Comics UK

Just bought the first issue of Score 'n' Roar off eBay.

Thanks for that link Paw - as you say Australian comics can be quite fascinating. Incidentally, here's another foreign Mandrake comic I recently picked up - this time from Denmark I think ('Skipper Skraek' was apparently the Danish name for Popeye!).



- Phil R.

Carboot finds today! An issue number one of "Cheeky" by IPC Magazines Ltd. I've never read this before so thought I would give it a go. I've also found a set of WW2 RAF magazines from Ceylon (Sir Lanka) called "Airflow". They are from 1943 and 1944.

I don't know anything about Ceylon and its role during WW2, however, there are anti-Nazi propaganda inside and also an advert for the Casablanca movie showing at the base's move theatre!

Does anyone know anything about "Airflow"?

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Woops, sorry the picture didn't seem to load. Let me try this again;

Are those Airflow magazines pocket sized? They look a bit like Lilliput magazine. Maybe they have been renamed for an overseas market.

They do look like Lilliput but they are different. Airflow was an RAF mag. distributed, I think, to forces in Ceylon. There's some info. here:-
http://www.rafcommands.com/archive/01524.php
Very little else, I'm afraid. There are/were issues for sale on Amazon uk and fr, also ebay and Abe Books but no illos.

Thanks Paw Broon!

I saw those Airflows a few weeks ago but the condition put me off. Very interesting though.

There's one nice one but the rest are a bit tatty. I'd never seen them before and the intrigue got the better of me

Have you picked up anything from Stafford car boot recently Phil?

Raven wrote:

Lew Stringer wrote: I've always felt that IPC's comics were very well produced, with some great talent, but were a bit 'soft' compared to the more energetic 1960s comics that Fleetway and Odhams had been producing.

As you've expressed a zillion times, though, as I've expressed a zillion times, I feel the exact opposite.

I've been thinking about what you said about IPC comics so I took another look. You're right. IPC had some good serials and the comics were really well produced. They were certainly no worse than Fleetway, who had some very daft stories at times with poor internal logic. (eg: The Black Archer strips I uploaded to my blog yesterday.)

What I considered 'softer' story techniques are probably better described as character-led stories. Billy's Boots for example, and other Scorcher strips, were more focused on small problems faced by the characters than the football matches themselves. It's an interesting technique that made the characters less two dimensional than, say, Tim Kelly in Kelly's Eye, or those two blokes who hung about with Robot Archie.

I did actually buy IPC's Smash!, Lion, Valiant, Tiger, Thunder, and Jet faithfully every week, but I'd forgotten how good some of those stories were. I'll always have a preference for the Odhams comics but those IPC weeklies had some good material. Feel free to say "I told you so".

Anyway, just thought I'd add that to the discussion. Sorry for taking it off topic again.

I must admit that the end of the 1960s which coincided with decimalisation, Eagle and TV21 winding down, and IPC taking over from Fleetway and Odhams, always seemed like a kind of natural cut-off point for me as a collector. But to be fair I think it probably had just as much to do with the fact that I also turned fifteen in 1970 and therefore stopped being a kid myself.

- Phil R.

philcom55 wrote:I must admit that the end of the 1960s which coincided with decimalisation, Eagle and TV21 winding down, and IPC taking over from Fleetway and Odhams, always seemed like a kind of natural cut-off point for me as a collector. But to be fair I think it probably had just as much to do with the fact that I also turned fifteen in 1970 and therefore stopped being a kid myself.

- Phil R.

Yes I agree that age has a lot to do with changing attitudes to comics. Just as it should be of course. I was 11 in 1970 so I wasn't seeing Lion in the same way I'd absorbed Smash! in 1966. There was a huge change in comics at that time too though, as you say. The end of the first series of TV21 in 1969 and the cancelation of the Odhams comics did emphasise that the sixties were definitely over. It's quite understandable you'd see it as a natural cut off point. All the stories ended, so it was a good time to stop. I hung around for a few more years but I too gave up buying British comics when I left school. (Came back to them a few years later, but mainly for research.)

feedback on the battle/action bundles I purchased last week as regards years 78/79 - I rejected only 4 issues (one was almost ripped in half, and the other 3 had a newsagent name written in felt tip pen!) An eraser can deal easily with inscriptions that are written in pencil, and a blue eraser can normally deal with those that are delivered in blue ink. (Black ink is a devil - the paper is usually rubbed through before the ink ) In general, they were reasonably good - a few covers were blessed with minor foxing but, considering the age and the quality of paper, I could tolerate that. All the centre posters and usual booklets were still attached. Then, because, I needed around 20 issues for 1977, I ventured to buy the year 1977 from same buyer. Big mistake. They were dreadful; heavily foxed, ripped pages, and I managed to salvage 8 reasonable issues. Just goes to show - don't take owt for granted

geoff42 wrote:feedback on the battle/action bundles I purchased last week as regards years 78/79 - I rejected only 4 issues (one was almost ripped in half, and the other 3 had a newsagent name written in felt tip pen!) An eraser can deal easily with inscriptions that are written in pencil, and a blue eraser can normally deal with those that are delivered in blue ink. (Black ink is a devil - the paper is usually rubbed through before the ink ) In general, they were reasonably good - a few covers were blessed with minor foxing but, considering the age and the quality of paper, I could tolerate that. All the centre posters and usual booklets were still attached. Then, because, I needed around 20 issues for 1977, I ventured to buy the year 1977 from same buyer. Big mistake. They were dreadful; heavily foxed, ripped pages, and I managed to salvage 8 reasonable issues. Just goes to show - don't take owt for granted

This sort of problem doesn't just occur when ordering by post.There have been a number of times when I have bought comics from carboots or charity shops after having a cursory glance through only to find later pages torn , coloured in ,missing or a library stamp or sticker on them etc.At such times I can only feel angry at myself.I do think however that people who are selling stuff should try their best to give people a fair deal.I knew of one person who sold a dvd at a carboot knowing it to be faulty and just laughed about it.These sort of people are destined for failure long term ,you cannot build on a weak foundation.

I've never been too bothered about condition myself. Pages missing is annoying but, over and above that, it's not a problem if it's an issue I want. One of my big comic buying regrets is not getting the first appearance of Marvelman due to a rip in the back cover. Now I think, who cares? I didn't have it, I wanted it, so buy it. Probably never see one for a reasonable price again.