In the last post, I brought up the
second-hand bookshop in Digbeth and the part
it played in bringing older comics into my collection.
It was not where my weekly comic supply trips began,
since I had been riding my bicycle, from Shirley, along the Stratford Road, as far as Sparkhill, or further, checking the newsagents along the way for anything I wanted. But, once I knew of the shop in Digbeth, I would usually head straight there, once a week, usually on saturdays and search through the waiting piles.
In my love of all things Marvel, I am sure that I must have passed over a lot of really good early DC comics.
In fact, I distinctly remember a young guy who worked there, asking me WHY ONLY MARVELS?
I don't remember my response but I am confident that it was probably fairly inane, since I remember him wandering away with a bemused look on his face.
I have wondered, over the years, whether that young man was the same person who sold comics out of the basement of Japetus, a bookshop I discovered in 1973 or 1974, after meeting with
Vince Harris and Derek Powell.
I met Vince, through an Adzine that I bought through an advert in an issue of The Exchange and Mart, a now defunct publication,
where one could advertise all manner of things for sale.
The advert that I responded to, brought me a copy of
"THING"
an amateur version of Exchange and Mart,
for comic book collectors.
This was in late 1973 or early 1974 and I remember the Cover
had a King Kull illustration on it.
For a long time, I had the belief that it was an unauthorized
reprinting of the work of the late, great, John Severin
but I have begun to wonder if it wasn't by
the talented Alan Hunter,
an artist who contributed to many early Fanzines in England.
Who knows? It is very difficult to unearth any images of those old issues these days.
The Cover, when folded in half
and below, when opened out.
This is as close as I have come and this is issue #22 from 1976!
Continued in the next thrilling instalment!
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