[Paulus]

I searched for a comics publisher and characters during a long late night drinking session, when these names suddenly came into my head. The publisher was Charlton Comics, with characters "The Fly" and "Fly Girl", as well as lots of one off stories not featuring super heroes. I bought these when visiting relatives in another area where it seemed DC and Marvel comics weren't available.

On this site I soon found a publisher called Charlton Comics, but without any titles I remember. What I mean is some pulp B&W comics, with colour covers, which were published in the UK, but seem to be reprints of US comics. Titles I remember are "Creepy Worlds", "Astounding Stories", and "Tales To Astonish". I remembered that "Fly Girl" was actually Kim Brande, which led me to the original publisher, Archie Comics. Unfortunately, they're not on this site.

I'd appreciate it if anyone can tell me anything about the versions of the comics I actually read. Some interesting stories I remember were one about a special camera which could take pictures of places as they were a certain number of years ago, including people who happened to be there at the time. If someone doctored a picture to superimpose themselves into it, then they could actually go back in time to that scene and meet themselves, as later used in the TV series "Red Dwarf". Another story was about how history, including the same buildings and people repeat on the Earth. An archaeologist calculates where his home town existed previously, thousands or millions of years before. He goes there and excavates it!  He finds a missing piece of jewellery that his girlfriend dropped years before. Of course, this is very far fetched, because all the items would probably have decomposed! Does anyone remember these stories? There doesn't seem to be any of this at The Forbidden Planet.

[paw broon]

Paulus, I have responded after your introduction but just want to add that F.P. aren't the only comic shop available.  I don't know where you are but there are some really good back issue dealers in the U.K. where you might well find Alan Class reprints and original Fly, Fly Man comics.

[narfstar]

I loved those characters too Paulus. I have them all in original from Archie. They are not public domain however. Not sure about the story you mentioned. It sounds like it may be originally ACG.

[Paulus]

Paulus, I have responded after your introduction but just want to add that F.P. aren't the only comic shop available.  I don't know where you are but there are some really good back issue dealers in the U.K. where you might well find Alan Class reprints and original Fly, Fly Man comics.

Thanks for all your information! I'm in London, so there are more shops than The Forbidden Planet available, of course, but I often get the feeling that The Forbidden Planet is the most likely place to find anything. Apart from FP, I've recently visited Megacity Comics, in Camden Town, London, NW1 and bought some fairly modern (for this site) DC Legion of Super Heroes editions.

I've now found this site http://themagicrobot.wordpress.com/category/alan-class-comics/   with covers of some titles I remember.

BTW, I also do some of my own artwork, but haven't got as far as creating a strip or an entire comic yet. I've created a character a bit like DC Comics' Supergirl, but this kind of character is originally based on a German legend anyway.

[paw broon]

You really need to get to 30th.  Century comics at Putney.  Look them up.  Also Orbital in central London are pretty good, if a bit more mainstream.  You could also try some mail ordercompanies, Quicksilver and perhaps City Centre Comics in Glasgow

citycentrecomics.com/

[Yoc]

To learn a LOT more about the Archie superhero eras including Fly-Man, Fly-Girl, Shield, etc be sure to check out this amazing resource -
http://www.mightycrusaders.net/

-Yoc