Hi everyone,
Thanks for the kind comments so let's continue with the second half of my story. I am now in England (south coast near Portsmouth) and it's the mid 1950's. I mentioned earlier about the sorry state of the comics available. I was of course referring to the British reprints of US comics. There were some very nice British comics featuring such characters as Billy Bunter, Dan Dare of the Eagle etc. And there were some very nice hardback annuals produced. Some of the hardback annuals did reprint US comics in colour (I still have some John Wayne annuals) but as far as US comics proper were concerned they would have had to have been sent or brought over. Anyway, back to my story. Although I had stopped reading comics something I had picked up form one of the ads stuck with me. It said "Learn to play the guitar and attract the girls" (words to that effect). Well, I did, and joined a band playing all the music of the period, and yes, I did attract the girls and one in particular who I am still married to after 44 years. I stopped playing music when I got married so as to concentrate on family life. Eight years and three kids later I found I had time to go back to music but now I just gave guitar lessons. It was during one of these lessons that I was brought back into the world of comics. One of the guys I was teaching happened to have a transfer of Superman on his music case. I asked if he was a fan and mentioned that I used to read Super-hero comics years earlier. To this he replied that not only was he a fan but that he also had a large collection of comics, and that I was welcome to view this collection. I went over half hoping to see maybe just a couple of the comics I used to have as a boy but of course, being a few years younger than myself, his collection was from the early 1960's and after searching through the hundreds of comics he had I came up with just one Charlton Six Gun Heroes. Close but not close enough (Fawcetts were what I was used to) but still, he was good enough to give it to me and I still have it (the first comic of my second collecting period). He was sympathetic to my needs and so offered to take me to London to a small comic book dealer he knew of that sold "Golden Age" comics, I had never heard this term before.
Well, we went to London and I was not disappointed, like walking into Aladdin's cave - Dell's and Classics, Superduck to Superman etc, etc. and there, on the top shelf, in plastic bags, were the Fawcett photo cover westerns -Rocky and Lash and Hoppy and Monte. Just one problem! Each one of these comics would have cost me at least half a days wage. I couldn't afford that so I had to walk away very sad. My friend, seeing my disappointment, suggested I advertise for old comic books and see what turned up. I took his advice and it certainly proved to be fruitful. Although there was nothing of interest to me (only 1960's Marvel and DC) my friend could see the makings of a couple of up and coming comic book dealers. He had the knowledge (could spot good art without a signature) and I had the telephone (might sound funny to you guys out there but in 1970's England not many ordinary people could afford phones, I had one because I was renting a house with one in it). The phone was vital when advertising and many, many times our ads were greatly rewarded. The object of my dealing in comic books was purely to regain the comics I had as a boy. Dealing put me in touch with such vital publications as Overstreet's Price Guide and The Comic Buyers Guide. The latter enabled me to make many worthwhile contacts through advertising (there were many US collectors who needed British material like Dr Who, Avengers etc that they were willing to trade US comics for).
Within the next ten years not only had I managed to get back all the titles I had but in many cases build complete collections. So, mission accomplished? Not so. Illness struck (an ongoing back problem) and I had to give up work. Debts mounted so it meant selling up and moving to a cheaper area in order to make ends meet. I had to sell all my stock but still had my collection so things were not so bad: Until! disaster struck again, my wife had a bad motoring accident and it meant I had to give up work to care for her. Cash was again a problem so only one thing for it? First up was my complete collection of first issue Classics Illustrated. In order to sell these I reckoned that they needed to be auctioned by a big company so I approached Christies. They had never done comics before but were intrigued so were willing to send somebody down to look at them. They must have been fascinated by my collection and my explanation of why I thought comic books could take their place alongside other antiques and that was probably the reason why they felt that this first sale might be the start of bigger things to come. I did get a very good price for them so the first thing I did was to replace them with a complete set of early reprints.
Our financial situation did not improve though so money had to be raised again. This time I decide that the trusty old Fender Stratocaster had to go. So, on my way to market (sounds like Jack and the beanstalk) I met a guy who badly wanted it but had no cash. He did offer me three guitars in exchange for it and as one was a newer strat (Japan made) I did the deal, hoping to sell the other two. So, off I went again but this time I met the owner of a computer shop. He wanted the guitars but did not want to part with cash so I managed to get a pc, monitor, scanner and printer in exchange. Still no money but ah! the brain was beginning to work- If I scanned the comics I would still have my collection even after selling it. That's what I did.
Now I am quite happy to share my scans but unfortunately not all are Public Domain yet.
I went through a lot of hardship before getting my collection on disk. Thanks to DCM you won't need to
