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British Pence Variants

Started by OveraboundingMint,

114 posts in this topic

nmtg9

nmtg9

Posted
Posted

Meeting Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons on the 1987 Watchmen Tour

 

Odyssey was expensive, as was Skyrack but that evening in November 1987 (?) when Alan Moore was at Odyssey was one of my biggest comic regerts.

 

I had just had an operation on my foot and couldn't walk very well so was not allowed to go :cry:

 

I was so gutted. For that Christmas though I did buy DKR Hardback from there. Always remember seeing X-Men 2 in there on the wall behind the counter for £20/25 thinking it was amazing.

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Ken Aldred

Ken Aldred

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Marvel two in one annual 2, to me then, it was like some kind of gorilla-faced super villain lifting Spiderman up over a defeated Thing

:) Great description of one of my all-time favourite characters.

 

I would love to get my hands on every single 70s issue of the Defenders, X-men, Avengers, F4, Invaders and Marvel Two-in One. But the 70s pence Defenders and X-men are always top priority to me.

A couple more complete pence copy runs you might concentrate on, which were very popular with British kids in the 70s, are the McGregor / Russell Killravens (Amazing Adventures) and Starlin's Strange Tales / Warlock books. Starlin's Captain Marvel run is interrupted, some of the later issues being Non Distributed - 32 and 33, from memory.

 

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Ken Aldred

Ken Aldred

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Speaking of London, I was lucky enough to visit the original Forbidden Planet 1 & 2 in Denmark Street in probably 1985 or 1986? Nothing like the corporate monster we have these days...

 

Douglas Adams & Nick Landau (Tharg)

looks at all those 12p Marvel pence variants in the rack!

 

Nick+Landau+%26+Douglas+Adams+copy.JPG

For a northern kid with limited access to American comic books, this store was an amazing, eye-opening experience. Between 1979 and 1981 I 'took a day off from school' several times to go down to London to visit it. :cloud9:

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EwanUK

EwanUK

Posted
Posted

Meeting Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons on the 1987 Watchmen Tour

 

Odyssey was expensive, as was Skyrack but that evening in November 1987 (?) when Alan Moore was at Odyssey was one of my biggest comic regerts.

 

I had just had an operation on my foot and couldn't walk very well so was not allowed to go :cry:

 

I was so gutted. For that Christmas though I did buy DKR Hardback from there. Always remember seeing X-Men 2 in there on the wall behind the counter for £20/25 thinking it was amazing.

 

Skyrack was very expensive and the guy there (Ron Bennett?) was a grumpy git - as a 14 year old he didn't respond fondly to me wanting to leaf through his old 2000ADs. I distinctly remember buying Watchmen no.2 there - rainy grave - rainy day...

 

Moore & Gibbons were very friendly and I regret selling the signed GN and smiley many years later on ebay... I then bumped into Dave Gibbons 17 years later in 2004 in Chaos City Comics in St Albans. I said "remember me from that 1987 signing!!!" He didn't. ;)

 

My mum bought me the DC DKR hard-back too! It was £13. I got it for Christmas 1986 but insisted I wrap it in a mylar bag before she was allowed to wrap it!

 

ah fond memories

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Ken Aldred

Ken Aldred

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I think it's a great idea to add a second pence variant run to an existing cent collection but, as a keen, young British collector in the 70s, actually having to rely on distributed All-Colour Comics could prove very frustrating.  I do have a natural inclination to prefer sameness and predictability, and so I hated it when, avidly looking forward to the next month's instalment in a storyline,  a book I was following was suddenly, unexpectedly absent from the newsstands.

 

Take the New X- Men, as a good example.

 

-- The first pence copy I bought was issue 97, and I couldn't get hold of GS XM 1 and issues 94 and 95, all Non-Distributed.  I didn't appreciate this because I was already a fan of Dave Cockrum by way of his earlier Legion work.

 

 Patchy distribution seemed to interfere with key storylines on this title...

 

--  issue 107 ND, 108 pence (Shi'ar /Imperial Guard)

 

-- issue 120 pence, 121 ND (first Alpha Flight)

 

-- issues in the Dark Phoenix Saga all pence, except 137, the finale - ND

 

-- issue 141 pence, 142 ND (Days of Future Past)

 

X-Men 121 's non-appearance over here was the tipping point event that made me finally decide to switch over completely to advance-imported cent copies and their greater reliability -  albeit at a price, of course.

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OveraboundingMint

OveraboundingMint

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Where are all the samples of DC pence copies? Let me fix that with a nice run of Brave and the Bold!

 

 

I just loved the cover of #151 and that together with #175 are the 2 pence issues i have of the series.

 

I don't particularly care much about DC pence but for their horror titles that are something else altogether with a pence prizing on them. Nuff said already

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Warlord

Warlord

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I chatted briefly with MH Chuck at this year's Mid Ohio Con. One thing we talked about was pence variants. He echoed much of what's been said in this thread about the low print runs and scarcity in higher grades. Then he shared his opinion about the population of DC pence variants being sooo much scarcer than the Marvel pence issues. Have to admit, although I've never considered it, that sure seems to be the case if you judge by what's posted in this thread.

 

Also not definitive but interesting - do a search on ebay for pence+marvel and you get 48 hits, do the same for DC and you get 0 hits. :o Sure, the difference could be attributed to a lot of factors, but that is a pretty surprising result to get a total DC shut out!

 

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BrianR

BrianR

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I chatted briefly with MH Chuck at this year's Mid Ohio Con. One thing we talked about was pence variants. He echoed much of what's been said in this thread about the low print runs and scarcity in higher grades. Then he shared his opinion about the population of DC pence variants being sooo much scarcer than the Marvel pence issues. Have to admit, although I've never considered it, that sure seems to be the case if you judge by what's posted in this thread.

 

Also not definitive but interesting - do a search on ebay for pence+marvel and you get 48 hits, do the same for DC and you get 0 hits. :o Sure, the difference could be attributed to a lot of factors, but that is a pretty surprising result to get a total DC shut out!

 

Look up the individual titles and use key words like UK or British. You will find them. 99% of my focus is on Marvel titles hence that is what I post. I am sure they are harder to find, but if there was more demand like Marvel I am sure more would pop up.

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