Comic Cuts

One of the drawbacks of taking time off work at this time of the year is the weather.  It's not a given - I've known years when late February has been unseasonably mild - but usually it is cold and wet.  Just like today.  But I'm still glad not to have been working.  As I'm sure my regular reader(s) will recall, my birthday falls in late February, which is why I'm taking time off from work.  It isn't actually my birthday until tomorrow but I like to turn it into a multi-day celebration - so I've taken both today and next Monday off, (I don't work Fridays, anyway).  Not that I actually celebrate birthdays any more - I'm far too old for that, but it provides an excuse for a brief break from work at a particularly miserable time of the year.  In truth, I needed a break as, even at only four days a week, work has been getting me down of late.  Mostly through boredom - I'm getting absolutely nothing out of it; no stimulation, no sense of achievement.  Which is probably why those old wargames I rediscovered the other day have engaged my interest so much - they present a potential intellectual challenge.  Speaking of said games, last time I also intimated that they weren't the only surprising thing I recently found while looking for other stuff at home.  Along with the old issues of Strategy and Tactics, I also uncovered these:

They came as a complete surprise, as I have no recollection of having acquired them.  Indeed, while I'm interested in old comics and magazines, none of these are titles I have any particular interest in - three of them, Tammy, Bunty and Jackie were aimed at girls and consequently lie outside of my experience entirely.  The top three are from the old Fleetway line of comics, while the bottom three are DC Thomson titles.  The immaculate condition of all of them indicated that they were reproductions, rather than originals, something confirmed in the case of the Fleetway comic upon closer examination.  Among their publication details on their inside back pages there is a disclaimer declaring that they are facsimile editions, produced by Egmont UK Ltd, the then new owners of the Fleetway titles, in 2009.  The DC Thomson titles, however, have no such disclaimers. 

I have an idea that the Fleetway reproductions might have been given away with a newspaper or magazine in order to publicise thir new ownership.  But the origin of the DC Thomson titles remains a mystery.  I don't think that I would have bought them from eBay or somewhere similar - unless they were part of a job lot with other items I wanted.  Perhaps they too were part of a magazine or newspaper giveaway.  I honestly don't recall.

To go back to my day off, briefly, I did put it to good use, braving the weather for a trip to another nearby town and its excellent second hand bookshop.  I've mentioned this place before - it is a truly fantastic emporium of pre-owned, pre-loved books. It has too many for the shelves to accomodate - you have to pick your way between stacks of book.  The downside of this is that, for the casual browser, it can be somewhat intimidating.  You really need to in with a clear idea of what you are looking for - which I did today, subsequently managing to obtain several out of print titles I couldn't find in Crapchester.  Yeah, I know that probably could have got them online via Abe Books or eBay, but that just wouldn't have been as satisfying as browsing the shelves of a real bookshop.