Albert Tatlock

And here are a couple from Forbidden Planet in Nottingham. One on the cover, daring you to peel it off, and one thoughtfully applied to the bag. I remember an early comic sales pitch, not a shop, but a stall or barrow, on the corner of Earlham Street near Cambridge Circus. I bought some Atlas horror titles there, will try to dig out chapter and verse.

So, true to the decadent bourgeois capitalist principles that DTW adhered by, they snapped up the 30p copies from the newsagent on the corner, removed the stickers and repriced them with a profiteering price label. Come the revolution, comrades, we will reset the clock, and all these will be available at their original, correct prices. I can dream, can't I?

Quite probable. The absence of DTW's ID is telling, they were not otherwise shy of revealing their handiwork to the world.

Here is a DTW stickered item, along with a few from the same period with anonymous price labels that might be the work of DTW or one of their competitors.

Another blotted out price. Wonder if it was worth paying Ethel for her labour on these, as there was no guarantee it would sell the second time around. It obviously did, though and has been treasured ever since, until its new owner has cast this tiny fish into the vast ocean of ebay.

And does # 95 have a 20p stamp, possibly from the PBC? Anyone remember seeing Freddie rummaging through their stock back in the day? With his cape and crown?

I reckon this guy is going to buy them, then burn them, out of spite.

Mollie Sugden tired of playing sitcom characters, and reinvented herself as the proprietress of Mollie's Books & Comics, where she lived out her dream. Notice she also had a sideline producing rubber stamps. She is possibly responsible for all the defaced output of the PBC, Millers of Bratfud and the others.

There are specialised materials available to solve this problem. One was marketed under the name 'Label Lifter', but I think it is no longer in production. However, Mr Google should be aware of others in this field. If you have managed to peel off a label to find sticky residue underneath, talcum powder will deal with it efficiently. Do not be tempted to use petrol, especially if you have a cig dangling from the corner of your mouth. 'Cig' in my original posting (redacted, of course) was another 3 letter abbreviation for cigarette, also ending in G, and formerly used in our great British education system to denote a junior schoolboy who was required to carry out menial chores on behalf of the more senior pupils. That system has now ended, so I wonder, like George V, how is the Empire? Can it long survive? Or, if you believe the alternative version, he had no earnest wish to revisit Bognor and said as much in emphatic terms..

A puzzle. If it is the only one to be found, it would be stranger than if there were a few. A few might indicate that they were, like T & P's merchandise, sent out on a SOR basis. Let the hunt begin.

What? For looking after cute little Tiddles?

She only took the job after being assured that management would attend to all the needs of her Tiddles. (they redacted the original word)

Purple one worth 50% more according to comicspriceguide.com. I picked these up at the time, just thought one of them was a printing fault, kept both of them just out of curiosity.

While we are on an IW kick, although I am sure I have posted this before somewhere, I make no apologies as it is such a stunning cover, and as if that were not enough, it is enhanced by the application of a Miller stamp.

The comic goldmine of my youth (the best, but not the only one) was Salford Market, now long since entombed beneath the concrete of a redevelopment scheme, or, as I prefer to think of it, a heinous act of cultural vandalism, imposed upon the local community against their will by here today gone tomorrow petty apparatchiks. I have tried in vain to find a clip or photo of the bookstall there (there were three, but only one could be counted upon to bestow gems upon us). This You Tube clip references the close environs, the material of interest to us comes in at between 2 and 4 minutes.

Back on the fanzine track, I wish I had bought the 3 large cardboard cartons full of fanzines, lists, etc at the Ian Penman auction, but they were right near the end and I had just about maxed out my cc. Many of them later popped up on the Ancient Mariner auction, and it looks like the original buyer made a tidy profit. I bought a couple of lots, but missed out on some good stuff. I did, however, bag the one lot I really targeted, the Supermen Of America membership items sent to Ian in an envelope that cost DC 5 cents to send. I cannot make ot the date on the postmark, but it is probably mid to late 1960s.

I did, Hurrah Henri told me so at one of their toff's clubs.

Here are a few of 'em off to watch a Quidditch semi-final.

I believe the correct spelling is Bratfud. That is the place where all the footie fans sport Harry Potter scarves.

My recollection is that TTA # 55 was neither more nor less common than the surrounding issues. This 9d UKPV was probably routinely returned unsold by a retailer, and languished in T & P's warehouse until someone decided to send out a batch for a second bite at the cherry.

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!

Just noticed, shop to left has decimal prices, so could be 1972-ish. Amazed I never noticed the place at the time.

And I think the little sign on the door reads 'back in 6 months, or 4 with good behaviour'.

There is a better image here, with some cars outside. Maybe some anorak could use them to date the photo.

Places like this were an inestimable boon when I was trying to complete my early collection, before the advent of dealers or t'internet. The date of 1972 given is probably off by a decade or so, though. It is local, so I would certainly have spotted it and paid a visit, even though it would seem to cater for a more mature clientele than myself at the time. The only other explanation I can come up with is that it was open only very briefly. There is a large police station just along the road, and maybe the proprietor had insufficient funds to keep its inhabitants at bay. The shop next door has an interesting name. Couldn't be, could it? We wonders, yes we wonders. Not me peering at the display while playing pocket billiards, by the way.