The Distribution of US Published Comics in the UK (1959~1982) 15 15

[Albert Tatlock]

On 7/25/2023 at 8:33 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Going to Brick Bradford anytime soon?

I believe the correct spelling is Bratfud.

That is the place where all the footie fans sport Harry Potter scarves.

[themagicrobot]

No time to read any comics today. It is the school holidays and I was required to amuse these two all day. Gave the one on the right an infant Spidey comic I'd owned for 20 years (because it came with a fab Spider-Man mask I recall). Gave the one on the left a 1975 UK Fanzine. Don't think he'll read it.

 

[Yorick]

On 7/25/2023 at 12:36 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Sorry

[Albert Tatlock]

On 7/25/2023 at 8:37 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

That is the place where all the footie fans sport Harry Potter scarves.

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

[Yorick]

On 7/25/2023 at 12:49 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

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

...and I thought I was a fan. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 7/25/2023 at 8:49 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

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

Hold on - what's that banner that bloke's holding say? Bottom right. I can't quite make it out Albert 

 

[themagicrobot]

Off off off topic. War had been declared a few weeks ago but you could still read the adventures of Brick Bradford in french France. And did you know that hurrah is french for hooray?

[Albert Tatlock]

On 7/25/2023 at 8:59 PM, themagicrobot said:

And did you know that hurrah is french for hooray?

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

[Albert Tatlock]

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.

[Malacoda]

On 7/25/2023 at 8:36 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Well that Kimota the blue.

 

 

Sorry

 

Are you doubling down on Bev Bevan there?

[Get Marwood & I]

On 7/25/2023 at 9:57 PM, Malacoda said:

Are you doubling down on Bev Bevan there?

Mis-ta Bloo Skeye-eye....

[Redshade]

On 7/25/2023 at 8:33 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

I spotted this lot on eBore in the week - lots of Miller's Book Exch. stamps and stickers in evidence (love that 9d sticker):

 

The seller was Philip. I know this because I wrote to him, not because I recognised his sock in the picture.

He said:

A bit of Googleation later and I find it's still there!

So I email the manager of the market and after a chaser get this from Helen:

Nothing since.

@Albert Tatlock Albert, you're a Northerner aren't you. Going to Brick Bradford anytime soon? 

Is this theirs, or nay!

I remember Millers Books in Bradford Kirkgate Market back in the late 80s/early 90s and it looked very similar to the photograph above. At this time the stall was run by an elderly (middle aged?) couple whose grown up son ran a comic book stall across the aisle from them.
They had stopped using those large stickers by this time, at least on the comics counter but I suspect that they were still in use on the books/stationery shop.
The son's name was Howard and I think and he will probably now be retired as he was about the same age as myself.
I haven't been to Bradford for decades so I have no idea who runs the business now.

Edited July 27, 2023 by Redshade

[Get Marwood & I]

On 7/27/2023 at 1:51 AM, Redshade said:

At this time the stall was run by an elderly (middle aged?) couple whose grown up son ran a comic book stall across the aisle from them.

I wish set ups like this still existed. Back in the day you could find old comics everywhere. Little stalls in markets here and there, corners of shops, boxes outside on the pavement. Individual shops are rare now - every town looks the same. I remember the walk from Rodney's in Barking up to Ilford in the 1980s. There were two or three places on route that had back issues. Just single shops owned by people rather than chains that sold everything and anything. There was one sort of junk shop on route that had boxes on the pavement and inside. Such a different world and, whilst it was 30 or 40 years ago now, it still feels like yesterday to me. I think the post war, pre-internet decades, for all their faults, were the best time to be alive myself. 

[themagicrobot]

Quote

There was one sort of junk shop on route that had boxes on the pavement and inside. Such a different world and, whilst it was 30 or 40 years ago now, it still feels like yesterday to me.

The demise of the junk shop and the rise of the Charity shop and the Interweb saw the end of decades of bargains. Even Car boot sales no longer have any bargains.

I think the magic word here is "junk". Thirty or forty years ago I collected old car and motorcycle magazines. You could go to Autojumbles and buy a box full for a quid. They were just considered old junk. At a recent visit to an Autojumble I saw a dealer selling old magazines and brochures all bagged and boarded with prices starting at £20. 

[Malacoda]

On 7/27/2023 at 8:01 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

I wish set ups like this still existed. Back in the day you could find old comics everywhere. Little stalls in markets here and there, corners of shops, boxes outside on the pavement. Individual shops are rare now - every town looks the same. I remember the walk from Rodney's in Barking up to Ilford in the 1980s. There were two or three places on route that had back issues. Just single shops owned by people rather than chains that sold everything and anything. There was one sort of junk shop on route that had boxes on the pavement and inside. Such a different world and, whilst it was 30 or 40 years ago now, it still feels like yesterday to me. I think the post war, pre-internet decades, for all their faults, were the best time to be alive myself. 

I think entertainment, technology and, crucially medicene, are all massively improved in the 21st century, but climate change, house prices, the rich/poor gap, technological warfare, the drug epidemic, traffic, obesity, the lack of public investment in everything, manipulation of social media and many other things are far worse.  I fully support the objectives of inclusivity and wokeness, but the way it's happening feels like we're just exchanging the tyranny of the majority for the tyranny of every minority. 

I miss all those shops too. It's amazing how many of them it's impossible to even find a photo of or reference to (because who went around photographing junk shops?).  In the 70's / 80's , there was a local SH bookshop which also sold comics in a cardboard box on a shelf.  Though it closed decades ago, I discovered the lady still sells books on the net.  Here's a photo she posted of the shop, which tells you everything you need to know.  

 

 

 

[themagicrobot]

Film and developing was so expensive when you needed all your student grant to buy beer cigarettes and comics

I did take some photos in my local town before they pulled down the cinema and the massive factory where my mother worked but couldn’t document everything I wished to

In the 1970s and into the 1980s there was a second hand record shop smack bang in the middle of Nottingham down an alley

The front window was heaps and heaps of singles covered in cobwebs and dead wasps

LPs were piled 6 foot high and invariably fell over as you walked past

In fact you walked on top of discarded records. The whole place was just like one of those “Hoarded Buried Alive” TV shows

The proprietor sat in the middle of this C20th version of the third circle of hell and if you were brave enough to dig and find something interesting he would sell it to you for the first price that came into his head…usually coppers

Wish someone had recorded that to contrast and compare with a HMV or Virgin megastore (although in 1973 the Virgin record shop in Birmingham was quite eccentric too)

[Get Marwood & I]

On 7/27/2023 at 1:21 PM, Malacoda said:

Here's a photo she posted of the shop, which tells you everything you need to know.  

I want to shop there.

There was a fabulous old bookshop in Stratford back in the day. I used to go there in my lunch hour and, if I was lucky, find a PKD or two in the musty basement. It looked just like that actually - it was run by a bear. 

[Albert Tatlock]

On 7/27/2023 at 1:21 PM, Malacoda said:

I miss all those shops too. It's amazing how many of them it's impossible to even find a photo of or reference to (because who went around photographing junk shops?).

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.

 

[themagicrobot]

The Westerns have Len Miller 6d ink stamps which would have been correct for when those comics rocked up in the UK in the late 1950s/early 1960s. But Jungle Comics published in the  same period appears to have a 1/- stamp bottom right putting it into circulation here years after it was printed.

 

 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 7/27/2023 at 7:26 PM, themagicrobot said:

The Westerns have Len Miller 6d ink stamps which would have been correct for when those comics rocked up in the UK in the late 1950s/early 1960s. But Jungle Comics published in the  same period appears to have a 1/- stamp bottom right putting it into circulation here years after it was printed.

Imported Harvey comics show us that Miller changed stamps from 6d to 9d around US cover date April 1962, the same time as his printed Charlton UKPVs changed. This helps us date the undated IWs - or at least date when they were likely in UK circulation.

As a rule, the 'Top Quality' comics were 6ds and the 'Supers' were 9d:

 

This fits in with the IW dating research elsewhere online, so it's reasonable to assume that Miller was importing them date systematically as he did with Harvey and Charlton, rather than as a bulk lot of unsolds or something like that.

The Jungle Comics in your post bears an unbranded shilling stamp - not one Miller ever used - so could have been sold by anyone, perhaps as a later second hand copy that Miller forgot to stamp (as he often did) if indeed it was an original UK distribution copy.

Here's a Miller stamped Jungle of mine - Adventures this time, not Comics:

Never bring violence to the domain of Taanda. I've always tried to rule that out of my life.