Country Images Magazine North April 2018 | Page 26

Derbyshire
Antiques & Collectibles
by Maxwell Craven
Collectible
UK Comics
I
can still recall, aged fi ve or six, being taken out by my nanny
to catch a train for a visit to the Science Museum at London - a
favourite destination of mine at that age. On the way to our
suburban station was a newsagent’s shop, with current titles and the
day’s papers displayed at the door. One item caught my attention
immediately: a coloured comic, most of the front page of which was
covered with a superbly painted disintegrating spaceship. Apart from
the fact that the presentation was streets better than anything else in my
experience, the impact was immediate. I duly expended fourpence of
my very limited pocket money (6d = 2.5p) on a copy and was hooked.
I read it, later supplemented by the Beano (founded 1938), thanks to
my parents’ forebearance in adding it to the newsagent’s delivery, until
I was sent away to prep school four years later.
Th e reason it was so superior was that Eagle was printed in colour
photogravure (aided by Eric Bemrose) on good quality paper with artwork
of superb quality by Frank Hampson. Th e founder and editor was Revd.
Marcus Morris a Lancashire parson and Christian values informed the
content without being either apparent or tiresome. Th is content was itself
pleasing to me: PC 49, the bumbling Harris Tweed and his piratical oppo,
Capt. Pugwash (later of TV fame), Luck of the Legion, not to mention
Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future (fl ying through space quite eff ortlessly in
the year 2000 which I felt perfectly plausible) pitting himself against the
Venusian tyrant Mekon on his fl ying potty, not to mention Vora King
of Space and other implacable adversaries, all supported by Spaceman
Digby and Spacewoman Peabody. I also like the wonderfully well drawn
cutaway version of transport wonders in the middle, especially when they
dissected a Southern Pacifi c and put it in the original livery, three years aft er
nationalisation!
Th e Eagle, launched in 1950, was by no means that early a starter, for my
second choice, the Beano (which gave me a more light-hearted view of
the world), began in 1938, and I preferred it to its rival the Dandy, a year
older, despite my enjoyment of Desperate Dan and his cow pies. Th e former
survives, the latter which ended in 2012. Not for me, though, the Boys’ Own
Paper, however (a little too earnest), which lasted from 1879 to 1967. Later
aft er having to go and live with my seven cousins in the early 1960s, I was re-
introduced to Eagle (much reduced in quality), along with its stablemates,
Girl, Robin and Swift .
Space precludes any attempt to adumbrate upon the virtues or otherwise of
Beezer (1956-1993), Lion (1952-1974), Valiant (1962-1976), Knockout
(1939-1963), Rover (1922-1973), Tiger (1954-1985), Topper (1953-1990)
or indeed a poor thing called TV Comic (1951-1984) but back numbers of
all (and others) are collectible and have a (generally modest) value. Funnily
Th is page, left to right:
Valiant comic 1965
£2.50-£5
Eagle front page,
January 1951 £3-£5
Early Eagle – PC 49
art work.
26 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk