Albert Tatlock

Frederick Ebenezer Thorpe tossed, turned and groaned, but sleep eluded him. He was having repeated flashbacks to the previous afternoon. It was, he lived through the experience once again, just one minute after 1.30 pm on December 24th, when the lunch break in the stamping shed is officially over. Ethel was gossiping with Myrtle and Cynthia, when the door flew open and a besuited figure strode into the room. ‘Back to work, ladies, back to work’ boomed Fred (for it was he). ‘What d’you think I pay you for?’ Ethel hurriedly slipped her hip flask of gin back into her corset, hoping Fred had not noticed. She was finding it harder and harder to get through a shift without at least a couple of nips. From the other side of the room little Daisy, the youngest recruit, timidly spoke up: ‘Mr Thorpe, sir, do you think we could get away a little early today, just half an hour or so, so we could finish off the Christmas shopping? It would help so much.’ Fred’s jaw dropped and he felt he was about to faint. Never had he experienced such a mutinous sentiment. Regaining his composure, he rallied and pointed to the clock. ‘When that says 5 o’clock’ he announced, ‘that is when the shift is over, and not a minute before.’ Slamming the door behind him, he was suddenly gone, but the girls never thought of slacking, as Fred wore rubber soled shoes, and could take them unaware at any time. Ethel knew that the appeal was foredoomed to failure, just like the request to turn up the heating. Fred had brandished the electricity bills and told the girls that the winter solstice was behind them, and Spring would soon be on the way. Sighing, she picked up the top copy in the stack in front of her and wielded her stamp. She crashed it down with vigour on the face of Aquaman, pretending it was Fred. Her Steptoe style fingerless gloves were just about sufficient to keep her circulation going, as long as she kept up a rapid tempo. ‘Just (stamp) you wait (stamp), Fred’ she muttered under her breath, ‘when (stamp) my Pools come up (stamp), I’ll buy (stamp) this place (stamp), then you will need (stamp) at least three promotions (stamp) before we let you be the lavatory cleaner (stamp). But it was only a dream, she knew. Where else could a girl get a living around these parts? It wasn’t the West End, it wasn’t even the West End of Leicester, just a drab and dingy bit of the sticks called Oadby. Fred sat up with a jolt. What was that mysterious figure materialising through his bedroom wall? ‘I am the ghost of Christmas 1966’, were the words that Fred sensed, rather than heard. ‘Unless you mend your miserly ways, I will use my supernatural powers to bring about a hiatus in your supplies. Others, including pornographers, will muscle in on your racket.’ Fred trembled and pulled the blankets over his head. When he re-emerged, the figure had vanished. ‘Just a cheese sandwich induced nightmare’, he told himself, ‘that could never come to pass’.

And here is a similar Miller offering, once again reprinting Atlas 1950s horror, although the cover is from Tales To Astonish # 14 (December 1960).

Not too short, I hope, Kev. Patient: I can take, it, doc, level with me. How long have I got? Doctor: Ten. Patient: Ten? Ten?? Ten what? Ten years, ten months, what? Doctor: Nine.....

Nope! Too late was the cry, never spotted it in time. A bit tatty, but not bad for the price.

Stay alert! Or you will miss out on such as these. https://www.ebay.co.uk/bfl/viewbids/166478673071?item=166478673071&rt=nc&_trksid=p4429486.m145235.l2565

McVities have now been taken over by a Turkish firm, Pladis, but they haven't brought much Delight with them.

The very nice lady who lived next door to us at this time worked in the nearby McVities biscuit factory and was always bringing round bagfuls of broken biscuits, a staff perk common at the time, which no doubt the bean counters have put a stop to by now. She also bestowed the occasional comic on me, I remember ASM # 10 being one of them. I already had it, but accepted it and mumbled my gratitude in case she decided to find a more worthy recipient, dental inspections of gift horses not being the done thing.

He should have got the Nobel Prize instead of that miserable git Dylan, who did not even bother to go and pick up his gong. JCC would have given them a thing or two to remember him by.

Half a mild all round, and a mince pie. Terms and conditions apply. Subject to availability. Do you think I'm made of money?

Good pub quiz question follows from this. Which UK offshore island has the highest population? Answer, of course leaving most baffled, is Portsea. Must try to get out more.

.......and of course, this is the grassy knoll time of year, so if anyone wishes to fill us in on details of anything mystifying in our hobby, fire away.

Harold Wilson, announcing (through his puppet James Callaghan) the decision to devalue from £1 = $2.80 to £1 = $2.40 in late 1967, famously said that the pound in your pocket or purse had not been devalued. https://moneyweek.com/415830/19-november-1967-harold-wilsons-pound-in-your-pocket-fib Of course, it meant that the sterling funds that T & P were using to provide us with our escapist literature of choice bought 14% less product, so a price increase at our end was inevitable.

And here is another labour worthy of Hercules, to assemble a complete gallery of the issues crossing the 9d/10d divide of 1964. The arrival of Action # 317 was when I first noticed, in my local newsagent, the dastardly deed perpetrated upon the stalwart collectors of the day. My jaw dropped, and my face must have been a blend of the first and second reactions of Superman as depicted below. My heart sank as I realised that things would never be the same again. 'Where will it end?' read the thought bubble above my head. But I had no choice, I reluctantly forked out the extra pre-decimal penny.

I will not be able to rest until I have pedantically corrected the above to 'you and me'. There, I feel much better now.

A couple of copies of Action # 323, on the cusp of the handover from large to small T & P 10d stamps. The second scan shows the small one, faint, but just about visible. Maybe the new stamps were dished out part way through that month's stamping session, or maybe the small stamp was applied to a latecomer, we will probably never know. Anyway, that is another task for the completist, to assemble a full house of all the large and small stamps from the issues available in this crossover period. But surely, there cannot be anyone, even on these boards, whose anorak has such a stranglehold. Unless anyone knows better, of course.

I knew the Dobie Gillis would turn up one day, as I espied one cluttering up a tumbledown shack posing as a stamp dealer's premises on the edge of the local railway line in the dim and distant past, probably 1963. At the time, however, my interest was confined to the more mainstream titles, so even though it could have fallen into my clutches for 3 old pennies, I spurned it. Never saw any issues of the two outstanding cartoon titles, though. The next to fall may be Unexpected # 43, which I added to my collection in about 1965. Alas, it was a victim of a lapse of judgement when I pruned my holdings a few years later. It has since been replaced, but by an unstamped copy.

# 1 1960

What's your book called? Where can I rush out and buy it from? ISBN number? Reading this stuff online is fine, but nothing beats the impact of the printed page. Of course, if the copy I buy is shrink wrapped, I will just not be able to bring myself to desecrate it by tearing off the plastic, so I will not be able to read it until second-hand copies, well thumbed, I doubt not, begin to appear on ebay.

Gottit! Page count tallies, 96pp plus covers, meaning the dopes have printed it with a missing page. So now we have advanced to a known known. Reading through it, the missing part is fatal to the plot, as the continuity is destroyed. And the B & W version looks very dull alongside the original. Half a crown in 1962 would have got you Incredible Hulk # 1, AF # 15 and FF # 2, with enough left over for a Beano.

Can't find it now! It has Mysteriously Traveled/Travelled, but it can't be far away....................

No ads, a few story pages, but all longer than 1 page. Square bound, so no evidence of loss elsewhere. I reckon it is an error in production, but unless we can turn up another copy, we may never know. There are known unknowns, blah blah...........

Tales Of The Mysterious Traveler/Traveller (take your pick). I have recently purchased a copy of the reprint album of this title, which Duncan's site dates to 1962. The first story, Little Boy Blue, which has 6 pages in the original, has only 5 in the reprint (see attached scans). Page 5 is not present. I cannot see any signs of a page having been removed, and in any case there would have had to be something on the other side. I wonder, then, whether the reprint was accidentally produced in an incomplete form. If anyone here has a copy to compare it with, that would clear it up. Hope someone can help. Link below is to the original US version. https://ditko.blogspot.com/2009/11/unusual-tales-little-boy-blue.html

Could that be Ethel on the way to lay in more ciggies?

Not yet, but I intend to make a pilgrimage one day, if the Lord spares me long enough