Comics UK

After my excessive indulgence last week with the acquisition of 3000+ Commando comics, Mrs Eterno was expecting more relaxed behaviour this week as regards my collecting of comics................and now after this week's spending, she's looking at putting me into therapy!

On Ebay I managed to buy The Complete Fantastic Four #1 and #2 to match the free gifts I bought a month ago. I've also bought 4 Valiant annuals (68-71), Crunch #3 with gift, Bullet #1 with free gift, the Shake Teacher free gift from Wham #2 (REALLY pleased with that today) and a bound volume of #1-15 of The Ranger Adventure Stories from 1933 (a bargain at £7.50 I thought).

These purchases were accompanied by a few others after a long chat with the lovely Carole at Border Books:

THE ANIMAL WORLD #1 Partridge 1869.

ARROW SCHOOLBOY SERIES #1 Martin & Reid. 1948.

BLACK BESS LIBRARY #1(New Series). Newnes. 1921.

BOYS CINEMA #1 A.P. 1919

BULLET #1 D.C.T. 1976. (Before I bought it with the gift from Phil Shrimpton!)

CAIN’S HUNDRED #1 Top Sellers. 1962.

DICK TURPIN LIBRARY #1 Newnes. 1922.

DIXIE DUGAN #1 Streamline. 1950.

DONALD DUCK #1 I.P.C. 1975.

FAIRY TIME COMIC (No. 1 and only). Jones. 1948.

FOUR DEUCES. (No. 1 and only). Cartoon Art. 1947.

FROLICOMIC. #1 Martin & Reid. 1949.

JOE PALOOKA. #1 Streamline. 1953.

MANHUNT #1 World. 1959.

MARINES IN ACTION #1 Streamline. 1955.

NELSON LEE LIBRARY #1 (4th Series). A.P. 1933.

PERFECT CRIME #1 World. 1951.

‘PETS’ PLAYTIME COMIC #1 Philmar (Marx). 1949.

RANGE RIDERS WESTERN #1 Pembertons. c1951.

SPARSHOTT SERIES #1 Merrett. 1945.

STIRRING FIGHTERS #1 Streamline. c1955.

SUN. (Large format) #1 Allen. 1947.

SUPERMAN. (World Adventure Library) #1 W.D.L. 1967.

TERRIBLE TEN #1 Young World. 1964.

TIC TAC TOE. (No. 1 and only). Pembertons. 1951.

WAR AT SEA PICTURE LIBRARY #1 Fleetway. 1962.

WARLOCK #1 1959

WEE CHUMS COMIC. (no. 1 and only). Philmar. 1949.

WIDE WORLD COMICS #1 Apollo. 1949.

KONA MONARCH OF MONSTER ISLE #1 W.D.L. 1965.

PECOS KID WESTERN #1 T & P. 1950.

VIC FLINT PRIVATE EYE #1 Miller. 1953.

You will probably now be siding with the Mrs in her reasoning and I must admit that after typing up this list, even I'm agreeing! Oh yes, I've saved the best until last.........I have also managed to purchase a set of comics I've been after for years and a mate is picking them up for me tomorrow "Up North" and we'll then work out getting them to me........751 issues (1 short) of Valiant and Battle & Valiant comics. EVERY VALIANT COMIC!! I'm REALLY pleased with those and can't wait to receive them. I'll probably sell on the Battle comics to start to get some cash back in!

I've already booked a couple of days off work just to spend time with my new (old) friends and along with the Commandos, work out where they'll be living for the rest of my days! I think I'll also be on a selling spree to get some money back in.

Nothing on the horizon so HOPEFULLY a quiet week this week coming!

Adam Eterno wrote:Nothing on the horizon so HOPEFULLY a quiet week this week coming!

You know you don't really mean that, Adam.

Not a patch on Adam's monster buy on Commando, but I did fill 21 more gaps in my first 1000 with a box that arrived today. The best thing about them is that with the help of Steve Holland, I should now be able to spot Peter Ford's style 9 times out of 10. Now I just need to confirm if he did any strips as I am sure that he drew at least one series of Cast Iron Bill.

Went to the ephemera fair on Sunday and picked up about 30 issues of Once Upon A Time from 1969-70 for £20 all in superb condition. Lots of nice Ron Embleton art including a beautiful full page picture of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Another dealer had a box full of silver age DC comics for £5 to £6 each bit I passed on those, even the 80 page giants which were tempting. I'm trying to downsize,

Phoenix wrote:

Adam Eterno wrote:Nothing on the horizon so HOPEFULLY a quiet week this week coming!

You know you don't really mean that, Adam.

You know me too well already!

Commando comics and Border comics arrived this morning. I'm as excited as a kid at Christmas........My Mrs has been very quiet as I carried in 11 big boxes.......

Valiants are being picked up tonight so will hopefully be with me within the week. I have to have the Commandos organised and hidden before they arrive or something will give!

Adam Eterno wrote:

Phoenix wrote:

Adam Eterno wrote:Nothing on the horizon so HOPEFULLY a quiet week this week coming!

You know you don't really mean that, Adam.

You know me too well already!

Commando comics and Border comics arrived this morning. I'm as excited as a kid at Christmas........My Mrs has been very quiet as I carried in 11 big boxes.......

Valiants are being picked up tonight so will hopefully be with me within the week. I have to have the Commandos organised and hidden before they arrive or something will give!

If you need any help with those doubles, you know where I am

Thank you, abacus. Not bad, eh? Spotting micron comics from a distance.
The Roy Rogers annual does include Dell reprints. WDL had the British rights to Dell comics for the UK. Oddly, the Gunsmoke Annual isn't listed in the Guide and I see that it's a BBC book. So I can't be sure what stories are in there. Garrisons Gorillas was an American tv show.

I got another 9 issues of Buster all from 1994 so only another 20 needed for a complete run from 1980 to the end 2000. but all from 94-98 ones so gonna be hard to get.

stevezodiac wrote:I'm trying to downsize

Yeah, right, Steve. Who are you trying to convince?

Well I have a little room as I just sold UK avengers 1-63 on eBay for £231.00. All bought when new and in near mint condition.

stevezodiac wrote:Well I have a little room as I just sold UK avengers 1-63 on eBay for £231.00. All bought when new and in near mint condition.

I saw that. You got a great price there as I bought the entire set with both free gifts only last year for about the same price!

Hi Adam. So how many editions of Commando do you have in total after your recent purchase of 3000+? There aren't many titles you could actually collect 3000+ issues of and its certainly got to be rare to collect so many in one go. I have 3770 editions of Beano but they certainly weren't gotten in huge amounts at one time. Similarly my 3600 Dandys. It's also impressive that you've managed to purchase a complete run of Valiant, over 700 issues, in one purchase. Has anyone on this site ever bought a more sizable complete run of a title in one purchase? I think you could be a comicsuk record breaker on both counts Adam unless someone can tell us different.

Kashgar wrote:Hi Adam. So how many editions of Commando do you have in total after your recent purchase of 3000+? There aren't many titles you could actually collect 3000+ issues of and its certainly got to be rare to collect so many in one go. I have 3770 editions of Beano but they certainly weren't gotten in huge amounts at one time. Similarly my 3600 Dandys. It's also impressive that you've managed to purchase a complete run of Valiant, over 700 issues, in one purchase. Has anyone on this site ever bought a more sizable complete run of a title in one purchase? I think you could be a comicsuk record breaker on both counts Adam unless someone can tell us different.

I now have about 3500 but it will take me a few days to get through the new ones to see where there are duplicates. I'm also really disappointed that although the majority of the Commandos look unread, they are very musty and seem to have got damp at some time recently. What a waste! I'm undecided as what to do so will be having a word with the Auction House shortly. I may have to sell them on in sets of 100 on Ebay as the Mrs is not happy with the smell at all! The Valiants are apparently in fantastic condition and the seller has them all catalogued and listed for me, so I'm relieved at that as they are far more important to me! If I'm really lucky, I can sell the Commandos to cover the cost of both sets making the Valiants free!

On the question of buying sets, I have bought the complete sets of Action comics twice, sets of Terrific, Fantastic and Avengers once not including loads of smaller sets like Crunch and Rocket more recently. I missed out on a set of Bullet recently that went for £160+ and I dithered too long on a set of 627 Warlord that went for £300 a couple of months ago ( http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WARLORD-COMIC ... OSwHjNV9YX~ ).

Last year a set of 1-70 of Wham went for £380 which I was very tempted on and in 2014, 2 sets of TV Tornado went for £250ish each which I again dithered over.

I have complete sets of most of the UK Marvels in the 1970s but other than the Avengers, they were bought time and time again, keeping the better copies each time to complete the sets. The same with my Pow! set which tok me ages to complete.

I saw your list of sets that you have on an old thread here and talking of ComicsUK record holders, you must have the most impressive collection that I've seen!

I've bought full sets of 2000AD a few times, when both sets were well into the #1000s - but I don't think that's uncommon, also a full set of the Eagle (old series), TV21 and a fair few others, though this was when I was actively dealing so I don't really think they count.

Bicarbonate of soda is very effective at getting rid of the smell of mustiness.

Take about ten or so issues to test to start and put them in a plastic bag with a liberal sprinkling of Bicarb, leave em for a few days.

Bingo, smell is gone.

koollectablz wrote:I've bought full sets of 2000AD a few times, when both sets were well into the #1000s - but I don't think that's uncommon, also a full set of the Eagle (old series), TV21 and a fair few others, though this was when I was actively dealing so I don't really think they count.

Bicarbonate of soda is very effective at getting rid of the smell of mustiness.

Take about ten or so issues to test to start and put them in a plastic bag with a liberal sprinkling of Bicarb, leave em for a few days.

Bingo, smell is gone.

Thank you! I have tons of Bicarb in the house so I'll start tonight