I've been a member now for a couple of months, so am somewhat remiss in introducing myself.
I was born in '59 and grew up in that glorious time of the comic the sixties. My weekly comic delivered by the paperboy was The Victor. My sister had the Sparky delivered. Once these were read they were swapped with friends down the road for their Toppers and Beezers. My grandparents and my godfather(their lodger)were always generous with extra pocket money, spent in the local newsagents around the corner from their house on sweets, Airfix kits and of course comics first to be bought would be The Hotspur , then The Hornet with Valiant as third choice. Another friend had vast quantities of Look and Learn and American comics both DC and Marvel stashed under his bed, which with total and utter generosity he would let me borrow for as long as I wanted. I had an elder cousin who was about 13 years older than me and although he was by then at college my Aunt and Uncle had kept his Beano and Dandy annuals from the 50s which always made visiting them a joy. Just over a year ago I returned to comics and have been over joyed to find that so much of my childhood has been cherished and preserved by so many people. Thanks to all of you who have been instrumental in preserving so much and making it available on the net. I have years of reading of preserved comics and blogs about comics to catch up on.
Two thinks on this site have surprised and delighted me. Being a Brit I somewhat naively had believed that there were only two major comic publishers in the States - DC & Marvel. So it was something of an eyeopener to see how many other major publishers there were across the pond. The other thing was pure delight. When I was a youngster the local city library had a partial collection of hardback books that republished editions of the Magnet. I had always loved Billy Bunter and the rest of the lads at Greyfriars. Those hardbooks had stayed in my mind not only for the stories but because they included the complete comic including adverts etc etc and were a view of another time. So it was a delight to find that you had so many of the Magnets on this site, which was another eyeopener as I had not appreciated exactly how long The Magnet had run. I have years of reading ahead just with the Magnets, when you add in all the other British comics and the US comics I'll be needing stronger prescription glasses very soon as I'll have overstrained my eyes
