Three favourite comics and how my collectio'n got started

[Ola Martinsson]

In my case it has to be these three. And it's all due to nostalgic 
reasons. I read these in Swedish Disney comics in 1973 when I was 12 
years old. A friend of mine had inherited a bunch of old Disney comics 
from his older brother and I borrowed them and read them through. And 
the first one that really got to me was.

1. The flying dutchman. Published as a serial in three parts in Kalle 
Anka & c:o ( a Swedish WDC) in 1962 I think. I thought that it was both 
very exciting and full of suspence and humour. This dark threat all 
through the story of this mysterious enemy. And then the logic and 
explaining ending of the story. It has been my favourite Disney story 
ever since.

2. The Paul Murry 5 part remake of Gottfredssons story where Black Pete 
abducts women from a dude ranch. Minnie and Clarabelle are there so 
Mickey and Goofy come to rescue them from this gentleman bandit. They 
don't know then that it is Black Pete. The story had suspense and 
science and lot's of humour. Published in 5 parts in 1962.

3. The old castle's secret. Published in one part in 1966 in a comic 
named Walt Disney's serier ( WD comics). This title was used for longer 
stories but most of them were still serialised in the weekly Kalle Anka.

These old comics were from 1956 (one issue) up till 1966. Most of them 
were from 1961 to 1963. In all issues there was at least one serial. 
That meant that most of the time I couldn't read the full story because 
one or more part were in an issue that were missing from this pile of 
comics. I was ever so glad that the two above were complete. Another 
favourite that also was complete was Land of the Pygmee indians.

Later on when I was 18 I bought this stack of comics from him. They are 
not fine copies, they mostly were in a Good rating. Quite a few of them 
lacked cover and some missed the midpages sot that would mean Poor. 
Although at this time I was completely unaware of such things as quality 
ratings on comics. I was ever so happy to find a Disney comic from the 
-60:ies even if it didn't have a cover or even if the mid pages were 
missing. So when I bought these we were talking of about 1 Swedish krona 
apeice if it was complete. This was very cheap I have understood later 
on. Anyhow this stack of comics and my own Kalle Anka which I got my 
first in 1967 ( still got it, it has no cover and is taped ) was what 
started my wish to have more of these wonderful comics.

I had begun buying the weekly regularly in the mid of 1968 and had 
almost every issue of 1969. Then in 1970 my parents subscribed to the 
weekly for me and I have been a subscriber ever since.

I remember the joy when I got the money on Saturday to go to the Tobacco 
store to buy the next issue of the weekly. I opened it immediately many 
times and stood outside the Tobacco store to read the continuation of 
the serial. Often the Mickey and Goofy Paul Murry stories. Of course by 
that time I didn't have the faintest Idea about different artists. I 
didn't even think about that some human being did the stories. I just 
knew that my favourite ones were these were Mickey and Goofy was drawed 
the way they were, that is by  Paul Murry. And then there from time to 
time was some stories that were labeled "Favorit i repris" (Favourite in 
reprint) that I liked very much. These were either 10 page Barks that 
were for some reason badly reproduced. When I look at them it seems that 
if someone else were trying to fill in the original drawings lines to 
make them stronger. Also Donald's beak was redrawn and shortened. The 
same filling in seems to be the case for the 8 page Li'l Wolf that were 
also reprinted. If you compare them with the original thin lines from 
the comics of the 40:ies the reprints have coarse and thick lines.

Can anyone here answer the question on why the reprints had so much 
lower quality artwise ?

Shortly after I bought this stack of comics i found a shop for used 
coins stamps books and comics in our city of Norrköping. I sometimes 
found some missing comics there but they were mostly newer ones that I 
already had. Then in the winter that year there was the whole year of 
the weekly from 1961 on the shelf. I can't remember what it cost but it 
was to me a lot of money ( would guess at about 700-800 Swedish krona). 
I did not have a job and I only got a small allowance from my parents. 
As soon as I saw it I knew I gotta have it. I didn't have enough money 
on me and I could not get back in time to buy it the same day before the 
shop closed. So I was going to go there the next day. I couldn't get the 
shop keeper to put it away for me so I HOOOOOOOPED that noone would buy 
it before me. Come morning and I had 39 degrees of fever (102.2 
Farenheit) so I couldn't bicycle down to the shop or to whitdraw money 
on the postoffice. So I begged my father to lend me the money and to 
drive me there all wrapped up in lots of clothes and he did. I still 
remember when I came out of the shop and he answered me if I was pleased 
now, with a smile on his face. He couldn't and has never understood my 
passion for comics but he was obviously happy that he could make his son 
happy by doing this favour.

So I was sick for some days but it sure didn't bother me none !!!

And about a half year later I saw an ad in "buy and sell" in the paper 
for the complete 1957, 1958 and 1959 of the weekly. I do remember that 
he asked for 500 Swedish krona per year and I thought that it was quite 
much, but I was hooked. He turned out to be a dealer and so I was 
introduced to comicdom for real.

Around this time you got about 5 Swedish krona for a US dollar.

Of course later on I have found out that the weekly from the -60:ies are 
  available in abundance in moderate quality ratings VG or so. But I 
remember how jealous I was on my friend for having these old Disney 
comics. And boy did I want to have them instead but he was not willing 
to sell them then.

Well, hope this long mail was interesting to some of you at least.

Ola in a blue skye Stockholm +28