MAD Magazine (South African Edition)

MAD Magazine (original US edition) was sold on newsstands in South Africa for many years. SA Magazine Co starting publishing reprints of the US Edition in 1985. The first issue published in South Africa was MAD 253 (March 1985 Issue). Printed by Republican Press.
More information and scans at this link:
South Africa MAD Cover Site
This is the cover of MAD 289:

Americom (AC Comics) - The Untold Legend of the Batman

This reprint of the first issue of The Untold Legend of the Batman (DC Comics 1980) was published by Americom (AC Comics) - a company based in Cleveland, Johannesburg (in 1984-1985). I don't remember seeing many titles - so I guess they weren't very successful. I only remember seeing this issue of the 3 issue miniseries ( and the Afrikaans one - "Die Onberekenbare Legende van Batman").
As the titles were to be produced in English, Afrikaans, Zulu & Sotho - they blanked out the original text boxes and replaced them with typed text. I have the English copy - they changed the text to simpler, shorter sentences. What were they thinking? Did they think South African kids wouldn't understand the text? The translation is not very good - some spelling and grammatical errors.
Here are the covers of the Americom reprint and the original DC cover - notice they chose the cover of issue 3 of DC's miniseries (a more eye-catching cover):

Page 12 from the Americom reprint and DC's original - notice the changes to the text:

This is Americom's House Ad from this issue:

Afrikaans and Zulu and Sotho Editions:

See Also:

Americom (AC) Comics 

it's Disney '83

Following the success of The Superheroes Swop Sensation in 1982, Colin Penn produced this album. There were 144 card stock trading cards in the set to complete the album. A host of Disney characters from the animated shorts & films and live action films were included. There were Disney fairs in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. Money was raised for South African charities. Many of the cards were sponsored by South African companies. The album also had competitions and gifts to buy through mail-order.
Good memories of walking around with a pile of  trading cards in my blazer pocket - we swopped them at school.

Here is the cover and first page of cards:

 

For all you fans who wanted to see more cards - here is the set:

Thanks Gerhard for this picture of some of the Disney cards and an original packaging envelope that the cards were sold in:

Cards for sale:
If anyone is looking for cards, contact me at:
g.vdr26@gmail.com
 
See Also:

The Superheroes Swop Sensation

Photo Story Magazines 2

Thanks Mahdi from Readers Den (Cape Town) for these scans. Some titles are quite rare and sought after by collectors. Visit their website:
Readers Den Comic Shop
Titles: Supermask; Tessa; Billy; Vice Squad; Demon is Mr Death; Tanya die Vegter; Grensvegter; She

See Also:

Photo Story Magazines 

 

Mimosa House Ads 1960's

A selection of adverts from Mimosa Comics in the early 60's to show the range of titles produced.

See Also:

Mimosa Comics 

The Superheroes Swop Sensation

In 1982 Colin Penn Promotions (Durban) produced this great album & trading card set. The album has 70 famous DC and Marvel characters. These were card-stock cards with a description of each character on the rear.
These were great fun to swop when we were kids. This is a copy of my album. Wonder how many still have theirs from 1982? Or did your mom throw all your stuff away when you left home to go to university ...

The centre pages of the album promoted some gifts to buy - would be great to find some of these ...

For all you fans who wanted to see more cards - here is the set:

 

 

 

 

 

Great Memories!

Cards Envelope:

Hall of Fame Poster:

Thanks Seth for these pictures of the Order Form:

CLUE CARDS:

Clue cards - a subset of 20 cards from this series. The cards were one-sided, the reverse side was blank:

If anyone has any more Clue Cards, please e-mail me:

g.vdr26@gmail.com

IMPERIAL AND METRIC VARIANT CARDS:

Eighteen of the Marvel Cards have variants. There were different print runs, where some of the measurements listed on the backs of cards were printed as either Imperial measurements or Metric measurements.  These 18 cards were: Thor, The Vision, Cyclops, The Wolverine, The Angel, Marvel Girl, Storm, Colossus, Ice Man, The Night Crawler, Hulk, The Human Torch, Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl (where the metric variant was misprinted as "The Invincible Girl"), The Thing, The Invincible Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, The Wasp.

Backs of these 18 Marvel variant cards:

If anyone has any more Variant Cards, please e-mail me:

g.vdr26@gmail.com

The elusive Joker card  - I can only speculate which image Colin Penn used for this prized card ... this was the image of The Joker used most often in those days:

Two seperate accounts regarding the Joker Card:

1. My friend Bobby Raucher (RIP) found the Joker card. His brother confirmed this to me last year in May 2011.

His brother Steven said that Bobby, as advised by Colin Penn promotions, sent the Joker card to them so he could get the free ride in the batmobile (ie get collected from his school by Batman and the Batmobile) -this promotion was televised on TV1 on the Video4/Video40 tv show hosted by Delia Sainsbury in 1982.

We presume as the promotion was over and the Hulk, Spiderman, Batgirl & a rather well-rounded Batman and the 1960's TV show styled Batmobile had already gone back home ie overseas....... Colin Penn Promotions could not keep there promise.

All Bobby ever got back from them was a letter saying sorry but unfortunately the promotion is over.
And to top it off...... they didnt send the Joker card back to him.

2. I met a guy who told me that as a kid in 1982 and based in Pretoria his dad found the Joker card for him and as a surprise didn't tell him. The dad sent it through to Colin Penn in order for them to organise that the Batmobile would collect him from school.

Colin Penn sent him a letter saying that the Batmobile had been sent back to US due to a malfunctioning engine. What he did receive was a letter and a large hamper of the goodies that were on offer in the catalogue in the middle of the sticker book like the pencil top super hero rubber heads etc.

Many Thanks to Charles for these pictures of a Superheroes Swop Sensation Wild Card ... Joker Card mystery solved, I think!

Many Thanks to Gorkyvark for this picture of The Spider-Man Club Certificate, also produced by Colin Penn in 1982:

Many Thanks Pierre for this picture of two of the Superheroes Swop Sensation Pencil Covers:

Superheroes  Colouring Books 1; 3; 5; 6 covers (as advertised in the centre pages of the Album). Each issue featured the images used for the cards:

 

Colin Penn Promotional Poster 1982:

Colin Penn Bookmark 1982:

See Also:

it's Disney 83 

Monsters and Superheroes Quartette Top Trumps Card Game