Albert Tatlock

....and here is a South African version of Batman # 140........

Yes, indeed. The original thread has thrown out many roots, branches and even twiglets in a multitude of directions, but I am happy with that. The material may have originally been published in the US, but much of it has reached us here in the UK by circuitous routes, and I have greatly enjoyed reading about Brazilian and Mexican reprints, and all the research about it. Below are a few Archie Digests, how they reached our shores I have no idea, but they assuredly did, as I have just taken delivery of them this afternoon from a local auction house, buried among a hotchpotch of other juvenilia. The stickers price them in Rands, the currency of South Africa. I have Googled Intermag, and found there a website with a similar thrust to this thread here, and will post a link in case anyone is interested. https://southafricancomicbooks.blogspot.com/2013/05/chronology-of-south-african-comic-books.html

Very narrow age range in the readership. One at 9, one at 14, the rest all 11 to 13. Probably a slightly older lot than Beano, etc. I suppose that in those days, school leavers would develop different priorities on being cast out into the world of work. My mother left school at 14 on the Friday and went to work in the cotton mill across the road on the Monday. Stay on at school? Not when you can help with the breadwinning in those pre-safety net days. Further education was the preserve of the toffs back then. I would have liked to see Lord Snooty turfed out of Bunkerton and earning a living shovelling coke into the boiler of Bash Street school.

No problem at all. The only thing that bugs me is that you got the chance to leaf through all those hallowed pages weeks or even months before we did. While we we waiting for a tramp steamer to make its laborious way to our shores, you had already read the cargo on board, and the next couple of issues too, in all probability.

Sorry to hear this, Steve, None of us, except the very young, have managed to escape the shadow of ashes to ashes, dust to dust and all that goes with it. Take as much time as you need, the rest of us will do our utmost to muddle through. On your return, you can set about putting right whatever we have inevitably managed to botch.

Even if you had a 9.0 or above of mags such as these, the cost of having it processed by CGC would far exceed the likely sale price. Maybe they are undervalued at the moment, but 200 quid plus is sheer fantasy.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394706416220?itmmeta=01HT8JQHVJPENB0499J7SEV5KE&hash=item5be655f25c:g:YwEAAOSw1Vpkm3z-&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4MQuIDDBk5ve%2BEKUaAZ7PSqZZDNzK9u3Lgn8LzEPMDKRhLBh2gkTb1cw91e6LGpmAHFAqMAE8jW0B37kz4bV3lHs7EwV4kky0wMg9qVtqPS4tJWeBec00D3jiIcZlyC86K5J07ex2Sxkcd%2B7wsD7PraaS3%2Fum4zNuDO8A0dxhQE%2FIKbd%2BtQl9qgck68ofIlCcm5lurFR4459YujMOFspMF08om13z96YdIvHbYefH2HS2zaowuIX9deA9f6h9fWKp6kso1Q9JJrytMCG5p1WuEPOgbOa5hJ1Ji%2Fq1H8BNgz6|tkp%3ABFBM8p3ektJj Someone is clearly trying it on.

There are different versions of this being offered by US based sellers. Some are described as officially licensed, with a line of type confirming this at bottom, some not.

According, some say, to PT Barnum: 'There's one born every minute'. And according, some say to WC Fields: 'Never give a sucker an even break'. Don't touch this with a barge pole.

In fact, prosecutions continued under the 1959 Obscene Publications Act The Britton case was a landmark as it was the last time that a book had been banned outright. Below is an ad from a magazine of the time: £1.25 seems cheap when compared to this offering from a US bookdealer (admittedly a dedicated copy): https://www.jamescumminsbookseller.com/pages/books/315469/david-britton/lord-horror According to the House Of Lords Library here: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/LLN-2019-0103/LLN-2019-0103.pdf The Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955 banned comics that children were likely to read that contained acts of violence or cruelty, the commission of crimes, or incidents of repulsive or horrible nature. However, in seven years, the Home Office only received twelve complaints against comics, five of which the Attorney General refused to act on, Talk about a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Space Willies OK. Space Philip Ks streng verboten!

Remember, not too long ago, when Alan Class fetched next to nothing. Back in the early days of building my collection, I never saw any AC on sale in the newsagent, but they often turned up in second-hand outlets. I automatically skimmed past them, I remember pausing for a moment to look at Creepy Worlds # 32, but my pennies stayed in my pocket.

Yeah, go ahead, they are saying. Take your badges, stickers, pinup pages, etc and mutilate the comic. It has cost you next to nothing, so don't worry that one day, when you have changed your mind, you will be tearing your hair out trying to find a pristine copy. I have just bought, quite cheaply, I believe, a bound copy of Eagle Volume 1. All issues present. Just one coupon clipped out from the whole run. From issue # 1. It just would be, wouldn't it?

Date stamp? Does not look like price stamps usually appear.

He was probably a beginner compared to some of the regular contributors here.