Return to the Royal National

To the mart, which I must say I approached with some trepidation. I'm on record as saying that the whole thing is going down the shitter, so I really wasn't expecting much out of it, but fuck my old boots, it was actually rather good this month.  As reader JT remarks elsewhere on this blog: "even with the hot weather it didn't stink too much, except for the backroom which was a bit of a dirty protest"

Right on JT, right on. And true enough there were some pissy old men wandering around out back, but I must say, this room, (bursting at the sweaty seams with disintegrating British comics), was what made today's mart for me. You see, tucked away in the corner among the tottering mountains of Battle, Hotspur and Victor, I found this little lot...

Yes fellow fans, not one, not two, not three, but 30 issues of The Crunch! Oh baby! Truly, I have hit the comic mart Mother Lode! Obviously I haven't yet had time to sit down and read through this remarkable haul of grimy tat, but by way of a taster for posts to come, I offer you this quite fantastic cover to issue #19...

What if Ricky Gervais played Charles Bronson?

God, I love The Crunch. 

Frankly I could've spent a lot more of my dosh in that fetid backroom. I was particularly taken with some old boy who was knocking out a fat compendium of British Golden Age superhero strips. I idled away some time flicking through this tome. T'was fantastic, but he wanted £65 a time for the fucking thing. Jesus, you'll be alright grandad! I'd have given him a score for it, no trouble. Never mind, his loss.

Anyway, back to the American stuff, and I feel I landed a bargain with a complete NM run of Crisis on Infinite Earths for £10. Yay. Already got the trade, but the original 12 issue maxi series for a tenner? BARGAIN! 

I Also snagged Issue #1 of Back Issue which contains some rather lengthy and interesting interviews with Wolfman, Perez and Infantino (he said stroking his comic beard sagely), an Azzarello and Corben Hellblazer trade for £4 and a bunch of crappy 25p comics which I'll no doubt bore you with at some future date. For the moment, I offer you this scan of a cover which is representative of the stack of bilge that I came home with...

Yes chums, The Village People are grieving for their dead robo-dog. Proof, if you needed it, that DC comics aren't just for kids!

Rounding off my visit, I stopped off at the Heroclix stall to add the now traditional figure to my already bulging nerd sack. This month's purchase, a rather fine Bouncing Boy...

Trust me, he looks magnificent sat next to my Devil Dinosaur.