A question to our overseas members?

[EwanUK]

Well, all respect to Bob. Funny guy. I remember seeing him many years ago on a day-time TV show talking about his collection (the pic below is his first pro-work apparently) and his friendship with Dennis Gifford.

 

 

Incidentally, I didn't realise Dennis Gifford was no longer with us either. I used have a huge hardback book full of amazing photo's from his collection - but all the major GA keys were listed as "facsimiles". (If that was the case, who made them?)

 

However, his collection was apparently sold, extract a follows...

 

 

Gifford's comic book heroes under the hammer

 

Sunday, February 11, 2001

 

Comedian Bob Monkhouse, Gifford's best friend until his death in 1974, remembers him in an affectionate foreword to the auction catalogue. "Denis was gloriously grumpy. But it was a funny grumpiness, his blunt and grouchy ways laced with rich humour," he recalls.

 

While pupils at Dulwich College, the pair secretly collaborated on a series of 16-page full colour comics with titles crammed with teenage obscenity. "If it seems innocent nonsense today, believe me in 1943 it could have got us expelled," says Monkhouse.

 

The two went on to serve in the Royal Air Force, by which time Gifford was a well established newspaper cartoonist with a passion for collecting kiddies comics. On his return home having completed his National Service, he was devastated to find that his mother had thrown out his entire collection.

 

Which brings me to this week’s little anecdote. (Have you noticed how this column has been turning into a bit of a weekly ramble these days? I seem to remember being quite analytical when I started out.) I was listening to a show on the radio last week and by chance heard a piece about the comics collection owned by the late Dennis Gifford, which will start going under the auctioneer’s hammer later this month.

 

OK, so now all the non Brits (and indeed quite a few who do hail from this Sceptered Isle) are thinking “Who?” Well, Dennis Gifford was probably the greatest comics collector in the UK, and almost certainly one of the greatest experts in comics history in the world. I never met the man, although I would have liked to have done so. He wrote several books on comics and comics history though, and I have read them with great interest over the years. While I would never claim to be anything like as great an authority as Gifford, I take an interest in comics history and would have loved to have really debated a few points with him.

 

Most of the examples of comics that Gifford used in his books seemed to be drawn from his own collection, I always assumed that he had a very big collection indeed. I have since learned just how big. The radio report featured an interview with Bob Monkhouse (the name I suspect will mean nothing to non-Brits, but he is a very well known comedian over here. Our version of Jackie Mason I guess) who had been friends with Gifford since their school days.

 

Dennis Gifford had always been a fan of comics. He drew comics while he was still at school, and is cited by Monkhouse as one of the influences that turned him towards a career in comedy. In the fifties Gifford wrote for a range of British humour comics, as well as for TV and radio. But I get the impression that above all else he was a collector at heart.

 

Certainly Gifford would have sympathised with those of us who are running out of room to house our ever-increasing stacks of comics. Monkhouse recalled that at one stage Gifford was storing comics in his oven because all of his other shelves and cupboards were already full! Suddenly my own storage problems seem a little insignificant – I’m nowhere near having to take such drastic action, although I can imagine what my wife’s reaction would be if I tried…

 

Gifford’s collection was without question of great importance. He owned copies of just about every historically important comic ever published in the English language on either side of the Atlantic. From Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday and The Beano to Batman and Superman, they were all there from the birth of comics in the nineteenth centuary through the Golden Age and beyond.

 

All comics history was there – it really was museum quality stuff. Sadly, Gifford never left a will, so the collection will now be broken up into lots and sold off. I can’t help thinking that this is a tragedy. Obviously it is a chance for enthusiasts to get their hands on some fine examples of rare and important comics, which is good.

 

But it still breaks my heart that a man could spend his life amassing a collection that tells the story of the medium from beginning to end, only for the whole thing to be scattered. Our collections are our legacies after all.

 

 

[JohnBull]

Gifford died well over a year ago by my memory. I thought his stuff had already been auctioned - I seem to remember a capsule piece in the Telegraph and I think it was a Northern auction house. I have a feeling Vault might have sold a few bits too, but I could be off track there.

 

In the early UK comicons, he was always on the UK panels. I also remember seeing a UK panel around 1980 presented by Doc Garriock (Masters of Comic Book Art). I was near the back and almost next to Gifford and A.N.Other (a younger man with blonde hair). Gifford had a briefcase full of UK issues and as Garriock presented a slide show of major SA keys (ala FF1, ASM1 etc), Dennis turned to his companion and asked "I assume you have all these ?". The guy said yes, but the way the question was asked, I always assumed that it wasn't Gifford's field.

 

I think it's best his collection is broken up. Can you imagine if every time a major collector died that the whole thing was left in it's entirety to someone else and none ever came back on the market ? I'm not saying that you shouldn't be able to leave to your nearest and dearest, but if nothing ever came back for sale, where would future collectors be ?

[goldust40]

Very interesting to learn that Gifford and Monkhouse were best mates from school onwards. Not sure about Monkhouse being similar to Jackie Mason, however - I'm sure they knew each other, but Monkhouse's style was smoother and less abrasive. No question that he will be rightly missed as a man with a phenomenally sharp mind who I felt slummed it in variety.

 

As for the dissolution of Gifford's collection - well most of it was in fairly low grade as he was only interested in owning the book and using it as a point of reference. I agree that most collections should be made extant for whatever reason, but in Gifford's case I feel it may have been more interesting if his home and all its' comic-related contents had been left exactly as it was, and turned into a shrine [!@#%^&^] museum dedicated to the collecting, accruing, hoarding and accumulating of comic books and related materials.

 

It would have been fascinating. Comics in the oven.............. the press and all those amateur psychiatrists who pontificate about obssessive behaviour would have had a field day.

[JohnBull]

Comics in the oven I'm also intrigued as to what came between 'shrine' and 'museum'.

[goldust40]

Comics in the oven I'm also intrigued as to what came between 'shrine' and 'museum'.

 

Check the article that EwanUK supplied for us a few posts earlier re Gifford's unusual storage methods. Space is everything when it comes to collecting comics long term............

 

As for what word was between "shrine" and "museum" - that was the moderator's software on overdrive, once again. I should have typed "shrine/museum" instead I wrote shrine c.u.m. museum - a dirty word but NOT in this context as it means "by extension". Lordy - that sounded a bit rude as well!!!! MODERATOR!!!!!

[JohnBull]

Sorry Ewan

 

A c.u.m. museum ? You sick [!@#%^&^].

[goldust40]

Sorry Ewan

 

A c.u.m. museum ? You sick [!@#%^&^].

 

ME sick??? Why you ing fluffy and so forth.

 

Seriously, GP, you read too many comic books. Especially, apparently, Viz.

 

Now go to your room.