Wednesday 30 January 2008

Sun collectibles

Part of the magic of the glory days of the Toronto Sun were the collectibles grabbed up by readers who had a special connection with the tabloid.

Sun T-shirts, snappy toques, coffee cups, specialty records (who can forget the 45 RPM disco version of The Little Paper That Grew?), Sun jackets, Page 3 SUNshine Girl tearsheets, SUNshine Girl calendars (still being produced) etc.

Bob Davies of Stouffville, an avid Sun reader from Day One, devoted three years of his leisure time and money collecting Sunday Sun comic books. He would buy two copies of the paper so he could save a mint copy of the comics for his collection.

The comic books Bob collected looked like the Sun TV guides and should not be confused with the current, full-sized Sunday Sun comics pages.

Bob tells TSF in an e-mail:

"Great Paper. I have been reading the Toronto Sun from day one. Very informed and always original. Keep up the good work.

Back on Nov. 20, 1979, you started to insert little comic books in the Sunday Sun. I thought It was a terrific idea because the kids would have their own little book to read . . . do the puzzles etc.

I decided to start collecting them at that time, so I had to buy two issues every week for (three) years . . . in order to keep the comics in mint condition. Every week, I would take out the comic book and store it away in a dark, dry place . . . keeping them all in order and unread.

I saved all of them intact until it ended on Nov. 28, 1982. Occasionally, I would mention my Sun comic book collection and no one remembers them. Another time, another place, I guess.

I have a beautiful collection in mint condition, but no one has any interest. At the time, I thought it was a great idea to preserve these classics. Oh well, it was fun at the time.

The only person who might recall them is Andy Donato. Probably everybody else is too young or can't remember.

Keep up the fine work."

Thank you for your e-mail, Bob. If we hear from any collectors, we'll be in touch.

8 comments:

  1. I had one of my pictures used as the cover for that comic! It was the young sun in a battlestar galactica ship. I'd love to see the covers or something.

    datoonster@hotmail.com

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    Replies
    1. This one...

      https://www.comics.org/issue/1683471/cover/4/

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  2. i collected them too. i will hand them down to my grandchildren. they should start printing them again.

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  3. I've collected all of them from Nov. 1977 to Nov. 28th, 1982. Does anyone have any interest in buying them?

    english_sandra@hotmail.com

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  4. sarah scoufaris17 April 2013 at 13:59

    yes, i too have a few of the comic books and the larger newspaper sized comics from the 80's! i have searched all over the web to find any collectors! I think i will end up selling them in a pawn shop!

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  5. I have quite a few of the Sun Comics that I collected years ago. I even submitted a drawing for the front cover but it wasn't used.

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  6. i have a whole bunch as well, the little booklets and then when they changed that format to the normal newspaper size. I wanted to sell them as well, but it seems no one is interested! I am sure one day they will be worth something!

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  7. Can any of you tell me if these Comic inserts would have contained works by Denis Pritchard? He was a political cartoonist and I believe he may have been publishing in the Sun at that time.

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