THE STORy rArJER
JAl\.LARY 1954 COLLECTOR No. 51 :: Vol. 3
6th Chri,tma' J,,ue, The Magner, i'o. 305, December 13, 191 "l From the Editor's NOTEBOOK
HAVE Volume I, the first 26 name pictured in The Srory Paper issues, of the early Harms Collet!or No. 48, but the same I worth weekly paper for publisher, Rrett), a "large num· women, Forger-Me-Nor, which ber" of S11rpris�s, Plucks, Union was founded, I judge - for the Jacks, Marwls, and True Blues cover-pages are missing-late in were offereJ at one shilling for 1891. In No. 12, issued probably 48, post free to any address. Un in January 1892, there is mention like Forgec-Me-Nors in 1892, these of a letter from a member of papers must have been consi The Forget-Me-Not Club. ln the dered of little value in 1901. words of the Editress (as she What a difference today! calls herself): IF The Amalgamated Press A member of the Clul> tt•rites IO had issued our favorite papers inform me rha1 she inserted an ad in volumes, after the manner of vertisement in E x change and Mart, Chums in its earlier years, there offering Rider Haggard's "Jess" and would doubtless he a more Longfellow's poems for a copy of plentiful supply of Magnets and No. 1 of Forget-Me-Not, l>ut she Gems and the rest today. They did not receive an offer. This speaks did not even make any great 1'0lumes for 1he value of the earl: prndicc of providing covers for numbers of Forger-Me-Not. I readers who wanted to have should advise all those who are for their copies bound. But such tunace enough to possess the early covers were available, for a time numbers to keep chem, as 1hey will at least, to readers of The Pluck in all probability be <'ery l'aluable Library. I have found reference ere long. to them in No. 506, July 11th, There can be very little de 1914, with another paragraph on mand for copies of Forgec-Me the same subject a few weeks No1 today, and I wonder just later. The covers for six-month how much my Volume I would volumes were offered at one be worth. To find out, I invite shilling and ninepence each. offers. Were many purchased and used! And has anyone collecting to IN THE Sale and Exchange day ever come upon volumes column of The Boys of 1he Empire of The Pluck Library that had No. 40, July 9th, 1901 (a different been bound in these publishers' paper from that of the same covers! 2 An Amateur Magatine : : Published Since 1941 The Story Paper Collector
No.51-Vol.3 Priceless
\Virh a scniimencal sigh rhe Editor says--- GOOD· BYE, MR. CHIPS!
ES, I KNOW full well that various changes in its name and ritle is not original with a more varied career than the Y me I It was used by James others-have been given a little Hilton for a story which space. In Volume One (p. 250) stays in one's memory, both as a Walter Dexter gave an account hook and as a movie. (I would of the different names and like to see it again I) And Her series of Wonder and there were hert Leckenby used it in the other references to it. In Vol O�lober, 1953, issue of The Col ume Two (pp.255, 274) Charlie lec'!ors' Digcsr for the same reason Daniel and Arthur Harris had a that it appears here: to bid fare few words for Chips. Come to well to the Amalgamated Prcss's think about it, ComicCuts seems long-estahlished comic papers, to have been completely neg Chips, Comic Curs, and Wonder. lected, except perhaps for brief But it is so appropriate that references that failed to find a I just haJ to use it. The Editor place in the Indexes. of Chips for many years signed The killing·off of the three his editorials"Cornclius Chips," comics in September of 1953 though I doubt very much if that created sufficient interest for really was his name. the occurrence to be com The comks have received mented upon in various news comparatively little attention in papers in Britain. News.Chronicle these pages, mainly, I suppose, devoted a "leader" to it on because they are nut much col September 2nd which began: lected. But Comic Curs, Chips - which used to be lll1mrared A fugirit>e sigh, a single senri· Chips- and \Voruler-which had menwl rear, may be pennissi ble 4 TI-IE STORY PAPER COLLECTOR roday 01•er the news that Comic home, but luckily a friend of Curs, Chips, and Wonder (or the family bought copies each Funny Wonder, as it once was) week and they were passed on are to cease publication next week. to me. The time seemed to pass so slowly while I was wait· Bransby Williams, the famous ing for them! ad:or, wrote a nostalgic piece for News of the World of Sep· l have little recollection now tember 6th which commenced: of what I read in them, hut l do remember-of course!-Weary uDeath from natural causes," Willie and Tired Tim, the sUJtes the foreman of the jury. Yes, Casey Court Kids, and Home but what cause? That u·as the ques· less Hed:or in Chips and the tion I pondered when I read thar Mulberry Fln-itt:S in Comic Curs. never again u·ill a schoolboy be seen Those Chips characters were muling a copy of Comic Cuts or still in the paper at the last Chips and Wonder. Those three issue, but the inhabitants of publications -mrely as celebrated as Mulberry Flats had long dis· any in the English-speaking 1t'Orld- appeared from Comic Curs. will be seen no more, except as My chief memory of Chips in colleClors' curios. those, for me, early days is a The London Recorder (I quote serial, or a series, uThe Red from The Colledors' Digest for Inn." The proprietor of the inn Oaobe r) haJ a Sweeny Todd-like chair which was very useful for drop· commencing on Comic Curs makes ping into the cellar with a dull the surprising statement thar irs thud anyone who annoyed him, mccess was so phenomenal chat ir or who appeared worth robbing, brought in almost immediately a and who was so careless as to pro/it of £25,000 a year. sit in the chair. (I do not know If that was so, it is not surprising if the stories in The Bullseye of that the publishers soon fol the early 1930s, f�aturing an inn lowed it with Chips and Funny keeper, a lonely inn, and a re· Wonder, or that others jumped volving chair were reprints from in with comics of their own. Chips or new stories with a similar theme.) Y RECOLLECTIONS of Comic I did not become acquainted M Cuts and Chips go back with Wonder, then known as only to about 1910.Comics The )ester, or perhaps it was The were not considered a necessary Jester and Wonder, at that time. part of everyday living in my The others were sent to us each The Last Issue of Chips: No. 2997, Sept. 12th, 1953
Sec overleaf] [Facing pag< i Comic Cuts
No. 1, May 17th, 1890-No. 3006, September 12th. 1953. Combined with Knockout.
Chips lsr Series, No. 1, July 26th, 1890-No. 6, August 30th, 1890. New Series, No. 1, September 6th, 1890-No. 2997, Sep· tember 12th, 1953. Combined with Film Fun.
Wonder 1st Series, No. 1, July 30th, 1892-Final Series, No. 1760, September 12th, 1953. Combined with Radio Fun. GOOD-BYE, MR. CHIPS! 5 week, for several years, after we Tired Tim who, it is said, so got crossed the Atlantic. Lacer they on the nerves of one of their were seen but not read, unti I artists, the noted Tom Browne, the day came when I was en· that he gave up the job because gaged, among other things, in he dreamed of them. selling them myself to another Chips had, however, made a generation of youngsters. concession to modern times, in During the papers' first two that there are two serial picture· decades their stories were of a stories, these being unknown in more adult type than was the "the good old days." Comic Cws case later-but let me quote and Wonder were also carrying again from the October Collec picture-stories. tors' Oigesr: The final issues, dated Sep· But ic was nnt only che (Omic tember 12th, 1953, were: Comic sec'tions u·hich made chese papers so Cues, No. 3006; Chips, No. 2997; mccessf11l in more resrful days; \Vonder, No. 1760. Because it chere were che serials. Until cite started a new series at No. I oucbreak of che Firsc \'(/orld \'(/ar several times \Vondtr finished at chese were tl'rirren mainly for che a much lower serial-number elder members of che family. I don'c than the others, but adually it mean chey were not /it for children was much the same age. co reatl, in rhe manner of "Adulrs The last picture of the Weary Only" signs oucside the cinema, Willie and Tired Tim adventure jusr char their plocs were more in Chips No. 2997 had this under suirable for grou·n-ups. Even as it: adulc swries they 1t•crc tmique, in a "You're the funniest customers class co chemsc/1•cs somehow, dif. l'•>e ever seen," he [ Murgatroyd ferenc co those rhac appeared in Mump, millionaire] roars. "You ocher A. P. papers . can stay here for just as long as Later on the serials became more you like, and che wry best of luck juvenile . . to you both." Which is what u1e all say, isn't it? HAVE copies of the last issues I of Comic Curs, Chips, and It certainly is, and as Weary Wonder before me as I write, Willie says, "This looks like a job and one can see chat Chips ap· for life!" Surely a happy landing pears co be the least changed. for the famed tramps after al· On the front page there are, most sixty years of wanderings where they have been since May and misadventures in the pages 16th, 1895, Weary Willie and of Illustrated Chips. THE LAST PAGE•
NSTEAD I of being satisfied with find them plentifully dottt:d arriving at Number 50, as I with w.H.c.'s. In future this con· I 1 should have been, have dition will be remedied and made a start toward Number they will rare. But it may be - but us not anticipate! I am assumed that the owner of those not setting my sights on any initials wrote 'most everything far-distant goal: instead, each which is unsigned. issue while in production will WITH my now uncertain pub· be my immediate objective, and lishing schedule I may find a no attempt will be made to shortage of mss. Writers like to keep to a regular schedule. see their efforts in print without Comments appeared here and waiting for months. It may ht.: there, in particular in Alf Bab necessary to make up for this cock's Alf's Cat and Herbert possible shortage 1'y using other Leckenby's Collceton' Digest, on suitable material, probably re The Swry Paper Colleetor having printed, such as one of tht: attained its first half-century articles in this number. of issues, that is-which are duly {?THE last page to be printed, appreciated, as are numerous that is. letters, some of which, I regret "Wtoow LINES" are, I know, to say, remain unanswered. At things to be avoided if at all one time I was able to state in possible. In the pages of thi> these pages that every letter was issue I was overcome by no answered; now 1 wonder how I fewer than three. Printers will did it. wince at the sight of them; non· Magnet THE cover of No. 305, printers who do not know a a small reproduction of which widow line when they sec one appears on page 1, is printed in will not be troubled. blue and red. The purplish look BEGUN in December, placed of the reproduction is the result on the shelf until Fehruary, I of some experimenting, and completed by mid-April, and now feel that I should have dated January: that's the story stayed with black on red, as with 51. Magnet of Number If progress had earlier Christmas Num been maintained, the article ber reproductions, instead of about the vanishing of the three changing to red on blue. comic papers would not be so LooKtNG through the pages of much like ancient history! Volumes One and Two of S.P.C. April 13, 1954 -w. H. G. 6 THE FOOL OF THE FIFTH
By ROGER M. JENKINS
ORACE JAMES CoKER was many Fifth-Form felloll'S, and thar one of rhe few really fa fact made him a bully in rite Shell, H mous chara.:krs ar Grey and in the lower fornu he u•as friars who never arrived gread:t feared. . . Coker was a as a new boy; this honour can slacktr, and he ""'s not over-gifted be claimed by Billy Bunter, with intelligence, but he /tad a uery Frank Nugent, and Bulsrrode. great idea of his own impo rtance. but nor by many ochers. Again, Coker was much coo old for like Billy Bunter, Coker changed the Shell, but his scholastic at· with the passing of rhe years, tainments were such char he and after an initial tryout he found the work of that form was alloweJ to sink back in tuo difficult for him: to ohscurity for a while, to re-cmcr�e a slightly different The speC!acle of a chap in a tail and rnure successful piece of coat still in the Shell, among the chara.:terizarion. 1uniors, afforded great delight to Coker began his life in rhe rhe loll'er fonns. Shell, so far as The Magnet was Relief from chis indignity was .:onccrneJ. He faded into rhe at hand, for in No. 145 his storit'S, as ic were, the first famous Aunt Judy made her description we have of him first appearance at Greyfriars, being in No. 143 dated the 5th dressed in Viclorian attire wirh of November, 1910: a poke bonnet and an ancient Bunter rolled dotrn rhe passage. umbrella. Aune Judy exercized A Shdl fdlow, who u-as coming the full force of her eloquence co plead for Horace's remove down from the f>Ox-roum, paused to look on, ll'ith a sho111 of laughter. le inro rhe Fifth Form. She even wa.s Coker, a fdlou: much given ro quoted Uncle James's opinion of her nephew: ragging and w .:11ffrn11. 1he junwrs. and che sight of dn)' rmrg/1 H.SUb� "His Uncle lames S<1id he <..as U"as always amusinR to 111111. the most brilliant Latinist he had Coker was a hi.ct, wd1-i:ruu·n fel ewr spoken w. I remember the inci· low, and ough1, as u m<111er of fad. denr perfedly, for it was on the da)' IO haw been in 111' Fifrh Form. that Uncle James hail an execution Idleness and sla.:kin� /t,111 kept him on rl1e hnuse, alld came co u.� en back. Bur lie tms higi:a rlw n a good f>Orruw £70." 7 8 THE STORY PAPER COLLECTOR
In the end Dr. Locke gave Coker starred regularly in The way. Billy Bunter subsequently Maiinet after this. In f\"o. 325 he averred that the Head was terri sent the Remove eleven a chal fied of being struck by Aunt lenge tu a match, purporting to Judy's umbrella, hut this is an come from a famous cricket apocryhal version. The truth team, the Trojans- hut the joke 1vas that the Head came to the went wrong, because the Tru conclusion that Coker might jans took p11y on the hoaxed just as well be a fool in the Removites, and actually played Fifth as a fool in the Shell. them. In No. 327 Coker went OKER was extremely elated hy looking for an escaped convi<'.t, C his remove, and snubbed an old Greyfriars hoy, whom his bosom pal H<>bson im Coker was certain was inno mediately. The Fifth were at cent, because the convh.'t had tracted by Coker's wealth, and been the fag of his Uncle even let him captain the team George, who firmly belie"ed in oncc. In this tale, it is interest whopping fa�s, and no-one ing to note that Coker was could go to the dogs after such depicted as bland and rather a sound upbringing. Poor Coker boring, but not too stupid was soon disillusioned. Rut it to realize that it was his is No. 342 which is the star money that made people tol numf-cr in this period; Coker erate him. He later became far wished to further culti\'Me the less perspicacious. acquaintanc� o( his cousin Amy, In Magnet No. 241, Coker's who was livin� nearhy, but younger brother Reggie arrived there was a dra11on in the path at the school. It would be diffi in the person of Aunt Sopho cult to imagine a mflre complet� nisba, who had quarrelled with antithesis; whereas Horace was Aunt Judy and her side uf the hurly, aggressive, and stupid, family. At Bunter's su�gl'Stion. Re�gic was slight, timid, and Coker advettised discrccdy for very intelligent. To eveyone's the pretty girl with grey eyes amazement, Reggie was placed who was down on the ri\'er on in the Sixth, and Horace suf Wednesd•y to come to te• in fered the mortification of having his study. Cousin Amy never a minor in a form above him. arrived, hut Coker had quite To Horace's credit, let it he said a joh getting rid of the succes that he soon got over his annoy sion of middle-aged spinsters ance. Reggie then faded away v:ho accepted his invitation. quietly into the background. The Fifth Form had a Stage THE FOOL OF THE FIFTH 9
Club which was largely an imi· that people needed to be cheered tation uf the Remove Dramatic up, and he went around perpe Society, and Coker was one of trating outrageous puns in a as leading lights. In No. 374, a patriotic effort to keep the home double number, he was hoaxed front from collapsing. The mar by P,msonby into taking his garine queue at Courtfield, how· cast to Eastwood House to play ever, was not amused by his his own drama of the war en· quips, and he was duly Jeposited titled Red Ruin. Lord Eastwood in the horse trough. was llreatly surprised, but he Coker had always considered agreed to let the Fifth Formers himself fit to be captain of Grey· perform, and it was not long friars, and in No. 551 he insti· before the whole audience was tuted a disobedienee campaign in fit> of laughter. against Wingate to prepare the OKER fell vidim tu the way for his own candidature: C charms of another young needless to say, it came to no. . lady in No. 419- Phyllis thing. In No. 597 he had so far HJwcll of Clitf House. Wiblcy given up hope of getting a place disguised himself as a lady uf in the First Eleven that he uncertain years and, armed with advertised his services as a Co ker's letter co Phyllis, i ncro first class cricketer in the local duced himself at Greyfriars as Co paper; unfortunately Bob Cherry ke r's fianc(le, Miss Phyllis Mont· changed the wording of the muncery. It was some time be· advertisement, and Coker was fure Cul.er was allowed to forget quite perplexed over the sur the episode uf his engagement. prising uutcome of the affair. The war ubtruded into the The year 1926 saw Coker stories quite often. In No. 458 elevated to a position of greater Coker decided he had discovered importance with the publication a spy, and even managed tu of a series in Nos. 981-984. Aunt enlist the support of Mr. Prout Judy was at this time living with (who hicterly regrerced he was Uncle Henry, her brother, at too old to join up). With the Holly House, and Coker nor aid of his famous ritlc. the Fifth mally spent his Christmas with Form master did succeed in them instead of going tO his catching somc.:onc, who turncJ parents. On this occasiun, how out to be merdy a lucal fisher ever, Uncle Henry's secretary, man in hiding, who was wanted Poynings, attempted to persuade fur bcin� drunk and disorderly. him not to go to Holly House Again, in No. 528 Coker decided for the holidays, and, when 10 THE STORY PAPER COLLECTOR
Coker refused to be dissuaded, Coker on Courtfield Common, more drastic methods were em and all wa. forgiven whe11 Coker ployed and he was kidnapped. rescued him. In Nos. 1084-5 The Head agreed that anyone Coker recklessly threatened to who would like to spend the punch his form master. He was holidays searching for Coker not unnaturally hbmed when could remain at the school. someone else committed thio Potter and Greene declined this
Stone, Elgin Street. Gordon, I WISH--- N.S. W., Austrolia. To sell my Narional G.:ovapl1k To obtain The Story Paper Col Maga�ines, years 1905-1953, de l Eo1ToR's NoTE: The Youth's Companion uw one of the /nllars of American journalism. It was the leading and most hdo11ed young folks' journal of its day, making its weekly visits i1110 many 1ho1.sands of homes with its t Y OWN years on the staff personnel- many white-haired of The Youth's Companion men and women, survivors of M were from 1919 to 1925. the lavish days of Mr. Ford, "Final Editor," I was who had made the magazine called. nationally important. The per The story of the end of The sonnel had numerous small and Youth's Companion is a tragic rather unimportant tasks to do, one, for it never should have and although their pay was low, happened, and, with a little it all added up to a financial wisdom, could have been pre· burden The Companion was not vented. The magazine was not able to bear. old-fashioned in the sense of When I first went there, we hdng dull; it was conservative, had our own compositors, and· uf course, but very much in our own presses-runninj! only rnuch with the times. We were three days a week. Then came not living in the past. Its circu· a printers' strike, in which lation was good, and its reputa our own printers joined. There· tion very, very Rood! What upon we introduced linotype killed it-and "killed" is the machines, and soon afterward proper word-was too much we sent all our copy to the overhead. We had a big build Rumford Press, in New Hamp ing, all to ourselves, and a huge shire. Still the big building and 13 14 THE STORY PAPER COLLECTOR the overhead remained. back and tried to co-operate, The year 1925, after about one but their pride was shattered to hundred years of continuous see superficiality where hitherto publication, came the crisis. No depth and honesty had pre une had the heart to cut costs vailed. Old suhscribers dropped and discharge the old employees, out, being shocked and grieved some of whom had been with hy the changes. the rnagazine over fifty years. After three years under the We needed a loan at a time new management, during which just before che bulk of che sub the editorial policy veered like scriptions came in, as we had a weathervane, the mag;uinc .nee ded in previous years. But in was sold to the Amcrirnn Boy 1925 the banks considered us a mcrged with it, and submerged. poor risk. Now both arc gone. o THE Ar/antic Momhiy took It is a tragic story, and those S over The Youth's Companion . of us who were a part of the Then came drastic cutting spirit of The Companwn still find and firing-much too drastic it painful to contemplate. There together with an ill-advised at· was a strong need for The Com tempt at "streamlining," which panion in the twenties, and there was perhaps the worse thing is a definite need fnr that kind chat could have happened to of magazine nm.t"-in the middle a publication with the integrity of a perverse erri. and dignity of The Youth's Com· - RL•ssELL GoRno:--: CARTlR pani on. Some of the editors went Sunshine Magazine is published monthly at The House of Sunshine, Litchfield, Iii., U.S. A. THE STORY PAPER COLLECTOR Edited, printed, and published quarrerly, maybe less often, by William Gander, Box 60, Transcona, Manitoba, Canada PRINTED AT THE ROOKWOOD PRESS THIS ISSUE JOI COPIES