Peter has led an interesting life and has managed to amass a huge collection of comics and related items such as promo material for retailers, original artwork, and more. There's some great items that John photographed during his visit to Peter's house, including the cover for a dummy issue of a proposed girls' comic called Candy, that I venture none of us have heard of before. (Not to be confused with the very weird Candy comic published by City Magazines/Century 21 in the 1960s.)
It's often a concern what will happen to our collections in the future, and one such as Peter's deserves to be retained. He hopes that his collection will one day be archived in a museum to ensure that future generations can learn about the rich history of comics. Let's hope that can be achieved!
To read John's interview with Peter (and to also see a video interview with him) visit the Down the Tubes blog here:
https://downthetubes.net/?p=109362
Incidentally, I have to say again that Down the Tubes excels at this sort of reporting. My Blimey! blog only scratches the surface, but John's blog, which has been around for much longer than mine, researches its subject matter thoroughly. Remember to bookmark Down the Tubes for a great source of news and historical content. When Blimey! ends later this year, DTT is your place to go... and you should be visiting it regularly already.
Peter is a great guy and his collection is amazing. I've visited him once a few years ago and we had a great time. I wish he realises his dream of making his vast collection accessible to researchers and the general public because it is such a great resource.
ReplyDeleteAs for your blog, I would like to say it has been THE place where I discovered the wonderful world of Ken Reid (particularly his Odhams years), which has led me to collecting all of his published work starting from the first episode of Jonah, and eventually to publishing the official collection of Ken's work in Wham!, Smash!and Pow! Thanks again for your unreserved support in promoting my project, and especially for being my inspiration to delve into Ken Reid. I am sure you know that Peter is also a huge fan of Ken's work :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Irmantas. It's nice to know my blog led to the eventual publication of those excellent books! I've (mostly) enjoyed doing the blog over the past 12 to 13 years (except for some nuisance by a few trolls) but it's becoming too time consuming to research articles for no reward, and the news items are often the same as those covered by other blogs so it's time to move on soon.
ReplyDeleteI see what you mean - I also have doubts about continuing with my Kazoop!! blog because visitor traffic is low, and most comments come from bots, or I don't know what, because they hardly make any sense :) Perhaps things are moving on to FB or Ttwitter, but I believe blogs offer more value to readers... Many of my recent (and future) articles in Comics Scene UK magazine are based on my old Kazoop!! blogposts.
ReplyDeleteYes, I definitely have less hits than I used to, and less comments (apart from spam which I delete). Occasionally a post will receive hundreds of views, depending on the topic of course. Posts about pre-1960s comics are often low, as most people are only interested in their personal nostalgia, which is a pity.
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