Big Mouth Strikes Again and admits "I Got It Wrong!"

 

I defined the various ages of British comics and to be honest I thought 1939-1951 was the British Golden Age period. It appeared in the header for a long time. 

I was wrong.  

As I have delved into older comics or boys papers I have found that the "Golden Age" as defined by Denis Gifford was correct. I have no idea why I doubted that.  

I will be updating things and given dates and reasons as soon as soon as I get over the current eye strain. 

The 'Ultimate' Book of British Comics

  Just a little warning.

I ordered this book from Amazon as I did not recognise the cover.  

What I got was THIS book the cover of which I DID recognise. 

 

I would not recommend it since there is nothing in it that you would not find in an old Denis Gifford or Alan Clark book. Forget the  bullshit claim that the catalogue every comic produced would require a book three times the size of this 296 pager. Denis Gifford accomplished it and even updated later volumes.  

The fact that the Boy's Papers were skipped is acceptable as although they had comic strips in them if you want to on weekly comics  -although the fact that they contained strips needed to be mentioned. Then we come to the biggest exclusion of all. Comics of the 1930s-1950s because this book concentrates on the 1960s-1980s. No mention of Gerald Swan, no mention of Marvelman or any of the significant comics of the three decades he ignores.

Basically, as a comic historian and fan I found the book not that good -but luckily I only paid £3.00 for it. The author does enjoy hyperbole though as in the claim "which is, literally, read by millions" re his work 

If you just want a list of some 60s but mainly 1970s-1980s titles then this is for you...if you can buy it cheap.

Igor...The Beginning

 Igor by Edward Lowe who worked in A. Soloway comics titles no real information on him but this Igor strip is from All Star Comic Vol. 4 no. 4

I have been searching for a long time but part 2 of this series I have never found!

Merry and Bright -Help Needed To ID Year

 

It is an oddity in my collection of old stuff: Merry and Bright Published by John F. Shaw & Co., Ltd., London.According to a search result:

"John F. Shaw & Co., Ltd., a London-based publisher, produced an annual titled "Merry and Bright". This annual was published in the early 20th century, according to bookselling sites. The annual is a hardcover book, and first editions can be found for sale through secondhand booksellers. "

In fact, after months of searching I have only ever found one copy. First edition and £46 but 

nothing to indicate the year published. I would guess at late 1920s to early 1930s. Anyone know

better?

Cooperation On Gathering British Golden Age Material

 Thrill Comics no. 1, April, 1940. Does it exist? Well, yes but you might not think so if you looked for information.  William A. Ward's character The Bat appeared in that first issue and a later later edition of Extra Fun in 1940 -paper regulations and rationing was causing more than a few problems.

 I do wonder how many copies of annuals/albums saw print since most are basically published issues bound together so...unsold copies?

Anyway, let me tell you a story about cooperation amongst comic 'fans'.  In the late 1990s and early 200s I found my own books and scans supplemented by scans sent by an American who belonged to one of my Yahoo groups. I had two British comic collectors add a couple issues but they insisted that they did not want to be named although I did thank them using their online names later.

That was it. From 2002-2025 not a single person has helped to get old characters and strips back into print so that they are not forgotten. No money involved of course since the books hardly sell and I treat them as labours of love.

I managed to have a late friend scan the special issue of Back From The Dead (appearing in parts in War Comics (1940) and Topical Funnies (1941) before being compiled in whole in Picture Epics (1952).  My friend's scans were not up to much, or so I thought.  

I managed to find two other people who scanned their copies and....they matched up perfectly, ink fades and defects exactly the same as the copies my friend had sent. If each had scanned their own copies of  Back From The Dead then how could that be? As I got to know even more about the period I realised that it was down to rationing and cheap ink and paper and cut price printing.  Some of the defects in Swan comics also appear in the same strip in the annuals and clearly show that Swan was not wasting a penny and bound non selling issues made a good album -new money for old rope so it goes.

Recently I was sent a scan of a Dene Vernon strip -in fact the first Dene Vernon strip from Thrill Comics no.1, April, 1940 (the series ran from 1940-1946) but this one came from Weird Story Magazine no. 1, August, 1940 Dave Brzeski for that!  I thought this would be great as my copy of the strip was not great, however, after looking at the copy from WSM I found that apart from the small differences the quality was the same. This appears to have been another example of Swan needing "filler pages" and adding the Vernon story.

I have searched for...let's say a "very long time"..a copy of the first appearance of Krakos the Egyptian from New Funnies Autumn Special (1940) and then the series from Thrill Comics 1941-1946 but no luck. Denis Gifford would never slap a book on a scanner but he had a copy of the first issue with Krakos in and was selling it for £5 (he sold a lot via his Association of Comic Enthusiasts -ACE). Sadly, he passed away before I could buy. I do know that several ACE members had copies and Denis had sent me their details. Not one was willing to scan or sell when I later asked. 

The same thing happened when I tried to find the first appearance of William A. Ward's The Bat from Thrill Comics no. 1, April, 1940 -he took a quick jump over to Extra Fun!  No one was willing to scan or sell a copy and there were various excuses such as a scan making their comic less valuable (I hate to say it but a scan of a comic is not going to devalue an actual hard copy!).

Having just seen prices being asked by some sellers fro Swan comics -£250, £500 for an eight page comic????- I don't think I could afford  even a later issue currently going for £98 and that for 8 pages. 

I have spent a lot of money to date and I just wish there were people out there that interested in British Golden Age comics but there just are not. Speculators have latched on to Swan simply because they have heard the name and think that there is a burgeoning market for the books.

Cooperation over just the last 25 years has been near absent which is a pity as more and more old comic fans pass on and their collections and memories are lost.

Masked Justice in the Old West -Leatherface!

 

Previously I presented  The Outlaw Sheriff from D C Thomsons Adventure no. 1346  4th November, 1950

https://britishgoldenagecomics.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-outlaw-sheriff.html

Imagine my surprise, having forgotten about it years ago, finding on a disc (yes -an actual disc) another fine example of Western masked justice -Leatherface! This is fromThe Skipper 15th July, 1933

The Man Who Laughs At Scotland Yard: The Red Spider!!

 Our sister site -UK Golden Age Heroes (blog list to right) has had The Chuckling Prowler posted to it....no, that is a character!

Anyway, I thought what we needed here is a glimpse of a very long lost Platinum Age villain...The Red Spider!!! From Adventure 454 published 12th July, 1930

Baby Buster and Spick and Span

Now I am not going to say "effete trendies from art college" or elite cliques but the Platinum Comics people can be narrow  minded, ignorant and just outright rude.  I once pointed out that there were indeed comic strips in old British Boy's Papers as they are called.  The result was that I was mocked and rather rudely by people who it seems had never actually handled or read pre-British Golden Age publications.

After all they were perfectly correct in that there were no masked or costumed adventurers or crime-fighters pre-1939 (if I ignore all of such said characters.

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Here is something from my feeble imagination, or, as I like to call it Adventure published on the 12th July, 1930

 

Streamline no. 3 Moved So Fast From My Collection -I Never Knew It Was Gone!

 You see, at one time I was a complete trusting moron. My home was an open house for comickers and while we worked and talked they would also delve into my collection. 

A good few books 'vanished'.

Amongst those comics was Streamline no. 2 which I picked up for £1 at a Bath Comic mart in the 1980s.  

 I understand why Denis Gifford let NO ONE near his home and collection.  

I am posting this in case anyone has a scan (at least) of this issue? If so please let me know!!

NEVER Be Afraid To Ask Me A Question About Old/Obscure British Characters

 

 2013  is a long time ago now but I had no idea that I was the subject of a LOT of discussion on the Comic Book Plus forum. I won't name names for obvious reasons but I do recall someone was hitting me with question after question about obscure British comic heroes on Brit Comics.  There was no explanation and then the person vanished.

Last week I found out what was going on (hey, I don't visit comic forums and I'm old!!):

"I am currently playing Stump the Hooper over @ Britishcomics @ Yahoo. I need to come up with some really obscure British super hero or heroine types from the 1930's or 40's or earlier. Got any suggestions out there guys?"

The response he got was:

"if that's Terry Hooper, and it is, you've no chance.  He's close to encyclopaedic in his knowledge of British comics characters.  But, and remember, he could be reading this, you might want to try some from British storypapers.  We call them storypapers nowadays but when I was a wee boy, they were all "comics", whether it was illustrated stories or text strips or balloon strips."

Well, I never read forums as when I ask questions I rarely get a response or if I do it's "Well, if you don't know how would we?"

Anyway, the original poster followed up:

"Well that didn't work out too well. Seems I sort of teed Mr. Terry off. Big mistake on my part and a big embarrassment of myself. So much so that I resigned from his group in utter shame! My bad."

I have no recollection of how this person thinks he teed me off.  The thing is IF he had said "are you up for a challenge?" then yes. If he hit me with  question after question with no explanation I would wonder what was going on as I always answer any questions or mails and research can take a while. He should certainly NOT have resigned but just explained.

Finding old characters and informing people about them is what I try to do to keep the memories of the characters and creators alive (if very dusty with slight foxing).  I think the original poster stated that he showed me an image of a character and I then sent him an image of how the character looked originally rather than how he thought the character looked.

I do tend to be brief and to the point -the same as with work: get a job do it quickly then finish BUT I would never get angry at someone unless they were seeming to be trying to annoy me.   If it had just been mentioned what his intention was I would have been open to  a challenge.