This will effect a good few lulu.com publishers

Out of the blue I got a lulu.com email (funny how you never get one when you make enquiries) which told me I should have been alerted to these changes in an earlier email. NO I WAS NOT!!!

But for those using lulu.com here are the changes:

Binding options and their page counts

by  Vero_Lulu  on ‎01-18-2011 12:23 PM - edited on ‎07-30-2013 09:33 AM by  Glenn_H (90,072 Views)

Labels:

• Binding

• ,

• Case Wrap

• ,

• dust jacket

• ,

• hardcover

• ,

• page counts

• ,

• perfect bound

• ,

• Plasticoil

• ,

• saddle stitch

Notice: Discontinued Formats

(Binding and Page Count information is displayed below the alternate format tables)

Print books are an ideal way for self-published authors to share their stories with readers. As part of our continuing efforts to provide Lulu authors with both popular and economical options, we’ve recently evaluated the book sizes, binding options and paper selections we provide. With your preferences informing our decisions, we're changing the line-up of print book formats we offer. We're focusing on those print book formats that you use and people buy most often, and we're discontinuing the ones that are least frequently used and purchased. This way, we can continue to offer the best possible range of options, providing you with the quality and flexibility you love, and still provide you with very competitive pricing.

As a result of our assessment, the print packages listed below will be discontinued on August 20, 2013. To ensure an easy and smooth author experience, we have provided a list of recommended alternative formats for those formats being discontinued.

Discontinuation of these formats will occur in multiple phases:

Phase 2 - August 20, 2013

• All projects created in the discontinued formats will be permanently retired and removed from the Lulu Marketplace.
• Retired projects will be visible in your My Projects > Retired Projects list.
• Files used to create these retired projects will continue to be available on the My Files page for 12 months, after which time they will be permanently deleted according to the Lulu Membership Agreement: Content Retention Guidelines.  
  

Phase 1 - July 23, 2013

• The print book options listed above will be removed from the project creation wizards, meaning that authors can no longer select these options when creating a new project or revising an existing project.
• All existing projects created using these options will be identified in your Project list with a reminder that the book format will soon be discontinued.
• Authors may choose to revise and republish their project using a comparable book size and format.
• If you have a project created in the above format, you will receive Lulu coupon codes to further reduce your author's discount allowing you to stock up on your books at even lower prices. Coupons must be used by August 20, 2013.
• Projects created in the above listed formats will continue to be available for purchase in the Lulu Marketplace.

¹Actions related to changes in page count requirements are not listed.

¹Actions related to changes in page count requirements are not listed.

¹Actions related to changes in page count requirements are not listed.

Binding Options and Page Counts

Lulu offers 5 binding options:

	Perfect Bound: A paperback book where the title and author's name are printed on the spine. Your book must have 70-80 pages for text to appear on the spine.
	Saddle stitch: A stapled booklet. Best for very thin books. Your page count should be divisible by 4. If it is not, the printer adds enough blank pages to the back of your book to make the page count divisible by 4.
	PlastiCoil: A spiral bound book (like a spiral notebook). Recommended for books less than 1" thick, between 48 and 470 pages.
	Dust Jacket Hardcover: A book bound in navy blue linen with a full-color dust jacket.
	Casewrap Hardcover: Full-color, glossy cover; no dust jacket.

See Also: What paper will my book have for the cover and interior? 

Distribution Binding Types and their page counts can be found here: Which books are eligible for Distribution? 

Page Maximums and Minimums for Lulu Books

Page limits	Perfect Bound	Saddle Stitch	PlastiCoil	Casewrap	Dust Jacket
Publisher Grade
5.5 x 8.5" or 13.97 x 21.59cm	80 to 740 pages
8.50 x 11" or 21.59 x 27.94cm	80 to 740 pages
Standard (Lulu Traditional)
4.25 x 6.87" or 10.79 x 17.46cm	40 to 740 pages
5.83 x 8.26" or 14.81 x 20.99cm	32 to 740 pages	8 to 64 pages	1 to 470 pages
6 x 9" or 15.24 x 22.86cm	32 to 740 pages	1 to 88 pages	1 to 470 pages	24 to 800 pages	24 to 800 pages
6.13 x 9.21" or 15.59 x 23.38cm	68 to 740 pages	3 to 88 pages	3 to 400 pages
6.625 x 10.25" or 16.82 x 26cm	32 to 740 pages	1 to 88 pages
7.5 x 7.5" or 19 x 19cm	32 to 500 pages	Retired
9 x 7" or 22.86 x 17.78cm	32 to 500 pages	1 to 56 pages	1 to 470 pages
7.44 x 9.68" or 18.90 x 24.58cm	68 to 740 pages	3 to 88 pages	3 to 400 pages
8.25 x 10.75" or 20.95 x 27.31cm				24 to 800 pages
8.26 x 11.69" or 20.99 x 29.70cm	68 to 740 pages	3 to 88 pages	3 to 400 pages
8.5 x 8.5" or 21.59 x 21.59cm	32 to 740 pages	1 to 88 pages
8.50 x 11" or 21.59 x 27.94cm	32 to 740 pages	1 to 88 pages	1 to 470 pages
Premium Casewrap
12.75 x 10.75" or 32.385 x 27.31cm				20 to 250 pages
12 x 12" or 30.48 x 30.48cm				20 to 250 pages

Because The Fans Asked For It

Hi, friends, fans, colleagues, newspapers (Weren't there the first time? Confused? want more details? Just ask):

Not REALLY the press release:

The Desert Peach musical is back, because the fans just kept bugging us. 

It will be done as a concert, and I THINK the costumes should be done as NEW ART for the background slides, with supertitles. POSSIBLY may be sampled as part of the threatened music festival at the Clallam Bay Comicon.

New orchestrations to be posted to YouTube, with links on the Facebook page, here. Join and get the latest notifications!https://www.facebook.com/DesertPeachMusical

Spread the word. KICKSTARTER campaign coming! And yes, it will budget in paying the singers and crew. Nothing less will do.

Donna Barr

--

Donna Barr: comics * illustration * portraits * storyboards * murals * bookstore: http://www.donnabarr.com

Karen Ruben -Summer Happenings!‏

Dear All,

I hope you're enjoying the summer sunshine and/or thunderstorms!

Here are some comics things that might interest you:

CHATTERBOX

Pick up your copy of children's adventure comic The Phoenix this Friday and you will be horrified to discover a hair-raising tale scary enough to give you a chill even in the heatwave! Chatterbox is written by Daniel Hartwell ofPirates of Pangaea fame, and drawn by me. 

You can get a copy at Waitrose, comics shops such as Gosh, or you can subscribe via The Phoenix website.

SOUTHWARK LIBRARIES MANGA EXTRAVAGANZA

The London-based among you might want to take your families to Southwark Libraries' Manga Extravaganza on 13^th August at Canada Water Library. I will be holding a manga workshop, and there will be an exhibition of local young people's manga artwork. There's no specified age range, but it is mainly aimed at children and teenagers (7 - 18). It's free to attend. As a library aficionado, I can also recommend that the library itself is well worth a browse.

All the details are on the Southwark Libraries website.

Best wishes,

Karen

If You Wonder WHO Cast Iron Chris Is You'll Ask WHAT Is The Iron Boy!!

When I first came across The Iron boy I chuckled.  However, as you do when you get older, I then started questioning the very concept.

The character is, of course, another one of those oddities from the Swan Comics stable. What do we know?

Who was the artist?  No idea. Again, that old problem of not signing work. Whoever it was he kept forgetting the ‘arms’ of the spectacles.  What is really needed are samples of strips that are signed and have this distinctive style.  Good luck with that!

But my bet would be William McCail as artist.

We know the series was contemporary so 1940s to early 1950s.  However, take a look at how this Swan marvel is dressed.  Almost girlish –almost medieval page boy but he is wandering around with no hassles.  Well, no hassles until it comes to metal.

You see, Tim –yes, The Iron Boy has a name!- was “Bred on a diet of tintacks and iron filings Tim was almost solid metal!”

WHAAAT??!!

Okay, we’re back to that “suspension of disbelief” here.  Oh, like soggy pancakes I am!  Can you imagine a comic strip being published today in The Beano or The Dandy about a boy eating tin-tacks and metal filings??  National newspaper and TV outrage fuelled by some “concerned parent” (who probably feeds his/her kids on too much pizza and sweet food).

Who was it looking after Tim?  Well, we know he has an uncle.  He says so and reveals that this uncle only left him with steel flakes, nuts and bolt ‘salad’! In the strips reprinted in Black Tower Gold 6 Tim eats iron bars from a zoo cage, a roadworkers steel drill, suits of medieval armour –this just isn’t human!  But then, let’s look at some of his exploits.

He eats the iron bars from a tigers cage and the tiger bites into Tim’s head –and breaks teeth.

He can walk through solid brick walls and not notice.  He can dig a road up with a pick-axe at incredible speed. 

He can fall from an aeroplane and land on an elephant and bruise it –he can also survive being thrown a distance by said elephant and land and knock out two full-grown lions!

In the death grasp of a python he can stretch and break free –tearing the python into three pieces!

Were Tim’s adventures after being dropped into Africa continued?

Anyone remember who was the fifteenth member to join DC comics Legion of Super Heroes in the 30^th century?  Matter-Eater Lad who can eat and digest any substance without harm to himself.  Could it be….?  No, obviously not.  Besides, Tim eats metal almost exclusively.

Oh. Yes, did I mention Tim travelled through time in one of Swan's ubiquitous spheroid time craft? Did he know Matter Eater Lad's mum?  I say. Steady on.

So, if he eats metal it must be used up for energy, right?  Certainly he is strong beyond the simple explanation of “being almost solid metal.”  Now, okay, he digests and burns up the metal for energy but there is a bi-product of eating that I need to delicately touch upon.

“Number twos”, “pooping”, “Potty crocodiles”…I could go on but I hope you get my meaning?  1940s plumbing being filled with “metallic waste” is not a good combination.  That said, in the period concerned you would never ever refer to “matters of the toilet” so it wasn’t a problem back then.  But today, oh we want an explanation.  Right, he does not produce “waste”.

In fact, for the character’s upcoming modern appearances I solve all these questions.  The answer lies with one of Black Towers oldest characters.  “Who?” you ask. Well, you’ll have to wait and see!

For all the disregard Gerald Swan later showed to his comics, his line of books and creators came up with some great oddities and The Iron Boy ranks amongst the top ten…closely followed by Ingy Roob!

 Scans used with this article are lower quality than those in publications

______________________________________________________________________________

You'll find more articles, etc. on the lost UK Golden Age over at CBOs sister blog:

http://britishgoldenagecomics.blogspot.co.uk/

And the comic strips can be found in the bumper Ultimate Golden Age Collection:

The Ultimate British Comics Gold Collection

                                t

Paperback, 

405 Pages 

A4

B&W

£20.00

Ships in 3–5 business days

A4

Black & white

Combining volumes 1-6 of the BT Golden Age British Comics Collections (minus adverts) this is the ultimate for any Golden Age collector or historian or just plain comic lover. Features Ace Hart, TNT Tom, Electrogirl, Wonderman, The Phantom Raider, Captain Comet, Acro Maid, Phantom Maid, Dene Vernon,The Iron Boy, The Boy Fish,Professor Atom and MANY others!

http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-ultimate-british-comics-gold-collection/paperback/product-20994399.html

Who On Earth Is “Cast Iron Chris”??

That’s what I tend to ask.  You see, this character, like many others, never had any sort of origin tale that I know of.  The Iron Boy is weird enough, but more about him another time.  These were just strips drawn to fill pages for a few shillings by creators who didn’t have the luxury of expanding beyond one page with sometimes nine panels.

To all intents and purposes, Cast Iron Chris is a British superman but without a costume and more in the mold of other characters such asDesperate Dan –one wonders whether that might have been the intention?  John “Jock” McCail seemed to be a mainstay of Gerald Swan’s line of Swan Comics (Ah Wong, Dene Vernon, etc.) and drew at least one Cast Iron Chris strip that I know of.

We do not even know who it was that created the character. This was all “throw-away” entertainment after all and few creators chose to sign their work from choice.  We do know that in Slick Fun No. 22 (1945), McCail depicts Chris getting into a battleships 20 inch guns and falls asleep –he is fired into a German naval vessels and his impact sinks it.

That’s pretty good invulnerability.

But there is more.  In Black Tower Gold (volume 4) I reprinted another Cast Iron Chris strip (it was sent to me with no issue credits I believe it is from the Slick Fun Album,1950).  In the opening panel Chris is having a letter “C” tattooed onto his chest…using a pneumatic drill as opposed to a tattooist needle!  He then loses a book down an open manhole cover where there is a gas leak –striking a match to find the book in the dark, Chris is blown hundreds of feet into the air.  He goes through the cockpit floor of an aircraft and jumps back down to earth carrying the pilot.

Now, if that ain’t super human then I have no idea what is!

This is certainly not John McCail’s art style.  But it IS his brother, William's style and William was, without a doubt, the better of the two at comic art.

One can use one’s imagination to work out an “origin” but, honestly, the reader being a youngster, was supposed to just accept it all –a suspension of disbelief as it were. And that’s how it was supposed to be.

I have used Cast Iron Chris in a Black Tower strip but not to any great extent.  In 2012 he will be back and then I may have to make up an origin!

Steve Dowling -Father Of GARTH!

STEVE DOWLING INTERVIEW
Around 1999, I had an email from the grandson of Steve Dowling who was living in Canada.  I learnt that Steve had been bumped out of his job simply because he had reached 65 years of age (only in the UK!).  He then spent many years living off a poor pension.  Steve had no original art from his newspaper strip days to show his family -it’s why I was contacted because of my British Comic Books Archive project.


Apparently the family had asked the Daily Mirror newspaper if it could just get some photocopies of the pages for themselves.  No.  They asked then editor Piers Morgan (can I spit?) who basically responded that he had no time to waste of dumb comic strips (his hatred of them is well recorded).

I lost the email from the family when my old computer blew. IF Steve’s family in Canada read this then I have Garth strips I can offer on share file.
But now, the interview:

Published in ‘Ally Sloper’ #1, 1976, and reprinted in ‘Comic Bits’ #1, 2001. Denis Gifford conducts an on-stage interview at ‘Comics 101′ on 20 March 1976 with Garth creator Steve Dowling, who died in 1986.

STEVE: I might say that it’s been more than worthwhile to come all this way, because I thought nobody knew me any more, let alone thought me worthy of an award! Everybody’s been so kind to me and said so many nice things that I’ve really been rather overwhelmed by it all. Thank you very much, everyone.

DENIS: Well, we’ll get on to the British newspaper strip, which you were almost solely responsible for. You worked under several different names and different styles. How did it all start?

STEVE: It started by my going riding with a friend who did a strip called ‘Tich’ in the Daily Mirror, the ideas for which were supplied by my brother, Frank. Coming back from this event, rather full of liquor, unfortunately there was a car accident and the artist, Martin, died. And so I had to step into his shoes and was plummeted into the strip business in a rather shaky condition, having gone through the roof of a car! ‘Tich’ ran for some years. [from 1931 - DG]

DENIS: But you were an artist before this?

STEVE: I was in advertising. As a matter of fact, I was at the time Assistant Art Director for Dorland Advertising at the age of 24. I gave up my job at Dorland’s because I could do ‘Tich’ in one day a week – there were very few lines in the thing, very slick little drawings – and then I could go down by the seaside and put my feet up for the rest of the week, which was very nice indeed!

DENIS: There were strips in the Mirror before ‘Tich’, ‘Dud’ and ‘Jinks’ and so on – but after ‘Tich’ strips seem to blossom.



STEVE: Well, old Guy Bartholomew who was chairman of the Mirror was mad hot about strips. Having been an artist himself he regarded the strips as the main part of the paper. His opinion was that most people couldn’t read, anyway, and liked looking at pictures!

DENIS: What was the genesis of ‘Ruggles’, your first real strip?

STEVE: I think having seen American continuity strips. I got the idea for this character ‘John Ruggles’, an ordinary chap, and my brother who had quite a gift for humorous writing,wrote the words. In point of fact I think ‘Ruggles’ was the first continuity strip to appear in a national daily. The others were all daily incidents. The idea of having a serial story run in picture form was new in this country, although, of course, it had been done in America. I remember Cecil King, who was rather small-fry then, always wanted me to make ‘Ruggles’ build a shed in his garden, because his 14 year-old son had suggested the idea! If I had taken King’s advice ‘Ruggles’ garden would have been so stiff with sheds that he wouldn’t have been able to move!

DENIS: Did you sit down and create ‘Ruggles’ as the average man with an average family?

STEVE: Very average! In fact we were trying to write down to the readers, a thing one should not do! Trying to make the strip as like the family life as we could. After a time my brother gave it up – he became the editor of the Picture Post instead – and I took it over. I tried to strengthen the storyline and some of the humour went out of it.
Steve Dowling receiving an Ally Sloper award from Denis Gifford and Bob Monkhouse at Comics 101

DENIS: Why did you sign it with a pseudonym: ‘Ruggles – by Blik’?

STEVE: Oh, that was just a short name like: ‘Tich – by Dart’.

DENIS: And: ‘Belinda Blue Eyes – by Gloria’?

STEVE: Oh, I was just one of a long line of Glorias! That was actually written in the first place by Bill Connor, who later became Sir William, ‘Cassandra’. He wrote it to order for Bartholomew the chairman. Everybody took a hand in those days. Basil Nicholson, the editor, who was the man who re-modelled the Mirror, his idea of having a comic strip was to have a different person every day slipping on a banana skin. One day a clergyman, the next day a policeman; he thought that was the level of public understanding.

DENIS: Later ‘Ruggles’ featured the public actually in the strip. How did that unique series come about?

STEVE: They thought the strip was flagging a bit and Philip Zec, who was then the strip editor, asked me to come up with a twist. Well, Wilfred Pickles on the radio was then ‘Meeting the People’ and I thought I would try this in strip form. I took some roughs into Zec, who didn’t think much of the idea. He took it to the chairman, and next day I got a telegram from Zec: “Please draw some more along the lines I suggested.” Well, I did, and Zec got into trouble for claiming it was his idea – it became the chairman’s idea! But I must say that the idea eventually reverted to me – when they found that the series didn’t go down very well!!

DENIS: Why did ‘Ruggles’ come to an end?

STEVE: Well, they felt it wasn’t pulling. They asked for letters and, of course, more people will write and say they don’t like a thing than those who do, so ‘Ruggles’ went.

DENIS: And so, we come, at last to Garth. How and why did he begin?

STEVE: I had been writing and drawing ‘Belinda . . .’ and not enjoying it very much. Then they found another artist, Tony Royle, to take it on, so they asked me to produce another strip in order to justify my salary. It took me about three months to think up Garth and draw the first three weeks’ strips. The chairman thought that was rather too long – so he docked my pay!

DENIS: Did you set out to create a British equivalent to ‘Superman’?

STEVE: No, ‘Terry and the Pirates’ was my great influence, if anything. I was rather interested in Tibet, and the Forbidden City, and the magic that was there. For instance, in the beginning Garth was resuscitated by the ‘kiss of life’ from a rather attractive young woman called Gala. Well, the ‘kiss of life’ was not known here then, but I had read about it in a book on Tibet.

DENIS: Garth was a man of mystery. Did you have a solution in mind from the start?

STEVE: Oh, no. I had no solution at all. I had no more idea who Garth was than the reader!

DENIS: One mystery was that Garth drifted in from the sea, and there is no sea around Tibet!

STEVE: Artistic licence!

DENIS: Another striking feature was the constantly bared bosom of one of Garth’s girlfriends.

STEVE: One had to fight to show a little in those days.

DENIS: A “little”? I’d call it a lot! I suppose the exposure was very calculated?

STEVE: Oh yes. I certainly enjoyed drawing it.

DENIS: Why did you stop drawing Garth?

STEVE: I had to. I was freelance up to 1949. Then I joined the staff to get a pension, and when I reached the age of 65 I had to go. That was the rule, so I went.
Self drawn illo for Ally Sloper Magazine

Herbie Kirby And The Origin Of The Phantom Detective

Above: 1936(?) photograph of Herbert (“Herbie”) Kirby -top of steps.  He was working on Bristol trams while writing short text stories for boys papers published by Target Publications of Bath. Mystery Of The Tombs in the 1935 Rattler comic may have been one of his pieces.

Below: Fred Astaire in Top Hat (1935) Kirby told me: “I saw the famous American song and dance man, Fred Astaire and he always had that look of being relaxed but ready to spring into action and dance.  He also had this very easy manner of speaking. I thought I would really like to write and draw a comic set (strip) with a character like that.”

Originally, Herbert explained, “I wanted to make him a magician of some type but it just would not solidify as an idea.  It just did not work.”




But then Kirby went to France though he would never even hint at why -his daughter, Rosemary, explained why after his death.  On this visit, however, he was pausing by a book stall “Then I saw it!  It was as though I had been guided across the Channel to see this one illustration that made the entire silly idea work!”

Fantomas, created by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre. Apparently, after his work had concluded, he found “a little back-street ‘flea-pit’ (cinema)” that was showing the film (or one of them). “It was that blessed mask! Just that one little addition to the formal costume gave the right air of mystery.  It was then that I realised if I could interest a publisher I needed to have a good schpiel to sell it.”




Herbert felt that copying the master criminal idea of Fantomas would be wrong.  Or as he called it “stealing the work of someone else.”  However, Raffles, the gentleman thief had been portrayed wearing top hat and tails.

A trip to a Woolworth store in Bristol led to Herbert buying a copy of the famous ghost hunterElliott O’Donnell’s Twenty Years’ Experience as a Ghost Hunter (1916).  “He could spin a good yarn -and the chap had been in the Bristol newspaper a few times concerning hauntings. I began reading the book on a train to Weston-Super-Mare and fell to sleep.  I do hope that I never snored! I had been working day and night so was plum-tuckered out. Anyways, I had a dream of this character in top hat and tails and domino mask who was leading me around this haunted house and I said to him: ‘But why are you not afeared of these ghostly things?’ to which he replied, in a deep and cultured voice: ‘Because, like these lost souls, I too, am dead!’  And that was it. I woke with a start and began making notes!”


So it was that, in 1937, The Phantom Detective came to life -or as Herbert put it: “to death!”


There was a text story with a small Phantom Detective illustration by Herbert but he had no copies -most of his work was lost in the Blitz. He thinks (he was very old when I met him) that the publication was The Merry Midget.

There were “two comic sets” -“The Haunting Of Number 43 Old Yard” and “The Haunted Tram” for which Target paid him but he never saw the strips in print. I gave up searching for these but hope to find them one day!

It was at my third meeting with Herbert that I broached the subject of new Phantom Detective strips.  He liked the idea and was pleased with what he saw.

So, when you see the Phantom Detective remember a very old man (the family had no birth certificate but Herbert was certainly just over 100 years of age when he passed away) who had a very adventurous life, loved writing prose as well as drawing comic strips -including a try out on the original Captain Briton (Britain) from Fleetway in the 1960s which never got to print.

On The Price Of Old UK Comics

Taken from ther UK Golden Age of Comics blog.

Over the weekend I met up with two fellows who I have mentioned before.  They valuate items for auction houses –no, don’t ask as I can’t say but the big ones.  They had been travelling around the UK observing auctions and talking to collectors. I was asked if I was free to chat “because you know more about these rare and obscure British comics of the 1930s-1950s”…After flattery like that what could I say?

Here is the conclusion they made after a three week trip –D.C. Thomson titles such as Beano and Dandy or certain Amalgamated Press (AP)  titles of the 1930s to early 1950s: VERY much sought after.

So I asked what sort of price they were estimating –apparently the first issue of Beano or Dandy and there was no fixed financial price.  “Idiots will pay ridiculous prices and for a first issue of either of those…who knows!” 

It seems that not even an Eagle first issue would command the price of a first Beano or Dandy…yeah, I found that surprising.

Apparently, no AP title commanded anything similar.  I rattled off a few titles –no. Nothing.  What??  I asked what sort of price various titles might get.  A first issue of Battle Weekly…£2-£4…..Action Weekly….£6.00 because of “notoriety”  and one of the men had privately auctioned off a full (first to last issue) run of Radio Fun for £100 –his colleague laughed at this and pointed out that auction houses had refused to sell that particular run because there “was no interest”.

Most weekly UK comics from the 1930s-1980s were valued at between £1 to £4 (“loony price”) but the Beano and Dandy’s could go as far as £5-£6 each because of “potty collectors”. 

I pointed out ebay prices and got two very loud howls of derision: “If you pay more than £4 for anyUK weekly you are absolutely mad –and no one sane pays the fixed prices asked for on ebay!”  It was pointed out that one of my 1980s zines had sold on ebay in May for £25 –I can’t even sell these old books at their original price but it was called “rare” and “highly sought after”….what *******!

So we came to why I was contacted –comics from Swann, Fouldes, Comic Art Productions and so on. I was asked what sort of prices I had heard these comics going for?  I pointed out that finding them for sale tended to be rare  and I thought I was now going to be told they were worth a fortune.

I was kidding myself.

Both had copies of Gifford’s 1980s UK comics guide which included price estimates if you wanted to buy those books now.  Prepare for a major shock –apparently my jaw dropped and I looked “quite pale”!

It seems there was really no increased value to the books since Gifford wrote the guide. I pointed out the rarity of certain titles and suggested they must be more valuable now?

No.

“We are not talking American Golden Age comic titles here –we are talking British, mass and very cheaply produced comics with quite poor printing and paper a tramp would not put in his boot”  To which I tried to counter with various points. Even as I made those points I could see the problems.

No one has a vested interest in obscure characters.  Or as one of the men put it: “Often badly drawn and one dimensional characters” that, it seems, do not compare in any way to the glories of Eggo, Desperate Dan, Lord Snooty, etc..  “Most auction houses will not even consider selling single issues or even collections because their commissions are usually more than the comics make” –the usual commission being around 17% I was told.

I was told of an old tea chest (which are big) that was full of Swan comics –all wrapped in grease proof bags (nostalgia there!).  Approximately 100 comics plus a few from other publishers.  The owner had died and the house contents were sold but not the box of comics that were, apparently, advertised online but got no interest. Rather than cart the box to storage it was dumped at the back of the auction room by the bins.

DUMPED BY THE BINS??!!!

Another set of 1940s comics had been used by one auction house to wrap fragile purchases to send to people in the US and Europe.

I pointed out here, VERY quickly, that if they put the word around I would certainly buy any boxes or comics that were of “no real interest or value” but was told for single issues it was doubtful anyone would contact me –postage would probably cost more than the comic itself.  Collections –“It just isn’t worth the auction house’s time” BUT they did promise to pass on my details.

Of course, this lack of interest might explain why group membership numbers (British Comic Book Archives) have not increased and why no one seems that…interested.

This was all depressing.

So, you see high prices for any books on ebay…remember anything over £4.00 is a “rip-off”

Well, I’ll still look out for Krakos The Egyptian or The Bat…and I’ll still accept scans of books. I like them any way!!

JUDGE DREDD TRIFECTA SIGNING AT FORBIDDEN PLANET!

FORBIDDEN PLANET LONDON THURSDAY 22^nd AUGUST 6 – 7pm

Join Al Ewing, Simon Spurrier and Rob Williams as they sign JUDGE DREDD TRIFECTA the Forbidden Planet Megastore, Shaftesbury Avenue London on Thursday 22^nd August from 6 – 7pm!

Mega-City One, 2134 AD. Fresh from the devastating events caused by the Chaos virus, Dredd becomes aware of a potential power grab from within the Justice Department. Wally Squad gumshoe Jack Point is given a mysterious doll to safeguard. Dirty Frank wakes up on Luna-1 as a board member of Overdrive, Inc. All three Judges soon find themselves embroiled in the same case in which allegiances and grudges form in equal measure!

Originally published in 2000AD in 2012, Trifecta was hailed as the best comic event of the year. It was an epic crossover between three previous stories – Al Ewing’s ‘The Cold Deck’, picking up the pieces from the previous ‘Day of Chaos’ strip, Simon Spurrier’s ‘The Simping Detective’ and Rob Williams’s ‘Low Life: Saudade’.

Come and join the three writers who made this happen, and celebrate Trifecta in graphic novel form!

Forbidden Planet London is the largest store of its kind in the world. Some of the biggest names in SF, Fantasy and Cult Entertainment have come to our London Megastore for events, including Jonathan Ross, Kevin Smith, Sam Raimi, Guillermo del Toro, John Landis, Terry Gilliam, Christopher Lee, Simon Pegg, William Gibson, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, and Stephen King.

For more about our signings please go to: http://forbiddenplanet.com/events/

WWW.FORBIDDENPLANET.COM

--

Danie Ware
Social Media & Marketing
Forbidden Planet

07730 532 632

http://forbiddenplanet.com
https://twitter.com/forbiddenplanet

Home Away From Home

For some reason I was not expecting much but this is a great fun documentary that needs to be seen by a wider audience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfQAMdJifwQ

•  phamista.com