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A little corner of the UK
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Started by Comicopolis,

9,411 posts in this topic

batmiesta

batmiesta

Posted
Posted
Not sure if our American cousins will appreciate this book, but I am sure it will be here.

 

Picture276.jpg

 

I have a much tattier copy from being a kid.

Great stuff.

 

Must admit that I haven't seen that issue before...but it's a few years older than me (though not many as I'd like) :(

 

Great cover btw (thumbs u

 

Kind of makes you wonder where the original art is for all these British books. hm

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Waylander

Waylander

Posted
Posted
Beautiful book and I'm happy to say, it's significantly older than me :)

 

Yeah! Me too. :whistle:

 

 

That book is exactly the same age as me, but in better condition. :tonofbricks:

 

Whizzer,

 

You and I born in the same year, and like a good wine aged well. (thumbs u

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Whizzer

Whizzer

Posted
Posted
Beautiful book and I'm happy to say, it's significantly older than me :)

 

Yeah! Me too. :whistle:

 

 

That book is exactly the same age as me, but in better condition. :tonofbricks:

 

Whizzer,

 

You and I born in the same year, and like a good wine aged well. (thumbs u

 

:headbang:

 

 

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bane

bane

Posted
Posted
Beautiful book and I'm happy to say, it's significantly older than me :)

 

Yeah! Me too. :whistle:

 

 

That book is exactly the same age as me, but in better condition. :tonofbricks:

 

Whizzer,

 

You and I born in the same year, and like a good wine aged well. (thumbs u

 

:headbang:

 

 

Corked wine..... :whistle:

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Comicopolis

Comicopolis

Posted
  • Author
Posted

The north-east was a virtual wasteland for comics and comic collectors in the 1970's. I went to a secondary school with 1000 other kids and nobody collected comics apart from me - or if they did they kept it very quiet.

 

As far as having places to actually buy comics - we had a couple of decent back issue stalls at an outside market in Middlesbrough, a great indoor market stall in Stockton where I bought many a bronze age Marvel and even a Daredevil #7 for 7 pence!

 

Most newsagents were usually stocked full of DC's and Marvels but the issue numbers were all over the place and you very rarely found continuous issues.

 

The other place you found comics was in the second hand bookshops, which also tended to have a 'healthy' dose of porn mags teetering next to the comics. As a 12/13/14 year old going in there to buy some comics and well worn science fiction and horror paperbacks I managed to get some curious looks from the dirty mac brigade. Unfortunately they kept the mags sealed in plastic - a precursor to CGC I'm sure - so you could never sneak a look through the pages.

 

All they needed was a section for recent vinyl releases and it would have been a young boy's heaven!

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nmtg9

nmtg9

Posted
Posted

I remember those places - especially the store next to Jack Hatfields on Borough Road.

 

I would still takes these over what we have today which is one FP on the whole of teesside.

 

If I am in town I usually walk in and out within 30 seconds.

 

Other than that I do not know of any comic stores till you either go up to New castle or down to York.

 

Very poor.

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Stryfe1000

Stryfe1000

Posted
Posted
I remember those places - especially the store next to Jack Hatfields on Borough Road.

 

I would still takes these over what we have today which is one FP on the whole of teesside.

 

If I am in town I usually walk in and out within 30 seconds.

 

Other than that I do not know of any comic stores till you either go up to New castle or down to York.

 

Very poor.

 

Jack Hatfield's :cloud9:

 

I also remember another "Bookshop" on Borough Road. It sold, books, mags and toys. A little bit like FP, but with blacked out windows :whistle:

 

Before I headed south, and away from the treasure chest that was Book's 'n' Comics, I also used to buy a lot of comics from a run down second hand book store in the precinct near to the post office (Down the side of McDonalds). The elderly owner had a huge amount of midgrade bronze and copper stock and very little knowledge about them. I picked up a mid grade run of Daredevil (50 - 200) and about a longbox full of Fantastic Fours for about 20p an issue. All great reader copies. I've still got the DD's and sold the FF's for 50p each a few years later.

 

I've only ever been in the Boro FP once and like you, I managed about 30 seconds.

 

Redcar car boot sale was also good to spot some bargains. That's where I picked up my run of Marvel Super Heroes, Hulk Weeky's and Spidey Weekly's for 10p each

 

Mmmmmm....UK reprints :)

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PulpCultureComics

PulpCultureComics

Posted
Posted (edited)
The north-east was a virtual wasteland for comics and comic collectors in the 1970's. I went to a secondary school with 1000 other kids and nobody collected comics apart from me - or if they did they kept it very quiet.

 

As far as having places to actually buy comics - we had a couple of decent back issue stalls at an outside market in Middlesbrough, a great indoor market stall in Stockton where I bought many a bronze age Marvel and even a Daredevil #7 for 7 pence!

 

Most newsagents were usually stocked full of DC's and Marvels but the issue numbers were all over the place and you very rarely found continuous issues.

 

The other place you found comics was in the second hand bookshops, which also tended to have a 'healthy' dose of porn mags teetering next to the comics. As a 12/13/14 year old going in there to buy some comics and well worn science fiction and horror paperbacks I managed to get some curious looks from the dirty mac brigade. Unfortunately they kept the mags sealed in plastic - a precursor to CGC I'm sure - so you could never sneak a look through the pages.

 

All they needed was a section for recent vinyl releases and it would have been a young boy's heaven!

 

We have very smilar experiences of collecting back in the good ol' days. (thumbs u

 

I can also remember spending ages trawling through the 2nd hand records & tapes at Rockaway Records in the Indoor Market...happy days!

Edited by PulpCultureComics
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Whizzer

Whizzer

Posted
Posted

Okay, this was a long time ago, probably 1980 or '81, but my first visit to a proper comic shop was when a friend and I persuaded our mums to take us into London during the school holidays.

 

The plan was that they would go and have lunch in Covent Garden and we would spend an hour or so in Comic Showcase in (I think Neal Street?). I will never forget that hour for as long as I live. I had never seen as many comics in one place in my life before and I was in heaven.

 

They even had comics in there from, wait for it... As far back as the 1960's!

 

I don't remember exactly what I bought, but it definitely included a bronze age Savage Sword of Conan mag and a Fantasy Masterpieces with GA Cap reprints, man I read that thing to death, it seemed like an ancient artifact at the time!

 

Now, this is where my memory may be playing tricks on me. As we walked around the corner from the shop we came across a scary old bloke in a dirty mac with (I swear) an old market barrow (!) half covered in old comics and half in 'used' Porno mags. I bought an old Metal Men comic from him for pennies ( I thought I should buy it because it looked so old!)

 

I'd love to know if any of you ever saw this guy and know who he was. He definitely existed, but my childhood memory may be exaggerating some of the details.

 

That day cemented my obsession with comics though and I remember it fondly. Happy days! :cloud9:

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Comicopolis

Comicopolis

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I remember those places - especially the store next to Jack Hatfields on Borough Road.

 

I would still takes these over what we have today which is one FP on the whole of teesside.

 

If I am in town I usually walk in and out within 30 seconds.

 

Other than that I do not know of any comic stores till you either go up to New castle or down to York.

 

Very poor.

 

Jack Hatfield's :cloud9:

 

I also remember another "Bookshop" on Borough Road. It sold, books, mags and toys. A little bit like FP, but with blacked out windows :whistle:

 

Before I headed south, and away from the treasure chest that was Book's 'n' Comics, I also used to buy a lot of comics from a run down second hand book store in the precinct near to the post office (Down the side of McDonalds). The elderly owner had a huge amount of midgrade bronze and copper stock and very little knowledge about them. I picked up a mid grade run of Daredevil (50 - 200) and about a longbox full of Fantastic Fours for about 20p an issue. All great reader copies. I've still got the DD's and sold the FF's for 50p each a few years later.

 

I've only ever been in the Boro FP once and like you, I managed about 30 seconds.

 

Redcar car boot sale was also good to spot some bargains. That's where I picked up my run of Marvel Super Heroes, Hulk Weeky's and Spidey Weekly's for 10p each

 

Mmmmmm....UK reprints :)

 

I remember the shop that you are talking about - it was on the opposite side of where the post office was on Grange Road. They also had books, records, CD's, videos - a virtual treasure trove of quality junk. I used to go in regularly before I started collecting again and thumb through the comics. They closed down a few years ago, virtually over night, and I always wondered what happened to all of their stuff.

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