Collecting Comic Books, A Personal History Part 5

Phil Clarke as he appeared at the 

2014, London Film & Comic Con

(Thanks to Lew Stringer's Blog Blimey!)

Not too long after that, Phil Clarke opened his first 

store at 1 Hurst Street Subway.

#1 Hurst Street Subway was in the 

rounded corner unit at the lower 

right of the photograph.

They dismantled the subway some 

years ago.

  

This was not the first time that Phil had gone into the business,

in the late Sixties, he and Mik Higgs of The Cloak and Moonbird fame, 

had operated under the banner of

"Unicorn Comics"

and even published several issues of a fanzine with the same name.

I have looked around on the Web and 

I haven't found any images of them yet. 

So here it is. 

This is "Unicorn - the graphic fantasy magazine" 

issue Five, from 1972. 

Published by,  "Mike Higgs & Phil Clarke" 

of Birmingham, England.

Number One Hurst Street Subway was a tiny little space, tucked away on the corner of a building 

and as I recall, was on two levels!  I also believe, that in the beginning, Alan ( the same guy from Japetus ) 

was the the person running the shop.  My memory is somewhat blurred, with some

clear spots dropped into the mix for fun and I don't believe that there were any back issue bins, 

so it would seem to have been a New Comics only business.

Thunder Dogs came along a few years later but

I remember watching Steve Leialoha and Frank Brunner 

commenting on the original art pages that Hunt had with him at the 1979 Comic Con, at the NEC, that Colin Campbell, of Biytoo Books, organized. 

This was where I first saw the original art of Hunt Emerson, a local Art College attendee, 

who went on to bigger and better things.  It was also where I ran into a group of young guys 

who actually made the pilgrimage to one of Phil Seuling's New York ComicCon's!

When they returned, one of them sold me some original art, that he had picked up while he was there 

and I still have them today.

This is a photograph from soon after the subway opened and

long before I got there!

The kiosk in the foreground, on the right 

hand side of the photograph, 

is very much the way I remember Phil's

place was.

A while later on, Phil also had a kiosk in the Hurst Street Subway, which no longer exists, the subway and the kiosks fell to the redevelopment of the Birmingham roadways, some years ago.

For a while, there were four addresses listed on the advertising for 

Nostalgia & Comics

but that was all before they opened the big store on the Queen's way

and became the centre of comic book life in Brum.

This is similar to the way that it looked in my day.

The present location of Nostalgia & Comics 

is just out of the picture, round the corner, 

to the right of the man walking up the ramp. 

I am starting to put some time and place references together and that had to be in the summer of 1978, 

because I knew where the art, by the odd combination of John Byrne and Joe Staton, had 

originally been printed.  It was part of a six page story that appeared in CPL #12 and I had bought

 my copy while I was in Toronto, Canada, on vacation in the Fall of 1977.

That being said, I am getting a couple of years ahead of myself and I need to backtrack a little.

Rog Peyton and Phil Clarke had known each other for many years.

Not much of a surprise really, Fandom was a a much smaller community back then 

and the overlap of collecting Science Fiction & Fantasy books and collecting Comic Books 

was much broader.  So, for a couple of years or more, there were two comic book shops in 

downtown Birmingham but all things change and eventually, Phil and Rog reached an agreement.

Rog would stop selling comic books and return to his main focus on Science Fiction and Fantasy books,

leaving Phil free to focus on all things comic book related.

Here is a relatively recent photograph of Nostalgia & Comics as it is today.

I think that all of that must have been safely agreed upon before Phil and 

his partners opened the big new location of 

Nostalgia and Comics at  

14/16 Smallbrook Queensway,

which was located at the opposite end of the Hurst Street Underpass from 

the tiny little store where it all began.

Collecting Comic Books, A Personal History Part 4

For a lot of reasons, the passage of time being the main one, 

the transition through to the next phase of my collecting

life is rather vague.

Somehow, I rediscovered the Andromeda Bookshop,

sometime in 1974.  I have a suspicion that Alan, 

at the Japetus Bookshop on Corporation Street,

had stopped being my connection for new comics,

possibly because he could no longer get them.

This is Rog as he was in 2004 

at Concourse, The 2004 EasterCon,

held in Blackpool, England.

Whatever the reason, I began to be a Saturday regular at Andromeda.

By this time, Rog Peyton had employed a long haired young fellow, 

named Dave Holmes, to look after Andromeda's Comic Book business.

The comic area, once again, was in the basement and it was a reasonably compact 

little space but they had a few back-issue bins and a steady supply of the 

new American comics.  It was a good fit for me.

For a time, I remember that I continued to visit the Birmingham Market and the 

used books dealer there, who's tables also had piles of old comics and magazines. 

Pete Lennon was still in the picture too, still dealing back-issues out of his car. 

There was also a tall, well dressed, young man, whose family was originally from India, 

named VJ.  What those initials stood for, or whether his true name was Vijay, 

is a mystery to me now but he was someone that I met through my weekly visits to Andromeda 

and he also sold comics out of his car, usually down by the market.

As I recall,he had relatives who lived in New York and they were the source of 

his supply.  I remember buying the first couple of Marvel's black and white, magazine sized, 

issues of Kull and the Barbarians from him and I still have them.  They are dated for May of 1975,

so that pins down the time period that I dealt with him and it was a short association, 

because he faded away; I think he was a student at the University and he either graduated or 

continued his education elsewhere.

1974 or 1975 was also the year that I met Carl Brooks.

Carl may not be a household name but he can lay claim to being one of the few who attended the very first comic book convention held in England in 1968.  As far as I am aware, Carl is still an active collector, 

as Lew Stringer, on his wonderful Blog "Blimey!", has a photograph of him at the 2007 Birmingham International Comics Show.

Carl was the first person that I ever met who had complete runs of most of the Marvel Comic Book titles and he was the one who introduced me to "The Big Red Cheese", otherwise known as the original Captain Marvel.  Carl had an impressive collection of Fawcett Comics too.

A recent photograph of 

Pete Lennon

and other than putting on a little weight,

very much the same guy he is in my memory banks.

I met Carl Brooks through Pete Lennon, at one of the Comic Marts in London, run by Nick Landau.

Pete and I travelled down from Birmingham on the train and we ran into Carl and one of his friends, at their table in the Mart.  Carl was a small time dealer and he was getting up-to-date American Imports through a local American Forces base PX, which was a connection he had through Phil Clarke, I think.

The point is, that Carl invited me to his home, back in Birmingham and for a while, I used to get my new comic books through him.

Thanks to an old posting by Lew Stringer here is 

the photograph of Carl from the 2007 Comics Show. 

He is the man in the foreground, wearing the black jacket.

For several weeks, for reasons that I couldn't fathom, Carl GAVE me the books that I wanted for FREE!

He worked in one of the local factories, made a decent living and he was still living in his parents house, 

so I guess he could afford it.  After a while though, he, apologetically, asked for payment and I happily gave it to him.  From time to time, he and his pals would put together a bunch of books to take to a convention and sell, which I got to look through first.  That was how I discovered some of the great fanzines that had been published through the years and bought my first few issues of Squa Tront.

It was through Carl Brooks that I first met Phil Clarke.

On a cold and rainy english night, I rode my trusty BSA 250 over to the home of Phil Clarke and 

came away with Captain America #113 by Jim Steranko, a book that I knew existed but had never seen before!  I still have that same book in my collection, forty years later and the price that I gave for it, back then, was 13 Pounds or roughly $26 Canadian… about the same as it would cost today!

More to come, so be warned!

Catching Up

Okay, it has been a while since my last posting.

What can I say, life gets in the way sometimes and 

despite our best intentions, 

we all fall behind and let things slide.

I found out recently that the 

Comic Book Lounge, 

one of my local stores, will be closing it's doors 

at the end of the month...

and any time that any type of book store closes 

it is not good news.

The Comic Book Lounge rose from the ashes, 

not literally but figuratively, 

of the closing of The Dragon Lady 

and now there will not be a comic book shop on College Street anymore.  It is a sad comment on the general state of the world.

I feel badly for all concerned, Kevin, the owner is a really nice guy and I have enjoyed his company on a couple of occasions but 

it is Mike Bothelho, the face behinds the counter,

that I will miss the most.

Mike has always been enthusiastic, about a lot of the same things that get me going and it has been too long since I last saw him.

 Note to self: Go Visit Him!

On a happier note, I was happy to see the 

second volume of

 Will Eisner's The Spirit Artist's Edition, 

from IDW, arrive on the shelves and it is gorgeous, 

just like the first one was!

While I was about it, I finally caved in and picked up 

a copy of the 

DC Comics / Graphitti Design's Gallery Edition of 

Kelley Jones' Batman

and I am very glad that I did because it too is a gem.

Kelley Jones has always been on the fringe 

of my awareness.  I really didn't like his early stuff, on the Micronauts, for example, very much at all and while I have 

several examples of his work,

spread across many years, it wasn't until he drew the 

two issue mini series 

Deadman: Love After Death

that I really took any notice at all.

Later on, I was directed, by a friend, to check out 

the work that Mister Jones was doing on Batman 

and I liked it, enough to buy quite a few issues!

It has always surprised me, that Kelley Jones will do things in his artwork that can be quite jarring.  Specifically, using a carefully, photo referenced image of a character that, in the adjacent panels, he has drawn in somewhat grotesque cartoon manner... but, 

what the heck, he is what he is and has been a working professional comic book artist for over thirty years, 

while I am still doodling in the margins;

so who am I to speak.

Until next time.