yrag9591

Alan published four editions of The Comic Book Price Guide For Great Britain, the first in 1975 and the last in the early 1980s, from memory (the third edition was two separate publications, one for Marvel and one for DC, so there are five in total). The idea obviously came from Overstreet, but Alan included lots of information (such as ND issues) and pricing that was relevant to the UK market. Much of the information, particularly on DC, was supplied by me. Most of the comics photographed inside were mine, too. I think Duncan McAlpine bought the rights from Alan, and went on to produce the much more professional editions from the late 1980s onwards. Unfortunately, Alan, who was one of the leading lights of UK fandom for many years, died about three years ago.

A couple of thoughts: 1) In your first post, you mention someone who is doing research into non-distributed (ND) issues. I assume he has the British price guides published by Alan Austin and Duncan McAlpine. There's lots of information about ND issues in those. I provided much of the information in the Austin guides, so it should be good (I hope). 2) I mentioned this thread to a friend of mine who I knew would be interested, and he said he suspected that the very early distributed issues (such as that War At Sea) were not distributed in early 1959, but in early 1960 along with the first distributed DCs. We've no evidence for that, though.

Thanks for a fascinating thread. I'm an old-time UK collector and I like to think I'm fairly knowledgeable, but there's plenty here that's news to me!

I like all the Superman covers from 1 to 24. Favourites are 4, 5, 8, 11, 15, 21 and 24. Number 15 is probably the best - much better than some of the ‘classic’ covers. But from 25 onwards, there is only one good cover (32) until you get to 53.

Thanks. Yes, a comparison between 77 and 76 wasn’t a fair one. But I could equally have said 77 and 78. I just seem to be having difficulty finding a copy of 77 (and I’m not fussy about condition). And while I could easily find 10 copies of issue 16 at any given time, it seems more difficult to find issue 15.

I think it’s true to say that there are no rare golden age issues of Batman or Superman. But, not surprisingly, there are some issues that are scarcer than others. For example, I would say that Superman 15 is scarcer than Superman 16, and Superman 77 is scarcer than Superman 76. Are there any issues of either title that you would rate as relatively scarce?

I have read that there are a few people that have (or had) a complete DC collection, but I have never heard of anyone who has (or had) a complete Timely/Atlas/Marvel collection. Has anyone ever achieved this?

1. Neal Adams 2. Berni Wrightson 3. Gil Kane 4. Curt Swan 5. Kurt Schaffenberger 6. Steve Ditko 7. Wally Wood 8. Nick Cardy 9. Jim Aparo 10. Di ck Giordano

The cover story of Lois Lane 54 was always my favourite!

Of course, there is still a possibility that other titles exist, but we liked our multiples of 12 in the UK back in the 1960s (our currency, and also 24 Double Double Comics!) so I would guess that that’s it!

Excellent work, Marwood! Here’s a better photo of the Wonder Woman Annual: https://www.comics.org/series/112553/

Nice pick-up! Like I said earlier, I've owned most of those annuals, but I never had the Mystery In Space one.

Here’s a link to a photo of the cover of the Mystery In Space annual: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/themagicrobot.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/mystery-in-space/amp/?source=images Perhaps someone cleverer than me could create a photo of all 12 annuals together?

Here’s a link to a photo of the cover of the Doom Patrol annual: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/doom-patrol-annual-thorpe-porter-1967-219390353 So I no longer need to be only 99% sure of its existence!

Here’s a link to a photo of the cover of the Wonder Woman annual: http://www.wonderwomancollectors.com/books-117.html That confirms 12 different annuals of this type. Of course, there may be more, but I doubt it!

There are 24 different Double Double Comics (24 different covers, that is, but the interiors can be anything). This has more information, with a comment from me in 2008 that lists all the Double Double Comics and their covers: https://themagicrobot.wordpress.com/2008/03/17/thorpe-and-porter-double-double-comics/#comments

Hi. I’m an old-time UK comics collector, and have owned several copies of the above-mentioned hard cover annuals. Unfortunately I no longer own them, so I can’t offer 100% proof, but I believe there are 12 different annuals in total. They are: the nine that are pictured above, plus Doom Patrol, Mystery In Space and Wonder Woman. I have owned (or seen) the Mystery In Space and Wonder Woman, so I am 100% sure they exist. I am only 99% (!) sure about the Doom Patrol one, but am pretty sure I have seen the cover printed somewhere. They are indeed all quite scarce. My experience suggests the Showcase one is the commonest and the Doom Patrol is the rarest, but that’s just anecdotal. A friend of mine owns most of them, and I have told him about this thread so perhaps he will post and give you more information.