Super Stuff in the Bronze Age: 1970s

Showing posts with label 1970s. Show all posts

Monday, May 23, 2022

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

This is Part One of an on-going series dedicated to those wonderful newsagent shops of our misspent youth

Map derived from © Google

by Nigel Brown, Ian Baker, and…. we invite others to add to these recollections of hunting comics in Pompey!

“It’s been eleven years since we first posted an item on hunting for comics in Portsmouth in the 1970s (The Mad DC Comic Hunt July 2011). Enough new information has now come to light to enable us to revisit those golden days of the Bronze Age.

“Our cruel fate, as pupils of Portsmouth Grammar School in those less enlightened times, was to endure three compulsory hours of Saturday morning school, ending at 12 noon. On the upside, our limited rugby and cricket sporting skills exempted us from Saturday afternoon sport. This enabled us to undertake our own, out-of-school, enthusiastic cycling activity where the route was marked out by possible sources of comics, old and new.

“Our bicycles weren’t the mechanistic marvels of today, with their electronic shifting, lightweight carbon frames, disc brakes and high performance tyres. Clunky heavy frames resting on thick rubber tyres were the order of the day.

[ Comment from Ian: “This was true for me until my 14th birthday in July 1973, when I became the proud owner of a green Carlton Corsa racing bike, which opened up the prospect of cycling further afield, beyond Portsea Island”.]

“We would empty our school haversacks of schoolbooks and other detritus (a weekly purge that perhaps other schoolboys did not benefit from), arm ourselves with the week’s pocket money – in my case 60p (about £ 8.50 in 2022 value) – and set off on our quest.

“Thinking about it now, we probably did more exercise biking around Portsmouth on Saturday afternoons than if we had been press-ganged onto the school’s rugby or cricket ground!

“Our route was determined from our starting-off point. From my parent’s house in Ashburton Road, on the western side of Southsea, we would head towards Castle Road, then northwards to take in Gibbs in New Road, with the farthest target being North End with the shop close to Angerstein Road. We would then sweep down southwards, in an easterly direction to check out the shops on the eastern flank of Portsea Island, ending up at Ian’s parent’s house in Nettlecombe Avenue on the eastern side of Southsea. If we set out from there, the route was in reverse, back to Ashburton Road.

“Our reward for this effort was ever-growing comic collections. In those days, just over a decade after the debut of the first Marvel Silver Age comics, to come across a ten-year-old comic (not impossible) meant finding early issues of Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and the like, on offer for one to three pence each (14p to 42p in 2022 value). Alas, we tended to stick to what we perceived as ‘the titles we collected’ and thus many an early issue now sold for hundreds of pounds was spurned in place of the odd mundane DC bought just to ‘fill-a-gap’.

“Nevertheless, that wasn’t the point. The point was that it was all great fun at the time.” – Nigel

For clarity, we have divided up Portsea Island (a rough vertical oval shape) into different sectors, as shown on the map at the top of this page.

The southern area is below the A2030, and the vertical midline consists of that made up by Lawrence Road, Waverly Road and Fawcett Road.

We start our journey in the South East sector; [you'll need to click on the map below to see the locations of our key stops in this blog entry]

South-East

Stop #1: The Book Exchange, 26 Devonshire Avenue, Southsea

The shops’ attraction was that it had a high turnover of second-hand comics, and had a great selection of paperbacks. Considering the number of comics we got there I am now surprised that we did not bump into other local comic collectors.

“This was a second-hand bookshop that we frequented more than any other place in the 1975/76 period. It was run by an elderly couple. The husband seemed to suffer from emphysema, and passed away around 1975. According to commentary on 'Memories of Bygone Portsmouth', his name was Mr. Smart.

"I picked up my first Doc Savage paperback there, #7 The Monsters. It was the worst possible condition - creased, water-stained - but I was captivated by the iconic logo and superb cover by James Bama” – Ian

Stop #2 : Small Newsagents and grocery in Cromwell Road, opposite Eastney Royal Marine Barracks

The Shop was on the far right of this photo

"I first became aware of this shop in the late 1960s as a place where a loaf and a pint of milk could be bought on a Sunday evening, in those days when Sunday shopping was tightly regulated. My Dad was a model steam locomotive enthusiast, and often we would return from his model engineering society in Southampton on a Sunday evening to pick up some provisions. The spinner rack was just inside the door on the right. The shop’s claim to fame is that you can almost see it in the film ‘Cockleshell Heroes’ in an early scene set inside the entrance of Eastney Royal Marine Barracks.

“I got Shazam #1 and early issues of Swamp Thing there, more notably issues #1 and #7, and early DC Shadows by Mike Kaluta.” – Ian

“That shop was a little out of our way, but was worth the effort. I recall it would have DCs for sale that we didn’t often see elsewhere. Perhaps it was because others were snapping up those comics in the other shops before we got to them, leaving us to find the more commonly distributed titles in Albert Road and the larger newsagents.” – Nigel

Stop #3: Post Office/Newsagents, Highland Rd, somewhere on the block between Adair Rd and Kassassin Street

The block in the photo was a neat little row of shops back in the 1970s, one of which was a newsagents, and another was a second hand shop. We're unable to determine which shops exactly with the distance of 50 years. Portsmouth was so full of second-hand shops in those days; they could be a goldmine for a comic collector.

“I believe that the shop was actually a joint Post Office/Newsagents, opposite the old Police Station in Highland Road." - Geoff

"I picked up a Bantam Doc Savage paperback #20 ('Secret In The Sky') in a second-hand shop along that row on Tuesday April 20th, 1976. It was the Easter holidays and I was enjoying a run of finding "Doc's" in various second-hand shops that week, locating numbers 14, 21 and 22 elsewhere in the city." - Ian

Stop #4. I.D. Williams, Newsagents 109 Highland Rd, between the Gravediggers Arms and the corner of Winter Road

"I think I went to this shop because schoolfriend Paul Thompson (who lived in Essex Rd) made me aware of it. It was one of two local shops for him, the other being Southsea Newsagents at 161 Winter Rd. Like most of our comic haunts, this was a DC shop. I have no special memories of it." - Ian

Stop #5: T.E. King – Newsagent – 6 Highland Road, Southsea

T.E. King - the shop with the green shutter today

“This was the location of my first exposure to American Comics in the 1964/65 timeframe. I used to go there every week with my Dad where he used to pay his paper bill, and buy me a copy of ‘Treasure’ when I was aged 3-5, and then ‘Ranger’, ages 6 plus, which later amalgamated with ‘Look & Learn’. All the American Comics at 10d each were hanging on clothes-pegs from wires strung across the ceiling. They were colourful and out of reach. I distinctly remember seeing a Jimmy Olsen comic with a large T&P 10d stamp printed on the cover.

“This must have been around the time when Batman trading cards came out, and my Dad would buy me a packet from The Cabin tobacconist and sweetshop just further along Highland Road.

“I suppose the Batman TV craze got me interested in Batman comics, and I think I collected comics in the range of Batman #186-200 starting around then (Nov 1966 – March 1968), before losing interest and collecting Captain Scarlet and Joe 90 cards, and getting Fantastic and Terrific each week. It wasn’t until after I met Paul Thompson at PGS when we were in the 3rd Form that I started getting interested in comics again, as he was a great Superman fan. I got back into comics around Batman # 233 (July 1971).” – Ian

“I remember this being a major stop on our route, as there was always such a large and reliable stock of DCs for sale, and it was fairly close to your house on Nettlecombe Avenue. I think they had two spinner racks of comics. I distinctly recall being outraged when, at these racks, I first saw that DC comics were now priced at the princely sum of seven and a half-pence each!

“On the plus side, I did buy the classic Batman # 251 Neal Adams/Denny O’Neil ‘The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge’ at this newsagent in the summer of 1973.” – Nigel

Stop #6: W.T. Churchill, 3 Festing Buildings, Highland Rd, same side as Fine Fare, opposite The Festing pub [The shop was originally 5 Highland Rd]

“A DC shop, this is now a ‘One Stop’, I think. I remember getting knocked over by a woman on a push-bike as I ran across Highland Road to see the latest comics. The tale is recounted in this blog at http://superstuff73.blogspot.com/2020/12/key-comic-book-memories-justice-league.html . On that occasion I ended up with JLA #99, but I previously remember getting JLA # 94 (Jan 1972) there, where most of the art was by Dick Dillin and Joe Giella, but Neal Adams drew each page with Deadman on it.” – Ian

Stop #7: Gardener’s Newsagents at 164 Albert Road opposite Tesco

“A DC shop, always the first shop to get comics on the last Thursday of the month. The first comic I bought there was Batman #233 (Batman Giant), immediately to be followed by those Batmans in the range # 234 onwards, which of course were the best Neal Adams/Denny O’Neil issues. Funny how you could always guarantee getting Batmans and Supermans and World’s Finests there, whereas some of the more obscure newsagents hidden away in Eastney seemed to have the more obscure DC titles. I have strong memories of seeing World's Finest #207 and Action #406 on the spinner rack.

"This newsagent was owned by Mrs King. I had a paper round there in the 1975/76 timeframe.” – Ian

Well, that wraps up Part 1 of this journey around the newsagents of Portsmouth & Southsea in the 1970s.

We'll post Part 2 in a while. In the meantime, if any readers have memories of comic collecting in Portsmouth, please add to the comments section below.

Thanks! Nigel & Ian

Saturday, September 4, 2021

How did you list your comics? by Ian Baker

Spiderman © Marvel. Book © Ian E Baker

One of the few artifacts that I have kept from my teenage days are my notebooks listing all of the comics that I collected back in the 1970s. Every time I bought a comic I would assiduously document the purchase, deriving a great sense of satisfaction as I dutifully noted down the title of the lead story in each book. Documenting what I had purchased was all part of the collector instinct. As a twelve year-old I would enjoy just looking at the titles listed in the notebooks, and dreaming of the days when the gaps would be filled.

Revisiting them now, these collection checklists contain a wealth of information that trigger memories of key comic book acquisitions. It also provides some insight into when my teenage interest in American comics waned.

Four small notebooks cover a period predominantly from my age 12 to 16 , a span of years that seemed to go on forever at the time.

I believe that my purchase of the first notebook co-incided with my Dad building a shelving unit for me to stack my comics in separate piles in an alcove in my bedroom (they had previously been in one wobbly pile at the back of the wardrobe), and the structure and physical organization of my comic collection probably prompted me to create a ledger.

As the first book filled up, I bought a second, and then a third, to document my collection as the number of titles I collected grew, and I started to squeeze each comic into a plastic bag from a roll of bags bought from Long's in Albert Rd, Southsea. (An early attempt at comics preservation which would result in "rolled spine" at best and toxic damage from unstable plastic at worst).

Things that jump out at me, looking at them today:

The notebooks were from Woolworths and very robust - “Winfield Memorandum 381” - small ledger books with nice binding and stitched pages. (Incidentally - did you know that the brand "Winfield" was the middle name of Frank Winfield Woolworth)
I put Marvel stickers on the covers to add some flair. (Where did these stickers come from ? Mighty World of Marvel? Spider-Man Comics Weekly?)
On book #2 I illuminated some of the interior pages and a back cover with rub-on Transfers/water tattoos of key Marvel characters (Where did the transfers come from?)
I used the latest Dymo tape technology to add titles the book covers. (Remember the Dymo? I think I still have mine.)
Batman #246 and Detective #428 are missing in checklist book #1 - this reflects a brief period of a dock strike (or a warehouse fire??) when DCs did not get imported into the UK for one month. Luckily I got the missing issues as import copies sometime after April 26 1973.
Amazing Spider-Man stopping at #120! Just before the death of Gwen Stacy! But I list the two issues that my Gran brought back from the US for me 6 months later.
I added tabs to the pages for ease of access (I believe these tabs were from my Dad’s work, I think).
A few pages of my Dad’s handwriting listing MWOM 1-19, and SMCW 1-59 for me, around Mar 30th 1974. Both of my parents were very tolerant, even supportive, of my comics collecting. They probably thought it kept me out of teenage mischief, plus they liked my two comic collecting friends Nigel Brown and Geoff Cousins very much.

Checklist book #1 was probably started sometime after a holiday visit to Ventnor on the Isle of Wight in April 1972 during which I picked up twenty or thirty back issues of Batman and Detective at Mr Keen’s antiquarian bookshop in Ventnor’s Pier Street. That goldmine of comics at 2p each really kick-started my comic collection.

Reading checklist #1, at that time my collection was limited to the following titles, and pretty Batman-centric:

Batman (it all started with Neal Adam’s Batman #234 “Half an Evil”)
Brave & Bold (because Jim Aparo’s art was next best to Adams’)
Daredevil (because he was Marvel’s “Batman”)
Detective (‘cos Batman was in it)
Justice League of America (‘cos of Batman, despite Dick Dillin art)
Marvel Super Heroes (I liked the early 60s reprints)
Marvel Tales (early 60s reprints)
Phantom Stranger (because I was so impressed by Jim Aparo’s art from Brave & Bold #98 and the great Neal Adams cover of PS #17)
Amazing Spider-Man (apart from Daredevil the only other Marvel hero I liked)
Teen Titans (‘cos of Robin)
Wanted (DC reprints)
World’s Finest (‘cos of Batman)

I then added Marvel's Iron Man soon afterwards , and by the end of August 1972 I had expanded my collection still farther to include:

Amazing Adventures (because of Adams artwork on the first War of the Worlds)
Avengers (the Adams-drawn Skull-Kree war storyline)
Green Lantern-Green Arrow (because of Adams and I liked the new Green Arrow)
X-Men (Adams' run)

At this point I was pretty disciplined and focused in my collecting. This was more a byproduct of limited pocket money rather than any other reason, I suspect.

I pretty soon started running out of space to list new comics in book #1 in February 1973, so it was a trip back to Woolworth's for a second book.

As I started checklist book #2 on April 26 1973, the impact of being able to buy mail-order back issues from Alan Austin’s Fantasy Unlimited had enabled me to start collecting old DC Batman annuals and Batman 80-page giants, and old X-Men issues. My weekly Saturday afternoon comic hunts with Nigel Brown surfaced new titles Secret Origins and Swamp Thing.

The impact of the success of the UK Marvel weeklies was now being felt, with spotty distribution of many US Marvel titles, and outright bans of importation of some titles (Spider-Man, Avengers, Iron Man all suffered this fate to some degree, and my collecting of those titles came to an abrupt stop).

With the reduction in Marvel titles in the newsagents, my collection expanded to encompass more DC titles, plus Marvel’s Conan (which despite some distribution gaps was still around). And by the end of February 1975, I had developed robust runs of

Conan
House of Mystery
The Shadow (DC and Archie)
The Demon
The Creeper (back issues)

As I started checklist book #3 in March 1975, I had expanded the collection yet again to include:

Adventure Comics (loved the Spectre stories drawn by Jim Aparo)
Black Magic (Jack Kirby reprints)
Batman family
The Brute (Atlas)
Captain America (Jack Kirby’s return)
Destructor (Atlas)
House of Secrets
Joker
OMAC
Our Fighting Forces (Great Kirby comic)
Planet of Vampires(Atlas)
Secret Society of Super Villains

By the time I started my 4th and final checklist book in February 1976, I was simply noting the issue numbers, and not bothering to record the titles. I think this was symptomatic of a waning enthusiasm for comics now that Neal Adams had left the scene, which co-incided with my increased interest in the opposite sex and 1940s pulp heroes!

Edition #4 of the checklist simply lists wanted issues of :

First Issue Special
Mister Miracle (back issues)
Secrets of Haunted House
Doc Savage (Marvel colour and B&W)
Invaders
Marvel Double Feature
Tales of Suspense
Deadly Hands of Kung Fu
DC Showcase

I know of a few other titles that I collected but never documented:

Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction,
Dracula Lives!
Plop!

And that was it. I kept collecting sporadically until I sold everything in the early 1980s, before a resurgent interest around 1987 with the arrival of Alan Moore and Frank Miller to revitalize the comic scene.

Looking back, my comic heroes of those years largely were bereft of super powers, and used a mix of science, detective and athletic capabilities to right wrongs. I was drawn to light horror anthologies and increasingly stories based on pulp heroes from a previous generation. And I would buy any series that featured art by Neal Adams.

I’ve always had a bit of a passion for building checklists and ordering data. Later on, in 1979, when my interest in collecting had moved on to pulps, I spent a year of my university degree working at IBM. My enthusiasm for getting into computer programming was driven by a desire to list all of my Doc Savage pulps on a computer and then be able print out the lists in various sequences.

So I have comics to thank for my career in computers and ultimately my desire to live in America where non-distributed titles were an unknown phenomena!

======================

If anyone can confirm where the Spider-Man sticker, or the Thor and Hulk transfers came from, please chip-in in the comments below.

[Thanks to Duncan McAlpine’s https://www.comicpriceguide.co.uk for confirming my memories of non-distributed issues of Marvel's in the early to mid 1970s]