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| Before restoration. Copyright DC COMICS |
Fancy going on a little journey with me? Well, not quite so little, perhaps, as it's all the way back to 1981 inside a shop in Southsea. Me and my pal Joe had gone in so he could buy cigarettes and we spotted two copies of the Superman The Movie Collector's Album lying on the news-agent's counter and I immediately 'bagged' what I considered the best condition copy for myself, leaving the second copy for Joe. Originally published in 1978, neither of them could be described as pristine, both showing some relatively minor signs of wear. When we returned home from Portsmouth a few months later, I have no memory of ever seeing Joe's copy again.
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| Before restoration |
Down through the decades, I looked after my copy and it's pretty much in the same condition as it was in 1981, except for me removing the 50p sticker from the cover not long after purchase. As all regular readers will perhaps know, Joe died back in October and I was among the friends invited to Joe's flat to help ourselves to a pile of stuff destined to be disposed of, either to charity shops or Joe's bin in the back garden. It was then my eye fell upon the self-same Superman Special he'd bought at the same time as mine almost 45 years earlier, so that joined my other choices, most of which were comics I'd given him from the late '70s onwards.
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| After restoration |
Joe tended not to be so adept as me at keeping things in good condition, and his copy was quite blootered, with creases and colour 'rubs', as well as there being some foxing on the interior pages, but I decided to work a little 'magic' on its imperfections and restore it to an acceptable condition, though I've still got a bit of work ahead of me until I'm satisfied. However, I thought I'd show you my progress so far, with some before-and-after scans of the front and back covers. Also included are two scans of my own copy, acquired, as I said, at the exact same time and place as Joe's, just so you can see well how I look after my stuff (barring accidents) over the passage of time.
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| After restoration |
So nearly 45 years later, both copies are reunited with one another, which is a nice way to end this post I think. What do you esteemed Crivs say? Below is my copy side-by-side with Joe's after restoration - just to complete the reunion and allow you to compare both of them. Click to enlarge, then click again for optimum size.
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This one also resides in my collection, but until seeing this post I'd forgotten that I had it. I saw it a month or so ago when I was searching for something else but can't recall where it was, so I can see I'll be spending some time after I've hit the last full stop on this comment looking for the thing!
ReplyDeleteLike yourself I try to keep my purchases in as near as the condition that they came into my possession as I can, I have books that are decades old that you'd swear were just printed last week. The only exceptions being items picked up off the after market (as the Americans say) where their prior treatment, or mis-treatment, was literally out of your hands.
Not that I was wondering what to later today but I can see I'll be digging through cupboards and scouring book-shelves for a while in search of that over-sized collector's issue.
I've actually got three copies of it, PC, as several years back another friend gave me the one he owned and, like Joe's, it needs a little work on it. It doesn't have the same nostalgic significance, because it wasn't bought when I was present or along with the other two copies. As for the ones in this post, it sems a bit weird to see two mags bought at the same time reunited after nearly 45 years apart. Weird, but nice.
DeleteLike yourself, the only things I own which aren't in near-perfect condition are items bought in less-than-perfect condition, but I can usually always improve them in some way. Incidentally, there was also a second Collector's Album, for Superman II, which you can see on my post about such publications. Just type Treasury Editions into my blog's search box and trawl down through the selections offered.
Apparently when Christopher Reeve told his father he'd be starring in Superman, his dad thought he meant Man And Superman which is a play by George Bernard Shaw.
ReplyDeleteOops! Published your comment, CJ, then had to go for a kip. Awake now, and all I can say is that Man And Superman would be the perfect title for my autobiography.
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