welcome and enjoy!

Hi and welcome to my blog about comics from other people’s childhood! It is dedicated primarily to British humour comics of the 60s and 70s. The reason they are not from my childhood is simply because I didn’t live in the UK back then (nor do I live there now). I knew next to nothing about them until fairly recently but since then I’ve developed a strong liking for the medium and amassed a large collection, including a number of complete or near complete sets. My intention is to use this blog as a channel for sharing my humble knowledge about different titles, favourite characters and creators as I slowly research my collection.

QUICK TIP: this blog is a sequence of posts covering one particular comic at a time. The sequence follows a certain logic, so for maximum results it is recommended that the blog is read from the oldest post up.

Copyright of all images and quotations used here is with their respective owners. Any such copyrighted material is used exclusively for educational purposes and will be removed at first notice. All other text copyright Irmantas P.



Tuesday, December 30, 2014

END OF THE YEAR ROUND-UP 2014





Here we are at the turn of the year again, and it is time for me to look back and ponder over the results of 2014 in terms of my UK comics hobby.

This is the last X-mas number of
Sparky that I didn't have and acquired
in 2014
I’ve almost stopped buying things on eBay, mostly because my collection of the titles I am interested in is nearly complete, also because I visit eBay less frequently than I used to. Besides, I am not in the UK and I’ve made a decision as a matter of principle not to buy from sellers who don’t offer international shipping, whatever their reasons might be. I am past the stage when I used to contact them asking would they please ship abroad. If they don’t want my money, I’ll take my business elsewhere.

Looking at my current wants lists, I can see that I’m now stuck at the diabolical figure of 6-6-6: I am missing 6 issues for each of the three remaining titles I am trying to collect complete sets of – BUSTER, GIGGLE and SPARKY. A year ago it was 9 issues of BUSTER, 16 of GIGGLE and as many as 35 of SPARKY. At this rate of filling the gaps, there is a good chance I will complete the sets during 2015!

2014 has been a good year in terms of building my collection of the first decade of PLAYHOUR young children’s comic. I try to concentrate on the period 1958 – 1965 which was the time when the magazine featured Gulliver the Guinea-Pig stories with superb artwork by Philip Mendoza and Gordon Hutchings. A few months ago I bumped into the complete year 1961 going cheap online from an American dealer and bought it without hesitation. It would have been interesting to learn how the PLAYHOURs found themselves on that side of the Atlantic, but the seller wasn’t very talkative, unfortunately. A few days before X-mas I was approached by another Gulliver the Guinea-Pig enthusiast whose collection is in the form of scanned images – not exactly my thing, but still OK until I get hold of hard copies. I helped him fill one or two gaps in his list and he sent me a few of the episodes that I didn’t have. Between the two of us, we are now only 50 or so instalments away from the complete run of this magical series which continued for more than 7 years! Here a is a couple of dramatic Gulliver panels from the late 50s:



... and here's one in the holiday mood from 1960:


A year ago I wrote about how I started a library of bound volumes and mentioned my plans to collect complete runs of THE BEANO and THE DANDY from 1970 until the last newsprint issues in the mid-8os, and have them bound in half-year hardcover volumes. It took me surprisingly little time to build the Beano set, but I am still working on the Dandy. Towards the end of “packaging” the Beanos I realized that the book-binders I was using were equipped to make nice colour covers, not just plain black cloth ones. I am still kicking myself for realizing this so late because those last volumes look so much better. It’s a shame the black covers of the earlier volumes can’t be replaced without damaging the books, so I’ll have to settle for the next best thing which is colour dust jackets and which has been the original plan anyway. 





As regards this blog, you may have noticed that new posts are becoming less frequent. Looking back, when I started Kazoop!! in 2012, it took me less than a year to cover the entire run of COR!! – weeklies, annuals and specials, the lot. 2013 was the year of Shiver and Shake on Kazoop!!, and although Sh&Sh had a much shorter run than COR!!, it took me slightly more than a year to cover the title. The whole of 2014 was not enough for me to close the chapter of MONSTER FUN COMIC and it looks like I will spend the first two months of 2015 writing about the MFC Summer Special (there is only one left) and the rest of MF annuals. Kazoop!! is loosing steam (fellow bloggers know that researching and writing a blog takes a lot of time) and I’ll probably take a break from the regular format of doing comprehensive series of articles on a particular title. I am still considering the monumental quest of reviewing the entire eleven year run of WHOOPEE! but it may take some time before I proceed with it, and even if the WHOOPEE! series never materializes, I believe that one day they will still give me a medal for covering three great UK comics titles and putting together a decent reference resource for anyone who might be interested in them :). That said, I have no intention of neglecting this blog so be sure to drop by in 2015 for lots of British comics goodness, including news about two projects that I am currently involved in, which I will unveil as soon as I am in a position to do so. Here is a little something by way of a “teaser”, albeit not a very straightforward one…



In the meantime, I wish you all a very Happy New Year 2015! 


20 comments:

  1. Glad to hear that you're not planning to abandon the blog, which is one of the very finest of its kind going. (Probably THE finest of its kind, in fact.) If I have one observation, it's that you probably spoil us. Perhaps it would be wiser to break up some of your posts into two parts, rather than overwhelm us with so much goodness at one time. That would perhaps make putting your posts together a little easier for you.

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    1. Hi, Kid, thanks for the kind words and the tip, and thanks for reading and commenting. Happy New Year!

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    2. And a Happy New Year to you when it comes, Irmantas. And many more of them - for all of us.

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  2. Indeed a great blog Irmantas. I love the look of those bound volumes. Its a great shame that British comics back issues are not more available unlike the the US Marvel and DC.

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    1. Andy, I think there is a plus side to UK comics not being more available - it leaves room for research and “discovery”. I would probably find it less fun if they were easy to find.

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  3. Well done for doing Cor!! (Bought some recently) Shiver and shake and Monster Fun..

    Maybe break the whoopee one down into sections..if its too much to do in one go..
    Also would be fun to see your views on Wham!, Smash! and Pow! as well in the future..
    Loved seeing Playhour and the wonderful artwork...that Sooty cover is brilliant...

    Happy New Year to you...and thanks for your amazing blog...very well worth dipping into...

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    1. Thanks, Peter and all the best to you in the New Year, when it comes. I hope you'll have more time to blog in 2015.

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  4. That's a coincidence, Irmantas, I am now missing six issues of Sparky myself, one from 1965, two from 1966 and three from 1967. I hope to complete this set in 2015. :)

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    1. Good luck with that, Bruce. I need 5 from 1966, they are Nos. 59, 61, 68, 76 and 77, plus No. 620 from 1976. I would also like to upgrade condition of my copies of issues No. 58, 69, 110 and 603.

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    2. My missing issues (and better issues wanted) of Sparky are as follows:

      1965 - No. 12 and No. 21 (better issue wanted)
      1966 - No. 68 (I can see we will both be bidding on that issue ;) ) and No. 77 (another issue you are looking for)
      1967 - No. 121, No. 123 and No. 125
      1969 - No. 257 (better issue wanted)
      1972 - No. 376 (better issue wanted)

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  5. Happy new year (in advance) to you, Irmantas - those bound things look BEAUTIFUL. You wouldn't happen to be responsible for the Ken Reid "Queen of the Seas" collection I have, would you?

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  6. I would like to reiterate what others have said - very pleased to read you are not abandoning "KAZOOP!" as Kid says it is probably the best blog of its kind period (you had me worried there) - the bound copies look amazing very we designed etc, Have a great Hogmanay/New Year and all the best for 2015 ( what are your missing issues of Buster, just in case I can help out - not that I have that many though?)

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    1. Hi, Paul,
      thanks for the kind words! The Busters I am after are all from the early years:
      Dec. 31, 1960,
      Jan. 21, 1961,
      Feb. 4, 1961
      July 15, 1961
      July 4, 1964
      July 11, 1964.
      I am also looking for better copies of the issues dated
      Dec 24, 1960,
      Feb 11, 1961,
      June 20, 1964

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  7. Good to read your end of year thoughts Irmantas, Don't worry about the blog slowing down - quality is more important than quantity and Kazoop is as high quality as it gets. It's always missed when it has a little break, but its return is always worth waiting for.

    I'm looking forward to a long, luxurious trek through the Monster Fun annuals and specials, taking as long as you like, but, you know, I wondered if you'd considered covering Krazy. It's probably the last unquestionable classic IPC fun comic, it's lots of fun, with the creators really being allowed to behave in quite an uninhibited way as never before, trying out lots of creative ideas, and it had a fairly short run so would be relatively easy to cover. Are you a fan?

    I'd be really happy to see you do your favourite years of Playhour in depth, too! Playhour and Robin was my first regular comic from around 1969, so it was great to see that 1968 issue - I remember Toad, Tommy Trouble and Moony especially well. Nursery comics have so little coverage on the internet, you're going into a very worthwhile area there. Always great to see a vintage Sooty cover, too. Amazing that the bear is still on Tv most days 53 years later.

    Thanks for another year of great blog entries!

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    1. Hi, Raven, thanks for reminding me about Krazy – it is indeed a nice comic and I happen to have all the weeklies. I have 6 specials out of 9 and only 3 annuals out of 8, so would have to seek those out, but yes, Krazy is good idea for a series and I will definitely look into it.

      A closer look at Playhour would be fun to do but as far as I understand copyright now belongs to Look and Learn and I don’t want to upset them by using many images on the blog.

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    2. Maybe ask Bear Alley at his blog who owns Look and Learn what is allowed...
      Really love you to cover Playhour...
      Oh there is so many comics that are worth covering...
      Happy Choosing...or course Whoopee!! would be amazing! My favourtie Fleetway comic...

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  8. Meant to say, the covers on those bound volumes of The Beano look really great. I doubt that DCT's look as good as that.

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  9. 1. About ten years ago I started collecting Buster, from EBay mostly, and had a complete run from ’77 to ’81, with patchy run in the surrounding years. I put each comic in a plastic bag, held on to them for a while … and recycled them. The same happened with other titles I was collecting, Cor, Whizzer & Chips and worst of all, some pristine Whoopees from ’74 to early ’76. The pleasure was in getting, not having. Sacrilege, I know!

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