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07-11-09 02:37:23 PM
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Books or Comics? Why Not Both!
Thanks for all the nice comments, I'm actually quite excited
to receive messages from other book lovers. I have been asked often how
I can collect both books and comics, many people find it quite strange
that I collect both, and feel they are mutually exclusive, but I
actually think it a progression if you love artistic content and words.
Nothing wrong with starting with comics, it's not such a leap from a
picture book. True, many modern comics can be a bit graphic, but many
older comics (e.g. Classic comics & Classics Illustrated) were originally produced to bring the classics to the 'masses'; taking into mind many people in the early half of the 20th century could not read well, some never having been near a school, so comics encouraged them to try the classics. It was far easier to decipher the story by following the pictures.
 All the covers I've included in this blog are from actual comics or 'Graphic Novels' as they are called today
I think graphic novels and comics play a great part in teaching children to love reading. "She's mad," I hear you say, but I have definite proof in my 2 children, who were taught to read by 'yours truly' and NOT their teachers. This was in the era of 'social comment novels' and my son just wouldn't read any of the books. After much angst, he told me he hated to read about divorce and sad stuff, which was understandable, his parents are still together to this day, and after all, his family was still intact and happy, on top of that, children's books were churned out with crummy illustrations and boring stories, with little or no thought to the pace of the novel. (Paul also has a large collection of Enid Blyton Famous Five, some in hard back, I bought some when he was young because he lo
 ved them and I couldn't get them from the school library, poor Enid was persona non grata for many years, he's added to this himself). The school was unsympathetic, after all many children came from broken homes, and needed to be helped to deal with it, I still can't see how a dreadful book no-one wants to read could help, so I decided to act.
Firstly I tried novels but it was too big a leap, then I remembered my early days with Yogi bear, Phantom and Archie. I started buying them for him, and he loved them. The teacher was of course horrified, so I decided to continue and just not mention it again.
This same boy still collects comics and vintage books and has developed a love of the printed word. I did the same with my daughter, and yes!! She actually reads for pleasure.
I don't care what people read, you can't be a snob about it. We should instead be encouraging young people to read everything, and this before I even mention the great art work to be found in some comics. I love some of it, and will often buy because the cover is great, even if I never read the comic. I must be honest here and admit I don't read them these days, but I'll probably have grand children one day, and then
 hopefully my collections will be enjoyed by another generation. I hope this helps to explain why I collect both comics and books. This is just one
archived box of :- Paul's Phantom comicsNow children's picture books, there's a whole new blog thread there...just waiting to be explored. I'll give it some thought before next time.
Cheers Ursula.
Comments;
Hello Ursula
I became a follower of yours here. I see you do have a lot of books. Congratulations on the weight loss. Thank you for the visit to my blog. I say you should go for it with the blog of your journey through weight loss, I think you will have many many people who can relate to it. Have a fantastic week Brittany http://www.papermoonies.blogspot.com
posted by
: 9:16 AM
From Pickwick Papers to Summer Island
 A change of pace today. I've been photographing those comics all morning, and my neck is as stiff as a poker, and my brain is buzzing with Archie, Superman,Walt Disney and Conan, so I needed this change. My hubby thinks I've gone blog crazy. Every time he's come into my book room (actually it's my daughter's old bedroom; I figure it's now a safe bet she won't be back after the wedding of the year two weeks ago) the last few days, he's asked "What are you working on?" and without looking up I mutter "blog", so he just sighs and walks away. While I had the camera out, I decided to photograph some of my personal book collection, as I thought they'd be great to blog about. The Pickwick Papers is one of my older Dickens, lovely embossed boards, it's a Ward, Lock & Co., it's a first THUS, which means a first
edition in this series . The original Pickwick Club was actually issued in shilling installments, as were most of his books, the original of this was issued in 1837. This edition is a 1936, it has a bookplate on ffep dated 1938. The cover is very art deco don't you think?
Here's another of my Dicken's, Great Expectations. I need to work on the spine of this one. Sometimes I prefer to leave them, as a poor repair can be worse than the damage, and if I don't feel too confident, or haven't the right aged paper, I leave them. This one has brown cloth boards with black and gold decoration on the spine, it's also fully illustrated with the original prints. The edges of the boards are worn and bumped, but there's no foxing at all, the pages have mellowed beautifully. Poor old Pickwick is quite foxed, but only on the text block edges. the pages are lovely. I keep my entire collection in Ultra Pro archiveable bags, which I actually originally purchased for my comics, but they are great for books and my Annuals as well. I purchase them in bulk in 3 sizes. Magazine size fits the annuals perfectly. I bag all my vintage books, even the paperbacks, and sell them that way. My James Bond collection is all in PAN firsts because I love the covers.  Now this little beauty is one of my prized possessions, very rare, it's by Lutterworth Press and dated 1944, not my earliest by a long shot, that would be my Cicero's, but it's in almost mint condition. Last time I had this valued it was around AUD$189, and that was quite a few years ago now, it's illustrated by Achoy. I've taken a shot of one of the illustrations so you can see how lovely it is inside, it also still has the dust wrapper. The actual boards are red cloth with green title and a picture of a little grass hut.
The story is about Rose Mary who has been a sick little girl, who would just not get well, and then old doctor Forsyth said it was sunshine she needed. So Rose Mary went to Summer Island. The Island was like a big flower-garden, and when Rose Mary returned to England she was tanned and well. Just a brief synopsis, but it's the illustrations I fell in love with.
I will get around to showing you some of my more contemporary books eventually. I have so many from my own collection that I love to share with people, but I never lend a book. If I want someone to have it I will give it. I lost my first edition Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday
by lending them, and have never been able to replace
them, although I do have soft copies. It was worse
because my father gave them to me for my 21st. I
also loaned my hard edition of Shogun and lost that
too, thankfully it wasn't a first or second, but I
did like it, and I like to re read my books, it's
like visiting an old familiar friend and learning
something new about them. So I guess I learned the
hard way! I hope you like these, let me know what
you think? I'll try to show some of my non-fiction
next post, I find it hard to decide as I love them
all. Have a great weekend, cheers Ursula Comments;
I just love the smell of older books! My
husband has several that we keep up high away
from the kids and every once in a while I love
going to them and picking one up to read!
Thanks for following me on my blog! Don't worry about the US-Canada confusion, I've never really gotten offended mainly because I was born in Brazil and raised around the world! Keep it up! Vanessa
I too like to collect rare and antique books,
there is something humbling about holding
history in your hand, having something so
enduring. I sympathize with your having lost
your first edition copies of the Steinbeck
books. What a tragedy! I have first edition
copies of Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday, and as
with my other rare books, I don't think I could
part with them except to someone I trusted
absolutely and completely. But who knows,
perhaps you will run across them again in a used
bookstore.
Very nice blog, I've enjoyed your musings. Thanks! Phantom Oh Ghost Who Walks Posted 13/05/09
Yes I do, I think artistic people are special and gifted, I can't help
but admire their work, old or new, from classics to comics, I love them all!
posted by
 littlebear
: 6:25 PM
A great Aussie Poem I came across. A billy is what a swagman used to boil his billy tea in. Most people I know still use one for camping here in Australia. Nothing tastes quite like billy tea. For travelling you can pack it with dry goods (tea, sugar etc) and unpack it when you get to the campsite, and then "Watch the Billy Boil!" By James Cuthbertson Old Billy, battered, brown and black with many days of camping,
How often, in the moonlight pale, through gums and gullies toiling,
And so, old Billy, you recall a host of sun-burnt faces,
You bring us more, with those we love we watched you boil and bubble,
Another great Aussie writer of prose and poetry is Henry Lawson. I shall take some photos of my Henry Lawson books, and upload some of his work.
Hope you like this poem. Ursula
 sneak preview of my treasured 'Summer Island' with its classic watercolour illustrations. I love the way these stories are illustrated, and how the simple stories hide messages about qualities we all admire. I collect everything from Annuals to old school readers such as Happy Venture, Jack & Jill and of course Ladybird Key Readers. Here's another pic from
Summer Island before I go any further. You can click on it to see a larger version.
This post is actually going to be about Teddy, Golly and Bunny. This one is missing his ffep, but I'm leaving it alone as the papers are decorated with pictures from the story, and I don't think I'll ever find another copy. Here's the cover
-
 isn't it gorgeous? The story is by Constance Wickham and illustrated by A.E. Kennedy and was printed by Collins in London. It's the story of Teddy, Golly and Bunny at the beginning of the school holidays. The three friends head off home to start holiday fun, but on the way Farmer Jolliface asks them to help catch a little calf that has escaped its paddock. Bunny falls in the dam, but they finally catch the calf, and then the farmer's wife gives them the best tea they have ever had back at the farmhouse. It also contains some lovely comic strip stories and two other chapters of the holiday story, about the visit of Teddy girl, Teddy's cousin and the three go camping with Teddy girl to a field where teddy-girl's mother has set out a lovely lunch of pie, fruit and gingerpop ready for them. They collect their eggs and milk from a near by farm house during their stay. Teddy girl's parents then leave them there for four days of adventure. I chose this book not just for the pictures and lovely stories, but also because it belies the fallacy that all golly stories depict golly's as bad or evil. In this story he is a good toy just like teddy and bunny, and they are three best school friends having fun on their holidays. Here's some more photos.
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This site was last updated 11/07/09
Here it is Finished at last.
What a mammoth effort that was. It contains photos of
the original colour plates also and if I do say so 
Many comics were also informative (see prehistoric
world)- these were factual comics.
I've got some exciting news this week, for me anyway. My son has quite a few domain names, which is where usedbooks-online.com came from. He bought them over the years, and as I have some old comics, a few of which I have been selling on the usedbooks-online comics page, and many more yet to list, I was talking to him about buying another domain name with the word comics in it (he's the computer expert in the family) but after research I found that the easy ones were all taken. Then he popped out the information that he'd bought usedcomics when he bought usedbooks, and I could have it for as long as I like providing it eventually 
books to the book site and post to my blog.
The new link will be 
