COMIC SWOPPING For this weeks story,id like to tell you a little about comic-swopping....few of you people younger than their late 50ies will have a clue what that is- Its something that goes back to the 1950/60ies! As kids we older ones didnt have much in the way of entertainment,just the radio and the old pictures at a fairly run-down cinema in many cases for most of us.But comics were very popular,every Thursday Gaynor and i had,if i remember right the Chicks-Own and Rainbow when very small,and after-the Beano and the Knockout for me and School Friend or Girl for Gaynor(the Knockout later became part ofValiant or Buster)...and later as the younger ones of us grew up there were other comics mainly for the girls-something like Jack & Jill,Bunty,Playhour and another i think,Jackie....sometimes dad would buy me the Eagle boys comic (starring Dan-Dare..pilot of the future!) or the Tiger and Hotspur.The Dandy and Beano have now been discontinued i think,but in the 1950ies a couple of new comics came out,theTopper and the Beezer,bigger and very yankee-style, especially as Topper (with Mickey the Monkey) had American strips like Nancy and Fritzy-Rits[shell keep you in fits!] an the Beezer had Gingeron the front page,a lad with big mop of red hair who started the story getting up from bed,and finished going back to it! Other kids got different comics too,some were westerns or Billy Bunters,etc(i have an old copy here of the Billy Bunter Greyfriars Holiday Annual) So i dont know of any other places that did this but up our way when we finished,we would swop them with neighbouring kids...it was quite common to see someone call at a house with a pile of old and read comics to swop-amongst some i remember maybe doing that were neighbours kids like David Watkins,or the now late Michael Green...David Idris(d.i.) and Hillarie Roberts who lived across the way regularly swopped comics with us,with either us going there or they coming to us as our parents bought us different comics,likely. But many of the other kids up our way never had any comics,so once i hit on an idea when i was about 11 or 12- i converted the old wash-house outside at no. 33 where we lived into a sort of library,put in a sort of table and chairs where they could come to sit and read comics-or even borrow them for a night or two to read in the comfort of their homes.My dad once investigated,puzzled by the constant the hordes of friends coming in our gate and barged open the door of the wash-house... Aha!-so,this is whats going on,then? but he didnt really mind after i explained though!And i always thought comics fascinating-so much so i decided to make my own! Some i took to school for others to see-the head teacher asked to see one,i think there was a strip in it of Penybryn School teachers-including him-wearing mortar board teachers caps on their heads,us giving them hell and them chasing us with a cane!And he was annoyed more than that because i pilfered pages from school stationary to take home and make the comics!-funnily enough though he didnt ban it(i think on the quiet they were amused, as other then teachers asked to see it!) even though any comics brought to school like the Beano or Dandy which showed similar school-scenes were confiscated till hometime,only two welsh comics were allowed,theHwyl andCymrur Plant, both publications by the late Ifor Owen,former headteacher of Llanuwchlyn School-i met him once while doing building work there,and some time ago went to see an exhibition of his work on the magazines and comics in thePlase in Bala,it brought back memories!.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 10:59:57 +0000
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