Searching for comics in Portsmouth, 1970s style : Part Three

 [ Continuing a multi-part blog documenting the Mad Comic Hunt of collecting American Comic books on Saturday afternoons in the early 1970s. You can read Part One here and Part Two here.  -- baggsey]

An essential accessory to our comic hunting around Portsmouth was the canvas haversack that Nigel and I wore to hold the comics we collected along the way. These haversacks were purchased from Ben Grubb's Army Surplus store in Commercial Road, and were intended for carrying heavy school text books around. But at weekends, they were used for a better purpose. I don't think we were at all worried that the rough canvas would damage the comics. 

© Alarmy Stock Photo. A typical comic-fans' haversack

© Map from Google. From Castle Road to Somertown

Those of you following this blog series will recall that the previous stop was just inside Kent Rd, Southsea. We now re-mount our bikes for a quick trip of 50 yards or so into Castle Road, where we find...

Stop #14: Wilson & Co., 81 Castle Road. Newsagents at the bottom of Castle Road.

© Google. Site of Wilson's, 81 Castle Road

This newsagents is now a barber shop, but interestingly still retains the facade of the original newsagents. No plastic neon signs. The comic rack used to hang on the left hand side of the entrance. SuperStuff co-editor Nigel Brown reminisces:

“This was where my father used to stop to get cigarettes, after picking me and my brother up from Sunday School, on the way to my grandmother’s for our regular Sunday lunch. I remember him lifting me up to browse the comic rack – out of a child’s reach (perhaps to discourage pilfering as the rack was in the shop’s doorway!. We were allowed one comic each. When we got bigger, he used to detach the whole stand from the wall and bring it down to our height. After I accumulated sixty comics or so, I’d give them to my grandfather to sell (for a penny?) from a cardboard box he put on his counter at the family’s Edinburgh Road tobacco/confectionery shop.

“I bought many DCs here, from about 1967 onwards: mostly the Superman titles, Adventure Comics featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes, and also Flash. I remember being creeped out by the cover of Flash # 186 in 1969… but I still bought it!

"Stan Lee might be a legend, but in my book Jim Shooter's not far behind... .. not only did Shooter write the first Superman comic I read (Superman # 190), but he was 14 years old at the time!!

“This Castle Road newsagents was a reliable source of DCs – and also later well-positioned on the walk home from school – and seemed to stock a good range. I particularly remember buying Kirby’s stunning New Gods # 5 there, in 1971, and flicking through it in wonder, out in the street.” – Nigel 

© DC Comics. Superman #190 - Nigel's first comic.

© DC. Flash #186 - a suitably creepy cover.

© DC. New Gods #5

“Wilson’s was a newsagent owned by Mrs King, part of a local chain she and her late husband owned. I had a Saturday job in the Summer of 1978 opening the shop in the morning and marking up the papers for delivery, before heading to the Marina Cafe on Southsea Seafront for my other holiday job. By that date, Wilson's were no longer selling American comics.” – Ian

Leaving Wilson's, we head north towards Elm Grove, turning right/east to "Stan's", a shop which as the years rolled towards the mid-1970s, became one of the first ports of call for new Marvels. 

Stop #15. S Stan, Newsagents, 76 Elm Grove, Southsea

Stan's was situated a couple of doors east of the Elm Grove/Grove Road North traffic lights. It was not a pre-possessing shop (well, which newsagents were?), but it was well placed as being almost adjacent to Knight & Lee's boys school-wear shop, which our mothers dragged us to for new bits of school uniform from time to time.

© Google. "The Package Free Larder" site of Stan's

“Stan’s was a newsagent that carried Marvels (one of the relatively few places), and was a frequent stop in the 1975-1976 period, although the shop had been open under that management since 1972.  I have no special memories of it, but looking back through my diary I know that I bought copies of Daredevil issues and Kirby’s return to Captain America there in early 1976” - Ian

 

© Marvel. Captain America in Kirby's 1976 run

From Stan's, we now head north towards Somerstown, an area of Portsmouth with an identity of its own. (That's code for it being a part of Portsmouth where you cycled warily, lest some of the local youths took a dislike to you.) Importantly for us, Somerstown featured both a good newsagents that stocked comics on a spinner rack inside the door.

Stop #16. A.G. Taylor and Son, Somers Road.

© Unknown. A G Taylor's in 1971.

“There was a small newsagents in Somers Road, a DC shop. It had the spinner rack just inside the window. I remember getting Brave & Bold #97 there - the Wildcat team-up issue with a great Nick Cardy cover. I particularly remember that I picked up this issue having already read B&B #98 (The Phantom Stranger team-up) and #99 (The Flash team-up). This comic cemented my intention to collect Brave & Bold henceforth. I also remember that this shop was a good source of House of Mystery issues.The shop may have also featured a small Post Office Counter, but my memory is hazy on that score.” – Ian

© DC comics. Art by Nick Cardy

Re-reading the comic today, it is a great Bob Haney tale that takes Bruce Wayne (and Batman) to South America. Although Bob Brown did the pencils, the inks are unmistakably Cardy's. His art style so dominates  Bob Brown's pencils that some panels look like Cardy drew the whole thing. The panel of Batman's face below is prime Cardy.

There was to be one more stop in Somerstown before we headed towards the Dockyard.

Stop #17. Unknown newsagents in St Paul's Road area

The vagaries of urban redevelopment in Portsmouth have in many places completely razed row upon row of houses, and re-aligned roads, and built new blocks of flats. My pal Geoff Cousins and myself both remember a convenience store somewhere in the vicinity of St Paul's Road that we'd visit around 1974 on the bike ride, but a recent drive slowly cruising around the area yielded no evidence of the place. Perhaps some spark of memory will re-surface, but for now, we'll leave the area of Somerstown and head towards the Dockyard....in the next installment.