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Terry Hooper-Scharf

Saturday 5 September 2020

Comic History and How Many Swan Albums Do I Own?

To date I have around 66 Swan Comic Albums covering School Boys, Girls Fun, Picture Story, Birthday Fun, Western Fun, Fairies Album, Slick Fun and Comicolour'

The two I got today were Indian Warriors Album and Funnies Album 1946.  Both are currently having "the smell of age" removed -in a bag with some mixed herbs for a few days!

£5.90 for the Funnies Album which is about right for cost. I am intending to start an index to the contents of the Albums since I have mostly full runs but that will be published in parts in Comic Bits. Note that I do not provide index of contents to any data base for reasons outlined in the past.

Although "historical interest" is a key factor there are stories that I could not post online and there are some (not Swan) I could not publish privately -the Atomic Comic for instance all builds up to the final panel "punchline" which, quite honestly, would have offended more than a few at the time.

It is odd, however, to note that very few "black" characters were portrayed negatively -in fact, more than a few were getting the better of "White" folk. But this may be something to look at one day elsewhere.

Swan was there at the right time to bring kids in war torn Britain a few laughs and adventures. He may well have looked down at his comics, preferring the books he published, but he and the Swan creators did a great job.

Incidentally, the Albums were not all new material but strips re-packaged from the weekly titles. I only realised this after seeing some of the original comics.  But that was publishing and I doubt any youngster was going to complain about getting one of these albums.

Oh, and yes, if you have read CBO for any amount of time you will know that I do have other vintage annuals and numerous comics -some very rare.  So I do not just concentrate on Swan....though I would be glad to!

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