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Classical Comics

The  Classic Comic Store at www.classiccomicstore.com

News from Classic Comic Store!

Dear Collector

Coming Soon: Classics Illustrated #21 Treasure Island – another excellent modern publication of a true classic. A beautifully re-vitalised version of the original comic – don’t miss out! Look out for this fantastic title in the Classics Illustrated Modern section! We also have vintage and alternative versions of this title! Visit the Classics Illustrated Vintage section or search for Treasure Island in the search bar!
Also coming soon: Classics Illustrated Junior #521 The King of the Golden River – another excellent Canadian import to add to your growing Classics Illustrated Junior collection. Look out for it in the Classics Illustrated Juniors Modern section!
Collectors of the Classics Illustrated modern issues don’t forget to order your presentation box for the first 12 issues today! A sturdy, attractive set, you can display your collection with pride on the shelf. Also available is a presentation box for the Classics Illustrated Junior series. Boxes can be bought empty or containing the first 12 issues. Visit the Classics Illustrated Modern or the Classics Illustrated Juniors Modern sections now to order your box set!
Great news! The Classics Illustrated Joint European Series facsimile titles are soon to make a stunning comeback! Over the next few months, Classic Comic Store will be publishing brand new re-vitalised editions of these sought-after titles. These are excellent publications of titles which were never available in the UK or US series, now translated to English – a great opportunity to further advance your Classics Illustrated collection with titles only available through Classic Comic Store! Keep an eye out for them in the Classics Illustrated JES section!
Also don’t miss out on the Greek facsimile translations – more new translated titles to add to your ever-growing Classics Illustrated collection, such as Pandora’s Box, Oedipus Rex and The Battle of Marathon. Visit the Greek Facsimile section today to order your new titles!
Those of you who haven’t visited our brand new website yet, why not get online and check it out – wholly redesigned user interface allowing you easy shopping plus new series titles available to buy at www.classiccomicstore.com.

Purchasing is easy directly from www.classiccomicstore.com, or by phone or post (contact details below). There are over 2,200 comics available to buy online including many from other series including Dell, WDL, Thriller Picture Library, Cowboy Picture Library, Super Detective Library, World Illustrated and so on. We very much hope you find something of interest. You can also e-mail us (enquiries@classiccomicstore.com) and we will answer any queries you have.

Best wishes,

Classic Comic Store Ltd.
Scoon Bank
253 Lower Way
Thatcham
Berkshire
RG19 3TR
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)1635 47391
Email: enquiries@classiccomicstore.com

 

Comic Radio Show -Auf Deutsch

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I’ve put a link in Blog Roll so if you lose this item…

Want comics news and info from Germany?  It’s a place to go.  There’s a little piece on Mecki,whom I’ve written about before on CBO.  If I get a chance to translate it I’ll try posting it here on Monday.

Das Wunderkammer des Phantom Detektiv

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For Germany.

My Excess Publications

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A Quick Reminder -Black Tower Comics & Books

The second volume of the new look Black Tower Adventure featuring “The Return Of The Gods” will be out in July as will volume 4 of BTCGs Golden Age UK Collection.  Until then,here is a list of what is currently available:

Mark Tyme Collection
Only two issues were published of The Adventures of Mark Tyme. As with the companion title,The Purple Hood,the artist was Michael Jay who has since faded into obscurity. Join Mark Tyme on his time travelling adventures to Roman Britain,the Stone Age,a pirate island,9th century Britain,outer space and other destinations.
Print: £7.00
 
THE PURPLE HOOD
It was the Swinging Sixties! Britain was hip as hip could be -The Beatles ruled Pop! And everyone was looking toward a bright future…if there wasn’t a nuclear war! Middle Eastern threats,Eastern European fascists,flying saucer flying megalomaniacs and super mole machines and others threatened our little island. But we had the ultimate answer to these:The Purple Hood -International crime-smasher! Michael Jay’s Purple Hood now collected into over a hundred pages of action and text back-up. This is THE ultimate collection!
Print: £5.00

 
Black Tower Silver Age
Magno! Electro! The Phantom [no,not THAT Phantom]! Miniman! Some of the forgotten heroes of the British Silver Age soon to return in a new series but here are their origin stories from 1971! Following on from reviving lost heroes of the British Golden Age,Black Tower present some of the little known about heroes of the Silver Age.
Print: £5.50

 
BLACK TOWER GOLD vol.1
For the first time in 60 years some of the lost gems of the British Golden Age of Comics are reprinted! Scanned and cleaned to the best standard possible -see The Phantom Raider,Ace Hart,Secrets Of The Super Sargasso Sea,Phantom Maid,Electrogirl,Skybolt Kid,Wonder Boy,Dene Vernon,Professor Atom and many,many others! Its fun and action all the way -The British Golden Age shines through!
Print: £5.00

 
black tower gold 2
The second collection of British 1940s comic strips featuring Maxwell The Mighty,Slicksure,Iron Boy,Alfie,Ace Hart and more. Featuring the work of Alf Farningham and Harry Banger. Specifically designed to feature more humour than the previous volume this should be a treat for all comic collectors. Reprinting the full content of The Meteor and The Rocket Comics from 1948.
Print: £6.00

 
Black Tower Gold 3
This is the third volume in Black Tower Comics’ collection of Golden Age British comic strips that have not seen print for 50-60 years! Included in this volume is a bumper crop of Ace Hart:The Atom Man strips and an article on the character. A complete 1949 comic in Smugglers Creek;Denis Gifford’s Search For The Secret City and science fiction legend Bryan Berry’s rendition of Kid Carter -Teenage Tec! A must for all comic collectors and historians.
Print: £6.00

 
BACK FROM THE DEAD
William McCail’s 1940 classic is reprinted for the first time in 60 years. If you are into British Golden Age comics or early comics in general this is for you. Robert Lovett rises from the dead and finds he has some startling powers:deaths follow,as does a determined Scotland Yard detective determined to track down the mysterious killer!
Print: £5.00

 
Krakos:The Sands Of Terror
Created by William A. Ward for Swan Comics in the 1940s,Krakos was one of Ward’s supernatural anti-hero types. Used,with Swan’s permission,in Black Tower Adventure strips in the 1980s/1990s,this is the character’s first solo outing. The book contains information on Ward and his work plus sample pages rescued after 60 years of neglect!
Print: £5.00

 
THE BAT TRIUMPHANT!
In 1941,The Bat sets about modernising the backward Duchy of Stahl,over which his dynasty has ruled since 1410 A.D.. The Bat is soon involved in experiments with the infamous Count Cogliostro. One of these experiments involves suspended animation;The Bat deciding he will be the test subject. When he wakes,The Bat finds that not days have gone by but 51 years! Worse,his kingdom is in ruins and an enclave of Kamora. The Bat tries politics to win back his homeland and when that fails he decides to fight for it! However,he is unaware that some old,and new,enemies are lying in wait to stop him and all of them want one thing:The Bat dead! Originally a back up strip in Black Tower Adventure in 1994,The Bat proved very popular as an anti-hero. The story was never completed. It is now. And there was another Bat. 1952 saw George McQueen’s Bat appear to fight any and all supernatural menaces. This book contains an original strip plus a new one drawn in 2007. This is the complete book of The Bat!
Print: £5.00

 
The Centaur Heroes vol.1
Centaur -the short-lived publishing house of some of the first and most unique Golden Age heroes that still live on in legend today! The Eye Sees! Truly weird and bizarre! The Clock! Airman! The Sparkler! The Blue Lady! Plymo! The Arrow! And others. Volume 1 is a treat for all Golden Age comic fans and a must have!
Print: £6.00

 
CENTAUR HEROES Vol.2
The Skull,The Shark,The Blue Lady and Amazing Man! These were part of the First Wave of US Golden Age comics that also includes Mini Midget and Mighty Man. This book also reprints the one and only appearance of the very first comic book Owl from 1940! A must for comic fans and Golden Age buffs!
Print: £6.00

 
The Ultimate Owl Collection
Created in 1940 by Frank Thomas,The Owl is still fondly remembered by Golden Age comic fans -and Silver Age fans! This collection features three Golden Age stories,including the first appearance of Owl Girl. The 1967 first issue is reprinted and so is The Occult Files Of Dr Spektor from 1976 guest starring…The Owl! A must for collectors.
Print: £7.00

 
TALES OF TERROR
The main feature,The Curse Of The McQuilligans starring Xendragon,leads off this collection of horror,ghostly and twist-in-the-tail stories. The classic Torch Of Vengeance is a tale of a wife’s rather Gothic vengeance while Graveyard is a cautionary tale for those curious to look into graves! Demons,time travel and much more.
Print: £5.50

 
Journey Of The Id:The Dr Morg Trilogy
Metapsychophysics meets comics. Its the next natural evolutionary step in comic books! For the first time all three parts of the highly acclaimed Dr. Morg Trilogy are combined into one volume:WORDS WITHIN WORLDS,AFTER ORWELL and the final explosive THE DEATH OF DR. MORG!
Print: £5.00

 
Merriwether:God’s Demon-Thumper
The complete Merriwether series,originally published in Black Tower Adventure and A Little Midnight Horror–but with three strips never before published:including the Reverend’s battle with the ultimate Evil! If you were into Charlton Horror Comics or any horror comic then this one is for you!
Print: £5.00

 
BTCG ADVENTURE
It’s back! Twenty-five years ago the digest sized Black Tower Adventure first appeared featuring some later-to-be top UK talents and the title was put on hiatus in 2007. Now it’s back,bigger and better than ever! Part 1 of the mega Return Of The Gods:Twilight Of The Super Heroes comes in at 43 pages! Thaddeus Twatt In The Twatt-Verse -first part of a truly microscopic titanic tales [which makes sense if you read it!]. Kotar & Sabuta race to face The Deadly Dilemma Of Sigismund Benfriggisund! The cold war between China and Russia couldn’t get any hotter as The Phoenix Team stumble into the evil Salamander’s plan. And more? Of course. Comics ARE Fun!
Print: £6.00

 
THE HOOPER INTERVIEWS
Terry Hooper first began interviewing Small Press creators in 1984 and this led on to Independent comic creators. In a comic journalism career spanning 25 years and involving hundreds of interviewees from the UK,Europe and USA,Terry has created a short-list of his favourites. interviewees in this book include: Donna Barr Roberta Gregory Marv Wolfman Jon Haward Kate Glasheen Alan Class yishan Li Emma Vieceli Sonia Leong Mike Western and John Cooper Over 30 creators/publishers interviewed in this first volume making it a piece of comics history.
Print: £15.00

 
Some Things Strange And Sinister
Recognised as an expert on UFOs,Terry Hooper is recognised as an authority on “unexplained mysteries” and after more than 35 years as an investigator and more than forty as a naturalist,he has opened some of the many case files he has accumulated dealing with such things as.. The Terrifying Events At The Lamb Inn,The Ghosts Of All Saints Church,Dead Aquatic Creatures of Canvey Island,captured bigfoot like creatures in India -all exclusively presented for the first time and with new added research previously unseen. Photographs,maps,line drawings and more to make 305 pages looking at Things truly Strange and Sinister. Cryptozoologist,Ghost Hunter,Ufologist or Fortean:this book has something for everyone -including the just plain inquisitive!
Print: £12.00

 
Some More Things Strange And Sinister
Following up on the successful Some Things Strange And Sinister,Terry Hooper-Scharf opens up more of his files and looks into more mysteries such as Crocodiles in Medieval England,Giant and Mystery Snakes,Medieval Sky-ships,The Beast of Gevaudan,The Girt Dog of Ennerdale,The Beast of Faudier,History’s real Wild-men,The Silent City in the skies of Alaska,the ‘unexplainable’ ghost photo,the Greenwich Park Elemental,the hidden history of gorillas –before they were ‘discovered’,the Giant Serpent of Carthage and more including Tabor’s lost photograph of the Silent City and never before seen photograph of Wombwell’s “Jenny”.
Print: £12.00

Fix Und Foxi Live On! [Who?]

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Fix Und Foxi,some in the UK may have seen as a rather bland animated series in recent years.  I much prefer the comics that I used to read in Germany.  The creator of the foxes was Rolf Kauka and here is a bit from Lambiek about him and F&F:

The German artist, writer and publisher Rolf Kauka was the creator of the popular Fix und Foxi animal universe, which was published in the eponymous magazine, in a fashion similar to that of Walt Disney. Kauka, whose family was originally from Scandinavia, published his first illustrations at age seventeen in publications like the Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten and Weissenfelser Tageblatt. In 1937, after his economics studies, Kauka was drafted into the German army. Demobilized in 1945, he settled in Munich and starting editing juridical papers. He founded his own publishing house in 1950, which published some books by Hedwig Courths-Mahler.

He teamed up with the publisher Heinz Ullstein, and pursued a venture in animated cartoons for the American market. But when this didn’t work out, Kauka focused on comics. He adapted ‘Eulenspiegel’ by Charles De Coster to comics, and published it in the magazine of the same name in 1952. The artwork was done by Dorul van der Heide, who also illustrated the backing stories ‘Dagobert’ and ‘Münchhausen’. In the sixth issue, Kauka and Van der Heide first introduced the foxes ‘Fix und Foxi’, who soon became the leading characters of the magazine. (Therefore, Eulenspiegel changed its name to ‘Fix und Foxi’ in 1955).

There is much more info here:

http://lambiek.net/artists/k/kauka_rolf.htm

After Rolf died in 2000 his wife,Alexandra took over the business and you can visit the official site here:

http://www.kauka.de/

Tiger Press,the last publishers of Fix Und Foxi,went into liquidation in October 2009 but Berlin Verlag New Ground Publishing,decided that even with the “very modest sales of 55,000 copies” at kiosks [far from modest let me tell you! But sells used to be 400,000 copies] they’d give it a shot –using its internet site http://www.comicstars.de/comics/genre/Classic+Comic

And on www.fixundfoxi.de  you can see the new strips plus download over 300 older issues.  So the foxes survive on well into the digital age and I still cherish the few copies I have left!

Chance To Buy Jon Haward Art!!

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Just got this email from Jon Haward,who should be known to UK comic fans as well as CBOers.

 

Hi Terry,

Any chance you could plug the fact I’ve got some arty goodness for sale on ebay? Been a bit dismayed that I’ve not had many views especially the Jonathan Ross portraits for the Brit Comedy Awards –ho  hum I thought that would spark abit of interest

Best
Jon

There are some great pieces of art for sale and at reasonable prices.  The work should appeal to TV/Radio  fans –let’s face it,Jonathan Ross has been rather “controversial” over the years.  And comic fans –jeez:take a look at what is on offer!

 

There are a few pieces there I’d nab.


Believe me,in a few years you’ll be paying three to four times the price for these pieces!

The link is:

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/viewpointdisplaysystems/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

Archie & Friends Beach-bop-hula

 

ARCHIE & FRIENDS ALL-STARS #4: BETTY & VERONICA BEACH PARTY

Blondes, brunettes, beach balls and bikinis… it can only mean one thing: it’s summertime in Riverdale!  Leading the charge are those leading ladies of comics, Betty and Veronica.  Now you can relive some of the best Betty & Veronica beach stories of the decade in this special collection.  Whether chasing after hunky new lifeguards, modeling the latest swimwear, competing in a volleyball tournament, collecting seashells or holding a tiki party, Betty and Veronica are truly the queens of summer!  This fun-filled, sun-drenched edition also includes fun features like fashion pages, party tips, memory collages and more!  Grab a beach towel, some sunscreen and your sunglasses and enjoy some fun in the sun with this cool collection of sizzling summer fun!

SCRIPT AND ART: Various talents.

On Sale at Comic Shops: June 30th, 2010

Newsstands: July 13th, 2010

ISBN-13: 978-1879794504

96-page, full color trade paperback

$9.95 US. 

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I Still Think It’s A Funny Old Business!

Apparently,illegal downloads of my Eros book Two Hot Girls have reached over 200,000.  For Maeve it’s said to be similar -far higher than I’d previously thought.

Well,even 50p for each illegal download would make me happy.   Apparently the three French editions [THREE??!] and Spanish collection are all  above board and legal contracts signed between the companies and Fantagraphics [the Eros publisher] -two French editions published in France and one in Canada. The contract between myself andFantagraphics clearly reads they have first English language edition rights but no foreign language rights as I’d stipulated.  Anyforeign language editions I was not consulted about or paid for.

Let me make it very clear,my series were reprinted several times against the terms of my contract -I was never told.  The collected books were without my knowledge.

I was told in writing and by phone [before the internet became common usage] that copies of the books had been seized and destroyed in Canada,Australia,New Zealand and the UK so were a financial loss to the company.

Incorrect.  I’ve been checking with customs authorities in those countries on seizure issues and mentioned the series involved.  Some checked back as far as 1989 [?] but all say that no such comic title or book was ever seized and destroyed.  Asking comic industry experts in those countries I learn that the Two Girls series sold “very well” and there was never a shortage of copies.

Myself and Art Wetherell never got royalties for those sales.  Fantagraphics said they weren’t sold there.

Someone asked me whether it was worth publishing your own comics or trying to get a publisher? My response:publish yourself.

It is so annoying that so many individuals make money from a creator while the creator makes a pittance.  Is the comic industry more above board these days? No.

Think very seriously before going into a comic creating career and get everything in writing [even though I did it hasn't helped!].

Reviews Policy

Right,I am still getting emails from people I don’t know who say they’ve been in touch before but I don’t remember and their emails are not in my CBO folder.  They are still sending attachments of a few pages to REVIEW!

1. I DO NOT EVER open attachments sent by people I don’t know.

2. I DO NOT EVER open up unsolicited pdf files.

Why? Because,like other people I have learnt by doing so!!

A word doc press release and cover jpeg and interior page jpeg will get you mentioned but please don’t tell me you can’t send books for review “because its too expensive -but here’s a pdf instead” NO! I learnt from pdf of “soon to be released titles.  What was it..3 out of 20 I foolishly reviewed were actually printed. I am not going to tell people how to order books that might not appear.

Does that make me a bastard? Yes.  But a playing-it-safe bastard.

Read the Reviews policy under Categories to the right and take it in.