Following a Dream and other nonsense!

I have been enamoured of the comic book genre for years and years, without ever really stopping to wonder where it all began.

I have the vaguest memories of  of reading an British weekly comic book for children, with the title "Robin", before I was five years old.  According to the Wikipedia page about it, the magazine lasted from 1953 to 1969.

The strips within Robin were the usual stuff of the time.  Television shows for children, converted into comic strip format mixed in with other preschool style characters.  I guess it must have worked for me because I have been a fan ever since.

Then came RANGER, which began in 1965 and was incorporated into the "Look and Learn" magazine by 1966.  As the Wikipedia page says, it is now best remembered as the birthplace of "The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire", originally drawn by Don Lawrence, which continued in the Look and Learn until it's final issue in 1982.

I guess that my tastes had shifted because I didn't follow the Trigan Empire into the Look and Learn. Instead, by 1967, I was buying the Odham's Press comic book, "Terrific", which was a companion to their "Fantastic", which eventually absorbed Terrific in 1968.

Terrific, reprinted strips, in weekly pieces, that originated in the Marvel Comics offices in the USA.  It was here, in glorious Black & White, that I fell in love with The Avengers, Dr. Strange, Iron Man and The Sub-Mariner.  I discovered the powerhouse of comic book art that was Jack Kirby and I also fell completely under the spell of Steve Ditko and Dr. Strange.

As it was 'want to do', the publisher continued to roll one title into another, until the "Power Comic" magazines, Fantastic, Terrific, Wham, Smash and Pow, were all in one comic book.  I used to have a bag, full of the issues, folded open to the episodes of The Fantastic Four, until we moved again, in 1970 and they all went in the bin!

An example of the Odhams Press Power Comics.

Ah, but at the new school, in the new city, I met guys who were main-lining the excitement of the original, four colour, imported American Comics.  They were impressed by my knowledge of the histories of the Marvel characters and pretty soon we were all collecting different characters, in their own titles.

Steve Rogers, no kidding, collected Spider-Man.  Andy Morton collected The Avengers.  Steve Walker collected Dare-Devil and I collected The Fantastic Four.  It was a neat set up and we continued that way, helped along by Andy's discovery of a second hand book dealer, who sold old comics, until 1972, when the other guys discovered girls and sold out their collections to me.  Ah, Birmingham, England and the smell of all those old comic books!

I continued to collect, eventually connecting up with other fans of the medium.  They, in turn, introduced me to the fledgeling comic dealers of the time, 1973 into 1974 and I dived right in.

Some of the people and places, that I will cover in more detail later on, were, in no particular order:

Alan of Japetus Bookshop,

Peter Lennon, dealer,

VJ an Indian guy, dealer,

Andromeda Bookshop,

Phil Clarke and Nostalgia & Comics

Toronto, Canada, 1980 onward.

The Silver Snail,

The Dragon Lady,

Unknown Worlds,

Now & Then Books, Kitchener,

Unicorn/Worlds Collide, Oshawa,

Gnu Books, Oshawa,

Comics & More,

Planet X,

The Beguiling,

The Labyrinth,

BMV.

That's it folks.  More later.