issues I gave it a miss. I thought it was quite a quiet mart yesterday - a couple of empty tables, which is a bit worrying. Definitely the December one was the best, with Phil Comics there plus the Beano-Dandy-British emphasis. Trouble is, most of the dealers in British comics charge way over eBay prices for the good stuff, so I rarely buy anything from them.
I did see those, actually. I was talking my new friend's ear off about British comics XD. We first found one of the 90's Thunderbirds comics, and I was explaining that the stories had originally been printed at a larger size, then I could actually show him the comic they'd been in.
They were on the same stall as the £10 Sexton Blake and Wild West libraries. £10 each is well over the Ebay prices of £2-5, but they were in near-mint condition. On Ebay you don't really know what you are getting, so I thought £10 each was pretty resonable for 40's - 50's ones. And they do have complete stories!
I had another look at the website, and apparently the British-focused "Comics Empire" event is only on certain dates. Looks like the next one is June!
Those TV21s were all in about fine condition. The prices weren't too horrendous. Here are some recent eBay sales: the early and Doctor Who issues being the hot ones at present...
TV Century 21 #1 G/VG £237.24 (with Identicode gift) (OCT 12)
TV Century 21 #1 VG- £193 (no gift, nice but tear on spine) (FEB 13)
TV Century 21 #2 VF £485 (no gift) (DEC 12)
TV Century 21 #2 VG £142 (no gift) (JAN 13)
TV Century 21 #2 VG £182.07 (no gift) (FEB 13)
TV Century 21 #3 VF £1280 (with free gift) (DEC 12)
TV Century 21 #3 VG £103 (no gift) (FEB 13)
TV Century 21 #4 F £255 (DEC 12)
TV Century 21 #5 VG £21.03 (JAN 13)
TV Century 21 #6 VF £32.24 (JAN 13)
TV Century 21 #7 VF £29.11 (JAN 13)
TV Century 21 #8 F £42 (JAN 13)
TV Century 21 #9 VG £64.07 (JAN 13)
TV Century 21 #23 F £62 (Daleks cover) (FEB 13)
TV Century 21 #28 VG/F £127.55 (Dalek Issue) (NOV 12)
TV Century 21 #36 VG- £56 (Daleks cover) (FEB 13)
TV Century 21 #87 VG £35 (Daleks cover) (FEB 13)
