Redshade

I don't think Mr Gold's two employees Candy and Crystal quite had the experience of Gladys and Ethel although some say they were a right pair of old stampers

Yes, I saw that Steve. There are a lot of "regular" non comic Antiques Auctioneers out there now becoming comic savvy and this is the route I would go down with a large collection to sell. Even if they charge commission for doing so you would still be better off than succumbing to a dealer's "great offer" of whatever lowball amount they proffer these days. And don't even think about doing it oneself on eBay or whatever.

It's too far in the past now for me to remember specifics but I would say that DC (and Gold Key and various funny animal titles) were far more prevalent in my neck of the woods than were Marvel. Perhaps the Marvel comics were snapped up first by the early birds. They were part of my childhood reading though so perhaps scarcity is a false memory and Marvels were better sourced in the second-hand market. Although I do recall that earlier on in my childhood I found Marvel comics boring because it was "all just fighting every time", and no matter how cheesy DC comics were from an adult perspective I liked them because they had a proper story with a beginning, a middle and an ending all contained within the same comic. I remember that I got some decent runs put together although there was always the occasional missing issue for whatever reason.

I've told this story before in other sites but here goes. In the 60s (I was born in 1955) along with the daily paper and my mother's various magazines I had my Beano and Dandy (and later Victor and Hotspur) delivered by the paper boy. I had to walk to the newsagents to purchase American comics. I remember asking the newsagent (Mr Hartley was a patient man) why I couldn't order and have delivered my favourite Superman and Batman comics. He told me that he himself couldn't order specific US comics and that he had to take whatever they sent him. This was in the old West Riding. There were other outlets where one could get hold of mainly second hand comics such as Market stalls, Church Fetes and School Bring and Buy Sales. And of course we used to swap comics in the school playground. Primary school that was, one learned not to mention soppy comics when one started at secondary school.

I too came to this conclusion after seeing an article somewhere that said that they were remaindered copies. I cannot recall (nor retrieve) the actual wording of the altercation and my refutation of it. I think that I may have mentioned this somewhere in these pages but the relocation of such musings are beyond my capabilities. (smile)

I bought the catalogue from a dealer (sorry, can't remember whom) some years ago. Rather appositely it is a xeroxed copy complete with occasional tick marks at the side of some of the titles.

"That one on the top level there please".

I have never seen this periodical before Albert. The only name that I recognise apart from Denis Gifford is Steve Holland, although it gives an idea of where B Whitworth was coming from (and I don't mean Lancashire). I wonder what The Showroom was?

". . . and no sales he would soon go bust.". I think that the enterprise was more of a side-line than a steady flow of income. "And where did he stand legally, especially copying Superadventure/Superboy/Superman comics". Notice that he always copied reprint comics rather than directly from DC issues. Even so I would imagine that he wouldn't have had a leg to stand on from a legal point of view.

I don't know a lot about Whitworth. I know (from various "blogs" back in the day) he used to produce fanzines and latterly some of the "Complete Guide to . . ." type self- published books and was friends with (and borrowed the comics from) the big collectors/dealers of the day. Apparently not all comics in the lists were produced and those that were never had more than a half a dozen copied printed. It was not as if the market was flooded with these things. Other than that, I don't have any more information.

I found these photos of some (all?) of Whitworth's catalogue pages on an old phone.

Unnaturally white pages and better paper quality is easily discernible, especially when held side by side with an original.

No, the Whitworth *ahem* facsimiles comprised of dozens of 50s titles. I have one of their old catalogues somewhere, I'll dig it out sometime (it's too late now).

Those pages look to be very white for a seventy (?) year old book. Rather too white imho. Could they be some of the "facsimiles" of 1950s comics that were produced in the !980s? (Being over forty years old if kept in the wrong conditions could cause the rusty staples).

I can remember joyfully swapping comics at Junior school (very near Leeds co-incidentally) but it was something one kept quiet about later on at Grammar school.

He looks like Kaley Cuoco.

Thank you Steve. And as we await the annual Last Night of the Somme the same to each and everyone who reads these pages.

Both titles were US comic sized, and not part of T&P. I think when the US CI series came to a stop I heard that Kantner (?) himself moved to London to oversee the Joint European series as with all the various Countries/Languages the European market was more lucrative than the US one had ever been.

I have a full set of these "A Classic In Pictures", all twelve of them. From memory they were published by a firm called Amex in London. The interiors were just in one colour iirc, a rather muted red/brown. They were obviously a clone of CI but I don't know if there was any connection to T&P. There was also another British series of a similar vein called Famous Stories in Pictures which GCD gives us the following as being the publisher(s) : Marx; Philmar; P.M. Productions; Amex; Bairns, 1955? Series.

And the same to you Steve.

I was referring to Gifford in that post Yorick. I don't know anything about Anglo I'm afraid although his Wiki entry does contain a list of publications that he was involved in.

I have the Classics Illustrated UK Baron Munchausen by Gifford and you are probably correct, it does look like his style.

I remember this comic coming out at a time when I was giving up comics to buy records so I never bought it though I've seen the odd copy floating around. I don't think that the advertised World's Finest and Superman titles ever appeared but please correct me if I'm wrong. The cartoon strip must have been UK produced filler because I haven't heard the word "pelf" since ah worra lad int sixties.